Happy New Year!

What a great year it's been! Check out photos from throughout the year on our website of all the fun events we've had. We're all looking forward to more next year so be sure to follow us on Facebook or sign up for our Newsletter to make sure you get the latest updates.

Best wishes for 2011!

Christmas Eve eve

We've had a great December- lots of familiar and new faces coming in to pick up a favorite bottle (or case!) Joe carried one of the last cases of Lazy Day Rose into the office as a reserve and we're down to the last 150 bottles in the tasting room. There are 1000 gallons in the tank from 2010 but that won't be in the bottle until April.

Laura and I went down to Costa Ventosa in Whaleyville on Monday to visit our fellow Eastern Shore wineries- the Four on the Shore! Folks from Bordeleau and Fenwick Wine Cellars were also there and we pulled raffle tickets from the Shore Wineries Holiday Trail. It's great to have other awesome wineries in the area so that visitors can see (and taste) different Maryland wines. Come pick up your passport today and get started: $1/passport, and visit all four wineries in the next 3 months to be entered in a drawing for a basket of wines from each winery!

 

Nellie and Janet have been out in the vineyard this week, pruning the vines. Nellie stayed out there last Thursday as the snow came down without any complaints. They say the toughest days are the ones when the wind is whipping through- like today.

Still no watermelon wine- although there have been lots of requests. Make sure you're on our newsletter mailing list and we'll send a blast out when it's in the bottle and ready to go. The other wines are sitting pretty and will be ready to go for our next bottling in April. 

Hope everyone enjoys the holidays with a nice bottle of wine (I’m drinking Vidal Blanc!) Merry Christmas!

'Twas the week before Christmas

Brrr! It is cold and windy out here! We've had quite a few visitors braving the wind to pick up wine for the holidays though, and we'll be open through December 23rd for holiday shopping. Join us on Facebook to receive weekly specials as we lead up to Christmas.

This is the time for holiday socials and appreciation luncheons. Teachers, bus drivers, business people, and members of the Westside Historical Society filled the event room this past week. I still can't get over how great a job Kelli did with the decorations!

A lot of requests are coming in about Alison's Wonderful Watermelon Wine. The good news is that the wine is finished, smells and tastes great, and is ready to bottle. The bad news is that we need federal approval of our label before we get anything printed. Everything has been submitted and we're hoping to hear back soon. I promise to send out an email blast when we know the availability date.

All the other wines are doing fine- we're in the waiting stage right now. Hopefully more concord juice arrives soon so that we can start the next batch of Joe's Cool Red. At the rate it's going now we might not make it to April!

Christmas Market

This past weekend's Christmas Market was wonderful! Many thanks to the artists, volunteers and visitors who came out and enjoyed the afternoon with us on Saturday. Barbara made delicious Glühwein (spiced wine, literally translated as "Glow wine" for how it affects your cheeks)! It tasted great in our souvenir mugs with cinnamon stirrers. Tammy made Spice Cake to go with the spiced wine which was moist and delicious. Joe baked his special chocolate chip cookies which disappeared quickly. We also shared a few other German Christmas traditional treats, Stollen and Lebküchen.

Awesome volunteer Amy got the wreath-making going with our collected grapevines. They turned out really nicely until we ran out of wet vines. Seems like if they haven't soaked in water for 24-48 hours ahead of time the vines are too brittle to bend. I'm planning to get out there today or tomorrow to gather some more so if you didn't get to make one on Saturday check back this weekend and we'll have some vines set up for wreath-making.

Fingers are crossed that we receive more juice for Joe's Cool Red this week so we can get started on our next batch! It's going fast- at this rate we might sell out by February! We also picked out the bottle design for our Watermelon Wine (pink!) and are working on the label so we can get it bottled as soon as possible. It's been filtered well now and smells yummy!

Lots of Christmas parties this week and the winery is perfectly decorated thanks to Kelli, Frannie, and Barbara. We've still got plenty of wine and great gift ideas (Wine & Chocolate! Gift Cards!) so stop by this week to do your shopping. And join us on Facebook to receive updates about our weekly deals for December!