Vynecrest looks forward to spring, bud break on the vines, and Wine in Bloom

The weather is finally starting to warm up. That means the dormant buds on the vine will begin to swell and eventually open, signaling the start of the 2014 growing season. Road work begins this week on the main road used to get to the winery (Schantz Road). Please see below for detour information.

April Specials 
* Wine of the Month - Dry Riesling, additional 10% off
* 3 Pack of the Month - 3 First Blush for $25.00

*available at winery only, 3 pack cannot be combined with other offers.

Upcoming Events

April and May -

Vynecrest Piano & Wine Bar in the Vyneskeller - Open every Saturday & Sunday from 1 - 5 p.m. (free admission)

Sunday, April 27 -

Jazz Sunday - live Jazz music in the Vyneskeller from 1 - 4 p.m. (free admission)

May 17 and 18 -

Wine in Bloom - a Lehigh Valley Wine Trail event. We'll be offering vineyard and wine cellar tours at  1 p.m. both days. The first 25 customers each day gets a potted flower plant courtesy of Amore Greenhouses. Vynecrest will have free samples of cheese and dips available for tasting.

June 7 -

2nd Annual Spring Fling event with Clover Hill Winery & Vynecrest Winery - Ticket holders receive samples of three cheeses and three wines at Vynecrest, and three sweets and three wines at Clover Hill. Additional details to be announced later this month. $10 per person. Tickets available at both wineries.

Local Roadwork

We wanted to give everyone a heads-up regarding a roadwork project that began on April 7. A stretch of Schantz Road will be closed until Spring 2015. This will not affect anyone visiting Vynecrest from Rt. 22/78 and Rt. 100. You will still be able to get to our winery by traveling west on Schantz Road and making a right onto Arrowhead Lane.

For those visiting from the south (Reading/Berks/Kutztown areas) you have two choices to get to us:
1. Follow detour signs, continue on Rt. 222 to the bypass and follow our winery signs in that way.
2. Continue on Schantz Rd. up to where road closure begins and take a left on Adams Road. Once on Adams Road, continue 3/4 of a mile to Arrowhead Lane, make a right onto it and proceed 1 mile. Vynecrest will be on your right.

The section of Schantz Road that will be closed is right after Arrowhead Lane and stretches to the top of the hill where it intersects with Adams Lane. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Glass Half Empty
by John Landis

SPRING!

Today I threw the last piece of ice off my driveway. I look forward to waking up listening to birds chirping, the sun shining, and putting on short-sleeve shirts and shorts.

I look forward to sitting on the patio sipping wine and watching the flowers bloom and the Lehigh Valley turn from white to green. I look forward to the spring planting of grapes and seeing bud break in the vineyard. I look forward to the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail’s Wine in Bloom Weekend when I can give tours of our vineyard.

SPRING!

It is the start of our 2014 grape growing season and brings excitement and anticipation of another great harvest.

Cheers!

Vynecrest brings home awards from PA Farm Show Wine Competition

The results of the 2013 Pennsylvania Farm Show wine competition are in, and Vynecrest received a medal for all eight wines that were entered.

• 
2012 Lemberger - Double Gold 

• 2012 Chambourcin - Gold 

• 2012 Dry Riesling - Bronze 

• 2012 Riesling - Bronze 

• 2012 Pinot Grigio - Bronze 

• 2012 Vynecrest Red - Bronze 
• 
2012 Traminette - Bronze 

• 2012 Cherry DiVyne - Bronze

January Specials 

Wine of the Month - Spiced Winter Red, additional 10% off 

3 Pack of the Month - 3 Vynecrest White - $25
(at winery only; 3 pack can't be combined with other discounts)

Upcoming Events

January & February - Vynecrest Piano & Wine Bar - Open every Saturday & Sunday, 1- 5 pm

January 26 - Jazz Sunday: Live Jazz music in the Vyneskeller, 1 - 4 pm

February 1 - Super Bowl Chili Saturday: 
Once again, Vynecrest will be pairing chili and wine on the Saturday before the Super Bowl. A popular yearly event, this year we will feature Mr. Bill’s Chili from the Allentown Fairgrounds Farmers Market paired with our recent PA Farm Show award-winning wines.

Mr. Bill’s Turkey Chili (red sauce) is made starting with local grown, antibiotic free, skinless turkey meat from Koch’s Turkey farm, a local Tamaqua premium turkey grower. This recipe has gone through many improvements over the years and it is a great blend of tomatoes, beans, lean turkey and spices. It will be paired with our Gold Medal Chambourcin red wine.

New to Mr. Bill’s is their White Chicken Chili. A blend of Bell & Evans chicken breast meat and ground chicken are the base for this chili. Mr. Bill does not use a cream-based sauce, but instead they puree the white beans and add sautéed onions, garlic, celery and a unique spice blend as well as whole white beans. This slightly spicy chili lends well to a pairing with our Bronze Medal winning Traminette, a white Gewurztraminer hybrid with a flowery bouquet and seductive spicy finish.

Customers will have a chance to sample both of these delicious chili and wine pairings and the chili will be available for purchase by the bowl to eat in our Vyneskeller Wine Bar or for take out. 
A great start to your Super Bowl weekend.

February 23 - Jazz Sunday, Live Jazz music in the Vyneskeller, 1 - 4 pm

March - Lehigh Valley Wine Trail March Passport Program: 
There are still passports available for sale. The winery will be open for tastings but all food pairings are exclusively for passport holders. Tickets can be purchased online or at the winery.

Weeks 1 & 2 Pairing: Chicken, apple, bacon sliders with gouda cheese on slider rolls paired with Summertime red wine.
Weeks 3 & 4 Pairing: Chipotle pulled pork sliders with provolone cheese on slider rolls paired with Traminette white wine.

Hours of Operation 
Breinigsville - 7 Days a week, 11 am - 5 pm 

Kutztown - Tuesday - Sunday, noon - 6 pm

Glass Half Empty
by Sam Landis

Many days at Vynecrest are spent doing rote, repetitive, mindless tasks. Whether it is bottling, cleaning tanks, or pumping wine, these jobs require very little skill and provide very little reward. That's why our winemaker Malachi and I really enjoy the next few months. People may think wine making is simply the process of adding yeast to juice and fermenting it into wine. By definition yes this is true. But the real trick of the trade is the process of taking 30 different tanks of wine and combining them into 18-20 final blends. So how do you do this you ask? We drink a lot!

Behind each finished wine is on average 8 to 10 different versions that we put together on a small scale and blindly taste and make notes on. Sometimes we differ on opinions, sometimes we agree, but most of the time we pick and choose and tinker until we both feel like we finally have it. You would be amazed at the subtle nuances of what 5% of this or 10% of that makes in the overall make-up of a wine, but when you put them all blindly side by side it's a really fun and creative process - one that makes us realize why we do all of those other crappy jobs the rest of the year.

So next time you sit down with a bottle of our wine remember how hard we worked drinking sample after sample after sample after sample after sample after sample so you could enjoy it.

Seven new wine releases this spring at Vynecrest

The weather is finally starting to warm up. That means the dormant buds on the vine will begin to swell and eventually open, signaling the start of the 2013 growing season. If you couldn't make it to the winery in March, we have plenty of new releases from the 2012 vintage for you to try:

• First Blush 
• Vynecrest Red 
• Vignoles 
• Riesling 
• Dry Riesling 
• Summertime Red 
• Traminette

April Specials
* Wine of the Month - Pinot Grigio, additional 10% off
* 3 Pack of the Month - 3 Vynecrest White for $30
*available at winery only; 3 pack cannot be combined with other offers.

Upcoming Events:
April and May - Vynecrest Piano and Wine Bar - open every Saturday and Sunday, 1 - 5 p.m., free admission

Sunday, April 28 - Jazz Sunday featuring Dan Harakal and Mike Spangler on the guitar and baby grand piano.

Glass Half Empty
by John Landis

Planning, pruning, planting... it must be spring! In addition to releasing a slew of new 2012 wines, our focus once again turns to getting our vineyard ready to produce another outstanding vintage. Our new planting (2010) in our southwest vineyard will produce Cabernet Franc, Lemberger and Riesling for the first time this year. Plantings of more Chardonnay and Chambourcin are also scheduled for April.

What fun to finally be outside watching Mother Nature be reborn! You can follow the progress of our 2013 vintage yourself. From May through August we will offer our Winemaker Vineyard and Wine Cellar Tour so you can watch the vines and grapes develop. The first of these tours will be at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday of Wine in Bloom Weekend, May 18 and 19.

Speaking of outside, our patio is now open on weekends along with the Vyneskeller from 1-5 pm. And, the wine festivals begin – June 1 at Longwood Gardens and the biggie at Split Rock in the Poconos on June 22 and 23. Be sure to check our website www.vynecrest.com for wine tours dates and all special events.

Wine specials, Valentine's events and more this February at Vynecrest

We are busy in the wine cellar getting the 2012 wines ready for bottling as the 2011 vintage is starting to sell out. We bottled the 2012 Cherry DiVyne this week and it is available now. Next week we are bottling the 2012 Pinot Grigio.

Wine of the Month - Pinot Noir, additional 10% off*
3 Pack of the Month - 3 Niagara for $25.00*
*at winery only, 3 pack cannot be combined with other offers

Upcoming Events

January & February - Vynecrest Piano and Wine Bar - Open every Saturday and Sunday, 1 - 5 p.m.

February 15 - Valentine's Day Wine and Chocolate Event  from 7-9 p.m.
Tasting a flight of 5 wines and 5 chocolates with a special chocolate gift for the ladies. Live music. Make this your after-dinner dessert. $25 per couple. Reservations required. Call-610-398-7525. Please let us know when calling if this is for a table of two or four; credit card required.

February 24 (Sunday) - Jazz Sunday, Live Jazz in the Vyneskeller, 1-4 p.m.

March - Lehigh Valley Wine Trail March Madness 
There are still a limited number of passports available online for March Madness but the winery is sold out. The winery will be open for tastings but all food pairings are exclusively for March Madness ticket holders. Tickets can be purchased online here.

Vynecrest Winery will feature two Farm Show Silver Medal Winners. Our food pairings are made by two fellow vendors at the Macungie Farmers Market, a Buy Fresh, Buy Local Market.

Weeks 1 & 2 - Pairing Vynecrest Red, our “house” red made with the Chambourcin grape, with Triple Mushroom Lasagna a rich and savory dish with Gorgonzola cheese sauce. Food by Hereford Country Store.

Weeks 3 & 4 - Pairing Vynecrest White, our house white wine with Blackberry Bliss - A moist vanilla white wine cake featuring Vynecrest White Wine filled with a fresh blackberry filling and topped with
blackberry lemon frosting. Food by Sugar So Sweet Cupcakes.

Glass Half Empty
"Death of a golf cart" by Malachi Duffy

There is never a dull moment at Vynecrest but some moments are a lot less dull than others. One of those moments happened this past summer.

We have a bird problem in the vineyard as we approach harvest time. As the grapes ripen, huge flocks of starlings swoop in and try to grab a free meal. If left alone, they would eat every grape off the vine. We are trying to avoid netting so we drive around on a 4-wheeler and golf cart trying to scare the birds away.

Sheri, who you usually see in the tasting room, volunteered to pull a few shifts on the golf cart. One morning, Sam and I were in the cellar moving some wine when Sheri comes running in to tell us the golf cart was on fire. Sam and I looked at each other and both thought she was over reacting to what was probably a couple of pruned vines that were caught underneath the golf cart that started to smoke. So we grabbed a fire extinguisher and went outside.

We were not expecting what we saw. We were about 400 yards from the golf cart and all we could see was a huge black plume of smoke. We ran over and tried to use the fire extinguisher. It didn't do much, so we called the fire department. Enough talking about it, you can see for yourself, check out this YouTube video.

If nothing else it was a learning experience. I learned vines don't like flames, fire extinguishers don't work on big fires, and a fire truck will fit in the vineyard. We now have a new golf cart.

P.S. We have no idea what started the fire; I am guessing sabotage from the starlings.

Vynecrest introduces Vyneskeller Piano and Wine Bar

We are excited to announce our new piano and wine bar. Located in the Vyneskeller, it is open every Saturday and Sunday from 1-5 p.m. Come downstairs, grab a glass of wine and enjoy yourself.

Recent Awards - 2013 PA Farm Show Wine Competition

2011 Traminette - Gold
2011 Vynecrest Red - Silver
2011 Vynecrest White - Silver
2011 Dry Riesling - Silver
2011 Cherry DiVyne - Bronze

January Specials 

Wine of the Month - Spiced Winter Red, 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

February 2 - Super Bowl Chili Saturday 
Although our Chili Saturday falls on Groundhog Day this year, rest assured that the two kinds of chili available for tasting and purchase will not be made from relatives of Punxsutawney Phil! So come join us to hopefully celebrate an end to winter while you warm up with homemade chili. You get to vote for your favorite, predict the Super Bowl score, and a chance to win Vynecrest gift cards. Admission is free; no reservations needed.

February 15 - Valentine's Day Wine and Chocolate Event 
7-9 p.m. Taste a flight of five wines and five chocolates with a special chocolate gift for the ladies. Live music. Make this your after-dinner dessert. $25 per couple. Reservations required. Call 610-398-7525. (Please let us know when calling if this is for a table of two or four. Credit card required to hold the reservation).

Weekends in March - Lehigh Valley Wine Trail's March Passport Program
There are still passports available for sale, but we are sold out here. Tickets can be purchased online here. The winery will be open for tastings but all food pairings are exclusively for passport holders only.

Vynecrest Winery will feature two Farm Show Silver Medal Winners. Our food pairings are made by two fellow vendors at the Macungie Farm Market, A Buy Fresh, Buy Local Market.

Week 1 + 2 - Pairing Vynecrest Red, our house red made with the Chambourcin grape, with Triple Mushroom Lasagna a rich and savory dish with Gorgonzola cheese sauce. Food by Hereford Country Store.
Week 3 + 4 - Pairing Vynecrest White, our house white wine with Blackberry Bliss - A moist vanilla white wine cake featuring Vynecrest White Wine filled with a fresh blackberry filling and topped with a
blackberry lemon frosting. Food by Sugar So Sweet Cupcakes.

Glass Half Empty
by John Landis

On Saturday, January 5 we spent the day at the PA Farm Show in Harrisburg. I went to judge chocolate cakes in the PA Preferred competition (tough job but somebody had to do it!). Sam went to collect five medals for our wines that we entered in the state competition. Winning medals in wine competition is both satisfying and silly. It is satisfying because a panel of judges picked your wine as an exceptional wine and it's silly because medals are transitory. They have a finite life - the life of that vintage wine. When you see a medal hanging from a bottle does that mean you should buy it?

Judging wines is a subjective process based on the judges' past experience and wine prejudice. The contest format can also impact results. Is a judge as good tasting 200 wines a day as they are tasting 20? All you can say about medal-winning wines is that they are well made and probably have no serious flaws.

So the moral of the story is: medals are good but tasting a wine and selecting one that suits your own palate is more important. And by the way, our Cherry DiVyne goes great with chocolate cake. Enjoy!