Spiced Winter Red is back at Vynecrest; fall can now officially begin!

It's back! Spiced Winter Red is now available at Vynecrest.

The 2014 harvest is going great. We've picked Riesling, Chardonnay and Chambourcin so far. 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.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Vynecrest is donating $1 for every bottle of First Blush sold to the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition.

October Specials 

- Wine of the Month - First Blush, additional 10% off 

- 3 Pack of the Month - 3 Autumn Gold for $25

(offers available at winery only; 3 pack can't be combined with other discounts.)

Upcoming Events

October 16 - Macungie Farmer's Market, Memorial Park, 4 - 7 pm

October 18 and 19 - Lehigh Valley Wine Trail Chambourcin Weekend
Vynecrest will be pairing our 2013 Chambourcin estate-grown wine with wild rice and chickpea salad. This healthy big grain and bean filled salad virtually works anywhere - at a picnic, dinner party, on a buffet table - from Hereford Country Store at the Macungie Farmers Market.

October 23 - Macungie Farmer's Market, Memorial Park, 4 - 7 pm

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

October 30 - Macungie Farmer's Market, Memorial Park, 4 - 7 pm


Glass Half Empty 
2014 Harvest/cellar update by Malachi Duffy

We are about halfway through harvest with most of the white varieties picked and we are moving on to the reds. What looked to be a difficult vintage a few weeks ago has completely turned around with the recent sunny, warm, dry weather.

The weather usually favors white varieties or red varieties any given year but not both. This year is unique in that so far it looks great for both. The lower temperatures and really low night time temps are great for whites but don't do much to produce that ripe red fruit we look for in reds. That last few weeks have been warm and sunny enough to really ripen the remaining red grapes so things are looking good for 2014.

In the cellar we are bottling the remainder of the 2013 wines to make room for the incoming fruit. We are also putting the finishing touches on a new dry red wine to be released in November.

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.