Club Newsletter May 2022

Club News with Katie

Katie Masters, Supervisor

We want to extend a hearty thank you to those who came to our Spring Release Party in April! We had a great time. We’re already looking forward to what exciting things we can do together for the fall release. Keep your eyes peeled for more details on that in the next couple of months.

A new wine release has come and gone! If you have received your club wines, make sure to join us for a virtual tasting every Wednesday at 7:30 over on our Facebook page. The full lineup is available under the Events tab. We’re deep diving into one wine from the release every week until we’ve finished them all. If you have yet to pick up your release from the Riverwalk Tasting Room – what are you waiting for?! The veranda is now open daily. Come check out what’s new on the menu and grab a glass to enjoy in the spring sunshine while you collect those bottles with your name on them.

If you decide you need more of a particular wine from your club package, you still have premier access to them through your club account. Get an order in now before the wines hit the shelves. Strawberry and Blueberry will be the fastest going, and you all know that once they’re gone, they’re gone.

We are working to get all the vines purchased through the winter tagged. They are starting to bud and have been enjoying the unseasonably hot weather we’ve had here in the mountains the last two weekends. For those who have been hoping to adopt a red grape vine, the new Marquette vines we planted last month are up for adoption! We have roughly 150 vines left for adoption, and that will be it. The vineyard has successfully taken over most of the resort’s backyard, with no more room to expand. If anyone is wondering where they can locate their vine in the vineyard, please send me an email and I will be happy to give you the coordinates. You can reach me at [email protected]

Production News with Nate

Nate Maser, Assistant Winemaker

The production team has been hard at work on a number of projects, including the final planting in the vineyard, bottling the 2021 vintage whites and fruit wines, and most importantly, starting the 2022 spring vintage wines from Chile and South Africa. The last of the vines were planted at the beginning of May, including 64 more Marquette varieties, developed at the University of Minnesota. We received nearly 20 tons of fruit from the southern hemisphere, including Pinotage, Chenin Blanc, Malbec, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, and Viognier. And, we have already blended some of those fruits together to form another favorite wine, our Angel Rosé.

Probably the most exciting news this month is the release of our Rhythm Meads. We had been waiting for a while to receive our labels for this all-new product, and that may just have been a blessing in disguise. The meads have all had a chance to rest a little while. They were good months ago, but they are even better now! One can only wonder how they will be 6 months from now, if they even last that long. What was fun about making these new wines was the pure creativity we were able to have. We had created a number of small batches of mead, taste-tested those experimental lots with our club members, staff and some customers. And, we decided to make the ones that everyone seemed to like the most. And, that yielded some great results. We start with our Classic Mead, which we decided to make as a “standard” honey wine with no influence from any other fruit. This is the mead that will help us explain what mead is all about and will give our customers a sense for the “mead” taste. Then, we made a batch of honey and apple juice mead, our Apple Mead, that is like the classic, but with a hint of sweet apple. Yum. We headed straight for the berries. Strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries all made it into the last 2 wines. So, now with 4 meads available, we can showcase the different styles. We could not be more proud.

As we speak the southern hemisphere fruit is all fermenting in our tanks and creating quite the aroma. We love it! We are looking forward to how these wines progress and to the next batch of hone. Stay tuned!

Tasting Room News with Brian & Katie

Tasting Room Supervisors

The patio is open, Rhythm Meads have hit the tasting menu in their very own flight, and by the time you read this we plan to have WINE SLUSHIES at the Rhythm Studio! It’s finally warm enough (perhaps a bit warmer than expected) to serve outside and we are excited to be pouring Red Wine, White Wine, Hard Cider, Hard Seltzer, and Mead in the sun. Many have been asking about our Meads and our initial release includes our Classic Mead made with just honey, Apple Mead, Blackberry/Strawberry Mead, and Blackberry/Blueberry/Raspberry Mead! Don’t forget you can get a free sample by wearing your favorite Rhythm gear into the Studio or by making a social media post about us while you’re here! Just tag us @rhythmhandcraftedbeverages and include #rhythmrewards in a post on Facebook or Instagram and you could receive a promo code for something FREE at Rhythm Studio. Starting June 1st, we will be open Wednesday through Sunday, come join us!

The Riverwalk Tasting Room Veranda is also (finally!) open for business! We are strapped in for what is promised to be a wild season with construction in our literal back yard, as the Riverwalk Resort expansion is fully underway. We are quite excited, because it is going to be quite an expansion for us here at the winery, as well. We’re going to gain nearly 10,000 square feet, including production space, storage, and a glorious new tasting room and patio. While we daydream about that, we will be pouring out some new releases, including the 2021 Savanna, 2021 Strawberry, and 2021 Twilight. Sangria is also back, ready for all the sweet drinkers! It’s last call on the 2020 Riesling, which has been moved onto our legacy rack with only about three cases remaining. Come grab one while you can and enjoy your complimentary club tasting with a view of Loon Mountain. Cheers!

For the entire month of June, 15% of sales of Rhythm’s Pride Honey Hard Apple Cider (served glasses and sold bottles) will be donated to North Country Pride. NCP is hosting a Dine Out With Pride event all month long, with many local restaurants participating in raising funds with different drink and food deals. This is a cause that is very important to us here at the winery, and we are excited to be doing our part! NCP is a local organization focused on community building and outreach for those in the region who are LGBTQA+, with aims to make our region welcoming to all who live here and come here. Come grab a glass!