Tassel Ridge Winery–September 4, 2009
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Sunday, September 13—Iowa Machine Shed Brings the Flavors of Fall to Tassel Ridge Winery
Wine tasting 7:00 p.m.
Dinner seating: 7:30 p.m.
Price: $55 per person, plus tax
Join Tassel Ridge Winery for an array of fall flavors featuring the Iowa Machine Shed's Executive Chef, who will be creating some amazing dishes beginning with a pear and squash bruschetta followed by a salad of mixed baby greens, dried cranberries, and gorgonzola with a warm vanilla vinaigrette. The main course will feature braised pork with Tassel Ridge Finalé Blackberry reduction, and for dessert, poached pears with Tassel Ridge Candleglow Red and sugared mascarpone. Each course will be paired with Tassel Ridge award-winning wines. Advance reservations required by Wednesday, September 9.
Wednesday, September 16—Wine Sensory Class at Tassel Ridge Winery
6:00–8:00 p.m.
Price: $10 per person, plus tax
The Wine Sensory Class at Tassel Ridge Winery is a fun and interesting way to get acquainted with the fascinating dimensions of smell, taste, and sensation, including the "faults" that may be found in wine. How do wineries come up with those flowery descriptions for their wines? Steve Richardson, Vineyard Manager & Certified Wine Educator, will discuss wine "descriptive analysis," and then participants will compose their own back label descriptions for a few wines. Advance reservations required by Monday, September 14.
Saturday, October 3—Join us for an Oktober “Wine” Fest Dinner & Hayride at Tassel Ridge Winery
6:00 p.m.
Price: $25 per person, plus tax
If you’d like to experience a little bit of Oktoberfest, but a trip to Germany is not in your budget this year, join us at Tassel Ridge Winery as we treat you to a German-style buffet under a tent featuring Bavarian pretzels with red wine mustard for dipping, brats, German potato salad, red cabbage, and apple strudel. After dinner, enjoy a hayride (dependent on weather) through the vineyard while sipping our special mulled wine. Advance reservations required by Thursday, October 1.
View Photos of Wine Demonstration Featuring Tapas
A Cooking with Wine Demonstration Featuring Tapas was held at Tassel Ridge Winery on Saturday, August 29.
Chef Gordon Rader and his students from the Indian Hills Community College Culinary Arts Program gave a tapas cooking demonstration. We had a great turnout with 45 guests who enjoyed samples of the tapas paired with Tassel Ridge wines and received copies of the recipes. For more photos of the cooking demo, visit Hill’s Kitchen at http://acfofiowa.org/hillskitchen/
Mark your calendars for our next cooking demo on Saturday, November 14, from 1–3 p.m. Chef Gordon Rader and his students from the Indian Hills Community College Culinary Arts Program will be back for a cooking demo showcasing holiday desserts and appetizers paired with Tassel Ridge award-winning wines.
Friday–Sunday, September 4–6—
2008 Iowa Frontenac Rosé Is Released
The 2008 Iowa Frontenac Rosé is a semi-sweet blush that displays plum, cherry, and berry notes on both the nose and palate. It is made from 75% Frontenac grapes and 25% La Crosse grapes which were grown in our Mahaska County, Iowa vineyards. Serve Iowa Frontenac Rosé chilled as an aperitif or just sip it on a warm day.
Price: $13 per 750 ml bottle plus tax
Grapemobile Rides Are Now Offered on Weekends—Saturday at 11 and 2 and Sunday at 2
Visit the vineyards at Tassel Ridge on an informative tour that lasts about 45 minutes. The Grapemobile accommodates 26 passengers and is pulled by a John Deere tractor. Your leader is an experienced member of our staff who will address at about five stops along the way our soils, the grape varieties we grow, our trellis systems and vineyard layout, what is happening in the vineyard at the time of your visit, and our environmental practices.
The fee is $5 per person. The tour fee can be applied to purchases in the gift shop on the day of the tour. Please call the winery at (641) 672-9463 on the day you plan to visit to make sure that current or prior days' weather have not closed the Grapemobile trail.
Tassel Ridge Wins Three Medals in International Cold Climate Wine Competition
Tassel Ridge Winery won three medals in the recent International Cold Climate Wine Competition at the Minnesota State Fair:
- Silver for American Pink Catawba in the “Labrusca Red” category
- Bronze for Pizzeria & Pasta Too! in the “100% Cold Hardy Red grape” category
- Bronze for Red, White, & Blue in the “Labrusca Red” category
Two Large French Oak Barrels Arrive at Tassel Ridge
Our two 200 gallon (8 HL) French Oak barrels arrived just in time for harvest of our Marquette grapes. It is hard to imagine how big they are until you stand beside them. We will actually ferment and then age 400 gallons of our Marquette in these barrels. Our goal is to make an outstanding dry red wine. If you love dry red wine, please click here and sign up for a special e-letter that we will use to keep you informed on the processes we use in making this special wine. We will host and invite you to events uniquely focused on your interest in dry red wine. They will include opportunities to taste this wine as it develops.
Consider Pairing Pizzeria & Pasta Too! with Your Favorite Chili Recipe at the Iowa-Iowa State Game on Saturday, September 12
Pizzeria & Pasta Too! is a fruity, dry red wine that goes perfectly with spicy chili. And Chili is a great dish for tailgate parties or game parties in your home. Ask for Pizzeria & Pasta Too! where you shop.
Organize A Group and Travel To Tassel Ridge Winery in a Bus From Des Moines
Here is an idea for a fun group-oriented outing. Organize a group of up to 20 people and schedule a bus tour from Des Moines with IowaWines.org. You will board the bus at a convenient place in the Des Moines area, and it will bring you down to Tassel Ridge Winery in about one hour. Then, you’ll have the opportunity to tour the Winery, taste the wines, enjoy a picnic lunch, and shop in the gift shop. You can get details at http://iowawinestours.mwrc.net/en/. Click on products>wine tasting tours>single winery tasting tours>tassel ridge winery. We look forward to your visit.
Harvest Has Started
As of September 3, we’ve already harvested 63.6 tons of grapes and are about 50% done. Most of the harvested fruit will be used to make white wine; however one red grape variety has been harvested too. We are using our new Korvan harvester. It has allowed us to get fruit picked when it is at the peak of perfection and we hope it will allow us to improve wine quality as a result. I’ve included a photo of the new harvester in action below.
If you’d like to see more photos of harvest at Tassel Ridge Winery, please click here.
One thing we’ve learned is that moving the harvester between our three producing vineyards is a task that must be planned carefully. The vineyards are all located in a seven-mile circle and fortunately all are very close to a single lightly used county road. The harvester cannot be moved on a low-boy trailer without large cargo permits so we have to drive it between the vineyards. Top speed, according to the manual, is 17 miles per hour. Steve Richardson, our Vineyard Manager, says that 11 miles per hour feels plenty fast, so that drive from the Winery to Newport Lane Vineyards is a 50-minute trip! Of course, we also have to move the two tractors with thier specialy-designed vineyard trailers combinations and our refrigerated truck so it takes several people about 90 minutes to get all of our equipment staged for the harvest of one grape variety. The actual harvest of that variety at Newport Lane may only take 90 minutes.
Your copy of the Summer 2009 Tassel Ridge Winery Events Program can be accessed here!
In the future, we will put our events programs on our web site and will let you know when they have been posted with a note in our e-letter. The Summer 2009 edition can be accessed here: http://www.tasselridge.com/images/Events-Prog-Sum09.pdf.
It is a 4.86 mb PDF.
What Is Happening In Our Cellar?
We are crushing and destemming fruit almost full time. If we are making a white or rosé wine, we will press the fruit immediately and then move the juice to a tank for fermentation. If we are making red wine, we will simply move the must (juice, skins, and seeds) to a tank for fermentation. We’ve got a bunch of ferments going already and more to get started.
Interested in Pairing Specific Foods With Tassel Ridge Wines?
Are you interested in suggestions of foods that pair well with specific Tassel Ridge wines? We’ve put some suggestions on our web site under Recipes and Food Pairing Suggestions. You can link directly to this page at www.tasselridge.com/recipes.htm.
Our Hours:
In September 2009, we are open seven days a week, including Labor Day (9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.), for tours, tasting, and wine and gift shop sales:
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Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
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Saturday, 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
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Sunday, Noon–6:00 p.m.
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 toward Leighton. From Des Moines and Pella, drive southeast on Highway 163 and 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
—Bob Wersen, President
Email Jody Brockway at info@tasselridge.com to sign up a friend for our e-newsletter.