More Medals!

The results from the Taster's Guild International Wine Competition are in and we won a silver on the Cherry and Traminette, and a bronze on the Concord and Cranberry. Yay!

Ste. Genevieve Herald

Sainte Genevieve Winery Wins Medals At Finger Lakes Event

The Sainte Genevieve Winery has been awarded a double gold medal for one of its wines at the prestigious Finger Lakes International Wine Competition event held this spring.
The winery’s Traminette, a semi-sweet white wine made from 100 percent Traminette grapes grown in Ste. Genevieve County, won the double gold.
In addition, its Cranberry wine won a silver medal and three wines––Blackberry, Cherry and Concord––won bronze.

The New York State-based Finger Lake competition drew over 3,000 wine entries from all 50 states and 15 countries.
The family owned and operated business was established in 1983 by Chris (Linus) and the late Hope Hoffmeister, making it the first winery in the county in contemporary times.
Their daughter, Elaine (Hoffmeister) Mooney, returned to the winery after receiving her degree in enology from the prestigious California State University- Fresno and now is the firm’s winemaker.

The winery also has won awards in prior years at other competitions, including the Tasters Guild International Wine Competition and the Pacific Rim International Wine Competition.
“We’re proud of the medals,” Mooney said. “We have a commitment to making quality, hand crafted Missouri wine in small lots, and we’d like to have a wine that suits every palate and every pocketbook.”

The Sainte Genevieve Winery’s vineyards and wine-making facilities are located in Sainte Genevieve County on acreage that was formerly the family farm.
The winery has a presence in downtown Ste. Genevieve at its building and garden patio on Merchant Street, where wine tastings are offered.
The winery produces almost two dozen different wines, including its popular line of fruit wines.

Pink Leaves

The Concord produces beautiful pink leaves in the spring, and I just love the burst of color in the middle of all that green. Here's a similar picture from April 2006. Happy Spring!

A Light Dusting

One of the first snows of the season, it barely flurried this morning, just enough to take a much anticipated picture or two (or three.) The first two pictures are indivual snowflakes on our old Concord vines, and the third picture is of the floor mat right outside the door.

Hope your holidays are going well, and you can delight in the season and the "icing" that winter can put on the familiar.

New Labels

Here is what our new grape labels look like. I have been showing you the full color fruit wine labels as they come along, and now we have this label that will go on all the wines we make out of grapes. So far we have the Concord and LaRose Rose ready. Once again, Chuck did an amazing job on the picture. These new labels are just now hitting the shelf. Let me know when and where you are seeing them.

These Are Long Days

We are super busy over here. Somehow we're juggling bottling, labeling, fermenting cherries, crop thinning (a month later than expected), shoo-ing away birds, cleaning bins to put harvested grapes in, getting the harvestor out and running once around the yard to make sure it's working, buying local blackberries, cleaning house to entertain travel writers, ordering yeast, and bottles, and T-shirts, all the while with a baby on my hip.

This is Dad taking a break after we bottles and labeled 56 cases of Concord to be delivered to the Sam's Club in Cape Girardeau.

Bring on the harvest of 2009!

Jour de Fete

On Saturday August 8th, and Sunday August 9th, Ste. Genevieve, Missouri's most historic town hosts it's annual Jour de Fete celebration with arts, crafts, entertainment and exhibits.

Jour de Fete Wine Cooler
1 bottle Sainte Genevieve Concord Wine
1 bottle Sainte Genevieve Cranberry Wine
Orange Slices
Fresh Cranberries

Chill all ingredients. Mix the wine together and add fruit just before serving.

This wine cooler is refreshing on a hot summer day and pairs well with barbeque.

What a Difference 5 Months Makes

Click here for the same view of the Concord 5 months earlier

Babies All Around

Baby Riesling cluster
Baby Seyval Blanc cluster

Baby Concord cluster

Baby Charlotte asleep after the walk through the vineyard

Modern Day Fertilization

I took this video back in April, and I will explain soon why it took so long to post it. This is Dad driving the tractor through the new Concord vineyard spreading manure for fertilizer. The manure came from a neighbor along with the use of his "shit slinger." Pardon me, but that's what he calls it. And if you thought I was kidding about the dog that is obsessed with retrieving sticks just watch her bring me the stick while I am recording.

Come Visit Me! I'll pour you some wine!

I will be at the Schnucks grocery store in Cottleville this Saturday, February 28th from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. pouring our Blackberry, Concord and Apple. Come by and say hello, and taste some wine, and maybe, possibly even buy a bottle. It's really a win-win situation- I get to meet you and you get wine. =) How bad can that be?

See you there!?!

Rolling Hills of Missouri

Here's a picture of our long rows of "new" Concord. The "old" Concord was planted sometime in the early 1980's, and this "new" Concord was planted sometime in the early 1990's. So, they really aren't "new" hence the quotations. Today Dad is taking our tractor to a neighboring winery so they can fit it with one of their mechanical pruners, and all these vines will get a hair cut real soon. It seems odd that so much of the vineyard is unpruned right now, being that we are heading into late February, but one swipe with the "new" trimmer and we will be good to go. Pictures of that coming soon.

Snow, finally

I'm one of those few people who actually like winter. I like the calm. I love the winter sunrises and sunsets on my way to and from work. I love snow- love how it puts a sheen and glimmer over everything. I hate when people complain about winter, I hate complainers in general. I try to change things I don't like, not dwell on the fact that poor little me is unhappy. I'm actually also in love with Maine; have my pink house all picked out near the ocean in York. One day, one winter I'm going to spend it in Maine, all holed up, all comfy with my flannel pajamas, slippers, wood fire, bread baking, and a gazillion books, and movies.

Isn't winter beautiful? If you're looking for a romantic vineyard- this is it. It isn't in the fall when we harvest- there's too many bees, and so much work. It's here, in these pictures, in the snow. The vines patiently wait to be pruned, resting their poor little tendrils and shoulders, slump over and put their weight on the wire for a month or two before we ask them to bear fruit again. They deserve this break.

I'm pretty sure this is our Norton bunch.
tendril
old Concord vines

Our Biggest Tank

This 4,000 gallon tank has only ever held Concord or Christmas Plum. Today we racked the Concord 2008 that was inside. We are still trying to figure out how to get the lees out, since there is only a small drain at the bottom. It used to be a milk truck, so I guess they didn't have "lees" in the milk. Thank God.

So, I climbed inside to try to coerce the lees out of the drain. I won't linger too long on the fact that I fell down and landed on my behind into the lees. It wasn't pretty, but it was cold. My little wet butt was cold all the way up to the farmhouse to take a shower. Did I mention it is 40 degrees today? Still didn't get the lees out; they'll wait for Plan B (whatever that is.)

The first picture is showing the tartrate crystals caked on the side. This is good because now they aren't in my wine anymore. This is also kind of bad, because since we emptied the tank today, they are still kind of wet, so they are easy (easier) to get off the side of the tank, but since the lees will be in there at least all of today, the tartrates will dry, therefore solidifying them forever more (sometimes it seems like) onto the inside of the tank.


In the second picture you can see #1 Just how big this tank is; #2 the lees that are the consistancy of applesauce on the bottom of the tank; and #3 the tartrates clinging to the side of the tank.

The last picture is the hole I climb in and out of the tank. Did I mention that I am 6 months pregnant? Good times. If I was any further along my belly nor my bottom would fit through this hole (at least that's what I plan to tell my assisstant tomorrow.)

Autumn

I know it was less than two weeks ago that I was complaining about hot weather. Well, today the high is 48, and there is a wind chill. Guess I need to bring a heavier coat to work.

These pictures were taken today. I know the first two look similar, but I couldn't decide which one I liked better. You are looking over the Norton, and onto the lower Concord.

The last picture is what we think is a random Pinot Noir vine.

Baby At Work

One of the best parts of this job lately is the fact that I bring my baby to work with me. She's so good, and she sleeps so much, that right now it works out great. She eats every 3 hours and is awake for 1 hour then back to sleep for two. I can get a lot done if I stay focused while she's asleep.

Today she wanted to eat right before we bottled the Elderberry wine (which is excellent, BTW), so I fed her, then propped her up on the boppy on a stack of Concord 1/2 gallons while we bottled. I didn't think she'd allow it for very long, but she just sat there and tried to put her fist in her mouth, and talked to us a little (no one can get a word in edgewise with my assistant around), fussed a tiny bit, I stuck the pacifier in her mouth, and the next thing I knew she was asleep.

This is what family businesses are all about right?

Pony Girl

My horse, Shadow, on occassion roams the barnyard and nibbles on grass wherever he pleases. With the lack of rain over the summer, he pretty much goes where he wants in order to find some grass, and if we keep him nearby we can make sure he has enough water. A few times we left the gate open and he wandered to the neighbors, but usually it doesn't take much to get him back, just a scoop or two of grain. My niece, Hannah, has recently become very interested in horses, so he has been rode more times this summer than the past 4 years put together. He is a gentle soul, though, and I like that he is so good with her, considering he seriously hardly ever gets rode, and he is about 23 years old.

This is a picture of him doing what he does best, eat grass. In the background are our "old Concord" grapes.

We have very sporatic growth right now in the vineyard. This is one of the worst looking Seyval Blanc grapes. You can see only one bud on the whole arm. Most of the Concord look like this, and we are not expecting too much if any crop on the Concord.

Damage Control?

On Friday, Keith Striegler, director of The Institute for Continental Climate Viticulture and Enology came out to survey the frost damage to the vines. Keith was one of my teachers and mentors from Fresno, and now he works for us here in Missouri. He cut into some buds with a razor blade to see if they were green in the middle, to see how much bud damage we had. If a vine looked really bad, he shaved a small piece of the bark to see green to tell if the vine was even still alive. The Concord and Vignoles are not good at being fruitful on secondary or tertiary buds, so if we get any crop on them it will be a miracle. The Norton and Vidal look about the same, with about 60% damage, and the Seyval is supposed to be one of the most fruitful on secondary and tertiary buds, so he thought we would get a full crop from those vines. He said a frost of this much devastation, from Oklahoma to North Carolina, has not been documented in 118 years.

The next 6 weeks are the most critical, to see what if anything comes back and buds and sets fruit. Our hearts are heavy, our babies are sick, and we will have to be patient for their recovery. As Keith says, "this is a learning experience."

Remember those healthy looking new Concord shoots I showed you last week? The story is not the same this week. Mother Nature can be cruel. As soon as you feel like you've got the whole growing grapes things figured out, you've mastered your spray schedule, you've pruned to perfection, you've picked a perfect trellis system, something comes along the next year and throws a wrench into your wheel. Is that how the saying goes? The good thing for us, one of the many reasons we grow French hybrids here in Missouri, is that fact that secondary buds are fruitful. How fruitful is the question at large. I'll keep you updated on this dramatic turn of events.