We are updating our bottling schedule for the Spring of 2025 and are taking care of some maintenance. Our Hotsy hot-water generator is leaking soap so we will have a new valve installed to fix the problem. In addition, the batteries in our flow meters have to
Read more →The supplier of our bottling line arrived on Tuesday for a planned preventative maintenance and training visit. We were excited about that because it was the first time since we installed the line 19 years ago that they have come to show us the details about its
Read more →How do we put our wine in bottles…thousands of them, each year? We use a semi-automated bottling line that with five people can fill and label 25 bottles per minute. The machine rinses each bottle with filtered water and then fills it with food-grade Nitrogen. The bottle
Read more →From time to time, we get questions about why we use screw caps when most wine from California, Oregon, and Washington, for example, is packaged in bottles with cork closures. Back in 2004 when we were making the decision about which kind of a bottle closure we
Read more →The Crimson Pearl is a small batch from the Tassel Ridge Vineyard. It has some very nice flavors and we are interested to see what we can do with it. It might make an outstanding dessert wine. We will use the Foch (which we purchased from another
Read more →The vineyard crew picked grape samples for YAN (yeast assimilable Nitrogen) testing at Iowa State University. The data we get from this testing will tell us how much yeast nutrient we will need for each variety during fermentation. Our presses have now both received their preseason service
Read more →We had our presses serviced on Monday morning. Our contractor has also almost finished the installation of the new settling tanks for the Winery process water. We will grease all crush pad equipment and clean both presses. The winemaker will continue scouting to make sure that all
Read more →We need to get all of our equipment ready for harvest. The first big step is to replace the waste water settling tanks, and we will do that this week. These tanks receive and settle out solids from water used in washing tanks, equipment, and floors. Our
Read more →Although we are not bottling this week, both Red, White, & Blue and Star Spangled White are being filtered to get them ready. We filter all of our wines using a cross-flow filter. Our cross-flow filter has four large cylinders that are approximately six inches in diameter
Read more →On Wednesday, we bottled a small run of 2021 Iowa Frontenac. This is a dry red and it is the first Frontenac Red we have ever made. This wine will have a month or so to settle down and then we will release it. We worked on
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