We started the fermentation of our Brianna this week and added the lag nutrients at mid-week. We watched the temperatures of the fermenting juice very carefully. We have also received Foch from one of our grape suppliers and we started a carbonic maceration of this fruit this
Read more →Each harvest, we invest a lot of time getting all of the equipment we need to process grapes set up before harvest. This involves getting the scales in place and being certified by the State. Then, we move the elevator and dump bin from the warehouse. We
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 will get the preventative maintenance done on our scales and our presses early this week and then get our outside 4,000 gallon tanks washed. We will stock up our case goods room so that we can continue to make deliveries to retailers during harvest without having
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 →Several tanks have small quantities of wine that we will move to totes for storage during harvest. We will need all of our tank space for harvest. We will reorganize the case goods room to temporarily house several Macro bins that we will be fermenting red wines
Read more →We are watching development of the grapes very carefully with a focus on Brianna, Edelweiss, and Marquette. We do a full pre-harvest test using a rigorous sampling procedure weekly complemented by random sampling and tasting. When we see the three varieties mentioned above getting ready for harvest,
Read more →After about two weeks of regular light rain, we have experienced two weeks of hot, dry weather. Fortunately, we have lots of ground moisture and only the newly planted vines will need additional water if the weather stays hot and dry. Our mature vines have root systems
Read more →The first question everyone asks at this time of year is this: How is the grape crop looking? Vines in all of our four vineyards have heavy fruit loads. In fact, I don’t remember a harvest that was looking this good by July 15. Keep in mind
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