In The Post Riesling Hour Haze...

by Evan Dawson - Author of Summer in a Glass: The Coming of Age of Winemaking in the Finger Lakes

I have the pleasure of standing in for Peter Bell this week - or sitting in, or writing in, if you like - and I'd like to spill a little news about Riesling. It comes from Peter, and I don't know what he'd think about me writing it here, which is all the more reason to post it now and hope he's cool with it later. After all, a colleague in the news business taught me years ago: Don't ask for permission; ask for forgiveness.

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.

Getting Wine Into the Barrel

In this post, former Fox Run employee Dr. Steven Hickman elaborates on one of his favorite activities: filling barrels. During his time at Fox Run, he emptied and filled hundreds of them. A generous and enthusiastic soul, he also donated to the winery the following:

• an expensive camera
• a high-end mountain bike
• a microwave oven
• cases of wine to taste and evaluate
• plenty of his time
• a gas regulator
• a car, and
• a little multi-articulated flashlight, which was so useful that it came to be known as The Hickman Apparatus

How many of us can say that we have a device named after us? Never mind that it was just a scientific-conference freebie: it serves as the ne plus ultra illumination device for barrel filling. Read on...

When Viticulture and Ornithology Collide

By John Kaiser, Vineyard Manager

First and foremost, I would like to clear up my current Avifauna issue. Is it Kildare, or Killdeer? And why am I concerned with this situation? The answer is simple: it doesn’t matter with whom I discuss this matter; no one is certain what this bird's true name is. 

Tawny Time, Part II: It Was NOT Like Giving Birth

By Peter Bell, Winemaker

As I write this, I’m looking back on the last month or so of work, during which we assembled and bottled our latest Tawny fortified wine. Every time we complete a difficult blending task, there descends on the lab a palpable sense of accomplishment: that almost goes without saying. How to describe that feeling is the hard part.

Why I Love My Job

by Kyle Anne Pallischeck, Tasting Room Manager

Community:

1.  A group of people living together in one place, esp. one practicing common ownership.

If you travel around to any of the numerous wineries in the Finger Lakes, you'll surely hear someone behind the tasting bar recommending a wine from a winery... other than the one they're working at.  Some people find this surprising, as the expectation seems to be that we are all competitors.  In reality I think it's a true representation of the community that has developed in the wine industry of the Finger Lakes Region.

How Everyone Should Learn About Wine

by Alyson Galipeau

I thought I didn't like wine until my first visit to Seneca Lake, two years ago.  A wine-loving friend, originally from Rochester, directed me there, saying that if I wanted to learn about wine, Seneca Lake was the place to visit.