After every day of harvest, we have to process grapes. That involves a run through the destemmer-crusher for all grapes. Red grapes are then pumped into either tanks or open-top fermenters. Grapes used to make white and rosé wines go into the press and just the juice
Read more →The first step in processing each batch of fruit is destemming and crushing the fruit. When we are making a white or rosé, we then juice the grapes in the press and pump the pressed juice straight into one of our stainless steel tanks. If we are
Read more →Beginning at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, our harvest crew of four people started harvesting Brianna at our Maple Woods Vineyard. They finished at about 10:45 and moved north to Newport Lane Vineyard. After harvesting Brianna at Newport Lane Vineyard, they moved the equipment over to Tassel Ridge
Read more →Jonita Boyer, Winemaker at Tassel Ridge Winery, accepted the Governor’s Cup in a ceremony on Friday, August 13 at Grandfather’s Barn at the Iowa State Fair. Oskyfizzante® Iowa White won Best of Show in the “other” category and was the 2021 Governor’s Cup Trophy award winner. Oskyfizzante
Read more →We are expecting a very good grape harvest this year. With only a week or so before we actually start to harvest, we keep an eye on the weather because we don’t want heavy rain, hail, or high winds. We also need to deter birds from harvesting
Read more →Oskyfizzante Iowa White won the Governor’s Cup Trophy, Best of Show “Other” award, and a Gold Medal in the 2021 Iowa State Fair Commercial Wine Competition. The results were announced on Monday, July 19. This year, 113 wines from 21 Iowa wineries were entered in the competition
Read more →Iowa Cuvée 220 is a dry, light red with cherry fading to strawberry on the palate and a pleasant, slightly drying finish with light tannins. A blend of St. Croix, Marquette, and Frontenac grapes grown in our Mahaska County, Iowa, vineyards, Iowa Cuvée 220 is a nice
Read more →We have torn apart our bottling system and replaced washers and O’rings in several places. We will celebrate the completion of that task with a bottling of Red, White, & Blue this week. Our team have their fingers crossed that everything works right. We will also be getting
Read more →Sweethearts Rosé from Tassel Ridge Winery is an outstanding Valentine’s Gift. The 500 ml bottle of sweet rosé wine is shaped like a heart and it is a memorable gift. If you are thinking about the perfect wine for that special Valentine’s dinner, consider Iowa Harvest Red
Read more →Several batches of the very popular Red, White, & Blue have finished fermenting. We will rack the wine off yeast lees. This means that the wine will be pumped from one tank to another while leaving behind the sludge (dead yeast cells). We’ll then clean out the
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