Tassel Ridge Winery

Tassel Ridge Winery–January 2007

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Our Hours:

Effective January 3, 2007, we are open for tours, tasting, wine, and gift shop sales as follows:

We are closed on Monday and Tuesday except by prior arrangement

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 towards Leighton.  From Des Moines and Pella, 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.

New Feature – Last Call!

In this edition of the Tassel Ridge Winery e-letter, we are inaugurating a new feature whereby we let you know of wines that just about sold out.  In this way, you’ll have some advance notice that will allow you to stock up if your favorite wine is about to run out.  We’ll also let you know what we recommend as an alternative and/or when the next vintage of the wine is expected to be put on sale.

7 cases left of Nouveau

The Nouveau was made from grapes grown Mahaska County and harvested in 2005.  We released it when we opened to the public in May 2006.  Normally, wines made in the Nouveau style have a very short life and they are frequently sold out by December 31 of the year in which they were made.  This wine, while still fairly light, has developed nicely in the bottle and will complement beef and pasta dishes.   As of December 30, we had about seven cases left.  The Nouveau is succeeded by the 2006 Nouveau that was released in November 2006.  

New Wines:

2006 Finalé Premier Red Dessert Wine Debuts

Every fine meal needs a finalé and the Tassel Ridge Finalé is just the answer.  With big flavor, residual sugar at about 11%, and alcohol at 17.3%, Finalé is “dessert-in-a-bottle” or the perfect compliment to Maytag blue cheese, salted cashews, and high-cocoa solids dark chocolate.  Note that Finalé does NOT work well with milk chocolate because milk chocolate is sweeter than the wine.  With dessert wines, the operating principle is that the wine should always be sweeter than the dessert.

Tassel Ridge Finalé is made from grapes typically used in making Port wines in Portugal: Tinta Roriz, Tinta Cão, Touriga Nacional, and Alvarinho.  We imported these grapes from California in the fall of 2005. 

Experienced Port consumers are going to say that this wine tastes like a Port and they’ll ask why we didn’t just call it a Port.  It turns out that the Federal Government no longer allows American wineries making dessert wines for the first time to call them Ports.  The U.S. Government recently signed an agreement with the European Union that, among other things, forbids the use of European place names on new products.  In the case of Port, the name is regarded as a place-name in Portugal.  Other European place names such as Champagne, Chablis, Chianti, Burgundy, etc. are similarly protected going forward. 

As a result, new producers of these products have to come up with new names.  On the one hand, the effect is just what the Europeans want because it forces us to invest heavily in promoting a new name and connecting it in the consumer’s mind with a specific benefit.  On the other hand, it frees us to think about the product and the benefit from the perspective of our customer.  We think Finalé will, in the long run, be a much better name for our dessert wine product range than Port.  Time will tell!

Upcoming Wine Releases:

Our Finalé Dessert Wine product range will grow in the next month with the releases of a Raspberry, Blackberry, and Iowa Finalé.  These three additional dessert wines will give our dessert wine program some breadth that will allow us to address several different niches in the dessert wine market.  By the way, the Iowa Finalé is made entirely from St. Croix and Foch grapes grown in Mahaska County.

We will release our 2006 Frontenac Rosé in January.  This dry wine offers a half-way point between whites and reds with more body than one of our blushes but less than our lightest reds. 

And, we will release our 2006 Edelweiss in both a dry and semi-sweet version sometime in January.  This grape variety is grown entirely in our vineyards and it offers delightful pineapple and citrus notes.   

Tassel Ridge Winery Now Ships Wine to Iowa Addresses and Ten Other States:

We can now ship wine to addresses in Iowa and the following states: Alaska, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.  We ship via UPS provided the shipment can be received by an adult.

The approximate cost for shipping two bottles of wine in Iowa is $10-15 and the cost for shipping a twelve bottle case is about $15-20.  Normal delivery time to Iowa locations is 2-3 days from date of shipment. 

The cost for shipping outside of Iowa depends on the weight and which state we are shipping to.  For example, the cost for shipping two bottles of wine to New Mexico is $13 - 18and the cost for shipping a twelve bottle case is $15 - 22.    

Are you out of your favorite Tassel Ridge Wine and can’t make it to the Winery to pick up a new supply?  We will make it easy for you to keep your wine cellar full.  Or, would you like to give someone a gift of Tassel Ridge wine and have it sent directly to them?  Give us a call.  We will get your order on its way to you or to people located in the states noted above.

So, why can’t we just ship to any state in the U.S?  Didn’t a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision “free the grapes?”  The Supreme Court decision just said that all wineries in-state and out-of-state had to be treated the same.  Some state legislatures have decided that wineries that are shipping wine to their citizens will have to register, pay a fee, put up tax payment bonds regardless of whether the wineries will have any tax liability, collect sales and use taxes, and in some cases file regular reports.  Each state is different.  It is not practical for a small family owned winery in Iowa to file quarterly reports in 20-30 different states, particularly if the volume of wine shipped into those states is small.  So, we are starting with the states that are easiest for us to deal with and adding additional states as we hear from customers that they want us to ship wine to them.  If you’d like to ship wine to people in a specific state, let us know.  This information will help us decide where to put our compliance resources. 

What’s Happening in the Cellar?

In January, cellar operations will be focused on bottling wine.  But, we’ll also receive 3,000 gallons each of Chardonnay and Muscat juice from our growers in Lake County, California.  We will work quickly to get this juice inoculated and to start the wine making process.  Finally, our Syrah is about ready for several months of contact with oak so we will be putting American oak planks contained in food-grade nylon “tea bags” into the stainless steel tanks with the Syrah.  Contact with American oak will give the Syrah some body and complexity that makes it more pleasing on both the nose and pallet. 

Calendar

The 2007 Tassel Ridge Winery calendar is now available.  It is produced in a large 10.5 by 16 inch format and includes 13 full color images of Tassel Ridge Winery, our vineyards, and our cellar.  The calendar includes some interesting facts about some of the varieties of grapes we grow in our vineyards as well as images of members of our winemaking team. The Calendar is now free while supplies last.

Gift Ideas:

Wooden Gift Boxes of Wine

These gifts can include 2, 3, or 12 bottles of wine.  The 2 bottle box will include two Tassel Ridge Winery glasses.  These wine boxes make a very classy and memorable gift.  Prices depend on specific wines included but are in the $50-60 range for 2 and 3 bottle boxed gifts and $250 for the 12 bottle box. 

Gift Baskets with Wine

Does a gift basket work better for you?  We offer gift baskets with two bottles of wine and several complimentary items for about $55.00 (price will vary with items you select).  These baskets are very attractively packaged in cellophane and make a striking gift. 

Gift Cards

Tassel Ridge Winery gift cards are an appropriate gift for wine lovers any time of the year.  They can be issued for any amount.  All gift cards are valid for purchase of wine and non-wine merchandise only and no cash refunds will be made.  Gift cards are sold in an attractive gift envelope.  They make a great gift for people who like wine.

Tassel Ridge Wines Will Soon Appear in Retailers Near You

Tassel Ridge Winery is now building a network of retailers to make our wines conveniently available to our customers in Iowa.  We start our work of locating and appointing retailers in the Greater Des Moines area and in Southeastern Iowa in January.  If you have a favorite retailer where you’d like to purchase Tassel Ridge wines in the future, please e-mail me at bwersen@interpower.com and I will put them on our list of prospective retailers.

Email Brian Babcock at info@tasselridge.com to sign up a friend for our enewsletter.

Previous Issues:

December 2006: www.interpower.com/trwinery/newsletter12-06.htm
November 2006: www.interpower.com/trwinery/newsletter11-06.htm
October 2006: www.interpower.com/trwinery/newsletter10-06.htm
September 2006: www.interpower.com/trwinery/newsletter9-06.htm
August 2006: www.interpower.com/trwinery/newsletter8-06.htm
July 2006: www.interpower.com/trwinery/newsletter7-06.htm