Save on Chambourcin and Traminette this month at Vynecrest

The Lehigh Valley Wine Trail passport program is underway. No worries if you don't have a passport - we are still open to the public for sales and complimentary tastings. If you do have a passport, come on in, head downstairs to have your passport stamped and get your food and wine pairing.

To escape the weekend crowds, don't forget we are open every day until 5 pm and open until 5:30 pm on Fridays. Fresh croissants and baguettes are available Friday through Sunday. Stop in Friday after work to pick up some fresh bread, local cheese and local wine.

March Specials 
* Wine of the Month - Chambourcin, additional 10% off
* 3 Pack of the Month - 3 Traminette for $30.00

(available at winery only; 3 pack cannot be combined with other offers)

Upcoming Events

March 29

Jazz Sunday - live Jazz music in the Vyneskeller, 1 - 4 pm

April 4

Easter Saturday - live music with pianist Steve Myers, 1 - 4 pm

April 4 - Bear Creek Mountain Resort Spring Wine Festival

Join us on Saturday, April 4 for the Spring Wine Festival. Guests will enjoy wine and food samples and live jazz music from noon - 4 pm. Each guest will receive a commemorative wine tasting glass, event program, free samples, and have access to the wine check service. Tickets are $30 at the door or $25 online.

Glass Half Empty by John Landis

March! It’s the month when spirits rise as the earth awakens from the cold and snow of winter. It’s the month when we see many old friends that hit the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail for our Passport Program. It’s the month that grass turns green, grapes get pruned, our 2014 vintage wines start to find their way into bottles, and our patio fills with wine lovers enjoying the outdoors. It’s the month of March Madness Basketball, and the eternal hope of every baseball fan that this is the year for their team, and yes maybe we can start to wear shorts and t-shirts.

Spiced Winter Red is back for the fall at Vynecrest

Spiced Winter Red is available starting today.

The 2013 harvest is going great. We are picking Lemberger and Merlot this week. Just a few more weeks and all of the grapes will be in; we just need this great weather to hold out until then.

It is just about time to set our sights on the holidays. Christkindlmarkt opens in just a few weeks on November 21 and we will have a booth there as always.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. Vynecrest is donating $1 to the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition for every 3 pack of the month sold.

October Specials 

* Wine of the Month - Chambourcin, additional 10% off
* 3 Pack of the Month - 3 First Blush for $25
(at winery only, 3 pack can't be combined with other discounts)

Upcoming Events

• October 3 - Macungie Farmer's Market, Memorial Park, 4 - 7 pm
• October 4 - Artist Harvest, Kutztown, 5 - 8 pm - Throughout downtown Kutztown the Artist Harvest is a celebration of art at multiple locations. Come explore the town and meet our artists and photographers while enjoying the bounty of the season. For more information and a complete list of participating vendors click here.
• October 10 & 17 - Macungie Farmer's Market, Memorial Park, 4 - 7 pm
• October 19 & 20 - Lehigh Valley Wine Trail Chambourcin Weekend - Vynecrest will be highlighting the versatility of our Jewel of the Lehigh Valley, the Chambourcin grape, by pairing our 2012 dry Chambourcin wine with Sticky Chicken - slowly cooked chicken basted in a flavorful sticky marinade that clings to the chicken. This sauce, made with our Chambourcin wine (recipe available), can be used for Sticky Chicken over rice or Sticky Chicken Wings.
• October 24 & 31 - Macungie Farmer's Market, Memorial Park, 4 - 7 pm

Glass Half Empty
by Jan Landis

In 1999, our son Ben was studying for his MBA at Lehigh University and had contact with ArtsQuest staff members who are involved with Christkindlmarkt in Bethlehem. One thing led to another and we signed on to be the winery at this festival for the four-week Christmas season.

Since we prided ourselves in making wines similar to those of Northern France and Germany - Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir, Riesling, and Lemberger -we felt strongly that we needed to develop a German Gluwein for Christkindlmarkt. We already grew the Baco Noir grape in our vineyard which had a wonderful complex nature, so we researched recipes for a Gluwein and began to develop our own Spiced Winter Red.

Our other son, Sam, was home at the time and John, Sam and I spent an afternoon in my kitchen trying various recipes adding spices to our Baco Noir wine and heating cups of it in the microwave. Various amounts of cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and orange extract were tried until we came up with a winning combination.

We chose a black and white Currier & Ives-like photo of the winery for the label, and bottled about 100 gallons. We thought it was a great wine warmed up in a crockpot and served with shortbread or spice cookies; if only it would sell. And sell it did! So well, in fact, it only lasted for the first two weeks that first year at Christkindlmarkt.

Greatly encouraged, we made more of it the next year and again it sold out. We seem to keep making more of this holiday favorite each year as it is also popular with campers in the off-season. We take pride in using freshly ground spices in our recipe which hasn't changed very much since that first time in my kitchen. The only difference is now we make about 1,100 gallons of Spiced Winter Red, and we don’t make it in my kitchen.

Spiced Winter Red is back at Vynecrest just in time for fall

The 2012 Harvest at Vynecrest should wrap up this week barring any unforeseen events. It's going to be another great vintage. It is now time to set our sights on the holidays. Christkindlmarkt in Bethlehem opens in just a few weeks on November 15. Be sure to visit our wine booth there!

October Specials

• Wine of the Month - Spiced Winter Red, additional 10% off
• 3 Pack of the Month - 3 Vignoles for $25**

**at winery only, 3 pack can't be combined with other discounts

Upcoming Events

• October 13 - Live Music in the Vyneskeller, Arianne , 1:30 - 4:30 pm
• October 20 & 21 - Chambourcin Weekend - We will be pairing our 2011 Chambourcin with a Wild Rice & Chick Pea Salad with dried cranberries. Its a perfect Autumn side dish, recipes will be available. Art's Acoustic Oldies performing in the Vyneskeller on Saturday from 1:30-4:30 pm. Public is welcome, free of charge.
• October 27 - Live Music in the Vyneskeller, Valerie Borman , 1:30 - 4:30 pm
• October 28 - Jazz Sunday, Live jazz in the Vyneskeller, Body & Soul, 1-4 pm
• November 3 - Live Music in the Vyneskeller, Connie Edinger , 1:30 - 4:30 pm

Glass Half Empty by Malachi Duffy

As we near the end of the 2012 harvest season, I thought some of our readers might like an inside look at what harvesting grapes is REALLY like.

Gone are the days of grape stomping a la "I Love Lucy." Our harvest days typically start at 7 a.m. Our vineyard crew immediately begins picking the grapes, placing them into the yellow lugs (bins) that we placed out in the vineyard the night before. John, Sam and I prep the equipment for the day which includes a press, crusher/destemmer, pumps, hoses, etc.

By 8 a.m. the first round of lugs are ready for pick up. After a quick round of rock, paper, scissors between Sam and I, one of us hops up onto the tractor (winner) while the other climbs onto the attached wagon eager to pick up the 30 pound lugs (loser). The wagon holds 72 lugs, so each trip nets us about one ton of grapes.

From there it's back to the crush pad, the concrete slab outside the wine cellar (it just sounds cooler to call it a crush pad) where we unload the grapes into the crusher/destemmer. This machine takes the grapes off the stems and uses rollers to lightly crush the grapes. The result of this process is a combination of juice and crushed skins known as must that gets pumped into the press.

Next comes round two of grape pick up (Sam does the heavy lifting this time) to again fill the wagon and take another one ton load back for processing. Once these grapes are crushed, the must is combined with the first batch to fill the press and we begin the hour-long process of pressing the must to extract as much pure juice as we can. (Notice, there are no bare feet involved in this process).

By the time the day is done, the above-mentioned tasks have been repeated over and over until all the lugs for the day have been collected and processed. On average, each day of harvest brings in about 500 lugs which yields about 1,000 gallons of wine once the juice has been fermented. Our day finishes with a marathon cleaning session to hose down all of the equipment and lugs in preparation for the next day of harvest. When all is said and done, Vynecrest will harvest just over 5,000 lugs of grapes during the 2012 season. That's a lot of rock, paper, scissors.

Clover Hill celebrates 27 years in business with a sale!

Clover Hill is turning 27!

Celebrate 27 years of Clover Hill Vineyards and Winery by saving 27% off all wine purchases!

We are proud to be a family-owned and operated vineyards and winery and are appreciative of our staff and customers who have chosen to enjoy Clover Hill wines. Thank you for the many years of fun, support, growth and plenty of wine!

To show our appreciation, from September 13-16 at any Clover Hill location you will receive a 27% discount on your wine purchase. Cheers too many more years of Clover Hill Vineyards & Winery to come.

(*27% is the greatest discount available during the sale days.)

Upcoming events:

Chambourcin Weekend
October 20 and 21; Saturday: 10 am - 5 pm and Sunday: Noon - 5 pm

Join us as we applaud the Chambourcin grape! All the wineries on the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail will celebrate the Chambourcin grape, which is known as the grape of the Lehigh Valley, and one taste of it will have you coming back for more. Chef Nathan Grube will make a return appearance to conduct cooking demonstrations to be paired with our 2009 Chambourcin and Turtle Rock Red (also made with 100% Chambourcin grapes).

Cooking demonstrations will take place at 1, 2, 3 and 4 pm both days. Cheers to the Chambourcin grape! Revisit our website soon for more details on the cooking demonstrations or visit www.lehighvalleywinetrail.com for information on all the wineries on the trail.

Nouveau Weekend
November 17 and 18; Saturday: 10 am - 5 pm and Sunday: Noon - 5 pm

Nouveau Weekend is a time to celebrate the first release from the current year’s harvest. Visit Clover Hill and all the wineries on the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail for this exciting new release wine. Revisit our website soon for our weekend plans or visit www.lehighvalleywinetrail.com for information on all the wineries on the trail.

Celebrate Christmas in July at Vynecrest, July 19 - 22

Christmas in July

It is that time of year again at Vynecrest! July 19 through July 22 mention this promotion, and get 25% off 12 or more bottles. For our customers who can't make it to the winery, we are offering free shipping on 6 or more bottles during the same time period, July 19 through 22. No discount code needed at checkout, you just need to have six or more bottles in your cart. This discount applies to online orders only; phone-in orders will be subject to normal shipping prices.

July Specials

Wine of the Month - Chardonnay - additional 10% off
3 Pack of the Month - 3 Vynecrest Red for $25.00
(specials available at winery only)

In The Vineyard

The 2012 vintage started for Vynecrest with our annual delivery of Montmorency sour cherries from Peter's Orchard in Carlisle, Pa. The cherries are fermenting in the cellar now.

In the vineyard, we are busy removing excess leaves and shoots from the vines. Soon we will have to start hedging and dropping some of the fruit from the vines.

Upcoming events

• July 19 - Macungie Farmer's Market, Memorial Park, 4 - 7 pm
• July 21 - Live music in the Vyneskeller, Billy Bauer, 1:30-4:30 pm
• July 26 - Macungie Farmer's Market, Memorial Park, 4pm - 7 pm
• July 28 & 29 - Wine on the Mountain, Penn's Peak
• July 28 - Live music in the Vyneskeller, Gary Reed, 1:30-4:30 pm
• July 29 - Jazz Sunday - Live Jazz music in the Vyneskeller with Andy & Dan, 12:30-3:30pm; Vineyard & Winery Tour with the winemaker, 1 pm, $5 per person
• August 2 - Macungie Farmer's Market, Memorial Park, 4 pm - 7 pm
• August 4 - Live music in the Vyneskeller, Billy Bauer, 1:30-4:30 pm

Glass Half Empty

Starting this month, our newsletter will feature a quirky inside look at the wine business from one of the the four partners. We sometimes get so bogged down in the day-to-day duties that we forget to mention some of the most interesting things that go on around here. Some of these things are insightful, some are depressing and some are just downright funny. So here is the first installment of "Glass Half Empty" which is aptly titled since our best ideas usually occur at the end of the day after a glass or three...


By Sam Landis

We were just at the Split Rock Wine Festival in the Poconos a few weeks ago and I am always shocked at not only the outfits I see (or lack there of), but the wide range of consumer preferences of wine. Red, white, sweet, dry, blah blah blah... but as we get into the dog days of summer and the thermostat starts rising, wine temperature has always intrigued me.

We try to serve our white wines and sweeter reds as cold as possible for obvious reasons during the summer. I even know of some people (actually a lot) who put ice cubes in their wine. Some would scoff at this idea, but from my point of view if that's your preference, go for it. Who cares what people think? It's YOUR wine.

I wanted to share a little tidbit I have with one wine in particular, Chardonnay. I was in the wine cellar a few weeks ago talking with Malachi and we both got into how, for whatever reason, we enjoy drinking our Chardonnay and other Chardonnays room temperature. Because of the fact that most Chardonnays go through Malolactic fermentation and are usually aged on oak, when they are chilled down they get stripped of a lot of these unique characteristics.

So give it a shot next time you're at a barbeque or having friends over. Try some Chardonnay head-to-head - one chilled and one room temp - and see what you think. It might just be something that you're missing out on....or you might just go grab some ice cubes immediately! Either way who cares? It's YOUR wine!

Clover Hill Winery is wrapped up in spring fever!

Talk about Spring Fever! 70 degree days in March have us very busy in the vineyard at Clover Hill. We are feverishly pruning and tying the vines and finishing the general maintenance in our six vineyards. Bud burst is just around the corner and we are eager to see the vineyards spring back to life. 

We are equally excited to see people enjoying a glass of wine on the patio. Be our guest. Pack a picnic lunch to enjoy at Clover Hill or try some of the local cheeses we have stocked for sale in the tasting room. Compliment either with a glass of Clover Hill wine.


Owner's Selection - Turtle Rock Red

Turtle Rock Red is a flagship wine for Clover Hill Winery. It is produced 100% from Chambourcin, the official wine grape of the Lehigh Valley. The deep, purple color, fresh berry flavors, a hint of sweetness and a touch of acidity are characteristics of this wine. This wine pairs nicely with grilled salmon or spicy chili.

Here is our favorite Turtle Rock Red recipe, the Wicked Turtle! Best served slightly chilled in the company of good friends.

Enjoy a 10% discount on Turtle Rock Red the entire month of March. Receive a 20% discount on the Owner's Selection when included with case purchases.

2012 Vineyard and Winery Tour Series
Tickets go on sale at the end of March. 

Spend the afternoon sipping and touring Clover Hill Vineyards and Winery. We will share with you our grape growing and wine making process from start to finish. Expect to spend 1 ½ hours at the winery for the tour.  Weather permitting we will go into the vineyard, so casual attire is recommended.  $12 per person; free for anyone under 21. Advance tickets are required. The tour is handicap accessible.

Tour Dates:

• Saturday, June 9 at noon and 2 pm
• Saturday, July 14 at noon and 2 pm
• Monday, July 23 at 2 pm
• Saturday, August 11 at noon and 2 pm
• Monday, August 20 at 2 pm

Music and Tapas on the Patio
Chef Nathan Grube and musician Craig Thatcher will be returning to Clover Hill Vineyards and Winery.  Tapas are available for $6 per plate.  Check back soon for the tapas menu.

Music and Tapas dates:

• Friday, May 25, 1 - 4 pm
• Sunday, June 10, 1 - 4 pm
• Sunday, August 12, 1 - 4 pm

February events and specials at Clover Hill Winery

Celebrate February at Clover Hill

Even though the groundhog wished us six more weeks of winter, there is much to celebrate during the month of February! It is a leap year, and we would like to consider this extra day in February to be a good excuse to share a bottle of wine with friends. And our favorite reason to celebrate February is that Generations Sparkling Pinot Noir is back in stock! We love these bubbles and make it our drink of choice for any celebration.
 
Owner's Selection
Our semi-sweet Riesling is bursting with aromas and flavors of peach, apricot, and minerals with a refreshing acidity. This wine pairs beautifully with spicy Thai food or Mexican food with a kick.

Enjoy a 10% discount on Clover Hill Riesling the entire month of February. Receive a 20% discount on the Owner's Selection when included with case purchases. Click here for some of our favorite recipes to go with Clover Hill Riesling.

Upcoming Events

Sweets and Treats
Sat., February 18 from noon - 5 p.m.

Clover Hill Vineyards & Winery will partner with Angel 34 Foundation for a wine and chocolate event.  Angel 34 is a national organization united in the fight against childhood cancer and dedicated to finding a cure. 100% of the funds raised by Angel 34 go directly to providing services and support for children battling cancer. Enjoy your day at Clover Hill Winery sampling food, chocolates, and great wines, all for a great cause. For more information on Angel 34 visit: www.angel34.org.

Wine Rack Sale
All Clover Hill Locations
Feb. 23 – March 4

Visit any of our Clover Hill locations to find big savings on all in stock wine racks. All wine racks will be discounted from 10-70% off. This is our once a year sale on all wine racks. Don’t forget to stock up on Clover Hill Wine while you are shopping.

PA WINERY ASSOCIATION TO PRESENT DONATION TO LEHIGH VALLEY CHILDREN’S FUND

The Pennsylvania Winery Association (PWA) President Sam Landis will present a donation of $8,000 to the Fund to Benefit Children & Youth, an Allentown, Pa.-based charity dedicated to helping children in need throughout the Lehigh Valley on Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 11 a.m. at Vynecrest Vineyards & Winery in Breinigsville.

The money being donated was raised during the Great Pennsylvania Wine Toast, a one-day event held at more than 60 Pennsylvania wineries in August. The Fund to Benefit Children & Youth is the charity of choice of racing legend and wine enthusiast Mario Andretti, who served as the celebrity toastmaster during the PWA event.

The Fund to Benefit Children & Youth has helped more than 20,000 children since 1991. Last year, The Fund provided more than $200,000 to help abused, neglected and at-risk children and their families in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. One hundred percent of all donations made to The Fund go toward helping children in need.