Thursday, April 28, 2011

Pitchers of Joe's Cool Red

More Joe's Cool Red on May 20th
Sold out again of Joe's Cool Red! Too bad that it's such a popular wine! Fortunately we have plenty in the tanks and we'll be serving it by the pitcher at Happy Hour between now and Bottling Day. That means this Friday (April 29th) from 5:30-8:30pm at our Karaoke Night Happy Hour with Bob Windsor and next Friday (May 6) from 5:30-8:30pm with JohnE Wa2C you can have all the Joe's you like, fresh from the tank! Bottling Day is May 19th so we'll celebrate with Chris English at our final Spring Happy Hour.

Randy Lee Ashcraft & the Saltwater Cowboys
kick off the Summer Concert Series on May 28th!
We're coming up quickly on our 1st Anniversary too- May 28th! Stay close to home this Memorial Day weekend and join us for a great Saturday afternoon at the winery. Justin Ryan plays from 2-5pm and Randy Lee Ashcraft returns with the Saltwater Cowboys from 6-9pm. We'll have all of our new wines released and ready for tastings, plus a fresh batch of Joe's Cool Red and the new Joe's Cool White.

Other events coming up in May: Mother's Day Brunch, Sundaes at Sunset, and the Chesapeake Wine Festival. Volunteers are always needed- especially for the Chesapeake Bay Wine Festival! Please email info@laytonschance.com or sign up for our volunteer mailing list!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Spring Activities!

Ok, it's officially the busy season! We've had a great week of warm weather (until today!) but we're happy to see people getting out and visiting the winery.
A beautiful afternoon for planting!

Last weekend we planted an acre of Chambourcin vines in our new vineyard. It was nice to get my hands dirty again, although the guys did the bulk of the planting. On Saturday the rain held off enough for some visitors to plant a vine at our 3rd Annual View of the Vineyard event- guests get to plant a vine and as then visit it as it grows up and bears fruit- and becomes wine!
Alison & Aunt Claudia getting eggs ready!

Most of the energy this week was getting ready for the Easter Egg Hunt tomorrow afternoon! We're expecting good weather and lots of kids so we've got plenty of stuffed eggs ready to hide around the vineyard. Some eggs have tickets for prizes- games and toys for kids and wine & chocolate for adults! No registration necessary, arrive by 2 to sign your young ones up for the hunts which will be separated by age groups. 1st hunt is at 2:30!

Friday, April 8, 2011

2010 Wines bottled today

Grey outside, but not in the winery!
 Why does it always rain on bottling day? Barbara told William this morning, "If you ever need rain in the middle of summer, just schedule a bottling!" That's ok, we've got coffee and the tasting room is warm and cozy so everyone is hanging out there while Landwirt gets the line set up. It wouldn't be a normal bottling day without everyone bundled up in sweatshirts, drinking hot coffee.

Chuck works hard stacking cases

Isn't it wonderful to say that- a normal bottling day? We've had 3 bottlings since our first one last March, and although we've got a better idea of what we're doing now, the excitement and anticipation hasn't faded a bit. William is directing the show, and we have several volunteers giving us a hand. And we're all excited for the new wines!
The production area was all dressed
up for the evening.

We hosted our first event for Layton's Chance Winos on Wednesday night and it went fabulously well! William gave a beautiful presentation about the production of our 2010 wines, followed by a tasting of each wine along with several of the 2009 vintages. Folks loved the new wines! We have a dry Traminette, made from the same grapes as Lazy Day White so it has the same citrus aroma but with a nice crisp flavor. There are two new Chambourcin wines, one oaked and one in stainless steel. Both of these are lovely, with deep, chocolate flavors in the Oaked Chambourcin and dark ripe berries in the 2010 Chambourcin. Finally, we are really excited to present Joe's Cool White! It's a deliciously sweet sister wine to Joe's Cool Red. Both Joe's Cool Red and Joe's Cool White will be bottled in May.

William admires the first bottle of
2010 Traminette
Upcoming events are posted on our website, and next week is a big one. Alex & Shiloh are coming from Salisbury for Happy Hour on Friday night. Saturday is our 3rd View of the Vineyard planting event- those who planted vines in 2009 might want to see how the vines have matured. The following weekend we're hosting a special Easter Egg Hunt- candy for the kids and wine for adults!