I've Been Away

Almost all conferences and seminars and wine competitions happen in the early part of the year because that time is the slowest around a winery. Last week I traveled in an Mt. Pleasant Winery RV to Geneva on the Lake, OH for a wine marketing conference called License to Steal. The idea is that wineries get together and "steal" each others ideas, whether it pertains to tasting room etiquette, or events, or facebook. I learned a lot and plan to implement new and fresh ideas throughout the Sainte Genevieve Winery.

Small Winery Lab Workshop

A couple weeks ago I went to Mizzou and attended a small winery lab workshop. I went for two reasons. The first reason was that I teach a Fundamentals of Enology class at the local junior college and I wanted to hear Rebecca's take on teaching the lab work, and I also wanted to test my own pH meter to the university's to make sure mine was working well before harvest. You can read all about the workshop here and see a picture of me on the top picture with the two men to my left.

Carboy of Riesling

I teach a Fundamentals of Enology class through Mineral Area Junior College. It meets on Monday nights, and most of the classes are held out here on the farm. We make a little bit of
"kit" wine since there isn't a whole lot fermenting in the spring. This is a picture of the Riesling wine that we racked Monday night into this 6 gallon carboy. It still has a little bit of foam at the top; the fermentation is all but finished. Then it will become clear, and we will bottle in a couple weeks. It's a learning experience for all, because I haven't really made too many kit wines myself either.

Last field trip for my class; we headed to the Crown Valley Champagne House in Farmington, Missouri. This is a picture of Bryan Siddle showing us the equipment they plan to use when they make their methode champenoise style of sparkling wine. Right now they use the charmat process. The Crown Valley Champagne House just opened last month, and there are some excellent pictures of the opening day event on the Missouri Wine Country website. Thank you, Bryan, and winemaker, Daniel, for an excellent tour.

This is a picture of my students (plus John) in the port cellars at Mt. Pleasant Winery. Their winemaker, Mark Baehman, is on the left, giving us a very passionate tour. I love that guy!

As I mentioned, I'm teaching a Fundamentals of Enology class at the local junior college. Saturday we took a class trip to two wineries; Mt. Pleasant and Sugar Creek wineries, both in the Augusta area. At Mt. Pleasant, I set up a tour with Mark Baehman, the winemaker, and Pat Cummings, the director of sales. The tour and tastings were brilliant, and we had a wonderful guided tour through the tanks and barrels and underground caves. Then we headed to Sugar Creek winery, were we came unannounced, but luckily, Becky Miller, one of the owners, was there and gave us a tour of their winemaking facility. The last stop on the trip was to Lukas Liquor, which is a huge liquor store in West County. This was the students idea, since there really aren't that many great places to purchase wine in our area. Even I came away with a couple great bottles of wine.

I think we got an excellent view of both small and large wineries in Missouri. Large wineries, where they make sparkling wines and port and have dinner parties and small wineries where the owner is there on a Saturday and personally shows you around.

This is a picture of my students at the tasting bar at Mt. Pleasant. Think they are enjoying the class?

Education Available

At the beginning of February there is the Midwest Grape and Wine Conference at Tantara Lodge in the Lake of the Ozarks. If you are interested in growing grapes or making wine in Missouri or any part of the Midwest, this is the conference to attend. There are many great speakers lined up, plus a great tradeshow too. It's a great place to learn, mingle, drink wine, and really understand the wine industry in this part of the world. Click on the link for more information and registration.

At the end of January I will be teaching a Fundamentals of Enology class at Mineral Area Junior College in Park Hills, Missouri. I will be honest and tell you that I have never taught such an in depth class before, but I am looking forward to it. It is 15 weeks long, on Monday evenings and starts on January 22nd. It's not too late to sign up! We'll cover everything to the history of winemaking, how to make red, white, sparkling wine, along with lab analysis. We will also be tasting some wines, and visiting Missouri wineries. Now who doesn't want to take a class like that?