Monday, April 12, 2010

More details on our new A.V.A. Weekend event April 24 & 25

In one of last week's Taste of the Trail blog posts we told you about our next event which is brand new. It's A.V.A. Weekend taking place April 24 & 25. This event celebrates the region's federal designation as an American Viticultural Area for wine making, which was achieved in April 2008.

A.V.A. Weekend will have an educational theme to it as the different wineries offer visitors a chance to learn more about the "terroir" or soil of our region and how it affects the grapes grown here and the flavor of the resulting wine.

Here is the list of what each of our nine wineries is planning for our newest weekend event:

Amore Winery in Nazareth: " Taste the Terroir" - Experience the taste difference produced by our mineral rich soil. You will taste the complexity in our wine. Also, we will serve homemade tomato sauce from our very own tomatoes. This will be a delight to remember. Our greenhouses will open for the season. Get hardy garden flower and vegetable plants. Think hanging baskets. Geological maps will illustrate the unique structure of our soil. Join us in celebration.

Big Creek Winery in Kresgeville: For AVA weekend we will be "Tasting the meaning of AVA' with varietal wines from comparable AVA's for people to taste the importance of location.

Blue Mountain Winery in New Tripoli: Check back soon for details!

Cherry Valley Vineyards in Saylorsburg: "Meet the wine maker" and learn the differences of grapes grown  in our AVA and how that affects the end product, tours of the winery will be available, and comparison tasting.

Clover Hill Vineyards in Breinigsville: Help Clover Hill Winery celebrate the land that we love to grow grapes on! We will be hosting a vineyard scavenger hunt at Clover Hill Winery.  Stop in the tasting room anytime between noon -5 p.m. on Saturday or Sunday to receive your vineyard scavenger hunt list and rules, then off you go into the vineyard to find your items.  Return to the tasting room with your completed list and we will give you a prize!

Franklin Hill Vineyards in Bangor: Come see and enjoy the first established vineyard and winery in the Lehigh Valley. Our vines are 34 years old. We are excited about planting our second vineyard. We hope you will be able to see the early stages of the planting of our vineyard in the new Lehigh Valley AVA. We will be featuring Evanswood, Seyval Blanc, Vidal Blanc and Katie's Creek. These award-winning wines are still being produced from our original vines. Supporting local agriculture, we will be featuring our Gold Medal Apple Wine with apples freshly picked from Kachline's Farm along with their apple butter and honey for sale. Delicious local cheeses from Klein's Farm will also be for sale.

Galen Glen Winery in Andreas: Interactive Soil Experience: Tours, Dessert and Master Gardeners. As stewards of our 200 year old farm, Galen will offer tours and tales of our soils.  In the theme of terroir, taste some “Dirt Dessert” paired with our Barrel 29. And on Sunday from 12:30-4:30 p.m., the Schuylkill County Master Gardeners will dispense advice on soil health, amendments, nutrients and their importance, pH and have soil test kits available to purchase.

Pinnacle Ridge Winery in Kutztown: Pinnacle Ridge celebrates the anniversary of our AVA designation by holding educational talks in our vineyard on “Terrior.”(Putting it a bit more plainly, our soil.) Why is the Lehigh Valley such a prized grape growing region? What about its soil and climate make the Lehigh Valley so suitable? Pinnacle Ridge winemaker, Brad Knapp, will take you into our vineyard and talk about dirt, rocks, rain, minerals –ask questions- Brad loves the inquisitive! Pinnacle Ridge will be serving a variety of locally grown foods and pairing them with our amazing wines. Bad Farms from Kempton PA will be showcasing their cheeses made from their own cows! Pinnacle Ridge will serve home-made pizza using mushrooms from Oley Valley Mushroom from Lobachsville,PA and cheese from Bad Farms! Additionally, we will serve a Micro-greens salad made from local farmer, Oh, Produce in Kempton, PA.

Vynecrest Winery in Breinigsville: Saturday April 24th, in honor of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day and to celebrate our Lehigh Valley AVA, Percy Doughtery will be our guest at 1pm. Percy, a former geology professor at Kutztown University, is a Lehigh County Commissioner, Wine Judge and Wine Professor at Northampton Community College. He will be joining our winemaker John Landis in the vineyard to dig a hole and discuss the terroir of the Lehigh Valley. Reservations are not required. In the winery, we will have Rob & Marty playing live on Saturday, and Arianne on Sunday from 1 - 4:30 pm. We will also have samples of our Jose Madrid Salsa to accompany tastings of our Estate -bottled Chambourcin. Open to the public, free admission.

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