Club Newsletter December 2025

The Jingle Bells winery tour is in full swing and runs through December 28. It’s been so fun seeing everyone dress up and enjoy themselves! We’ve got lots of exciting new things happening too! We just launched our very own SWAG Shop online, so you can grab all your favorite sweaters, hats, and tote bags—all in one place! We’re always finding new ways to have a blast at the Winery, and our latest addition is an exciting wine-themed escape room game. Check it out! Our holiday specials are going strong through Christmas. Get 15% off gift cards, and wine club members save 25% on all wines and ciders. The holiday craft making sessions have been a big hit; so great to see everyone’s creativity come out while sipping on your favorite wines and ciders! Plus, Mark had his very first FREE wine class on Saturday, December 13th. We’ll be doing these every Saturday through February 28th—no cost, first come, first served, and no reservations needed! We’re always adding new classes and events, so be sure to check out our “Coming Up!” page on our website to stay in the loop! Stephanie and Mark are back from their trip to France and have shared some fantastic photos on our Facebook and Instagram, definitely check them out! Our next club adventure is planned for May in Ireland. Can’t wait to celebrate the rest of the season with all of you!

Gage and I have been busy in the cellar getting caught up on a lot of things now that we are in the time of year when production has slowed a bit. One of the fun alternative wine making methods we are trying out this year is Sur Lie aging. In French this simply means “aging on the lees.” Lees is the sediment that settles out of the wine throughout the year. The normal winemaking process involves constantly, weekly to monthly, removing the lees from the wine by way of racking. Racking is the process in which we transfer all the good liquid wine into another tank and the sediment or lees stays behind.  So what Gage and I are doing instead of this racking process is letting some of the wine lots age on that lees layer. To facilitate this we are also engaging in a process called batonnage. Batonnage is the process in which the lees is stirred back into the liquid of the wine. The reason to do this lees aging on certain varieties is that there are different components in the lees that can do a couple of different things for the wine. One is there are phenolic compounds in the lees so by doing the Sur Lie aging the hope is that that more of these phenolic compounds will integrate with the wine. Also Sur Lie aging is known to increase the mouth feel of the wines. We are mostly doing this with the 25 fall white wines and we are very excited to get these to you sometime this summer. On the cider side, we are currently fermenting a new batch of Heirloom Cider. This one is one of my favorites. While our other ciders are made from a blend of mostly culinary apples the Heirloom is made 100% heirloom cider apples. These apples give this one a little more complexity then our normal blend. Also for you Ice Apple Wine fans you’ll be happy to hear we will be making a new vintage of that wine this year. So make sure to keep your eye out for that one next winter! I can’t wait to see you all over the winter. Please make sure to say hello, and of course happy skiing!