The Coolest of Cool Climates

By: Kelby Russell, Winemaking Team Member returned from afar

Having spent the previous four months in Tasmania, returning to the Finger Lakes a few days ago has truly been a joy.  From catching up with family to catching up with friends old and new, the only thing as rewarding has been the sudden change from winter weather to summer weather (and daylight hours) for the first time in nearly ten months.  I may grumble about the increase in temperature and the adjustment to trying to sleep in a room at 70 degrees rather than 40 degrees, but that would be the definition of missing the forest for the trees.

Update From The Deep South: Harvest is Over!

By:  Kelby Russell, Winemaking Team Member from afar

Greetings once again from the Down Under's Down Under, Tasmania!  Home of wallabies, platypuses (platypi?), freakishly large moths, and birds that only sound quaint in name until their screeching calls awaken you before sunrise.  If kookaburras do congregate around 'the old gum tree,' as the sing-song rhyme would benignly have us believe, then I would seriously consider supporting the otherwise destructive logging industry here.

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.

Dispatch from the South. The Deep South. The REALLY Deep South.

by Kelby Russell, winemaking team member from afar

Greetings from Tasmania!  (No, no... not Tanzania.  Look further east and to the south.  Nope, that's New Zealand.  Great place, had a blast making wine there last year, but look back to the west a bit.  It's part of Australia.  No, not quite - down a bit.  The huge island south of the main continent.  Bingo!  That's me waving from the north-central part of the heart.  Can you see me?  Excellent.)  Welcome to a land with a tiny yet hugely friendly population, the highest valued grapes in Australia, and simply unfathomable amounts of road kill -which I say full and well knowing what November in Western New York looks like.

No More Mr. Nice Guy

- by Tricia Renshaw, assistant winemaker


I can’t believe we’ve let Kelby leave again.  Last year, he was off to Marlborough, New Zealand.  This time, he’s gone to Tasmania, the island state of Australia.  We wish we could keep him here, but he has to follow the whisperings of Calliope:  voyage, see, learn.