Time to Bottle

Everyone know about harvesting season. You harvest then process the grapes on their schedule -- once they reach a certain brix (sugar level) it's time to work. It's a crazy time with our vineyards and, of course, the other grapes coming in from other Michigan farmers as well. Holly goes for weeks and weeks without a break, sometimes working late into the night to process newly harvested grapes.

We're now in the midst of bottling season. Not so romantic. But not quite so hectic either. However, it still can be pretty crazy. We're madly ordering thousands of labels and bottles. And Holly has every Sunday (plus some other days) scheduled for the bottling of various vintages. I think of it as the equivalent of buying gas for your car. Boring. Expensive. Somewhat tedious. But you've gotta do it. The exciting part is introducing new wines or new vintages of old favorites.

We are exceedingly lucky that so many friends of the winery volunteer their time to help bottle. Sometimes folks who have volunteered don't get called (sorry - let us know if you haven't heard from us for a while). But we always appreciate eveyone's offers of help! The photo on the left shows Leo, Sue, and Diane bottling Serenade, our sweet Vignoles.

Wine Competition Season

Because it's considered a down time in the winery business (personally, I'm not sure there's ever a down time :::sigh:::), most of the wine competitions are held during the late winter and spring. We've heard results from a few, have recently entered a few more, and have a several more coming up in the next few months.

When I came on board full time, I made a commitment to enter more competitions. They're great marketing tools and a lot of folks enjoy seeing their favorites win recognition. But they can be very expensive for a small winery (often over $500 between entry fees, cost of wine sent, and FedEx charges). It's too bad no one ever thinks about charging fees based on winery size... we currently pay the same as Gallo and Mondavi! And they take quite a bit of time to pull everything together. But a winery that is ignoring wine competitions is like an ostrich with its head in the sand. They can't be ignored or it really just hurts the winery doing the ignoring.

Anyway, recently we heard good news from two competitions we entered just before we left for Albuquerque. It was just the first year for the National Women's Wine Competition but they received over 1800 wine entries. Over 130 wineries that entered won no medals, with over 65% of the medals going to California wineries. We were extremely pleased to receive four medals: Silver for CraneBerry and Miel Amour (our new Spiced Asian Pear Mead) and Bronze for Serenade and Rhapsody in Red. And at the recent Finger Lakes International Wine Competition we received a Silver medal for Serenade and Bronze medals for CraneBerry, Rhapsody in Red, Raspberry, Dry Vignoles, and Staccato.

Earlier this week we sent just a few wines to the International Eastern Wine Competition and more to the Taster's Guild International Wine Judging (they're in Michigan -- it seems right to really support them). It's always interesting to see what happens. After helping out at a competition we know how much it means to luck into the right judge for the right wine. But Holly makes great wines so we always have faith in the system, and are always rewarded for that faith.

Stop 3: The End of the Road

After leaving Albuquerque, the last stop in our long journey was Philadelphia/Valley Forge for Wineries Unlimited, a large conference and trade show.

When setting up the schedule, we were concerned about getting too tired, getting burnt out and then not getting as much as we wanted out of the conferences. But luckily that never happened. The only thing we were really tired of was plane flights.

Wineries Unlimited is BIG -- the largest vineyard & wine conference east of the Rockies. It's the first time we've attended but we've been wanting to go for years.

It was worth it. We learned a lot -- Holly especially loved the winemakers' sessions on Vidal. The trade show was huge. It took us all afternoon to go through it. We brought lots and lots of information home on various pieces of equipment, possible goodies for the tasting room gift shop, that sort of thing.

We returned home on Thursday after being gone about 10 days. What a great trip!

Stop 2: Warm Albuquerque

It wasn't just the weather. Everything about Albuquerque was warm. The people. The welcome. All the effort it took to get there was so worth it.

Holly and I arrived early Saturday morning, slept a few hours, and presented our sessions at the New Mexico Vine & Wine Society. The response was great, and we had such a good time. Holly spoke on Making Fruit Wines and French Hybrid Grape Varieties. I spoke on Winery Marketing and Winery Events. The audience was attentive and asked lots of great questions. They loved her wines.

We ended the day with a lovely banquet featuring many, many courses and some great New Mexico wines. In just one day, we got to know so many great folks involved with New Mexico wines.

The next day was even better. Gordon, the winemaker who originally invited us to the conference took us on a tour of Albuquerque and the surrounding area. We visited two wineries -- the first, Ponderosa Winery, high in the Jemez mountains. We loved everything we tasted, especially two dry reds and an incredibly yummy multi-layered Riesling. Probably one of the nicest Rieslings I've ever tasted.

The next stop was Corrales Winery, closer to Albuquerque. They are very similar to us in size. There we tasted more wonderful New Mexico wines. The most spectacular was a barrel tasting of a special Cabernet Franc. Fantastic!

One of the best parts of each winery visit was the behind-the-scenes tours given to us by the two winemakers, Henry at Ponderosa, and Keith at Corrales. The tours were personal, thoughtful, and attentive.

We hoped to visit at least one more winery before they closed, but a flat tire earlier in the day slowed us down. By the time we left Corrales Winery, the sun was setting and everyone was closing.

On the way back to Albuquerque we stopped for dinner at a great Mexican restaurant. Chile rellanos and blue corn enchiladas with an egg on top. All in all, a perfect day!

Planes, Planes, and Automobiles

Neither Holly nor I travel by air all that often. So our "adventures" on Friday seemed like a movie to us, but are probably not that out-of-the-ordinary.

After a grueling car trip from Crystal Mountain to Lansing through freezing rain and sleet on Thursday, we began our day flying out of Lansing for Chicago O'Hare. Because of snow in Lansing our flight was delayed 1-1/2 hours. And that's where all the trouble started...

With the delay in Lansing, we arrived late in Chicago, narrowly missing our flight to Albuquerque. Along with most other folks on our flight, we needed to reschedule. Picture here loooong lines at the United customer service desk.

We finally got through customer service and were rescheduled through Denver later that afternoon, with a flight from Denver to Albuquerque that evening.

Our next delay occured on the Denver flight. The 747's 3rd engine wouldn't start so the plane had to come back to the gate for refueling and to have the engine manually started. A three hour delay. As crazy as it was, we had several nice parts to the Chicago-Denver trip. The 747 was spacious and we were bumped up to Business Class due to the seat availability. Wow -- what lovely leg room! And the staff was exceptionally friendly and helpful.

We arrived in Denver about 35 minutes after our next flight was scheduled to depart. We were sure we'd be spending the night in Denver and hoped our talks could be rescheduled to accommodate the delay. But we finally caught our first break of the day! Our flight had been delayed due to the fact that the First Officer was on the Chicago-Denver flight with us.

So we made the flight to Albuquerque after all and arrived at our hotel at about 12:30 am. A mere 12 hours after our scheduled arrival. What a long day!

Stop 1: Northern Michigan

Our first conference stop was the Michigan Grape & Wine Industry Council's annual conference at Crystal Mountain in northern Michigan. This is always a great conference -- you get to see winery folks from around the state to touch base, share triumphs and frustrations, that sort of thing.

Crystal Mountain is a gorgeous location, and because we arrive during a "shoulder season," the rates are good. We rent a small condo... it's a fabulous luxury!

We had to cut this year's conference short because of our trip to Albuquerque and a nasty winter storm. We intended to leave after the banquet Thursday night to travel to Lansing, where we'd pick up a flight first thing the next morning. But with Thursday's nasty weather -- freezing rain and sleet -- we ended up taking off early. After a long, nasty drive, we arrived safely in Lansing, ready for the next leg of our trip.

It's Conference Time Again

The grapes are dormant, but the winery conferences certainly are not! Because March is a quiet time for grapes and winemaking, it seems like just about everyone schedules a conference now.

This year we're doing a marathon.

First is Crystal Mountain - the annual conference run by the Michigan Wine Council. It's a great way to get together with other winery folks from around the state. The sessions are always useful and the behind-the-scenes socializing is a great way to get to know everyone better.

Unfortunately we'll have to miss the biggest social time -- the parties AFTER the reception on Thursday evening. Several wineries & winemakers traditionally throw blow-out parties in their condos. It's a fun evening and a great opportunity to try lots of Michigan wine! But this year we're leaving right after the reception because we fly out of the Lansing airport first thing the next morning for Albuquerque.

The second stop for Holly and I is the New Mexico Vine & Wine conference in Albuquerque. We are both presenting two sessions there. Holly will be talking about (and pouring samples) French hybrid wines and fruit wines. I'm talking about winery marketing and events. We're so looking forward to attending this conference and visiting some New Mexico wineries afterwards.

The last stop is Valley Forge, PA for the Wineries Unlimited conference. We've always heard that this is a great conference -- lots of information, lots of vendors. We are finally making it there this year. It was so inexpensive to add it as an additional "leg" to our plane trip, it seemed silly not to do it...

We'll be two tired girls by the time this marathon is over...

Reflections On A Year

I began this blog just a little over a year ago. Our first Mardi Gras Festival hadn't happened yet (where Holly and I spent the afternoon wondering if the building would burst at the seams, we had so many party-ers).

I was still working at the museum. But my "job" here was also pretty much full-time. We were starting to suspect that I'd have to make a move eventually -- I couldn't continue at that pace forever. And I knew that I wouldn't be able to give each place my full attention as this job grew and grew.

I left the museum in April, thinking it would be easier to do just one job. Well, yes, it's been a little easier. I'm no longer trying to focus on two sets of events, two budgets, two of everything. But as soon as I arrived, we (make that mostly "I") added lots of extra tasks -- more events, more wholesale outlets, our new tasting room in the Dexter Cider Mill, that sort of thing. It's been a busy year!

My job change and its resulting changes within the winery have been the been most dramatic changes this year. But all that is really just a part of our steady growth since opening in late 2003. This fall we made far more wine than we've ever made before. Holly's used pretty much every inch of space in the cellar and on the cement apron outside. There's wine stacked up everywhere!

At this point, we deal with growing pains everday. But that's a wondeful problem to have!

Our 2nd annual Mardi Gras Festival is scheduled for this coming Sunday. We should be better prepared for the crowds. We've rented a heated tent and porta-john. I'll make even more food. And the Dixieland band should be perfect for the occasion. It promises to be a great party.

And it's been a very good year.

Mead, Cyser & More

With the winery closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during the winter, we're able to take a few field trips. And no one has to stay at home to "watch the store."

We took our first field trip this past Wednesday to Munro Honey & Meadery in Alvinston, Ontario (about 30 miles east of Sarnia). Mead is made by fermenting honey to produce a wine-like beverage.

They've been in business for about 90 years, but mostly selling honey. The meadery only began about 6 or 7 years ago.

Holly has made a few small batches of cyser (apple & honey wine) and perry (pear & honey wine), but had lots of questions for John, the commercial mead-maker who took us on a tour of the facilities. She was interested in how long he ages his meads, what type of yeast he uses, that sort of thing. He was extremely generous with his time and information.

Their facility was very quiet, as you would expect in the depths of winter. However, one of the nicest advantages of working with honey is that it doesn't spoil. So you can store it and begin the mead-making process at any time of the year. A refreshing thought after the craziness of the harvest season!

The Munro Meadery makes a range of meads including dry, semi-sweet, and some fruit meads (also know as melomels). We brought several meads and a raspberry melomel home with us -- we seem to naturally gravitate to raspberry, don't we?

Jefferson Cup

We've never been particularly good about entering wine competitions. They take quite a bit of time and money. You send in 3 or 4 bottles of each wine you're entering, along with an entry fee for each one, and by the time you add up the postage, cost of the wine, entry fee, and your effort.... well, we've never been sure it was really worth it.

However, wine competitions belong in the category of learning-as-we-go. It's constantly amazing to us how many visitors rely on medals when they decide which wines to try. I saw it over and over while working in the Dexter tasting room.

The funny thing is, most of our wines that don't have medals, don't have them because we've never entered them into competitions. It's not that the medaled wines are better, it's generally that we simply haven't bothered to enter the others into competition. So we're trying to get better about entering.

About 6 or 8 weeks ago we were invited to enter the Jefferson Cup, a wine competition held in Missouri by Master Sommelier, Doug Frost. It's an interesting competition -- it doesn't give out standard medals. Rather they have several designations for selected wines they wish to honor. We recently received the results -- our Dry Traminette and CraneBerry were designated as "Certificate of American Merit" wines and our "Traminette" was designated as an "American Example of Greatness."

So I guess it's time to enter more competitions...

Am I Insane?

Probably.

Across the country, businesses are closed and the owners and staff are enjoying a day off. Not us. Today is our "January White Sale." All white wines are on sale for one day only.

We tried this a year or two ago, thinking that there were probably a lot of folks out there who didn't want to be glued to the barcalounger all day. That maybe 4 football games in one day was too much. Or that they still had holiday visitors and were looking for some way to entertain them. And we were right.

I don't think we'll be crazy-busy today, but we should see a nice crowd. Visiting a local winery is a fun thing to do on your last day before you go back to work.

Perhaps we'll do our resting next week.

And Happy New Year to all!

"All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my closeup" or "Will work for cheese"

Sometimes it can be difficult working with a star. But after "signing" almost 30 books, Rosie is still pretty down-to-earth.

If you don't know, Rosie is featured in the new book, "Wine Dogs: USA Edition." It's a wonderful book filled with great photos of winery dogs across the United States, including Rosie and several other Michigan wine dogs.

She held an official "booksigning" in October, shortly after the book's release. We bought a washable stamp pad, and Rosie "signed" with her paw mark. After each book-signing she was rewarded with a cube of cheese (her favorite food -- as is says in the book).

Since then, she's signed books upon request.

But so far, she hasn't let show business go to her head.

Sugar Snow

Coming up with interesting wines is one of Holly's passions. She especially loves playing with the French Hybrids because they blend so beautifully.

Today she's in the cellar working on a strange and interesting dessert wine. Last winter we were given maple sap by some friends, the Moores. It wasn't a lot -- just enough to experiment. Holly made wine out of the sap and it's been aging since then. Now she's experimenting with it -- sweetening it with maple syrup (rather than sugar).

It's interesting (and very different) stuff -- light and somewhat sweet. I'd pair it with a light, creamy dessert or even with a pungent cheese (the way you'd pair Sauternes with Roquefort).

I think we'll call it "Sugar Snow" -- a name that suggests the old-fashioned candy made during sugaring, or even the weather conditions that start the maple sap flowing -- and serve it chilled.

It still needs to age, so we're not sure when we'll introduce it. Stay tuned...

Getting Our Wine Out Into the World

We get lots of requests from our customers for a place to purchase our wine closer to home. It's something we'd like to do -- have at least one wine shop in each city within a few hours radius of the winery. That way customers can pick up a bottle for everyday occasions, rather than having to wait until their next visit to the winery. And it'll help get our name out to those who haven't yet visited the winery.

Of course, with our size, selling wine to shops creates a few problems. As most of our customers know, we have a hard enough time keeping our wine in stock at the winery, much less other locations. And because we're so small, it doesn't make sense to go through a distributor. So we're distributing it ourselves.... well I am.

I've had varied experiences in dealing with wine shops. Some come to us and make the process wonderfully smooth and easy. But for most, it's more work dealing with individual small winery owners rather than a distributor. I can understand that -- I deal with the same thing purchasing items from individual artists for the winery's gift shop.

A few have been incredibly difficult to get to. I'll get a request from a customer for us to contact their favorite wine shop. I call and call and call, drop off wine for them to taste, and they never bother to answer calls or respond. I set up appointments and the buyer is not there when I arrive. And I never know how much to push. Do I need to call them again? Or do they just not want to bother dealing with an individual winery?

Yesterday, we added Dusty's Cellar in Okemos to our list of retailers carrying our wine. They were lovely to deal with. We had a customer in common who wanted some of our wine for Christmas. Within a few days, we had several wines in their shop, including the Staccato she wanted. I left more wine for them to taste, and hope to expand their selection soon.

So our wine is now available in Jackson, Clarklake, Flint, Grand Rapids, Okemos (Lansing), and Suttons Bay. It's my first New Year's resolution of 2007 to expand to Ann Arbor, Detroit, Toledo, Kalamazoo, and anywhere else our customers request.

Too Busy to Blog?

I'd like to apologize for my laxness in blogging lately. When I started working at the winery full time, I thought I'd have more time for things like this. Instead I seem to have less time!

I'm sure it has to do with the fact that I keep adding more events, programs, retail outlets, etc. (you've noticed, eh?). I've been keeping myself (and everyone around me) VERY busy!

Blogging always seems to end up at the bottom of the list of things to do -- it isn't time-sensitive as most things are. But I'd like to make more of an effort to chronicle our everyday events this way. So keep an eye on this blog and I'll try to post on a much more frequent basis!

On the Eve of Another Event

Every time we hold an event, I think I'll post about it on the blog. Then the event comes and goes, and I get caught up in whatever's coming next. So this time I thought I'd post before the fact.

Our newest event takes place tomorrow, **Father's Day Saturday.** When we started the winery it didn't occur to us that we'd be hosting events almost constantly (or so it feels...). But once we started, we were hooked! Events allow us to do some of those things we would like to do on a regular basis (live music, food, all that fun stuff) but can't. It's great to have an excuse to party.

In some ways I could have guessed that this would be how we'd evolve. B. W. (Before Winery) the family took every opportunity to have a party. We celebrated our dog's birthday. We had theme parties (a memorable one was the **Airplane** party for one of my birthdays) with costumes and themed foods. Looking back... it was a natural progression.

Coming into a new event there's always lots of unknowns. Will people attend? Will the weather hold? Will we have enough food? Do we have enough staff? However, it always seems to work out. Lots of old friends (and some new ones) visit. The music is great. There's enough food.

Let's hope tomorrow works out as well as the events have in the past. Maybe you should show up, grab some wine and cheese, and find a soft spot on the grass to enjoy the jazz...

Chancellor, Traminette, and Vignoles

At this time of the year, our tasting list begins to change dramatically -- and seemingly from one moment to the next. As we say good-bye to one vintage after another, new wines quickly become ready to introduce.

And in the meantime, the tasting list can get quite skewed in one direction or another.

We try to maintain a list of 12-15 wines at all times, but May's tasting list can look quite funky! Right now we have quite a few dry white wines, but only one semi-sweet (the category that's often the backbone of our tasting list). And currently the list looks quite heavily weighted in the fruit wine category.

We recently read a nice article on the Pioneer Wine trail that described our wines as "easy-drinking wines that combine fruit flavors and wine grapes." Yes, our April tasting list did include some of those wines. And our tasting list always includes a few. But that's only a part of our repetoire. We also do terrific, multi-layered reds and crisp, fruity whites.

So, what's coming soon to the Sandhill Crane tasting list? In the next 4-6 weeks look for a lovely, rich Proprietor's Reserve Chancellor that will cellar very well, a return of our popular Blushing Crane (with a fun new label), both a dry and a semi-sweet Traminette (one of our favorites), and shortly after that a return of our long-lost "Serenade" (a sweet Vignoles) and possibly a dry Vignoles, as well.

It'll be a very interesting few months to watch as our tasting list continues to evolve!

Shifting Weather

From the beginning I've been amazed at the number of hats a winery owner wears: winemaker, farmer, business owner, marketing expert.... The variety of expertise required is amazing! Around our place, we're lucky in that we can spread the workload around, but in other ways, we all share the various responsibilities.

Although none of us started out as farmers, that is certainly part of the core of a winery/vineyard. So much of our success each year depends on our crop. Yes -- we purchase large quantities of wine grapes from other Michigan growers. But our own crop will always be important.

As it can be in Michigan, this spring's weather has been crazy. Every year there's a different variation. This year started out very warm and stayed that way for quite a while. That's always scary -- blossoms come out too quickly and are susceptible to cold spikes. Which, of course, is what happened next.

About 10 days ago we heard that grape growers in the Allegan area experienced a freeze, with temperatures down to 23 F. Of course, the grapes were just budding out and at their most tender. Now it's just a matter of waiting to find out how much permanent damage was done.

Up until about 24 hours ago, we'd been experiencing a very dry spring. Since then it's been raining amost constantly. The word is that it will continue raining for another 4 days straight.

What next?

Dogs and cats - Oh, my!

While visiting the wineries up north a few weeks ago, we loved meeting the big, gentle Bernese Mountain Dog, Cooper, at Bowers Harbor Winery. We're an animal-friendly winery, too, as most of you know.

Rosie (Rosé), our Airedale terrier, is the most visible. Other than during larger events, she's around to greet visitors most of the time. She's a lovely hostess, although occasionally forgets that she isn't employed to be a watch dog too.

Oliver (pictured) is a big, pushy, Maine Coon-style kitty. He visits on a regular basis, leaping on bar stools and sashaying back and forth across laps.

Scooter also visits on occasion, although his favorite places are the kitty beds in the back room.

We hope you enjoy the pets as part of your visit. We think they make the experience more memorable. If any of them make you at all uncomfortable please tell us. We want your visit with us to be comfortable!

Mardi Gras

Ok, I know it's late to talk about Mardi Gras but I just got some photos and wanted to share one.

It's the first time we've celebrated Mardi Gras with a festival at the winery and we all had a great time. My only problem was time -- I worked Saturday and had to stay up late cooking gumbo and muffaletta and the like. However, several winery friends offered to help cook next time to lighten the load. I need to take them up on their offer in the future...

When we first decided to do the festival, one of the main elements was to be a donation to Katrina relief. Because of all our winery animals, we decided to donate it to helping with the efforts to save pets and reuniting them with their owners. We raised about $400 for Noah's Wish -- a nonprofit organization that helps animals during emergencies.