Tassel Ridge Winery–September 21, 2009
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Saturday, September 26—Art Exhibition by Joyce Wathen at Tassel Ridge Winery
Time: 12–4 p.m.
Location: Tassel Ridge Winery, Visitors Gallery
Visit the exhibition of works by Joyce Wathen at Tassel Ridge Winery on Saturday, September 26, from 12–4 p.m. Joyce loves black and white portraits and illustrations. She works with graphite pencil as her main medium, adding some color for enhancements. Her passion is portraits of people, celebrities, and children at play. Whether a child’s soft image or a hard line of an Iowa barn, her style and trademark are in the fine details, textures, contrast, and shading. She has won many awards while exhibiting in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, and Tennessee. Joyce has her work printed at the Pella Town Crier and divides her time between her home in Mt. Pleasant, IA and her husband’s work in Missouri. Her work can be viewed in her online gallery at www.pencilworksbyjoyce.com.
Saturday, October 3—Join us for an Oktoberfest Wine Dinner & Hayride at Tassel Ridge Winery
Hayride: 6:00 p.m. (weather permitting)
Buffet Dinner: 7:00 p.m.
Price: $25 per person, plus tax
If you’d like to experience a little bit of Oktoberfest, but a trip to Germany is not in your budget this year, join us at Tassel Ridge Winery for a hayride through the vineyard. Sip our special mulled wine and enjoy a German-theme buffet dinner in a tent on our terrace including Bavarian pretzels with Cabernet mustard, brats, German potato salad, red cabbage, and apple strudel paired with Tassel Ridge wines. Advance reservations required by Thursday, October 1.
Saturday, October 3—Wood Sculpture Exhibition by Kirk Johnson
Time: 12–4 p.m.
Location: Tassel Ridge Winery, Visitors Gallery
Artist Kirk Johnson’s display features unique wood sculptures and carvings. He works with many varieties of wood, including specialty woods, driftwood, and even pieces that were destined for his fireplace. No two works are alike as each finished work is a result of the character found in the wood and the vision in Kirk’s mind. Pieces are finished from a variety of tools including everything from chainsaws down to pocket knives. Kirk is intrigued by faces and the power of expression they can convey. Kirk was raised in Iowa and now works on his art full time in Marion County.
Thursday, October 8—Joseph Ribkoff Trunk Show and Wine & Cheese Tasting Featuring Tassel Ridge Wine
Time: 4–7 p.m.
Location: The Hall Tree by Geri & Co.,
121 S. Market Street, Oskaloosa
Price: complimentary
You are invited to a wine and cheese tasting featuring Tassel Ridge wines and a Joseph Ribkoff Trunk Show at The Hall Tree by Geri & Co. Enjoy a sneak peak of hot holiday items and Ribkoff’s Spring 2010 Collection. Try on Ribkoff’s designs and feel like Miss America. Katie Stam, Miss America, wears Ribkoff’s clothing. Come join us for an evening of fun, great wine, and fabulous fashion.
Sunday, October 11—Are You Ready for a Chili Cook-off at Tassel Ridge Winery?
Time: 12–3:00 p.m., prizes awarded at 2:30 p.m.
Attendees: complimentary
Contestants: entry fee $20 per team, plus tax
Join us as attendees or as contestants for a chili cook-off at Tassel Ridge Winery! Attendees will enjoy sampling chili cooked and/or paired with Tassel Ridge wine and then vote for their favorite chili and best chili presentation. Each participating team will receive a gift certificate for a bottle of Tassel Ridge wine (excludes Prairie Snow). The winning recipes will be featured on the Tassel Ridge Winery website and included in the winery e-newsletter. Advance reservations for team contestants required by Friday, October 2.
Check our website at www.tasselridge.com or contact the Winery for rules and guidelines.
Your copy of the new Fall 2009 Tassel Ridge Winery Events Program can be accessed here!
In the future, we will put our events programs on our web site and will let you know when they have been posted with a note in our e-letter. The Fall 2009 edition can be accessed here: http://www.tasselridge.com/images/Events-Prog-Fall09.pdf.
It is a 4.86 mb PDF.
Grapemobile Rides Are Now Offered on Weekends—Saturday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., Weather Permitting
Visit the vineyards at Tassel Ridge in an informative tour that lasts about 45 minutes. The Grapemobile accommodates 26 passengers and is pulled by a John Deere tractor. Your leader is an experienced member of our staff who will address, at about five stops along the way, our soils, the grape varieties we grow, our trellis systems and vineyard layout, what is happening in the vineyard at the time of your visit, and our environmental practices.
The fee is $5 per person. The tour fee can be applied to purchases of $5 or more in the gift shop on the day of the tour.
Large French Oak Barrels Are Now Being Leak Tested
Our new 200 gallon (8HL) French Oak barrels are now resting on their new, solid oak pallets. They are full of water in order to make sure that they don’t leak. We will taste the water when it is drained out to make sure that there are no off-aromas or flavors in the barrels. We will fill them with must (grapes, skins, and seeds) from our Marquette grapes when they are harvested starting on Tuesday, September 22. Then we will ferment the wine in these barrels and finally age the wine in these barrels.
Our goal is to make an outstanding dry red wine. If you love dry red wine, please click here and sign up for a special e-letter that we will use to keep you informed on the processes we use in making this special wine. We will host and invite you to events uniquely focused on your interest in dry red wine. They will include opportunities to taste this wine as it develops.
Anne Hafar shows off our two new French oak barrels. They will be home to our first harvest of Marquette for the next 18-24 months.
Organize A Group and Travel To Tassel Ridge Winery in a Bus From Des Moines
Here is an idea for a fun group-oriented outing. Organize a group of up to 20 people and schedule a bus tour from Des Moines with IowaWines.org. You will board the bus at a convenient place in the Des Moines area and journey down to Tassel Ridge Winery in about one hour. Then, you’ll have the opportunity to tour the Winery, taste the wines, enjoy a picnic lunch, and shop in the gift shop. You can get details at http://iowawinestours.mwrc.net/en/. Click on products>wine tasting tours>single winery tasting tours>tassel ridge winery. We look forward to your visit.
Harvest Has Started
After September 3, harvest really slowed down because acid levels in the grapes remained high. We just haven’t had the number of degree-days we need to fully ripen some varieties. The yields are very good, but the fruit had too much “pucker power” from higher than normal acids to harvest immediately.
As of September 17, we’ve already harvested 91 tons of grapes and are about 70% done. We continue to use our new Korvan harvester. It has allowed us to get fruit picked when it is at the peak of perfection, and we hope it will allow us to improve wine quality as a result.
If you’d like to see photos of harvest at Tassel Ridge Winery, please click here.
We are nearly finished harvesting our LaCrescent, will harvest Foch on Monday, and Marquette on Tuesday and Wednesday, weather permitting. We are really pushing right now because the birds are competing vigorously for the grapes. In fact, we purchased propane “cannons” for use at Tassel Ridge and are using bird calls at Newport Lane Vineyards. The cannons are noisy and they really spook the birds. But, we can’t use them at Meadowcreek Vineyards because we have neighbors close by. The bird calls work well at Newport Lane Vineyards. The birds sound like they are being eaten by vultures. Next year, we will net the Marquette. We netted the Frontenac at Meadowcreek Vineyards but didn’t have enough net to cover the Marquette too. In fact, we’ve calculated that it will take eight miles of netting to cover all of the Marquette at about $1000 per mile. We’ve never had this much bird pressure in the past.
What Is Happening In Our Cellar?
We are crushing and destemming fruit as it comes in. Our new elevator, destemmer-crusher, and pump system are making this work much easier than it was in the past. If we are making a white or rosé wine, we will press the fruit immediately and then move the juice to a tank for fermentation. If we are making red wine, we will simply move the must (juice, skins, and seeds) to a tank for fermentation. We’ve got a bunch of ferments going already and more to get started. The cellar really smells good most of the time.
Interested in Pairing Specific Foods With Tassel Ridge Wines?
Are you interested in suggestions of foods that pair well with specific Tassel Ridge wines? We’ve put some suggestions on our web site under Recipes and Food Pairing Suggestions. You can link directly to this page at www.tasselridge.com/recipes.htm.
Our Hours:
In September and October 2009, we are open seven days a week for tours, tasting, and wine and gift shop sales:
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Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
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Saturday, 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
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Sunday, Noon–6:00 p.m.
Our Location:
Tassel Ridge Winery is easy to find. It is just south of State Highway 163 on 220th Street in Leighton. From Ottumwa and Oskaloosa, drive northwest on 163 to 220th Street and turn left toward Leighton. From Des Moines and Pella, drive southeast on Highway 163 and turn right at 220th Street. Drive west on 220th about 0.7 miles from the Highway and right into the Tassel Ridge Winery parking lot. view maps
—Bob Wersen, President
Email Jody Brockway at info@tasselridge.com to sign up a friend for our e-newsletter.