Two Wine Chics on a Quest

The Story of Pumpkin Pie Wine

This is actually a funny story, so I'm gonna tell it here on TWCQ. At Wenwood, we make a fall wine that is very popular and delicious, Pumpkin Pie Wine. I know, weird, right? That's sure what I thought.....

About 4 years ago, a B&B in our county decided to have a Pumpkin Festival (which has since been cancelled.) I was at the planning meeting for the initial concept, and the organizers asked, "Do you think Tom can make a pumpkin wine?"

I'm sure I looked like a deer in the headlights when I answered, "Oh, no, maybe a spiced wine, but not pumpkin..." They looked disappointed, but I heaved a sigh of relief that I had "saved" Tom from this outlandish chore.

I returned home, and Tom and I were driving to town for some reason and I told him, "I saved you today! The committee wanted you to make a pumpkin wine. Can you imagine, PUMPKIN wine??? Crazy, huh?"

And he got the look.

I said, "You're gonna make a pumpkin wine, aren't you?"

"......I think I can," he replied.

"Good grief," I said.

So much for "saving" him!!! But make it he did, and the rest is history. This will be the fourth vintage - we've doubled production each of the last two years. Last year we sold out in three weeks, by the second week of October. We intended to have it until at least the end of October, perhaps Thanksgiving. So we'll see how it goes this year. And I'm really glad I didn't, um, save him!!!!

Happy Trills,

Laura

Some Wine Questing Tips from Missouri Wines

This post by the Missouri Wine & Grape Board on Missouri Wines is a really good read for those of you questing to wine country (any wine country, anywhere!) for the first time. That should be a very fun experience, and this is a great time of year to get to it!

Those of us in the wine business tend to forget that the old, stuffy stereotypes still exist and they can cause some anxiety and intimidation to those on their first winery experiences. I can guarantee you, I do not know a SINGLE winery that intends to intimidate their visitors, and I hope I never find one. As I think you can tell by now, Katie and I are pretty fun and easy going, as our most of our colleagues. I mean, Katie is on the Wine and Grape Board, so she's a big deal, but she sure doesn't act like a snob!! I know many of the Board members, and they all are friendly, wine-loving folks. I'm friends with some of the owners of the biggest wineries in the state - not scary people. I'd probably use the word weird! (No offense, winery peeps - weird as in quirky,artistic, fun-loving, outside the mainstream in a great way!)

But in case this doesn't make you feel completely comfortable, read the Missouri Wines post on Tasting Room Etiquette, which are pretty simple and basic as the article points out. And if you happen to run into a tasting room that doesn't go out of the way to make you comfortable, know that the problem is definitely NOT with you, and try again, because 99.9% of them aren't that way!!

Happy Trills,

Laura

Wine Cellar Envy

photo credit  Laura went out questing this past weekend, but Clyde and I ended up staying close to home in our wine cellar.  Which is definitely not what you see pictured above!

Here's what our wine cellar generally looks like:

It's good production space, and has hosted several amazing concerts.  When we clean it up that wall of barrels makes a wonderful backdrop for musicians:

While it's really a great space for how we use it, I'm often found drooling over the wine cellars of collectors.  They are so clean, yet there is no sanitizer to be seen.  The concrete floors are usually stained decoratively.  And the oh, the wine bottles always look so dust-free!  So in the spirit of a mental quest, I hunted around the internet to see what wine storage rooms were out there.  

Ooolala, there were so many!  

The cellar at the top of this post would be the perfect end-of-the-day-just-leave-me-alone-with-my-wine-and-a-book cellar.  I love that lone chair tucked at the end of the bottle racks.

Of course, I only drink wine alone or with other people.  So here's another yummy cellar with loads of atmosphere and plenty of room to host guests:

photo credit.  A fireplace!  Sigh....I'm not even going to think about what the heat from that fireplace might do to that wine collection.  We're in La La Land right now...there's no use letting practicality rear it's ugly head.

And then the third room just makes me think of Laura and her love of vintage:

photo credit

That room has all the stuff for a gal's tasting party!  (Plus, I can see plenty of silly, one-glass-too-many photo opportunities with that bronze bust on the table.)

Of course, there's no way anyone could actually make wine in any of those rooms, so maybe I should just enjoy what we have.  But it's always fun to dream a little - and drool. :)

Do you have wine room envy?  What's your favorite wine storage space?  Let me know in the comments!

Happy Trills,

Katie

A Quest!! .... to the bank...

Well, its Monday. A wine chic's Monday is about the same as everyone else's Monday - phone calls, various small crises, much drudgery. My big thing on Mondays is banking. Bleck. But its gotta be done, so in the spirit of sharing the ins and outs of the wine business, I decided to make the task more enjoyable by taking some photos of my drive to the bank for you to enjoy. Let me just say, wow.
I took so many photos!! I thought I'd just end up with a nice handful and show them in the blog post, but I ended up with a photo album's worth. Here is the album; I really hope you have a minute to enjoy it and the beautiful Missouri scenery it displays.

I have to say, it was the best trip to the bank I've had in years. I went with the spirit of living in the moment. I remembered to appreciate my gal Friday, Becky, who does my bookkeeping now and makes banking day much better for me. I thought to be grateful to actually have money to deposit in the bank! I appreciated the gorgeous day - not so much of a challenge. The tellers at the bank were great, even when I pulled in a two minutes to two, trying to get my deposit on today's business.

Ryann at the bank, and the pretty day reflected in the window

 

I just can't believe how much notice I took of the world around me when I looked with a stranger's eyes. In wanting to share the scenery with you, I gained a renewed appreciation of it myself. For that, I thank you very much!

Happy Trills,

Laura

An Historic Quest - Certified Organic Wine Grapes in Missouri

My post today is about a quest that started in 2004, on a beautiful piece of property in Gasconade County, Missouri. I didn't start this quest myself, that was Tim Ley and his wife, Trish Hohn. They are visionaries who believe in a sustainable world, and they set about to prove that viticulture in Missouri could be done organically. And so, Gascony Vineyards was born.

To give you an idea of the type of people we are dealing with here, both Trish and Tim are medical doctors; Tim is head of the team at Washington University in St. Louis that was the first to map the human cancer genome (check his bio here.) So basically, his day job is curing cancer (here's an interesting article on his success with that); in his spare time he grows the first Certified Organic vineyard in Missouri. Color me impressed. So I guess my point here is that he seems like the kind of tenacious guy who might actually get that whole organic thing going, if anybody can.

And oh, there are lots of nay-sayers, and many good reasons to doubt. Missouri's climate is not exactly grape-friendly in the first place, and trying to get plants to grow with no natural resistance to anything left from all the over spraying is a challenge in the best of conditions. But Tim persevered.

Wenwood joined this quest in 2008, during the difficult and time consuming process of becoming certified organic. We became Gascony Vineyard's exclusive partner, and we've been working with Tim since then to further this dream. There was a small harvest of Chambourcin grapes in '08, and we made the first wine from the vineyard, Simply Chambourcin. The certification finally came through in 2011, and this past Saturday, history was made in Missouri - the first Certified Organic Grapes were harvested.

 

Certified Organic Chambourcin Grape Cluster, just harvested

We've been waiting for this for a long time. The vines have teased us, disheartened us, disappointed us, and pissed us off. But they have come through for us this year. We may have harvested them a bit early, but Tom has been testing and adjusting, and now that Tim has done his part with the growing, Tom has his chance to perform magic and turn organic grapes into wine.

Tom, testing sugar levels in the grapes

There are still many questions about the Chambourcin grapes, and this is only one harvest in an unusually dry year, but it is a very good sign of things to come. Tim is also experimenting with some brand new varietals of grapes; Crimson Cabernet, Cabernet Dore', and Zinthiana - a Cabernet Sauvignon/Norton hybrid, a white Cabernet Sauvignon/Norton hybrid, and (you guessed it) a Zinfandel/Norton hybrid, respectively. These vines have only been planted for a couple of years, and are looking very promising for the future of organic viticulture.

 

Beautiful Chambourcin Grapes

A smiling winemaker

 

The first Ceritfied Organic Harvest in Missouri

 

Crushing the Organic Grapes

A happy winemaker, Tom Kalb of Wenwood, and grape grower, Tim Ley of Gascony Vineyards

So this on-going quest is at a very high point right now, and we at Wenwood Farm Winery and Gascony Vineyards are ecstatic. With a little luck and some artful winemaking, we'll have some organic grape wine to share with you next year. And I'll have another stage of this quest to post about for you. I really, really can't wait.

Happy Trills,

Laura

 

Lake of the Ozarks Work/Quest

So as promised, Laura and I hosted tables at the 19th Annual Wine & Brew Festival held at the Country Club Hotel & Spa in Lake Ozark yesterday.  Of course, work melded into fun as Laura and I decided to relax for dinner afterwards!

Here's Laura standing by her adorable table:

She has her hand on a family heirloom she refers to as her 'genie in a bottle'.  She does a great job of table decoration, doesn't she?

In contrast, here's my table:

I feel like my table is anemic in comparison.  As you can see, I went with the tasting tub instead of the raft.  I just need to figure out an ice-dumping strategy for that raft and I'll be in good shape.

We asked a few of the 'ladies of the lake' for some restaurant recommendations that fit my criteria: lake view and outdoor seating.  The weather was fantastic yesterday, and as much as I like working this particular event every year, we were stuck inside so I was ready to be outdoors for a bit.

Baxter's Lakeside Grille was the restaurant we settled on, and after a very small wrong turn, we pulled into a packed house.  But the hostess was able to find us a superb table on the outdoor patio quite a bit faster than we expected.  Here was our view when we sat down:

Oooooohhhhh......Ahhhhhh.....I think Laura and I said that about three or four times each after we sat down at our table.  We were hungry and ready to put our feet up for a while!

We started by ordering spinach and artichoke dip.  Pretty yummy!

We kept looking over the wine list, but after four hours straight of talking wine, we were feeling like something else....shocking, I know!  We settled on mojitos.  I ordered a mango mojito, while Laura went for a classic:

That's my mango mojito....it kinda looks like lake water, doesn't it?

Laura's mojito looks much more appetizing.  So we were not initially thrilled with our mojitos actually.  They were both much sweeter than we prefer, but that was easily remedied with a few extra squeezes of lime to offset the sugar level.

For dinner, Laura order the scallops served on a bed of roasted potatoes and green beans:

She really loved the green beans, and enjoyed the scallops & potatoes as well.

I ordered the seared ahi tuna salad with pinapple chutney:

Fresh and delicious!

And when the food arrived we decided we were ready for a glass of wine.  Laura ordered a glass of Robert Mondavi Sauvignon Blanc.  I went for a red I've never heard of before - The Dreaming Tree "Crush" Red Wine ... I feel very on-trend drinking it since I've recently read that blended wines are rising in popularity.

Both were nice solid wines.  The red was probably a little too heavy and dry for my salad, but that didn't keep me from enjoying both!

What we really enjoyed the most about dinner last night was the view.  The sunset was so pretty!  We just couldn't leave until the sun was completely down, so we split one more glass of wine - another blend from Peter Lehman called "Layers".

Laura sipped some coffee while I finished this glass and we both soaked in the view...

Oooooohhhhh.....Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh.

Hope you enjoyed this peek at our tasting yesterday and the dinner quest afterwards.

Happy Trills!

Katie

How to prep for a tasting when you're a winery

Laura and I are both heading to Lake of the Ozarks, MO on Saturday to pour wine for our respective wineries during the 19th Annual Wine & Brew Festival.  So I thought I'd take a little time to show you some of the gear that we pack up when we work a tasting.  

I have to admit that over the years, I've pared my table set-up down to some bare bones.  For a lovely example of table/booth set up, check out Laura's post here about her recent tasting in Excelsior Springs.  The above shot shows the general items we both will make sure we have when we leave for the tasting.

And I realized after I took all these photos that I forgot to put a bottle of wine in there...DUHHHH....very, very important to take wine to a wine tasting!  Well, I'll move along as if I didn't just forget the most important part of the event....

Here you see a roll of paper towels - this isn't totally necessary, but very helpful with spills, leaks and other messes that occur during a tasting.  I like to bring one of my wine glasses along, just in case I want to sample wine and the tasting venue doesn't provide glasses to us.  The upcoming tasting treats the wineries pretty well, so again, I might not worry about grabbing a glass for this particular tasting.  

You also see a bottle of water to wet my whistle when I've talked for about 2 hours straight over the loud music.  And a bottle of pain killer to deal with the headache that might ensue from said loud music.  

Here you can see some business cards.  I don't normally set out the cards, but I do like to have them handy just in case someone wants one.  I usually have at least a small stack of plastic cups in my tasting kit box, just in case I forgot to grab that wine glass earlier!  I pack a few pens and scratch paper for any notes that need to be made during the event.

O.k., more crucial tasting gear here...a corkpuller!  None of my wines are in screw capped bottles, so I've gotta have a corkpuller.  The round black thing right behind the corkpuller is a foil cutter.  There is actually a little knife on the corkpuller that I could use to cut off the foil from the bottle neck, but the foil cutter does a cleaner, faster job.

Table decorations!  This varies from tasting to tasting.  I usually bring a sign for my business, and a couple of these crochet grape doilies that a customer gave me years ago along with lots of grape and outdoors-y decor for my table.  Laura often goes for a more vintage theme with her tables.  We'll bring our own tablecloths too, but often the venue will provide table coverings for us.

And of course we bring our brochures!  Plus behind the brochure in this photo, or if you go back up to the top photo, you'll notice a large tub.  Most wineries now bring their own tub or some kind of vessel to ice the wine and serve out of during the tasting.  Usually we try to incorporate this into the table decor.  Last year instead of the metal tub pictured here, I inflated a 1-person raft to use as an ice tub.

That was awesome.  But it was huge and at the end of the night it was a little difficult to get the ice out without dumping it all over the nice carpeting.  I'm debating whether to use it again this year.

One last item I didn't photograph - we usually also have a cooler under the table to keep any extra wine cold.

If you happen to be at Lake of the Ozarks on Saturday, come on by.  The tasting is from 2-6pm and we would love to meet you!  We also plan to enjoy a bite to eat somewhere around the lake afterwards, so stay tuned on Sunday when I'll post up more about how the tasting goes and dinner afterwards.

Happy Trills,

Katie

 

Wine Fermentation Behind The Scenes with Katie

Laura is back, but trying to get herself situated after her trip, so I'm blogging again today.  I'll save the second leaf print project for another day, since.....

'We're In The Grapes!'

Which is to say that harvest and crush have officially begun around here.  Due to the early spring and hot, hot summer, the grapes are ripening a FULL MONTH earlier than normal.  Yesterday, Clyde brought in Cayuga White, which usually doesn't come in until the end of August.  I've never seen grapes this early before.

So Clyde suggested I share a peek at what a fermentation looks like.  I'll warn you that a fermentation in progress is not necessarily a pretty site.

So the juice comes in and winemakers work hard (usually) to get it nice a clear with no 'stuff' in the juice.  Here's a clear cup with an example:

Looks good enough to drink, no?

So we have a 1000 gallon tank with this juice in it down in the cellar.  For some reason though, there is a bit of juice in this little tank:

I'm sorry I forgot to ask why.  But anyways, I set a chair in front so I could take a picture of what the juice looks like now.

First a bit of background....yeast was added to the juice last night - I'm not sure what time because I was asleep.  But I guarentee it was after dark!  

Today the yeast is in what we call a 'lag phase'.  This is the phase where the yeast is rapidly multiplying.  It has lots of food (sugar in the juice) and it's, uh, multiplying like rabbits.  So to speak.

During the lag phase, the juice gets very cloudy and begins to form bubbles and foam on the top surface.  

I took the photo coming up around 3pm this afternoon. Here is where this gets a little ugly:

Yum.  Looks delicious, no?

No?

Oh well.  I can understand.  So this is what a white juice looks like during the lag phase.  The smell coming from this tank right now is a lot like baking bread with a background aroma of grapiness.  So it smells better than it looks, I promise!

The surface also kinda rolls around a bit - it kinda reminds me of jello the way it wiggles right now.

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into our tanks.  I'll continue to take photos each day of this fermentation as long as this tank is still in use and I'll share them with you all in an upcoming post.  

I'll warn you before the post though since fermentations are not very pretty!

Happy Trills,

Katie

The Dogs of Wenwood

Another thing that Katie and I, and our wineries, have in common is dogs. We love them, and they are a big part of our lives and businesses. Since it is officially the "dog days of summer," and I haven't been questing much farther than my air conditioned living room, it seems a good time to introduce you to the dogs of Wenwood.

Let's start with Shaggy, since he's actually been with us the longest. All of the dogs we've had have actually just arrived at our doorstep one day (the main reason we started our Wenwood Woof Fest Benefit), and Shaggy came with four siblings. The night before our summer festival about 5 years ago, I spotted the litter of puppies near our winery. I got Tom, we went back and gathered them up. It took forever because they had NO socialization at all and were a bit afraid of us. But we got them back, set them up in a barn stall with food, water and bedding, and played with them on a regular basis (after the festival - we were a bit busy!) until they became friendly and comfortable around people. We were preparing them to go to the Humane Society and get adopted, because we really couldn't keep 5 dogs - we already had 3!

Anyway, (warning - sad content coming!) the night of our festival, I came home and found that our wonderful, beautiful Golden Retriever, Oscar, was in very bad shape. He was very old, and it was obvious his time was near. The v et came out to our place and helped Oscar on his journey. Tom and I mourned - Oscar h ad been rescued in Wisconsin and moved to Missouri with us - and the puppies helped distract us and cheer us up. But when we drove them in to the Humane Society, we got sadder and sadder as each one was photographed and sent to the back,
and we just couldn't give up the sweet, golden puppy, Shaggy. It almost seemed that the universe had sent him our way to help us deal with Oscar's loss. So, off he went with us to PetCo and then home. (Happy note: all his siblings were adopted!)

Now Shaggy hangs out at the winery and loves to play outside with visiting dogs and his buddy Corky. Here are a couple  more photos of Shaggy, being his cute self.

My best begging face!

Shaggy and visitor Jake

Now I'd like to introduce Corky,
who is very familiar to many people who visit Wenwood. Shaggy usually stays at home on busier days, but Corky is always around and takes his job as official greeter very seriously. For every car that pulls in to the parking lot, Corky heads to the car, and walks our visitors to our tasting room. He won't walk anyone out - either he doesn't want you to leave or he knows there is no more chance for treats from them. I prefer to believe it is the first!

Corky has elevated begging for snacks to an art form. He is extremely polite, doesn't get in your face, and knows how to work a room. He'll move from table to table, never outstaying his welcome, and just use the big brown eyes trick. Works nearly every time. However... he has one, umm, flaw. He believes that any food that has been left unattended at a table is obviously no longer wanted, and therefore his for the taking. This makes for a problem if people get up to dance, or the time we had the small wedding ceremony behind our pavilion - you don't want to know what happened when the wedding party got up to say their vows under a tree. I was mortified.

That's when we posted the wanted signs.

But everyone still loves Corky.

Winery friend Marla lovin' on Corky

 

He is almost scarily intelligent and has a way with people, so even with his Wanted status, he is a true winery dog. After all, his name is Corky!

 

And I can't finish the story without telling you about Olive. Olive is actually our friend Lee's best buddy, but when Lee works at the winery Olive loves to come along. And she rules the roost!! She bosses the bigger dogs around and lets everyone know what is what. She is a super sweetie and a real part of our world. So if you see a little white cutie around the winery, give her a pat and say hi to the Princess of Wenwood!

Olive, hard at work

Happy Trills (and Tails!)

Laura

 

 

Pictorial of a Festive Quest

The Downtown Excelsior Springs Partnership and Missouri Wines did a stellar job once again organizing and managing the Missouri Wine Festival in Excelsior Springs. It was H-O-T hot, but the lawn was shady, there was a happy breeze, and a great sense of camaraderie - us against the weather! 

I was pretty busy during the event, and pretty tired after a full weekend, but I do have a few fun photos to share.

Here's our booth setup. I used a vintage suitcase and map theme - seemed appropriate to the venue. I adore the historic Elms Hotel.

A closeup view. The picture you can see on top of the suitcase is the Excelsior Springs Hall of Waters in a Missouri Map & Pictorial Guide from about 1940. Wow.

There's hubby Tom, captivating tasters. His new Century Farm Red was a big hit.

More of my vintage maps - aren't they great?!! I live in an old farmhouse that has been in my family for four generations. These folks never threw anything away - because, apparently, you never knew when you might need a ten year old map or a well used suitcase. But of course, they have been proven right. I am thrilled to have all this cool retro stuff! I don't know if they ever imagined this "junk" would be used in decoration, but still, it has come in handy.

 
And look!!! I got to use my cool cash register drawer I got on one of my recent antiquing quests. It was great - I used this for cash and my iPad with the Square app
to take credit cards. Talk about old meets new...

This is Jim Bowman of Willow Springs Mercantile in Excelsior Springs. He and his wife, Daphne, run this Hall of Waters District shop, and carry the largest Missouri wine selection in the state. Yay, Jim & Daphne! They are hosting a Wine Pairing Dinner with Wenwood wines at the end of August, so you'll be hearing more about them after that quest.

And finally - this is the image I awoke to on Sunday morning. That guy of mine, he can be a sweetie, although he wouldn't want anyone to know. He salvaged these out of a left behind wedding arrangement and put them on my bedside table at the hotel. Yes, it did bring a big smile to my face Sunday morning.

Happy Trills,

Laura