Two Wine Chics on a Quest

The Next Woman Winemaker in Missouri??

 

Shyanne, future enologist

I am truly excited and proud to let the Wine Chic world know that we seem to have a new woman winemaker in the works. Shyanne Thompson, a young woman who has worked for us for years now, starting as a food server in our Summer Kitchen Cafe', has decided to start taking VESTA courses in enology! I guess our winemaker Tom has been a good influence on her - hard as that may be to believe by people who know Tom (except, of course, for those of us who know him well.)

 

If you aren't aware, VESTA is the Viticulture and Enology Science and Technology Alliance, which provides "wine and grape education for the 21st century" online. On an interesting note, my fellow Wine Chic, Katie, is on the faculty of VESTA, teaching viticulture in association with Missouri State University in West Plains, Missouri. VESTA partners with a many fine colleges and universities across the country, several right here in the Midwest, to offer a practical education in winemaking and grape growing. Shyanne already has some course credits from Missouri State, so she is on her way to an Associate Degree in Applied Science/Enology. VESTA also offers certification in Enology and Associate Degree in Applied Science or certification in Viticulture. The wine industry is growing like crazy in Missouri, and the Midwest as a whole, so if you are interested in studying the art and science of winemaking, be sure to check out VESTA.

Look out wine world, Shyanne is getting ready to take you by storm. Best of luck to her!

Happy Trills,

Laura

In the 'hood: Murphy's Place

My neighbors run a set of vacation cabins called Murphy's Place - just across the street from our place.  This weekend they really helped me out by housing the musicians that were playing at the winery.  I said I would clean up the cabin afterwards so that it would hopefully be a little less of a hassle.

So I took my camera, because I'm sure you'd like a little peek at the Sassafras Cabin, right?!?

First up, here's the gorgeous view as you drive back the gravel road mile to get to the cabin:

And here is Sassafras:

Oh yes, that is a hot tub beside the porch.  I had to take advantage of it while I waited for sheets and towels to dry.  Just doing a little quality control for the upcoming guests!

Here's the view off of the porch:

It's a lot easier to see the Meramec River before the leaves grow back, but you can always see at least some of the river from this porch throughout the year.  Plus, did I mention that there is a covered hot tub?

From the porch, you walk into the kitchen/living area:

That fireplace keeps the cabin nice and toasty in the winter season, and the TV is hooked up to satellite, so you can catch all your favorite shows.

To the right of the kitchen is a short hallway to the bathroom, with, wait for it.....

....another hot tub! Plus a stand-up shower, sink and toilet.  There is a small laundry closet available back out in the hallway, plus two bedrooms on either side of the bathroom:

Sorry, I didn't get the beds made before I took the camera out.  I wanted to leave something as a surprise for you.  See those bedposts?  My nieghbor hand-crafted these beds using posts from our old vineyard here at the winery.  Pretty cool!

I hope I've enticed you to take a quest to Murphy's Place.  They have Meramec River access with a beautiful pavillion that I wrote about here last summer.  They can also arrange a float trip for you or take you and your group on winery tours.  Ready for a get-away?

Happy Trills,

Katie

Arts, Dining and Wine - in Arkansas?

After being out of the loop for a while, I'm back in the questing world with a surprising and wonderful quest to share.

Apparently both Tom and I were in need of some time away. Luckily, we found a way to combine a trip with work. We've wanted to have some non-alcoholic grape juice to sell at our winery; in case you don't know, making shelf-stable juice for sale to the public is a completely different process than making wine, and smaller wineries often don't have the equipment to process their own, so we get it from the bigger guys. We like to get ours from Post Familie Vineyards in Arkansas; their 100% Muscadine grape juice is just yummy.

This time, however, we realized that Arkansas is a pretty reasonable drive, and since we'd never been to the Post Familie Vineyards we decided to take the money we would have spent on shipping to go get the juice ourselves. A quick check of the internet showed that a tourist town called Eureka Springs was right on the way, making a convenient place to stop for a little R&R. Frankly, I didn't expect much - it was, after all, just Arkansas, and I bought in to some of the negative stereotypes, maybe, just a bit. And I have been completely converted - I LOVE Arkansas!

Who would have suspected that Eureka Springs would turn out to be a remarkably eclectic locale, maintaining an outstanding artist community, a biker (as in Harley-Davidson) paradise, a Christian destination, an LGBT hospitable population that celebrates diversity, and a nature-lover's happy place, all while boasting first class restaurants, luxurious spas, and upscale lodging. Not to mention being in a beautiful, mountainous location rich in history.

Tom and I had a great time dining at an Italian restaurant with an outstanding wine list, lunching at a charming tea room, enjoying a burger on the second floor balcony bar/restaurant of our historic hotel. We shopped art galleries with local and national artworks. We enjoyed some amazing scenery. I can't wait to go back! So we made reservations for the Food & Wine Festival in early November, one of the myriad, delightfully diverse events in Eureka Springs.

Not to mention, this was the friendliest place I have ever been.

Enjoy a few more photos:

The mountains on the way to Post Familie Vineyards

The road to Post Familie Vineyards

Spring in Eureka Springs

uptown

downtown

art

dining - DeVito's

lunching - Simply Scrumptious Tea Room

charm

Happy Trills,

Laura

Tastings That Make You Go "Hmmmm"

Back when Katie and I first conceived this blog, we promised that we'd present the real world of owning a winery, the ins and the outs, the goods and the (few) bads. I'm actually writing today about one of the less positive things in our business, because I'm not really sure what's up with a scenario that occurs at certain wine tasting events. I'm hoping that it mostly boils down to a few people misunderstanding the nature of the wine tasting, so I want to let you in on the reality of what it takes for a winery to participate in a charity wine event, such as the one Tom and I did yesterday.

Westport Plaza, St. Louis, during the MIssouri Winefest

We attended the 24th Annual MIssouri Wine Fest to benefit the  Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation. I love these types of events - the majority of people attending charity wine tastings are wonderful, and spending my advertising dollars on something that also does a bit of social good in the world is pretty cool. The only problem is the small percentage of people who believe that their $20 entry fee - which goes to the charity - gives them license to get stupid drunk by returning again and again (yesterday, up to ten or more times!) for "samples." Five hours worth of samples. When the wine is for sale both by the bottle, and by the glass to support the charity. Seriously bad form, in my opinion.

This is an advertising expense for the wineries that attend. The booth fee at this particular event was $125 (for a half booth) paid to the charity, licensing came to an additional $71, gas money to get our SUV full of that much wine to the St. Louis location wasn't cheap, and we provided over $600 (retail value) in sample wine, a good portion of which went to those multiple-samplers. Tom and I did the tasting ourselves to avoid the additional expense of employees, but we were overwhelmed and if we do this tasting again we will have to hire at least one more person, not to mention that our little half booth was a bit lost among some of the bigger booths, a problem that would require another $125 for the full booth, and yet another employee to manage that size booth.

That being said, I actually really like this format; our wine gets tried by new people, they learn about our winery, they can actually buy our wine at the event, which is huge in offsetting any cost - as advertising dollars go, these are very well spent, and I get that warm/fuzzy feeling from supporting a worthy cause. But seriously people, your $20 support of the charity does not give you the right to take advantage of us and treat us disrespectfully. Yesterday, Tom finally put the taster bottles away about an hour before the event ended and walked away from the booth, hoping to simply discourage the abusers and return in a few minutes - but one of the moochers actually stole a glass off our table! Really???

Anyway, this is only a very small percentage of wine tasters out there, but they, of course, leave a very bad taste in our mouths (pun intended.) I meet so many more wonderful people in this business that the frustrating ones are hardly worth a thought, except that I can hope to clarify for them that our reason for being at the event is NOT for them to get freebies; we are ALL there to support an important cause. Together. Don't tarnish an otherwise great event like this - it is the charity that will ultimately loose. 

Feel free to frown sternly at any of these people you may happen to run into the next time you attend a charity wine event, with my thanks.

Happy Trills,

Laura

Superbowl Quest Lesson

Clyde and I headed over to Laura's for the superbowl and I had plans to show you all her great vintage football party decor. But I left the camera on their coffee table.

Erg.

I can tell you one of the decorations was a box of wheaties with the Rams on it from waaay back.  The wheaties actually expired in 2000, but we think they would probably still be edible!  I wonder what the best wine pairing would be for expired wheaties?

In any case, we did try a few wines during the first half of the game.  One fun thing we tried was a wine that Tom had made three years ago from organically-grown Chambourcin grapes.  The bottle had been left out on a side porch where it's been subjected to lots of light and temperature fluctuations.  Not necessarily the way a bottle should be stored.

But, it turned out to be pretty interesting.  They had opened the bottle well before we arrived, so it had plenty of time to breath by the time Clyde and I had a chance at it.  I picked up lots of leathery aromas & flavors, hints of coffee, and some blueberry in the finish.

Tom's winemaker lesson of the night was that he's decided that it's important to set aside a least a few bottles that "get beat to hell" for a few years, just to see how they hold up over time when not stored properly.  Hmmmm....well, that seems a bit like wine sacrilage, but it definitely made for an interesting party drink so he might be onto something here!

So I'll have to show you Laura & Tom's place another day.  In the meantime, have you ever opened a bottle you were pretty sure wasn't going to be good?  How did it taste?

Happy Trills,

Katie

Understanding Wine Labels: Part 2

On Tuesday I posted the first in a series about wine labels.  I focused on the front label for that entry, and today I'll focus on the back label.

To start though, not all wineries include a back label.  If they have included all the legally required information on the front label, then they might choose to forego the expense of a second label on the bottle.  

But the back label gives a winery a way to include whatever legal information that wouldn't fit on the front, plus extra room to give you a description of the winery and/or the wine.  Generally, the back label is where you'll want to look for a more in-depth understanding of the wine in the bottle.

Here's an example of Wenwood's back label, followed by the Peaceful Bend's back label:

You can see on that both labels have the winery's name and the wine name on the back label.  Plus, we both added a description of the wine and information about our respective wineries.  Laura even has a convenient map to Wenwood on her back label.  This is all information that isn't legally required, but we hope helps you as you decide which bottle of wine to purchase.

Wineries are legally required to have the following information somewhere on our labels:

• 'produced & bottled by...' statement, 
• 'contains sulfites' statement, 
• alcohol content, 
• bottle size, 
• and the surgeon general's warning. 

While all of this information is required by federal law, the exact placement isn't dictated to us.  So you might see much of that information on the front or the back. Speaking of legal info....currently we are not required to have nutritional information available on our labels, but that might change in the future.

And jumping back to non-required information - you might also find a bar code and/or a QR code on the back label.  The barcode is pretty much a requirement for wines that are sold in major retailers and grocery stores these days.  The QR code is nice for customers with smartphones, as you can go directly to the winery website to find out more information about the wine before you purchase it.

Of course most wineries will be sure to include their website addresses on the back label too, even if they already have a QR code.  You might also find other bits and pieces of information that the winery feels you might like to know.....did anyone notice who the artist was for Wenwood's Kran Rose?  

That's right - Laura herself!  She is one multi-talented lady.

I hope today's post helped you navagate the back label on a wine.  Let me know if you have any questions!

Happy Trills,

Katie

 

 

Understanding Wine Labels: Part 1

I thought I would take a few posts and break down the wine label for everyone so you know what all the terminology we use actually means.  If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask in the comment section below or on our facebook page!

So I'll start with the front label, which is what you usually see first on the shelf.  And I'll use our labels for examples.

Here's a Wenwood wine:

And here is a Peaceful Bend label:

On most wine bottles the front label will usually feature some type of graphic. Whether it's a photograph, artwork, or just the logo of the winery, we all put something eye-catching (hopefully) that helps convey a message of who we are as wineries.  The PBV label features our logo, which we like since it depicts the river and wildlife on our property.  The Wenwood Label features artwork inspired by the scenery around their farm.

The front label should also tell you what wine you are buying.  The wine can be named after the grape variety it is made from (for instance, 'Norton' or 'Chardonnay"), or it can carry a proprietary name that the winery gave to it.  Both of the wine labels above are proprietary names: PBV's is called Whittenburg - named after a local creek; WW's wine is called Kran Rose - inspired by the cranberry flavor and color of the wine.

Sometimes you will find the size of the container - usually expressed in mililiters.  Most standard wine bottles are 750ml, which is the same amount as 1/5 of a gallon. This information has to be on the bottle somewhere by law, but not necessarily on the front label though.

Finally, there will be information about the wine itself.  Sometimes you might find a small description about the wine - like Wenwood's description of the wine flavors found right below 'Kran Rose' or our statement in the black box saying 'semi-sweet white'.  

You'll find the alcohol content of the wine, but this can be slightly tricky.  Many wineries will go ahead and put the alcohol percentage on the front label.  But some wineries opt to put the words 'table wine' on the label.  Table wine means that the wine has somewhere between 7 and 14% alcohol in it.  The table wine classification gives wineries more flexibility to handle differences in juice chemistry each year.

There is often a place designation on the front label.  This might be as simple as 'American' or 'Missouri'.  It might also specify a specific grape-growing region (called an 'American Viticulture Area' or AVA) such as Napa Valley or Ozark Highlands.  Whatever region is specified, the winery must make sure that at least 75% of the wine in the bottle was grown and vinted in that region or area.

One extra note on the place name is the word 'estate', which has a special meaning for wineries.  When a wine is labeled an estate wine it means that the winery grew the grapes and created the wine all on the winery's own property.  These can be special wines since the winemaker has full control (well, outside of mother nature anyways!) over the whole process.

Sometimes you'll find a statement saying 'produced and bottled by X producer in X town & X state'.  This information doesn't necessarily have to be on the front label, but it does have to be on the bottle somewhere by law.  You can see that WW & PBV both include that statement on our front label.

So those are the big points to the front label of wines sold in the U.S.  I hope this information helps you when you are figuring out what to buy.  Let us know if you have questions!

Happy Trills,

Katie

Square

No, I'm not commenting on my personality. But this post does seem, at first glance, to be something of a departure for a Wine Chic. You see, I've been contemplating an upgrade to the new(ish) Square Register point of sale app. This is actually a reasonably priced upgrade - as in free for the app, and a lower price when it comes to the credit card fees charged by the company, and now they've added gift card capability at no extra charge. Yep, that's what I call reasonable (not that I'm a cheap skate or anything...) You do need an iPad (or at least iPhone/Smart Phone,) but I already have that, so I'm pretty much good to go.

However, that isn't really why I'm writing about Square this evening. What really impressed me today is the new(er) Square Wallet app.

I have to give you a bit of back story on this. You may have noticed that I didn't actually promote "Small Business Saturday" as such. I have been a big proponent of shopping and supporting local businesses, so this may seem a bit strange, but the problem for me is that "Small Business Saturday" was created by American Express Corporation. In other words, a really BIG bank. It seems pretty disingenuous to me that AmEx cares one way or the other about small business - oh wait, except that it was a good way for them to get small businesses to sign up to take American Express cards. For which privilege they charge a higher fee to small business than any of the other three major cards (VISA, MasterCard, Discover.) Kinda makes me want to say "please, stop helping me!!!"

Anyway, so jump ahead to today. I downloaded the Square Wallet app, which is a payment app that allows you to pay at any store that uses Square by just giving your name. OK, maybe a bit big brother-ish in a way, but it really feels more like a community, a neighborhood of small businesses from around the country. Here is a screen shot of just a few of the business that popped up as "near me" when I signed up. First of all, The Upcycle Exchange looks like an awesome store, which I can't wait to seek out. In addition to the ones in the photo, there are dozens of coffee houses, resale shops, restaurants, and specialty stores of every kind. The Headband Hut LLC. Prints Charming Gallery (love THAT play on words.) Left Bank Books. And lo and behold, West Winery - owners Jen and Chris West are good friends of the Wine Chics!

So my point is that if you are looking for a way to really support local business, this might be a better reference to find those businesses that you consider interesting, helpful, and/or fun that are owned by small entrepreneurs in your area - in other words, quest-worthy businesses. I'm sold; I'll be making the move to Square completely in the next couple of weeks, if all goes as planned. Don't worry, you don't have to join Square Wallet in order to buy wine from me, that is purely voluntary; we can still take cash, checks, or credit cards the "old fashioned" way of swiping it at the register.

Plus, I think with all the savings, I'll have an excuse to get this:

Wouldn't this amazing steampunk-ish charging station look beautiful sitting in my sales room??? I've been looking for a reason to buy something from this craftsman; Old Time Computers on Etsy. Don't even get me started about the old fashioned look functional keyboards....

Happy Trills,

Laura

 

In Support of Autumn

I love fall. Beautiful colors, cool evenings, bright blue skies, spooky Halloween, traditional Thanksgiving.

I love the retail business. Providing a great product, helping people get the perfect thing for their needs, chatting with customers, creating beautiful displays and choosing fun merchandise.

I hate retail corporate conglomerates. I bet you can see where I'm going with this. As I was walking around our local Wal-Mart last week preparing for the weekend at the winery, I was crushed to see the Christmas items going out. This was still September, mind you. On top of that, I wanted to buy some pretty fall napkins - nope, not gonna happen. Apparently, those must be purchased in, like, June.

So I've decided to stand in protest. I WILL NOT, under any circumstances, play that game any more. Halloween parties are a great time to have wine!!!! I want to welcome in this fun holiday in it's own right. Even more importantly, I'm going to make a big deal out of Thanksgiving. After all, Thanksgiving is a time to gather around the table, enjoying family and friends with good food. It is the perfect wine holiday, and often completely overshadowed by Christmas (mind you, I love Christmas - in December.) So as a winery and retail business, I'm determined to embrace Thanksgiving to its full potential.

I haven't worked out the details in my head yet, but every weekend in November before Thanksgiving I'm going to plan some sort of Wenwood wine and Thanksgiving food pairing to share with everyone, to help you pick the perfect wine - or wines! - for your autumn table. Whatever you are serving - traditional turkey? Try our Country Estate White. But you love reds? Maybe something a bit lighter and fruit forward, like a Chambourcin - especially good with a smoked turkey. One of my favorite family stories is about the Thanksgiving when Tom and I served about 30 friends and relatives in our big old country farmhouse. We'd just opened the winery a year or two before this, and Tom (hubby/winemaker guy) was playing sommelier and pouring different Wenwood wines for everyone as they made their way to the table. We had a buffet line set up, and some of the guests had gone back through for seconds before he was done pouring, and when he got through the line - gasp!!! - there was no stuffing left. The horror!!!! As of that year, we have always, no matter how many people at dinner, had our Kran Rose' for Thanksgiving dinner, so that Tom is sure to get his fair share of stuffing. Thankfully (pun intended,) it is a very appropriate choice, a white grape blend that is infused with a hint of cranberry. 

So count on Wenwood to keep our autumn decorations up until after Thanksgiving Day, to offer advice on wine and food pairings, traditional or otherwise, and to give Thanksgiving, Halloween, and autumn the respect they all deserve.

And thanks for letting me vent.

Happy Trills!

Laura

The Day Before The Day

First of all, Katie suggested that we always give flowers for a missed blog, soooooo... here you go, with apologies!

flowers from the Native Prairie area at Wenwood

This is my Weekly Quest post, a little late, since I'm a tad crazed due to an incredibly busy Harvest Home Festival (yay!,) visiting relatives and friends, birthday dinners, and one wild life. What I want to share with you this week is how much goes in to getting ready for a big event at a winery. It is a lot of work, planning ads, deciding what advertising venues to use, should we put a banner on the billboard? Oops, its too late to put a banner on the billboard.... Update Facebook. Is the tasting room arranged to provide "flow"? Oh my, better dust where we moved that table to create flow..... Do we have enough glasses? Plates? Chili bowls? Update Facebook. Is everyone scheduled to work at the proper times? Get the outside tables arranged. Coordinate with Earth's Classroom to get the benefit tent set up. Update Facebook. Send out e-mails. Send out more e-mails...... respond for the 142nd time when the Pumpkin Pie wine will be released. Update facebook. Make the chili. Update facebook. So on. And so on. And so on....

Finally the day before arrives, and we still have to decorate the entire place and make it autumn beautiful. This is, of course, one of the most fun jobs and we were totally Pinterest-ing out. Friend and employee Lee and I worked for a good 8 hours planting mums, placing the pumpkins my dad grew just so, creating fall tableaus, using an entire bolt of burlap (thank you, Pinteret!) We had a great, if long, day - here are some photos:

 

Fall Color!

 

Lee - blingy-est farm girl EVER!

 

fall farm tableau

 

 

Work even included saving a pretty garden spider, and if you know Lee, you know that was a challenge for her!!!

More colors

Dad's pumpkin crop!!

He's so proud...

A totally Pinterest-worthy idea

 

And finally, the day came. I was up at 4:30, going over all the details in my mind, got out of bed at 5, printed the signs we needed, went to the bank to get LOTS of change, helped the artists set up, and sold our first two cases of Pumpkin Pie wine 20 minutes before we officially opened. It was the biggest festival we've ever had, and so much fun. And so, all the hard work was worth it. It usually is. You can check out the photos on our facebook page.

This Wine Chic is STILL recovering, so I'm actually getting ready to call it a night. At, like, 9 o'clock. Yep, I'm a wild and crazy Wine Chic. Nighty-nite!!!!

Happy Trills,

Laura