Progress!

Friday. A good end to a productive week.

Most of today was spent in the winery. We racked the Rosé and the Vidal to remove the clarifying agent, and we’ll take care of the others next week. The Vidal is strikingly beautiful, pale green-yellow, and tastes yummy too!

The third computer has arrived so we can go ahead and set up our network and move into the office in the winery. It will be nice to have everything in one location- so we can check on the wine and not miss important phone calls or emails. When Joe and Laura return from their Hawaii vacation, they’ll help set up an organized system.

I’ve spent a lot of time this week experimenting with capsule and bottle choices. Two of our labels have TTB approval! We are still waiting for the others but it’s exciting to see that we’re really getting somewhere.

The floor in the winery is fully installed, and it looks fabulous. Painters have been in also, doing the trim and other finishing touches.

And, we’ve spoken to several individuals and groups about holding events at the winery- an encouraging sign of interest and support! Thank you!

More snow...

For all our concerned readers, we have survived this week's snow barrage with no major problems. I think the final snowfall was more than 20"! Ravenwood Road, the main road between here and Rt. 50 wasn't plowed and Richard had trouble getting in yesterday. But then they spent two days plowing and digging out neighbors. It's good to have tractors when you're so far out in the country like this!

Earlier this week we met with a printer in Salisbury and arranged for our opening brochures to be printed. We are offering a gift certificate of a Tour and Tasting for 6 at the Dorchester YMCA Annual Gala, on March 6th. Their "Fun" Raiser is called the Wall of Wine- an event where participants have the chance to win a bottle of fine wine, donated by the community members. Or in our case, since our wine won't be ready in March, a special visit to the winery. If you want to get involved, stop by the Y with a bottle of wine or contact Katie Tolley for more info.

Down at the winery contractors are installing wood floors and it looks great. We're still waiting on a phone line and the rest of our computers (delayed due to the snowstorm). Maybe by the end of the month we'll be relocated. Fingers are crossed for an early spring!

Painted walls!

As you can see, work in the winery is moving along quickly. There's paint on the walls in the tasting and event rooms, the bar base is set, and the brick mantle is in and ready to hold a pellet stove.

Happily for William, the lab is up and running. Steven and Alison have their own chemistry set in there so they can be like dad and do their own experiments. It's a relief for us to have a place to put all our equipment away. If you wonder what Richard's mixing up, it's Bentonite, clay from Ft. Benton, Wyoming, which pulls out sediment from the wine. We'll still have to filter it before bottling, of course.

We've also been working on our labels. It's quite a process, from designing a visually pleasing look to finding a printer who will work with our bottler. There's a lot of integration in this stage to make sure everything will go smoothly in April with the bottling lines.

A foot of snow cancelled school and the kids got to join in the fun at the winery. Check out our Facebook page for more photos. You can also see the interview with WCEI's Drake Ferguson. It'll be aired this spring on his morning radio program "Drake Around Town."

Other good news- We now have a functioning indoor toilet!