Saturday, September 17, 2011

Where is Joe?

In Westminster Maryland this morning getting ready for The Maryland Wine Festival and realized that our weekly blog had not been done yet!! Well Layton's Chance fans, fear not, you will get your weekly fix no matter where we are!(currently that would be the Days Inn!)This weekend is a busy one! You can find wine everywhere...here at Maryland Wine Festival, at the winery, and at the Summer Send Off celebration in Cambridge. Make sure you stop by to see Pam and Ashley, they will be set up in front of A Few Of My Favorite Things!
For all of you Bird Dog fans, the concert that was postponed due to pesky 'ol Irene is back on! October 23rd at 2pm we will be partying Bird Dog style! We have a lot of great things in the works for October! It's shaping up to be a great month for events at the winery so keep an eye on the schedule. Guys, there is even a special day devoted to cigars and wine!
Oh, by the way, check out our Facebook later this weekend for a new segment...where's Joe! Can't wait for everyone's feedback! Well the pesky alarm is signaling the start of a great day to introduce new people to Layton's Chance wine. Wish us luck ...and as always, "have a Joe's Cool kind of day".

Friday, September 9, 2011

Getting Tanked at Layton's Chance!

Rain, rain, go......I mean YAY rain!! It's been the silliest summer....earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods! The fields can use the rain, so as much as I hate muddy shoes, bring it on! We have been out picking grapes again this morning so they won't sit in the moisture and get rotten.   I love to see those beautiful grapes come off the vine....that just means more wine is coming up!!
We want to thank everyone who came out to help bottle our latest batch of Joe's Cool Red on Monday and Tuesday. We completed over 20,000 bottles of Joe's Cool Red in two days! We couldn't have done it without the help of some great friends who came out on those days! Can you believe it? 20,000 more bottles of Joe's Cool Red, and guess what?!?! Screw caps! No more sore arms getting into that sweet red wine! We even had some four legged visitors for bottling. A litter of kittens got into the winery as we were finishing up.  You haven't lived until you've seen Garland on his stomach hollering here kitty, kitty, kitty!
Coming up this weekend we have a Very special night! Saturday night, September 10th, we are having a Tank Room Party!  This is the first time we have done a party like this and we are all so excited. Southern Breeze is playing that night and we love them so much we were afraid they would be rained out......so we decided to bring the party inside!  We have cleared the floor in our winery tank room and are ready to dance the night away surrounded by cases of wine and wine tanks! It's going to be a blast!! Come get tanked with us!
Maryland Wine Festival is coming up next weekend on the 17th and 18th in Westminster, Maryland. If you love Maryland wine, this is the place to be. Visit www.marylandwinefestival.org for all of the information. Taste wine from all over. We could still use some help pouring our wines those days, so if you are interested in helping out for a few hours send us an email at info@laytonschance.com. You get free admission to the festival(free tasting all day from ALL wineries!) a glass of Layton's Chance wine after your shift, and 20% all Layton's Chance wine purchased that day!
Time to get back to vineyards and bring in those grapes. Have fun, stay dry, and as always....Have a "Joe's Cool" kind of day!

Friday, September 2, 2011

Making Headlines

We are making headlines here at Layton's Chance! If you haven't seen it yet, check out today's Daily Banner. There is a great article from Comptroller Franchot's visit. What an honor to have Governor O'Malley and Comptroller Franchot visit the winery in the same week.

Summer is coming to a close.....but that means that the real work begins at the winery! Bottling, festivals, harvest, grape picking, crushing.....get the idea! It's not only a beautiful time of year but busy, busy, busy! So, if you have ever wanted to work for a winery, here's your chance!
We are looking for volunteers for a lot of events coming up at the winery and around town. Email us at info@laytonschance.com if you are interested.

Now it's not all work here at the winery...we get in plenty of play time too! We are having Happy Hour every Friday night in September! Tonight, September 2nd, Justin Ryan will be playing. If you haven't heard him before you need to make tonight the night. He is great! We also have Game Night every Thursday and are knee deep in preparation for our 2nd Annual Harvest Festival and Grape Stomp on September 24th!
Claudia is excited today. She had lost a copy of her favorite soup cookbook and we tracked down the author, who made a personal trip to the winery yesterday to bring her a new copy! What a great guy! (He also brought in more copies of the Eastern Shore Cookbook for the tasting room)I'm looking forward to lots of soup from Claudia this year! So, next time that you come in, make sure to ask her for your bowl!

Well, we need to go get set up for Happy Hour tonight. Hope to see you all there, and as always....Have a "Joe's Cool" kind of day!