Last minute gifts for wine lovers available this week at Tolino Vineyards

With Christmas only days away, we would like to wish you the happiest of holidays from our family to yours. We hope that you have a joyful holiday season full of love and family.

Please note that our Christmas Eve hours at the tasting room are from noon to 5 pm and we will be closed on Christmas Day. New Year's Eve we will be open from noon to 7 pm, and closed on New Year's Day.

Stop by the tasting room today and tomorrow to purchase gifts for the holidays. We have mulled wine kits, gift certificates, gift bags, hand crafted wine racks, wine scented candles, wine totes, wine sippy cups, glasses, openers, and, of course, wine.

From now until Christmas for every $50 gift certificate you buy, we will give you a $5 gift certificate for yourself.

January Events  
January is a month of snow, ice and ice wine. Each weekend in January with the purchase of a premier tasting we will be pairing our newly released Sweet Frances ice style wine with a different food. Check our website to see which weekend we will pair Sweet Frances with blue cheese, nuts, fruit or an olive tapenade.

We are a vendor at the Easton Farmers' Market Winter Mart every Saturday now through April 11 at 325 Northampton St. in downtown Easton. The market runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and has 30 vendors offering everything from wall decorations and mushrooms, to meat and wine.

Unique Party Venue 
Are you looking for a unique place to hold you next private party or business happy hour? Our tank room is the perfect place to gather your friends or coworkers and enjoy a glass of Tolino wine. We also offer mid-week event discounts.

Toast the new year with local sparkling wine

Not into champagne but still want to ring in the new year next week with something bubbly? Then try a local  sparkling wine instead. Here are a few suggestions for sparkling wines made by local Lehigh Valley Wine Trail wineries:

Amore Vineyards: White Mist - Slightly dry, tingly and sparkling. Celebration - Pink, sparkling, spicy fun. Blueberry Mist - Sweet and bubbly with natural blueberry flavor. Peach Mist - Sweet and bubbly with natural peach flavor. Blend it with orange juice to make a great mimosa. Strawberry Mist - Sweet and bubbly with natural strawberry flavor.

Blue Mountain: While they don't have any sparkling wines right now the winery recommends mixing their Mountain Frost wine with club soda and canned or fresh peaches for a fun wine cocktail instead.

Clover Hill Winery: Blackberry Sparkler - A sweet, sparkling wine made with blackberry.
Brut - Produced in the traditional method of making sparkling wine, Méthode Champenoise, our Brut has no perceivable sweetness, showcasing yeasty and fruity flavors.
Generations Sparkling Pinot Noir - Made in the Méthode Champenoise fashion, this sparkling wine is produced from 100% Pinot Noir grapes from their Broxspen vineyard. This dry sparkler shows delicate flavors of strawberry mingling with a classic yeasty flavor.

Pinnacle Ridge: Brut Rosé and Blanc de Blanc 

Franklin Hill: Brut (Methode Champenoise)

Vynecrest: Sparkling Chardonnay - A dry sparkling with great balance of acid and fruit, this 100% Chardonnay sparkling wine goes great with seafood and appetizers.

Keep in mind that at this time of year supplies may be limited for some sparkling wines. So we suggest calling ahead to the winery you plan to visit to verify they still have the one you want in stock.

Here are a few tips for your sparkling wine, courtesy of Clover Hill:

• Always have your bubbly well chilled prior to opening. We suggest putting the bottle in the refrigerator for a couple hours and then the freezer for 20 minutes prior to opening. 
• As much fun as it is to shake the bottle and shoot the cork, you do lose most of the wine when you do so! Remove the wire hood on the bottle and keep your thumb on top of the cork. Hold the cork in one hand and slowly twist the bottle. Always have a towel and a champagne flute close by. 
• Sparkling wines always add a festive feel to any celebration, but they are also great food wines. Some of our favorite bubbly pairings include a creamy brie with quince paste, steamed lobsters, crab stuffed mushrooms or smoked salmon. 

Sparkling wines for New Year's Eve

This year, leave the champagne behind and try a fun, and sometimes fruity, sparkling wine for your New Year's Eve celebration instead. Here are a few suggestions for sparkling wines made by local Lehigh Valley Wine Trail wineries:

Amore Vineyards

• White Mist - Slightly dry, tingly and sparkling.
• Celebration - Pink, sparkling, spicy fun.
• Blueberry Mist - Sweet and bubbly with natural blueberry flavor.
• Peach Mist - Sweet and bubbly with natural peach flavor. Blend it with orange juice  to make a great mimosa.
• Strawberry Mist - Sweet and bubbly with natural strawberry flavor.

Clover Hill Winery

• Blackberry Sparkler - A sweet, sparkling wine made with blackberry
• Brut - Produced in the traditional method of making sparkling wine, Méthode Champenoise, our Brut has no perceivable sweetness, showcasing yeasty and fruity flavors.
• Generations Sparkling Pinot Noir - Made in the Méthode Champenoise fashion, this sparkling wine is produced from 100% Pinot Noir grapes from our Broxspen Vineyard. This dry sparkler shows delicate flavors of strawberry mingling with a classic yeasty flavor.

Pinnacle Ridge

• Brut Rosé
• Blanc de Blanc 

Franklin Hill

• Brut (Methode Champenoise)

Keep in mind that at this time of year supplies may be limited for some sparkling wines.  So we suggest calling ahead to the winery you plan to visit to verify they still have the one you want in stock.

Here are a few tips for your sparkling wine, courtesy of Clover Hill:

* Always have your bubbly well chilled prior to opening. We suggest putting the bottle in the refrigerator for a couple hours and then the freezer for 20 minutes prior to opening.
*As much fun as it is to shake the bottle and shoot the cork, you do lose most of the wine when you do so!  Remove the wire hood on the bottle and keep your thumb on top of the cork. Hold the cork in one hand and slowly twist the bottle. Always have a towel and a champagne flute close by.
*Sparkling wines always add a festive feel to any celebration, but they are also great food wines. Some of our favorite bubbly pairings include a creamy brie with quince paste, steamed Cape Cod lobsters, crab stuffed mushrooms or smoked salmon.
 
Happy New Year!

Celebrate the New Year with local sparkling wines

New Year's Eve is almost here and we'd love to be part of your celebration. Several of our wineries offer sparkling varieties that would be perfect at your party or dining room table. So ring in the New Year with a local wine.  Here are some suggestions from a few of our Lehigh Valley wineries. Hope you have a great 2011!

• Blue Mountain suggests making a Sparkling Peach drink. Add a few fresh peach slices to enhance the flavor or orange slices for a “Fuzzy Navel” type drink.
• Clover Hill Winery encourages you to celebrate New Year’s with one of their handcrafted Sparkling wines - Brut, Cuvee, Sparkling Pinot Noir or Blackberry Sparkler. 
• Cherry Valley suggests you try their Blackberry Spumante and White Spumante this year.
• Franklin Hill is promoting their Harvest Berry, an effervescent Rasberry wine.
• Galen Glen recommends toasting the arrival of 2011 with their limited release, 2010 Winter Mountain White. Newly bottled and spritzy, its flavors mimic a semi-sweet sparkling wine. 

Sparkling wines and champagne 101

Our friends at Clover Hill Winery in Breinigsville recently sent out an e-newsletter to remind its loyal customers to pick up their sparkling wines for their New Year's Eve celebrations. It included an overview on sparkling wines and champagne that we thought we be of interest to the readers of our blog. So we are borrowing the information below from Clover Hill. Many thanks to Kari Skrip for sharing it with us!

Sparkling Wine Vs. Champagne

Many of you have probably wondered what is the difference between a sparkling wine and a Champagne. The difference lies in the geography. “Champagne” is a sparkling wine that is produced in the champagne region of France according to strict government regulations. That same carbonated beverage if produced in the USA is properly termed “Sparkling Wine” (it is often nicknamed by wine makers as a “Sparkler”). Somewhere along the way Americans started calling some of their sparkling wines “Champagne”, using the word Champagne in a generic sense. Sparkling wine is made in the USA and Champagne comes from the Champagne region of France.

What is Methode Champenoise?

All true Champagnes and most premium quality sparkling wines, (including Clover Hill Vineyards & Winery Sparkling Wine, of course), are made in the traditional method known as “Methode Champenoise”. According to Methode Champenoise, the wine goes through a second fermentation in the same bottle in which it is sold. With the secondary fermentation in the bottle, the wine becomes more complex, different flavors develop, and each bottle becomes slightly different than the others. Each bottle takes on a personality of its own. The end result is a light delicate wine that produces elegant columns of small tingly bubbles. There are other methods of producing sparkling wines but they are not quite the same, so look for the saying “Methode Champenoise” or “fermented in this bottle” on the label, or even better, just look for Clover Hill’s Sparkling Wine!

Sweet Vs. Dry

Sparkling wine labels can often be very confusing and not very user friendly. Usually American wine labels contain a variety of French terms on the label, for instance, Methode Champenoise, which was discussed earlier. Also the level of sweetness is defined using traditional French terms. These French terms are listed below from driest to sweetest.

Brut Natural – 0%-0.5% Sugar – Bone dry
Brut – 0.5% - 1.5% sugar - No perceivable sweetness
Extra Dry – 1.2%-2% sugar - Slight sweetness
Sec - 1.7%-3.5% sugar - Noticeable sweetness
Demi-Sec – 3.3%-5% sugar – Very sweet
Doux – 5.0% plus – Extremely sweet