Friday, April 29, 2011

It's Tawny Time Again

by Peter Bell, Winemaker

It’s been quite some time since our last bottle of Fine Old Tawny was sold. This is one wine that can’t be made fast enough to meet the demand, and the 40 or so cases per year that we put out tend to get snapped up quickly. So this is what it must feel like to have your wines on allocation!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Update from the Southern Hemisphere: College Is In Session?

By:  Kelby Russell, Winemaking Team Member from afar

Vintages are a rite of passage in the wine industry; each one survived is another notch on the belt of the winemaker.  Most of the time these notches are accumulated one at a time as each fall approaches, but for those entering the industry it is now common to "chase" the vintage from hemisphere to hemisphere to get in two per calendar year.  Chasing vintages is certainly far easier than the hobby of those who can be found chasing tornados any evening on cable TV, but it often feels just as wild and tiring by the end of it.

Friday, April 22, 2011

How I Nourish My Soul

By Sharon Winslow, Fox Run Outside Events and Donations Coordinator


When I was in my mid thirties, my husband gave me a set of golf clubs for Christmas. I was very surprised to say the least.  He said he thought that if I would give it a try, golf might become something that we could do as we grow older together. And he was right: it worked.  

Monday, April 18, 2011

What Can Modernist Cuisine Teach us About Wine?

By Peter Bell, Winemaker

If you’re serious about cutting-edge food and drink and happen to have $625 to spare, you might consider picking up a copy of  “Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking”, just out in hardcover. I opted to save my money and read John Lanchester’s review in The New Yorker instead, since most of the food that the authors advance is best sampled in restaurants equipped with a few hundred thousand dollars’ worth of specialized cooking gizmos. Mind you, your meal at one of those places is likely to cost about the same as the book does, per person.

Friday, April 15, 2011

What’s in the Bottle – Shards of Glass?

By Steven Hickman Ph.D., Staff Scientist, Harvard University and Fox Run Winery Intern emeritus

The story, as told by Peter Bell, goes as follows:  a woman calls the Fox Run tasting room one afternoon, in a state of some distress.  She had removed a bottle of Fox Run wine from her fridge, and as she was preparing to open and serve said bottle, noticed shards of glass suspended in the wine.  She was rather upset at the winery, accusing it of at best gross incompetence on the bottling line, and at worst an attempt on her life.  What had caused this strange circumstance?

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The Mad Scientist's New Intern

By Bradley Ross

The fictional character of Igor has been portrayed in many examples of "Peonism" (see the Bordeax Baritone's guide to his Fox Run internship, currently an internal monologue in progress). He has been personified as both dramatic and comedic characters in many forms of modern media, most recently as a likeable hero in a big-budget animated feature-film. In every example of the role, he has always been the devoted lab assistant, the lowly peon of lore, robbing graves or throwing the power switch to some ungodly machine that produces who-knows-what. Fortunately for me, my chance at the role of Igor was much more pleasant, without the Master's whip or shocking electrical devices.

Monday, April 11, 2011

What I Learn From My Customers

By Dan Mitchell, Regional Sales Manager

I have been known during my time here at Fox Run to collect and archive some of the unusual comments and questions that come from visitors to our winery. These can come fast and furious when the tasting bar is five people deep. My responses are often of little help.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

The Very Basics


By Kyle Pallischeck, Tasting Room Manager

What do you do with the wine in your glass?

Drink it, obviously.

But if you're at a winery you only get a little sample.  Clearly, what you choose to do with that wee nip can greatly affect your impression of the wine.  If you follow these steps consistently when tasting, over time you'll begin to get more from each experience than just a pleasant buzz.

Monday, April 4, 2011

I Blame My Parents

by Stacy B. Brody, Rutgers Student and Enthusiastic Intern

You all know about Fox Run Vineyards, but you don’t know much about me. So I think I should fill you in a bit. I don’t have a complex or anything, I’m not going to go from my birth, day by day, hour by hour (though this is quite interesting and we really should discuss this), but I’ll give you a brief bio about me.