Finger Lakes Wine Competition

GOLD MEDAL WINNER NOTIFICATION

It gives me a great deal of pleasure to inform you that our competition held in Rochester, NY on March 29th & 30th has awarded you GOLD MEDALS for the following wines:

Sainte Genevieve Winery American Blackberry


This is the type of email a girl like me likes to see.

The blackberries are not quite ready yet.

As you can see, they are beautiful.

Occassionally there are good deals to be had when it comes to fresh produce, and Dad happened upon one yesterday. Blueberries on sale. Rare but true. We haven't made blueberry wine for a couple years because the price of blueberries has skyrocketed lately.

This is a picture of Glenn pouring the blueberries into the crusher.

Buy Local.

So, we're swimming in Christmas Plum over here. I was kind enough to not talk about it until after Thanksgiving, but there is no escape now. I am happy to say that our Christmas Plum seems to be everywhere in the southeast part of Missouri. It is made from 100% fresh plums, and is sweet with a hint of spice that is not added. IMO, this is the perfect gift. I have a guy friend who buys at least a case every year so he doesn't have to muddle through the mall. He gives one to everyone on his list, and I think this is a mighy fine idea. I plan to give one to everyone, my mail person, my UPS man, my hairdresser, my priest. It's a no brainer. Most everyone likes wine, most everyone likes a regional product, and most everyone likes to spend a small amount of money. ;)

Our Christmas Plum label. This scene was painted by one of the most talented artists around, Chuck Drost and is a picture of my dad's farm house in the snow. Chuck drew the plums too. They make me hungry for plums.

Christmas Plum at the Sam's Club in Cape Girardeau

The Christmas Plum on the end of an aisle in the Festus Walmart

The Christmas Plum among pies at the front of the Farmington Walmart

This our Cranberry label. This is what you are looking for in the stores. It has a really great Cranberry flavor, sweet, but a little tart, just like a real cranberry. It goes great with turkey, and it makes your family more bearable.

This is a picture of the truck coming in from the fields full of cranberries. He is opening the back of the truck to dump the berries into water to rinse them before they go into our bins.

Rinsing the cranberries

This is a picture of the cranberries going from the hopper, after they are rinsed, to our bins.

From the Bog to the Bottle

Every year my dad and I take a trip to Cranmoor, Wisconsin to buy cranberries. We have made great friends with Mary Brazeau Brown, and her family farm of cranberries. Her father was one of the cranberry poineers in Wisconsin. Cranberries are one of the few native berries to America, first found in Wisconsin. Her business, Glacial Lake Cranberries keeps her and her husband, Phil, busy. They sell fresh cranberries there, give tours of the bogs, and have a refuge for wild animals on their property. We stay in the Stone Cottage which is decked out in cranberries and birds. The Stone Cottage has space heaters, that every year I turn up too high, and every year Dad opens his window in his room in the middle of the night. There are many birds on their property who like the marsh and bogs and water. It's really beautiful up there, the fall colors always seem more vivid, more reds and bright yellows, and the weather is always colder, which is strangely nice. The bogs are steamy and foggy in the morning, and occassionally we wake up to frost and the sprinklers going trying to keep the berries protected. This year we met Mary and Phil's son, fresh back from college, and I loved observing the similar dynamic of a family owned and run business. Mary and Phil treat us like long lost friends, and every year we come home completely excited about cranberries, and already looking forward to our trip next year. If ever you are looking for a beautiful, serene, secluded get away, I would suggest of visit of your own to Glacial Lake Cranberries and the Stone Cottage.

While I am talking about Cranberries, our Cranberry wine (made from 2005 berries) is ready for you to purchase. It is a little sweet, a little tart, and goes perfect with turkey. I like to say it makes your family bearable on Thanksgiving. ;)

Today is the last day of pressing the plums.

Interview

On Friday morning I was interviewed on the Martha Stewart Channel on Sirius Satellite Radio. I talked to Lauren Pressley on the Morning Living Program. I talked about how to make wine out of fresh blackberries that are ripe now. I also plugged the website , talked about Jour de Fete, Fresno State, all sorts of goodies. They are sending me a copy of the interview, so maybe I'll post it here.

There is also a nice mention of us in an article in Sauce Magazine talking about fruit wines.

Last Friday we received over 15 tons of plums, and we crushed them all on Saturday. They are all fermenting beautifully; should be a great year for Christmas Plum.

Dad got back yesterday from Paw Paw, Michigan with a load of cherries. We use a blend of cherries to make our not-too-sweet-award-winning-Cherry wine.

We are in the process of redesigning our labels and although each label will look different, here is the new style.