Halloween Party

The bonfire-to-be

I think we're ready- Garland built a beautiful bonfire pit and made lots of marshmallow roasting sticks, and Claudia got all the craft tables set up. We'll do the pumpkin carving outside in our picnic area- don't forget to bring a pumpkin! We've got the tools for you and we'll have a few spares in case you forget yours. Also remember to dress up in your best costume because we're giving away prizes for the Most Original, Scariest, and Cutest costumes. Bring your guitar or your favorite scary story to share around the bonfire. And try some of our spiced wine!

Happy wine tasters at the 2010 Autumn Wine Festival

Quick wine update- Richard and Taylor filtered the Joe's Cool Red yesterday, all day, and it's getting close to being ready to bottle. It was in cold stabilization the past few weeks but that ended this week with a crash when all the ice fell off the side of the tank (we were expecting it). Our bottling date for that is November 19, so anyone who is interested is welcome to come check out the process.

A beautiful evening with DEA

Our event room is getting booked up with holiday parties for December. Instead of the usual price for daytime events we're offering free room rental, and for evening events there is a 25% discount. A unique place to host your company Christmas party so give us a call or email to reserve a date!



We'll host a fundraiser this Sunday for Dorchester Citizens for Planned Growth and next Sunday for the Vienna Heritage Foundation. Consider coming and supporting these very worthwhile causes. More information is on our website at laytonschance.com.

Autumn Wine Festival

 Another big weekend of wine tasting! We have an awesome group of volunteers ready for the weekend and I hope everyone reading this comes by our tent to say hello. Look for the big Joe's Cool Red banner! It's a great chance to tell folks on the shore what the Laytons have been working on for the past few years. Get more information about the Autumn Wine Festival here.

A nice turnout for Business After Hours,
and great food from Jimmie & Sook's

Everyone has been in the field this week (until Thursday morning's rain started coming down). William was picking soybeans til he couldn't see anymore, and Joe has started planting wheat. Hopefully the winds this weekend will help dry things out so that they can get back to the fields next week.

We have some new equipment in the winery. Since our 2000 gallon tank is full of Traminette (for our Lazy Day White) we had to order another giant tank to use when we're racking wine. The spidery steel base was a hit with the kids when it first arrived.


My favorite feature of the production area these days is the Chambourcin, which has been fermenting for a while and gives off a nice odor of alcohol and yeast. It tastes wonderful though, heavier than last year's Chambourcin with a nice full body. William makes sure that it gets stirred regularly to keep even fermentation. Really, it's tougher than it looks!

Happy Hour with JohnE Wa2C going on as I write. Come out and join us as we wind down from the week.

Grape Stomp Tomorrow!

 I've got to start this post with a big thank you to the volunteers who helped us last weekend at the Maryland Wine Festival. We had a blast- perfect weather, friendly crowds, and plenty of good wine. There's no better opportunity to taste Maryland Wine than at this annual festival in Westminster, although it did inspire me to plan a wine trail road trip. Anyway, everyone loved Joe's Cool Red and many people wanted it open and ready to enjoy right there at the festival.

William is testing the specific gravity of the wines right now. We have pressed and crushed a lot of grapes this month and everything except the Vidal is in a tank right now, undergoing fermentation. Testing the specific gravity lets us track how fast fermentation is going. Alcohol is less dense than water or juice, so as it ferments it becomes less dense and we can measure density with a hydrometer.

Janet and Nellie picking Chambourcin grapes

Finally, the 1st Annual Harvest Festival & Grape Stomp is tomorrow! Richard is setting up the stage where we'll have two stompers going at a time. The person who presses the most juice wins a Frappe Vino wine slushie (non-alcoholic slushies available for participants under 21)! Millie's Roadhouse is bringing food, and we'll have pony rides and a moonbounce set up for the young ones. $5 entry includes a free tasting of our 5 wines. No charge for kids. Doors open at 11, event runs til 6pm. Get here by 3 for a tractor ride with Joe, but if you miss that you can still get a combine tour later. Tommy Buckets comes on at noon, and JohnE Wa2C starts at 3. Music and fun all day!

Call 410-228-1205 if you have any questions and we look forward to seeing you!

Alison's Wonderful Watermelon Wine

Latin jazz

Had a great weekend at the winery. Jennifer works full time at MaTech in Salisbury and they held a Relay for Life fundraiser here on Friday night. The Sampson/Perez duo returned (one of the first bands to play at the winery back in May!) and good music filled the tasting room all evening. Jenn's parents also came down from Pittsburgh for a visit and I think they were pleased to see the outcome after many years of hard work.

Saturday evening we held our final Sundaes at Sunset for the summer. We'll bring it back in the spring as soon as evenings are warm enough. Lots of kids running around and we celebrated Alison Layton's 7th birthday with cake and ice cream.

We also decided to go with her suggestion for naming our watermelon wine: Alison's Wonderful Watermelon Wine. Can't wait to get that finished and bottled- look for it around Thanksgiving!

Lots of grapes= lots of pickers

Last week we picked Chambourcin grapes and we've got the press running right now with a load. A couple of volunteers came out and picked with us one morning which was fun. Picking is the best part of grape growing and we enjoyed sharing that with Laura and Ed. This week we do the Vidal and then the vines are empty!

Pressing Chambourcin juice

Don't forget to mark your calendars for September 25! The 1st Annual Harvest Festival and Grape Stomp will be going on all day and we promise to offer you a good time. Check our website for regular updates and more details!

Harvest 2010

Traminette Grapes, ready for picking

Nellie is a major part of the vineyard.

William cuts bunches with a grape fork.

If you're following us on Facebook you probably already know that this week was the first week of harvest for us. Richard started picking first thing Monday morning, but everyone helped out on Tuesday and by Wednesday the Traminette was finished and ready for pressing. We also received a delivery of Traminette grapes from growers in Talbot County this week which we added to our harvest. The press ran all day Wednesday, in 3 cycles pressing 3800 pounds and producing 300 gallons of juice.

Richard and William stacking tanks

William purchased some interesting new wine tanks last month. I'm not sure what's the reason for the corners, but their main benefit is that they're stackable. They also have a different cooling system so they work well as the first station the juice goes to after pressing. We pump the juice into here where it can settle for 24 hours and then be sent on to another tank to undergo fermentation.

Hurricane Earl caused a stir regarding the corn harvest and Joe and William worked late into the night trying to cut as much corn as possible. Fortunately the storm has passed through Salem fairly mildly today with just winds and rain. Alison Layton came in the office just after lunch to announce that the hurricane is officially over.

Along with picking and pressing grapes we're getting the winery ready for several events this fall. The 1st Annual Harvest Festival on September 25 promises to be a good time. The trophies came in for the fishing contest and all the details are on our website for anyone who'd like to participate. We've signed up a young girl from 4H to offer Pony Rides, and Tommy Buckets and JohnE Wa2C have committed to performing live music throughout the day. Keep checking our site for more info and mark it on your calendar as a good day to visit the winery!

RAtG jams out

It's been a little while since I've had the chance to post but that just means things are staying busy at the winery. This past weekend we had a great show by Rusted Axle and the Gingers- Alex Wersen and Dick "Rusty" Morris and his daughters Claire and Emily. There were excellent vocals by the girls and impressive guitar playing by Alex and Rusty despite the afternoon heat. One group of visitors, the "Boat People", enjoyed the show so much that they convinced RAtG to play on for another hour. A good afternoon to be on the porch.

Last week we started preparing the winery for the production season. We've got a machine that separates grapes from their stems and crushes them, which is what we'll use for making red wine. Richard tested it and Barbara was super impressed at the efficiency of the process. There are two new wine tanks in the tank room that will significantly increase our wine-making capacity this season.

What's coming up- wine festivals in September and October, and a big festival to celebrate the harvest! September 25 will be our 1st Annual Harvest Festival- so for everybody who's ever wanted to stomp grapes, this will be your chance to come out and do it! Check our website for full details, but in addition to grape stomping we'll have tractor rides, a fishing contest, a moon bounce, live music by Tommy Buckets and JohnE Wa2C, and concessions by Millie's Roadhouse. $5 entry for adults (21 & up) includes wine tasting. Free entry for kids and youth under 21.

We do need some volunteers for the Maryland Wine Festival on September 18 and 19, and at Pemberton on October 16 and 17, so if you're interested shoot us an email (info@laytonschance.com) and I'll sign you up.

It's getting close to harvest now and now is the best time to visit a vineyard, with bunches of grapes hanging heavy on the vines! Come check it out!

August!

I can't believe that summer is passing by. The breeze yesterday morning really made it seem like we were approaching fall, but the humidity kicked in midday and reminded me that we're still in the thick of it. The grapevines are just beautiful these days. I tasted a Chambourcin grape this afternoon and it is only slightly sour now. With sugar content rising at a rate of 1.5% weekly, they will be ready in a few short weeks. We're looking at a mid-September harvest (and we'll need help so stay tuned if you're interested in picking grapes!). On September 25 we're planning a harvest festival to celebrate the bounty of the vines, and to get our feet dirty with a good old fashioned grape stomp!

In other wine news, the watermelon wine is in the tank and doing well. It has a strong watermelon flavor, although right now the scent of yeast is pretty strong on the nose. As someone mentioned today, the liquid has lost most of it's color and is only a very pale pink. Our sample batches have turned almost clear after sitting. Maybe that's another reason for blending fruit wine with [grape] wine- to offer a nicer color. Regardless, we're still planning on doing a straight watermelon wine so let's keep our fingers crossed that it works! Brice Stump of the Daily Times wrote a great article about the watermelon wine in this weeks' paper- check it out here.

This weekend's entertainment has changed but still promises to be a good time. Randy Lee Ashcraft and the Saltwater Cowboys had to postpone their performance, but we're excited to welcome them to the winery in October. In lieu of the Saltwater Cowboys we'll have JohnE Wa2C- a duo from Easton playing classic rock music from favorite artists like James Taylor, Dylan, the Beatles, you name it. The band plays from 2-5 and admission is $5 at the door.