Tassel Ridge Winery

Tassel Ridge Winery–June 2008

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Tassel Ridge Winery Releases Candleglow Red 

We will release our new Candleglow Red over the weekend of June 14 and 15. This new wine will be available only at the Winery until June 30 when we start to offer it to our retailers.

Candleglow Red is a dry red wine. It is a fruity blend of Syrah and Frontenac grapes. Candleglow Red displays black cherry and toasted almond on the nose and black cherry, vanilla, and oak on the palate. It has a very pleasant, long finish. Pair this wine with beef and full-bodied pasta dishes. Serve at room temperature. Store at 55°F.

I just tasted it again today at lunch sitting on the Winery terrace under an umbrella. WOW! It is really a nice wine. Although very young, it is fruit forward and great right out of the bottle.

Price: Candleglow Red in a 750 ml bottle is $20.00 plus tax and bottle deposit.

Join us at the Winery on Sunday, June 22

for a Wine and Food Pairing Dinner Featuring Caribbean Jerk Pork Paired with our New Dry Riesling.


Appetizers begin at 6:00 p.m. followed by dinner seating at 6:30 p.m.

As spring turns to summer, invigorate your taste buds at a wine and food pairing featuring an appetizer of fried plantains with tropical fruit salsa and dinner featuring mixed green salad with mangos and papayas, Caribbean jerk-spiced pork tenderloin served with pineapple fried rice, black bean cakes with sour cream, and chocolate spice soufflé for dessert. Reservations accepted through Thursday, June 20. Price is $45 per person, plus tax.

Visit The Winery To Taste Our New Wines

Pink Catawba

Our Pink Catawba is a refreshing semi-sweet fruity pink wine made entirely from Catawba grapes. This wine offers tropical fruit aromas with pineapple and other tropical fruit, green apply, and citrus flavors on the palate. When served chilled, Pink Catawba is a great sipping wine.

Price: Pink Catawba in a 750 ml bottle is $13.00 plus tax.

 

2007 Iowa Steuben

Iowa Steuben is back! Made entirely from Steuben grapes grown in Mahaska County, the 2007 Iowa Steuben is a light, fruity, easy-drinking style wine that is best served chilled. On the nose, Iowa Steuben displays cherry and apple notes with just a hint of cinnamon. It is semi-sweet with cherry and apple flavors, and slightly spicy, tangy finish. Perfect as an aperitif or try it with an Asian stir fry or chicken salad. 

Price: 2007 Iowa Steuben in a 750 ml bottle is $13.00 plus tax.

American Dry Riesling

Tassel Ridge Dry Riesling is a refreshing dry, white wine with green apple, citrus, and peach on the nose and green apple, citrus, and melon on the palate. Serve chilled with shell-fish, fish, chicken, and green salad. Store at 55°F. 

This new wine is made from grapes grown in Lake County, California.  It is very fruity and will compliment food that incorporate fruit in their preparation.

Price: American Dry Riesling White Wine in a 750ml bottle is $13.00 plus tax.

view our full wine list

Tassel Ridge Winery Wins Awards in Two Competitions

2008 Tasters Guild 21st International Wine Judging in Michigan

32nd International Eastern Wine Competition

Critics Challenge International Wine Competition, San Diego

We are pleased to win these awards. Each of these competitions have more than 2,000 entries so to win anything is quite an accomplishment. View all of Tassel Ridge Winery's awards.

Tassel Ridge Winery Harvest Club

We are pleased to announce the formation of the Tassel Ridge Winery Harvest Club.  Members receive four shipments of Tassel Ridge Wine each year in March, May, September, and November. We’ve picked those months because they are usually temperate enough that we can ship wine without excessive heat or cold to damage it. Each shipment contains two bottles that are priced at retail plus shipping unless club members pick the shipments up at the Winery. In that case, there is no shipping charge. The average price of each shipment with shipping is $45. 

We offer two wine preferences:

Re-orders of full case quantities of the Harvest Club selections are always priced at retail less 20% when orders are placed within sixty days of the original shipment. 

Harvest club members have the first opportunity to purchase limited edition wines before they are offered to the public. They are also offered special tasting opportunities when they visit the Winery. In the future, we plan to have wine and food pairing dinners for club members only, special tastings with the wine maker, and opportunities to see how wine is made all of which are designed to make the experience of consuming Tassel Ridge Wines especially enjoyable. 

The Tassel Ridge Harvest Club is open to people 21 years old and older. Shipments are paid for with a credit card that is kept on file. 

Consider a Tassel Ridge Harvest Club membership as the perfect gift for a person who enjoys wine. One year gift memberships are available.

This is a great way to stay up-to-date on our new wines. Because some of our wines are never sold through retailers, you may not see some of these wines unless you visit the Winery regularly.    

Heart of Iowa Wine Trail 2008 Passport

The Passport is your ticket to fifteen different Iowa wine country experiences. You can take advantage of the fact that there are now fifteen wineries within a 60 mile radius of Des Moines and each offers different wines. The Heart of Iowa Wine Trail Passport guides you to each of the wineries while providing you with a list of amenities. Purchase your passport any member winery for $25.00. As you visit each winery, you will have the appropriate page in your passport stamped. When your passport is full, one page is removed and exchanged for two elegant commemorative wine glasses.

Purchase your 2008 Heart of Iowa Wine Trail Passport at Tassel Ridge Winery. Price is $25.00, the experience is priceless!

For more information about the Heart of Iowa Wine Trail, visit the website at www.heartofiowawinetrail.com.

Custom Labels are a Great Way to Recognize Success and to Celebrate an Accomplishment

Most Tassel Ridge Wines are available with custom labels that allow you to celebrate a big zero birthday, recognize a friend’s special achievement, or to thank the person who already has everyone. Provide us with a photo and some guidance as to what you want on the label and we will do the rest. We have a one case minimum (12 bottles) and we charge a $10 fee for label set-up. Custom labeled wine does NOT qualify for the case discount. Check our notebook of special wine labels to find ideas for your label.

Do You Want To Ship Wine Out of State?

We can now ship to the following six states: 

If you’d like to be able to ship wine to other states not mentioned above, please let us
know and we investigate what kinds of licenses and permits we need to ship there.

What’s Happening in the Vineyard?

The frequent rain has made it hard to work in our vineyards, especially with heavy equipment like tractors. We did recently finish pruning and we have been able to tie and de-sucker our vines. We aren’t finished with in-fill planting yet, mainly because as soon as we get a hole dug, it fills with water. At least we haven’t needed to use our drip irrigation system yet! The remaining planting is all in-fill or replacement of vines that died last year.

But, we haven’t been able to spray fungicide, herbicide, or insecticide. Our biggest problem with this much moisture is fungi and mildew. We have also started to spot flea beetles and leafhoppers so we also need to get some insecticide sprayed. Finally, the weeds are really doing well with all the rain and we are seriously behind in applying herbicide.

In spite of what is noted above, the vines look good and most have now bloomed. We will soon be surveying the vineyard to measure the berry-set. We will use the information we gather to forecast our harvest.

 

Most people don’t normally think about grapes blooming. In the photo above, the unopened flowers are at the (right) end of the cluster whereas flowers to the left have bloomed. The very small portions of the flower are the stamens that carry the pollen. 

What’s Happening in the Cellar?

Bottling, bottling, bottling…..that is still our mantra in the cellar these days. We are making great progress and will have several new wines to introduce soon.

During the week of June 23, we will be working with some frozen fruit to try to make a dessert wine. This is all very experimental at this point. We will keep you posted. 

 

New Retailers:

We have several new retailers this month:

We also lost two retailers in Des Moines:

Tassel Ridge Winery in Restaurants:

You can now enjoy Tassel Ridge wines with your meals at several Iowa Restaurants:

Waterfront Seafood in Clocktower Square, West Des Moines at West University and 28th Street is our latest new restaurant. They offer Candleglow White, Prelude, and Twilight. These wines pair very well with their menu that includes shellfish, sushi, and boned fish such as tuna, swordfish, and halibut. The Twilight pairs well with their steaks.

Our Hours:

In June 2008, we are open for tours, tasting, wine, and gift shop sales seven days per week during the following hours:

We are open seven days per week!

Our Location:

Tassel Ridge Winery is easy to find. It is just south of State Highway 163 on 220th Street in Leighton. From Ottumwa and Oskaloosa, drive northwest on 163 to 220th Street and turn left towards Leighton. From Des Moines and Pella, turn right at 220th Street. Drive west on 220th about 0.7 miles from the Highway and right into the Tassel Ridge Winery parking lot. view maps

Email Brian Babcock at info@tasselridge.com to sign up a friend for our enewsletter.

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—Bob Wersen, President