Club News with Katie
Katie Masters, Supervisor
Summer is in full swing for us! The vines are growing wonderfully and the production team has been hard at work keeping them climbing and growing on their trellis. The tasting rooms have been busy, especially with club members! It’s been great to see you all. Our Sangria mix and a full kit to make it at home are now on sale on our website to ship! Grab a bottle or two for your summer adventures.
We are so very excited to announce that we will be hosting our Fall Release Party the first weekend of November: Friday the 4th through Sunday the 6th. More details will come out, but save the date! We’re working on some fun new workshops.
We have had many vine club members come in asking about their tags on the vines. We are in the process of purchasing plaques to place at the beginning of each row as a permanent installment. We loved the idea of tags, but unfortunately mother nature had other ideas! I will be in touch with each club member to verify name and spelling of their choice for their vine.
As always, if you need any assistance with your club, please email me at [email protected].
Tasting Room News with Brian & Katie
Tasting Room Supervisors
The Riverwalk Tasting Room has been busy with full verandas most days! The weather has been perfect lately, and we’re taking full advantage. The addition of Blueberry Wine to the tasting menu has been well-received, surprising no one! Come grab a glass and take a couple bottles home while we have it! We are inching closer and closer to the placement of the brite tanks for our new production space, which will be the first piece of “furniture” in the new phase of the Riverwalk Resort.
Rhythm Studio has been hopping with
bachelorettes galore lately! We love hosting our bigger groups at Studio with its big tables and vast tasting menu. There’s something for everyone. We have started collaborating with The Moon Cafe next door to offer tableside delivery of their sandwiches and pizzas to compliment your tastings and full glasses! It’s been quite popular – cider and pizza? What more could you want!?
We’ve also been hard at work updating our gift shop at both tasting rooms. Come check out our new displays of local, artisan made gifts to give along with a bottle or two! Call it Christmas in July.
Save the date!
Wednesday, July 27: Live Virtual Tasting of Curico on Facebook
Friday, November 4-Sunday, November 6: Fall Release Event, more details to come!
Production News with Nate
Nate Maser, Assistant Winemaker
Early summer in the winery means 2 things. Strawberries and blueberries! After having our strawberry crush and ferment in June, we now look to our blueberry harvest and the start of our blueberry wine, blueberry seltzer, and blueberry hard cider. Blueberry wine (and apple wine) was the very first commercial wine we ever made back in the summer of 2010 and we have made it basically the same way ever since. With the exception of a couple of lots aged in oak, we have made our blueberry wine as one of the most conisistent, with the least vintage variation. Kinda cool! Last year’s blue is on sale now in our tasting rooms and is the first fruit wine to be sold under our Rhythm label. We hear that the blueberry wine slushies “aren’t bad” either.
Block “A” in the vineyard (the first planting, first 4 rows closest to the pool) is bearing a good crop this year. Brianna appears to be the fastest to grow in size of fruit but also the most mildew prone. LaCrescent looks amazing with beautiful clusters and only a little mildew pressure. Sabrevois appears to be still focused on its structure with only some fruit on the vines, though it looks very healthy. But, the star of the show so far this growing season is the Marquette. Wow! Marquette loves this site. The pressure from disease and insects has been minimal (knock on wood), the fruit set is strong, and the clusters are growing in size every day. Even the Marquette in block “B” (the second planting) looks the best. There must be something about the site that Marquette vines really like. Is it the soil? The elevation? The micro-climate? Whatever it is, we love it and so do those grapevines.
Many of the other varietals are doing well too. We dropped the fruit on the Prairie Star this year to give it another year to focus on vine structure. But, we left the fruit growing on the St. Croix, Frontenac Gris and the rest of the Marquette. Soon, we will be putting out our bird netting on block “A” to ensure we get a strong harvest. Next stop, veraison (when grapes start changing color).
In August, we are planning on bottling a few wines that we haven’t had out in a while. Rebel, Angel, Rumor, and Jardin will get into glass and under cork for a short bit before we can release them to the club, then to the tasting rooms. We just love that our club members actually remember these wines, ask for them by name, and we get to release them to the club first! We are getting to the point where we are making wine for the club, and releasing the leftover wines to the public. Pretty cool!
Speaking of cool…. stay cool. Its a hot summer. Great for the vines and great for us, since we work in a 60F winery. LOL. Take care folks. Happy Summer!
ANNOUNCEMENT: Donation from PRIDE Month to @NorthCountryPride
