New York, New York!

So what are the wineries in NY’s Finger Lakes like? Wow, as you might guess, they are as varied and wineries anywhere else. As mentioned in the last post, their buildings were a variety of shapes and sizes, but by far the most common were simple metal-sided buildings that the owners had often enhanced with a fancy entrance, a garden walk, a large fountain, or a bit of décor to add a bit of distinct character.

The interiors were pretty nice, for the most part. There were a few that were simple concrete floors with typical retail furniture and a tasting bar, but many had very attractive interiors with a theme even beyond just being a winery.

The wine was good, as with any full day of wine tasting we found a lot of good, some very good, and a few really great wines. We found some high priced wines and a few real bargains. We (four people) spent most of the week drinking a case of Casa Largo’s Tre Blanc, a semi-dry white made with 57% Muscat, 33% Traminette, 10% Gewürztraminer, and paid $59 a case (not a typo) for it. Yes, that’s less then $5 a bottle and when I asked why, the staffer said it was an ’08 vintage and they wanted to clear it out because the ’09 was about to bottle. Wow, what a good wine at a great price.

We ran into something I did not expect, a meadery, along Seneca Lake. It was a division of another large winery that specialized in fruity honey wines, yet they also had some great off dry meads worth a taste. Their slightly sweet pear mead was good, but their sparkling mead, “Twinkle” was fabulous!

As I have said, the problem with this area is the short distance between the wineries allows no “recovery time” and without much trouble you start feeling the accumulated tastings quickly. So you have to research and pick and choose which wineries to visit in advance. Our tasting room staffer, Chris, had spent some time doing such and gave us six great wineries to stop at. Problem #2 is most of the wineries have extensive wines lists offering 20 or more wines. How to choose which to taste?

The wineries have developed a method for handling this problem, they charge for tastings (!) and they limit your tastings, typically to six. Now, you know from reading my earlier blogs I do not ‘believe’ in paid tastings. I think in these folks case, I agree with their thinking. This region is nationally famous, like Sonoma or Napa in California, and thousands come here to tour and taste weekly. There are people, the staffers told me, who do pay, taste, and leave; it’s what they do. I must admit I would not hesitate to leave without buying if nothing struck my fancy and paying allows me to leave without any guilt about their time or samples provided.

But here’s what won me over in the Finger Lakes, every winery we visited applied your tasting fees ($1-$5 per person) to your purchases. Several were “sloppy” about collecting these fees with us and most gave us more then the five or six taste limit. I still feel paid tastings are a bad idea for Indiana, but I think these people have the right idea for their situation.

BUS TOUR DEADLINE: a reminder that the all deposits for the August 28/29 southern Indiana bus tour must be in by July 10!

VACATION, BUSING, AND A PARTY

Ok, so I have been “offline” for OVER two weeks, but I have a good reason: we were on vacation! A good bit of the vacation (for tax purposes) was touring wineries, tasting wine, and purchasing what you might call, ahh, well, ummm, some “samples” for review back at home for future production consideration, of course.

We toured the Finger Lakes Wine Region in New York and the problem was not finding the wineries, it was choosing which ones of the 100+ you wanted to visit in your time there. There are over 9100 acres of vineyard in just this area producing over 41,000 tons of grapes each year. The scenery is beautiful, with the long lakes full of sailboats, streets lined with Victorian homes and cottages, and lots of crafts, antique, and locally-produced food stores.

In just one five hour period along Seneca Lake we passed at least 15 wineries and stopped at six. We saw wineries that looked like a French Chateau and some were in Morton Buildings. Some had wines made with premium grapes and tasted world class, others were names “Red-Neck Red” and “Granny’s Outhouse White” and tasted, well, a bit better then the name suggested. If you are a wine “nut”, this is a place you could spend a week, and then go into rehab and detox.

BUS TOUR: We are only half booked for the Aug 28/29 Southern Indiana Winery Bus Tour! We will extend the reservation deadline until July 10, but that is the cutoff!

CHOCOLATE ANNIVERSARY: July 17th is our seventh anniversary and we will be celebrating with FREE gourmet chocolates, and music, and some other goodies, so be here 1-6pm Saturday the 17th and join in the fun!

More Bread and Bus, plus a Calendar Update!

--Ok, so I have been asked to detail the Bread Baking contest rules & information, being held Saturday, June 12, 1-6 pm. Seems there are already people clamoring for the who, what, when, where, and how. Ok, here goes…

The Bread Baking Contest is broken into professional and amateur classes; we welcome commercial entries from bakers, grocery stores, restaurants, and just about anyone who sells or serves bread professionally; The home bread makers fall into the amateur class and we often will split out any unusual breads into their own class, so a simple (but delicious) sourdough bread is not competing with rich chocolate chip loaf.

All entrants must submit one full loaf of bread; each entrant may submit no more then two breads, four total per household; Professional entries must be at the winery no later then 2 pm the day of the contest; Amateur entries must be at the winery no later then 4 pm the day of the contest; Entries may be dropped off the Friday prior between 1-6 pm at the winery; NO BREAD-MAKING MACHINES MAY BE USED for entries;

The professional entries will be judged by the public, by those visiting the winery that day. The amateur entries will be judged by a panel of bread-lovers after the winery closes for the day. Based on the results of both judgings, awards will be made by yours truly for the best of the best, which includes photos on the wall of the winery for the next year.

---BUS TOUR: Yes, we are taking another swing at holding a bus tour of wineries in southern Indiana. At this time we are accepting reservations for the first 22 couples who wish to go, with an estimated cost of under $300 per couple, $100 deposits will be accepted beginning June 5 to reserve your spots, sorry, no singles can be accommodated.

---CALENDAR UPDATE: On the website we have set the schedule for the special events from June through September, so if you want to set aside the time to hit the bread, chocolate, cheese, or cheesecake events, see the website now at www.oakhillwines.com

summer, Vintage Indiana and a bus tour

Summer does seem to be here, although technically its still spring. 80+ degree days says summer to me and the rain + sun = grass growing like mad. Well we have made a few changes at the winery, although not as many as I had hoped. There are a few chores that are dragging into the summer that were supposed to be winter jobs, but nothing too serious.

We did start putting in a new “welcome” garden at the winery, regular rain has kept us from finishing it up, but I think we will get done pretty soon. It’s a modest little patch but it is in great spot to greet customers and catch a lot of sun. Our staffer Christine has been planning this for several months and I’m looking forward to seeing the result. Of course, any new garden needs a season to really show its stuff, so we’ll be patient, but its one less little piece of lawn I have to mow!

Vintage Indiana 2010 is just a little over a week away at Military Park in Indianapolis. This is a great chance to try a lot of INDIANA wine in one place. If you have not been there before, check out www.vintageindiana.com for all the details, It’s a food and wine “orgy” so you might need a room afterwards  -- There are 26 Indiana wineries scheduled to attend and no, we are not one of them. I see there are 11 food vendors and a whole bunch of art vendors. What more can you ask then local wine, local food, and local art all in one place. It runs from 11am-7pm on June 5, so it’s about time to plan your visit. Allow at least three hours for your visit, there will be lines for tasting and you’ll want to talk to other wine junkies you’ll meet there. We were hoping to go as tasters, but something came up ---sigh-!, so you’ll see us in the winery that day instead of indulging in Indy. I hate to miss the entertainment as much as the wine, check it out!

Ok, let’s talk WINE-TASTING BUS TOUR; I have recently been talked to, arm twisted, and beat up a bit that we have not jumped back into the bus tour business since the recession of ‘08/’09. One reason is we wanted to get past the worst of the worst and it may be that we have. But I need to know, are there 22 couples out there who would like to visit eight wineries in Southern Indiana as part of a bus tour, food/motel included, for this coming August 28/29? Send us an email at oakhillwinery@yahoo.com with BUS TOUR in the subject line if you’re interested, not ready to commit, but interested. Cost run $200-$300 per couple all inclusive. Talk to me!

Time, Grape News, and Bread?

Can you believe its almost summer? When someone starts talking about how times flies, they are almost always over 40. When we are young time seems to drag, but as we age and minutes/days/hours become a smaller part of our life experience, time seems to speed up. As far as the winery goes, time is about going back to our seven-day-a-week schedule, beginning June 1. From then until December 31, we will only be closed national holidays, no longer do we have be closed on Election Day due to a recent change in the law.

A bit of good/bad news from a nearby winery, the New Day Meadery has closed their Elwood tasting room, with plans to open a downtown Indianapolis tasting room in the very near future. Apparently they will keep the Elwood location as a production facility, but not offer tasting their. I think this is a good move for Brett & Tia, their honey-based wines (mead) are very good and deserve a wider customer base that will appreciate the craftsmanship they bring to their products.

While the early warming trend this year has made a lot of people very happy to shed their winter clothes, the early bud-break on the grape vines around the state have led to some frost damage that will affect the available crop in the fall. The good news is the damage in most vineyards is not massive, but many lost some fruit. One vineyard in the northern part of the state reported a majority of their vines damaged, while southern vines were less hurt. This is not a surprise, but I thought the vineyard owner’s comment that, “…this was the worst damage in 17 years…” was worth noting. Hopefully the damage will not impact fruit prices too badly!

We are pleased to announce the annual Bread Baking Contest will be held Saturday, June 12 from 1-6 PM at the winery. This is a fun event that allows both professional and amateur bread-makers to showcase their skills. The professionally made breads will be taste tasted by everyone who visits the winery that day and the winner will be chosen by popular vote. The amateur bakers’ loaves will be judged by a panel of “expert” bread tasters who will chose the winner. Its fun, its free, and watch this spot for more information about more fun & free events at the Oak Hill Winery!

HELP WANTED:

So as the winery’s business has increased, we have starting having some very busy weekends. Now most of the time, that’s not a problem because both myself and my wife are around to back up the person working in the winery. But as we look at the upcoming summer months, we see some problems coming. We have vacations for both us and the staff; we have some special off-site events we are attending; we have three solid staffers who do not want to work too many weekends!

So we need to hire another person to help cover weekends, someone who would work at least two weekend-days and no more then four weekend-days a month. That is going to be a hard person to find, well, at least hard to find a GOOD person who can/will do that.

First, its not about the money. No one gets rich owning, so by extension, no gets rich working at a winery ten to twenty hours a month. Second, its as much about the person’s ability to interact with the customer as prior experience. How many times I have heard a customer say about another winery, “The wine was pretty good, but the guy pouring the samples was so colorless we did not enjoy the experience.” So we need someone who us colorful? Oh boy…

Its important to find the right person, because we pay for the bartenders license, we have to train the person- takes about three to four days of job shadowing to get the procedures figured out- so there is an investment there.

Plus this person IS THE WINERY when people visit; what he/she says or does is the basis for the opinion of our business and this person can literally make-or-break us. Scary huh?

So now it begins, the hunt for a “Weekender” to work at the winery, helping the staff and covering vacations, illness, and other openings. Do you know anyone who might want to work at a small winery for just a pittance and a tyrannical master (me)? Tell them to stop in and fill out an application…

Oh, and do not forget this weekend is the “Greatest Spectacle in Tasting” at Kokomo! See the Kokomo Tribune website for more details: http://kokomotribune.com/local/x1700423493/Greatest-Spectacle-in-Tasting-returns-this-weekend

Thanks for the support!

As a business, you put a lot of time and money into special events and when one is a big success, its gratifying. Such was our Open House we held last Saturday, it was a big success from a business stand point and we hope from our customers’ perspective too.

While our biggest event is the September Cheesecake Festival, this little party came close to catching up. We had a lot of people visit, tour, and taste. I did not get out of the winemaking room for almost four hours and every tour (10) was well- attended with two overflowing into the stage area.

And we sold a lot of wine. This means I am back at work, bottling every evening and ordering supplies that are running short. I got a little surprise when I found we were out of “Sweetser” labels. So I am working up an order of labels so we can get some more wine out there. Any
more wine-name suggestions?

As we move into Summer, I realize we are just a few weeks from going back to our seven-day schedule until December 31. I was reading about voter reaction that liquor can now be sold during lections and primary days. I really think that’s a law that’s well put away, I doubt too many people who are drunk can be counted on to show up to vote and if they do, do we want them voting? I am not sure it would matter one way or another, that’s why I stay out of politics and put my faith in God instead.

In June we’ll be holding our seventh annual Bread Baking Contest for amateurs and professional bakers alike. Watch here for more dates and information to come!