Progressive Dinner

The Wineries of Ste. Genevieve
Present
“Progressive Dinner” Weekend on Ste. Genevieve’s Route du Vin
June 2nd & 3rd, 2007
11am - 5pm
Journey down Ste. Genevieve’s wine trail, the Route du Vin for a unique Progressive Dinner!
Along the way, you’ll be treated to fine wine perfectly paired with a delicious
“Progressive Dinner” course at each of our distinctive wineries within our scenic region.
If your ticket is stamped at all 5 wineries, your name will be entered for special Route du Vin giveaways!
A little more than an hour’s drive from St. Louis and Cape Girardeau, journey through the rolling hills,
big skies and beautiful views of the 5 unique wineries on the Route du Vin:
Sainte Genevieve Winery Cave Winery Chaumette Winery
Crown Valley Winery Charleville Winery
Cost: $15/person until May 25th; $20/person after May 25th
(includes complimentary wine glass, and 10% off wine purchased that day)
Please call for advance reservations: Sainte Genevieve Winery (800) 398-1298

Wine & Food Pairing Menu:
Sainte Genevieve Winery
Appetizer Course: serving Mini Quiches paired with their Estate Seyval Blanc

Cave Winery
Salad Course: serving Poppyseed Salad: Spring Greens, Strawberries, Walnuts & Feta, paired with their Chardonel Off-Dry

Crown Valley Winery
Entree Course: serving Norton Braised Crown Farm’s Bison Shoulder with Seasonal Vegetables, paired with their Norton
Proprietor’s Select

Chaumette Winery
Cheese Course: serving Assorted Imported & Local Cheeses, Berries & Homemade Breads, paired with their Estate Chardonel

Charleville Winery
Dessert Course: serving Fruit Dip & Pastries paired with their Genevieve Rivard, Sweet Chardonel

Giveaways:
Sainte Genevieve Winery: $50 Gift Certificate Cave Winery: Wine Tasting & Food Pairing for 10
Charleville Winery: $20 Gift Certificate Crown Valley Winery: Crown Country Gift Basket
Chaumette Winery: Signature Chocolates Gift Basket

Join us on the Route du Vin year round for these seasonal events!
November 17th & 18th, 2007: Wine Diva Weekend
February 9th & 10th, 2008: Aphrodisiac Weekend
April 19th & 20th, 2008: “Jour de la Terre” Weekend

For more info, hours and directions, visit:
www.cavevineyard.com, www.chaumette.com,
www.crownvalleywinery.com, www.saintegenevievewinery.com
www.charlevillevineyard.com

This is a picture of my friend, Julie, passing out the chives on the front porch at the last Route du Vin Passport Weekend, the Jour de la Terre. Stay tuned for our next Passport Weekend Event coming up very soon!

I am happy to announce that we have won more medals. At the National Women's Wine Competition our Cranberry and Red Raspberry won a bronze, the Cherry won a silver, and the Cherry also won a bronze in the Special Womens Winemaker Challenge. Hurray!

I know I asked for rain, but I'm not sure I asked for three days of rain. Can you see the ground hog in the picture? Even he's trying to get out of the rain and into the barn.

This is one of the better looking Seyval Blanc grapes. You can see a fair amount of new green growth all through the arm. The clouds indicate a storm, and we could use the rain. The weather here is so crazy. I guess every spring is crazy. Yesterday we hit record high temps in the 90's. Today it's 80 something and the humidity is about the same. I'm sitting in front of the computer sweating. Here's hoping the cool front and rain gets here sooner rather than later.

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.

Grape Eating Baboons

and you thought growing grapes in Missouri seemed out of the ordinary

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.

Red Raspberry is a winner!

More good news streaming in from the Wine Competition world; our Red Raspberry won another Gold medal at the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition. The results are here. The Cranberry also won a bronze.

In my humble opinion, I find that wine competition results are much more accurate than the number system that one editor from one magazine puts on a wine. I could be biased because I am a wine judge, but when you have 2126 wines entered, and being drank and tasted by top wine professionals, sommeliers, winemakers, etc, that is much more reliable and note worthy than any other sort of wine rating system around. So, if you are truely interested in drinking excellent wines, look for the wine competition results- those are the ones that count.

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."

Accolades

I am very pleased to tell you that our Red Raspberry wine won both the Gold and Best of Class medals at the New World International Wine Competition. What this means is that not only did it win a Gold (an award I have only won one other time) The Best of Class part means that it was the best berry wine in the competition. Yay. Go us!

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.

Sad, frost damaged grapevines

Baby chives waiting for a new home; maybe yours?

Concord grapevines this morning. I was so surprised to see the amount of growth. They are much earlier than last year. I was posting a picture of a grapevine with much less growth last year on April 12th. They are calling for a frost maybe Wednesday night. Here's hoping the weatherman is wrong.

Seyval blanc grapes at bud break. Actually I consider this a little past bud break.

This is a Vidal blanc grapevine at bud break.

Spring is planting time and this spring is no exception. This is our vineyard crew planting cuttings made from existing vines in our nursery rows.

Chives

I have been thinking about chives a lot lately, since we have that Route du Vin Jour de la Terre event coming up and we are featuring chives. I will post a picture of the cute little seedlings soon. You don't want to miss your chance to go home with one of these! One of my favorite blogs is Farmgirl Fare. If you click on the link you can read a beautiful commentary on chives. I have always liked chives, even grown a few in my kitchen herb garden, but after reading her post, I am more excited, and fascinated than ever. My favorite quote is, "once you discover the hundreds of uses for chives, you will wonder how you ever survived without them. Their mild onion flavor perks up everything from chicken salad to quesadillas. They even make food look better, too. Like a beautiful strand of pearls, a sprinkle of freshly-snipped chives will add instant sophistication to almost anything: a serving of mashed potatoes, a platter of stir-fried vegetables, even plain old scrambled eggs. Your meals will begin to look as if they came out of a fashionably chic cafe. For a truly elegant touch, toss some of the edible, peppery blossoms into your salad, or float a few atop bowls of spinach soup." Farmgirl is very eloquent, and has such passion for gardening and the ways of the rural life. Well said.

Hope to see you on April 21 and 22 where we can talk about chives all the live long day.

Jour de la Terre

The Wineries of Ste. Genevieve

Present

“Jour de la Terre” Weekend on Ste. Genevieve’s Route du Vin
April 21st & 22nd, 2007
11am - 5pm
Celebrate Earth Day this Spring on Ste. Genevieve’s wine trail!
Each winery offers seasonal cuisine prepared with fresh Spring herbs paired with their wines.
Take home a complimentary herb seedling from each winery to start your own herb garden!
Visit all 5 wineries on Ste. Genevieve’s Route du Vin, as each winery will offer complimentary wine samples
and special food pairings made with Spring herbs for each ticket holder. If your passport is stamped
at all 5 wineries your name will be entered in a drawing for a “Jour de la Terre” gift basket!
A little more than an hour’s drive from St. Louis and Cape Girardeau, journey through the rolling hills,
big skies and beautiful views of the 5 unique wineries on the Route du Vin:

Sainte Genevieve Winery Cave Winery Chaumette Winery
Crown Valley Winery Charleville Winery

Cost: $15/person until April 13th; $20/person after April 13th
(includes complimentary wine glass, and 10% off wine purchases made that day)
Please call for advance reservations Sainte Genevieve winery (800) 398-1298

Wine & Food Pairing Menu:

Sainte Genevieve Winery (Chives)
Serving Spring Green Salad with Fresh Chives, paired with their Vignoles

Charleville Winery (Cilantro)
Serving Fresh Cilantro Salsa with an Assortment of Chips, paired with their Genevieve Rivard

Chaumette Winery (Dill)
Serving Dill Havarti Cheese on Lavash with Tomato Dill Chutney, paired with their Estate Chardonel

Crown Valley Winery (Parsley)
Serving Black Pepper Seared Beef Loin on Toast with Parsley Gremolata, paired with their Zinfandel

Cave Winery (Basil)
Caprese Salad Skewers with Sweet Italian Basil & Fresh Mozzarella, paired with their Chardonel Off-Dry

Join us on the Route du Vin year round for these seasonal events!
June 2nd & 3rd, 2007: Progressive Wine Dinner
November 17th & 18th, 2007: Wine Diva Weekend
February 9th & 10th 2008: Aphrodisiac Weekend