Grape Harvest & Award Winning Wines!
Hello everyone!
Pinky here, writing about all the happenings at our place!
We have been very busy here with all of the grapes being harvested. Eric tells us that so far we have harvested well over 180 tons of grapes. To give you an idea of how much that actually is, an average bag of grapes in the grocery store is about two or three pounds. Multiply that by 180,000 (a ton is 2,000 pounds) and I think you would agree that it is a lot of grapes. You get really sick of eating them while you are picking them (there goes the profit) after the first hundred or so pounds, but the next day, you are back to eating them all over again…Anthony and his winemaking team think that is a lot, as he has to process all of the grapes Eric and his crew pick! If you come up to the winery and go on a tour, you will be delighted (maybe not…) to savor the wonderful scent of fermenting grapes! Just for your information, grapes will keep coming in until the end of October/Beginning of November.
Eric and Anthony both add that the grapes are coming in nicely this year. The extremely dry months of July and August have resulted in exceptionally high quality fruit. Because one of the results of the drought is high quality wine grapes, we continue to pray for no rain. However, we realize that some farmers might not be happy with this….so we pray for rain for them. Anybody know where to buy a 230 acre umbrella? Some of our grapes are picked by hand, and some are picked with a machine. It just depends on the grapes. Some are too tender to be put through a machine, and need the more delicate process of hand picking and placing the grape bunch into a lug (that’s what it’s called!). Our picture below shows one of our vineyard hands picking the grapes in our vineyards.
Now onto the 27th Annual Maryland Governor’s Cup Competition!!!
The judging took place on Sunday, August 23 in Timonium with over 20 wine experts from the region who tasted over 150 different wines.
We are incredibly thrilled that all ten wines we entered medaled. Our 2014 Pinky’s Rose was named as the best Rose’ in Maryland! An affectionate name for the founder’s youngest daughter, Pinky’s Rose’ is a light and fruit forward wine – a wonderfully pleasant soft rose’.
We also are very pleased with the other results:
Gold:
Blackberry Kiss 2014
Chardonnay Reserve 2014
Pinky’s Rose 2014
Retriever Red 2014
Vignoles 2014
Silver:
Bacioni 2013
Terrapin 2014
Traminette 2014
Bronze:
Chambourcin Reserve 2013
Indulgence 2012
Congrats to Anthony and Eric and their staff! Good job! Keep up the good work!
We hope to see you at the Maryland Wine Festival, coming up September 19th & 20th at the Carroll County Farm Museum!
Hope everyone has a enjoyable and safe weekend!
Pinky
