Tassel Ridge Winery–April 2009
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Saturday, April 11,
12–4 p.m.— Tamiko Van Zante, Exhibition of Water Color Paintings
Tamiko Van Zante works primarily in watercolor and is a signatured member of the Iowa Watercolor Society. She was born in Japan and attended Central College. She now lives in Marion County. Tamiko was be on the visitors’ gallery at Tassel Ridge Winery from 12–4 p.m.
If you think you’ve seen this announcement before, you are correct. We had our dates mixed up last weekend.
Saturday, April 18—Girls’ Day Out
for Vines and Wine
10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Cost: $20 per person, plus tax
Join us at Tassel Ridge Winery for our 1st annual grapevine wreath workshop. Make your own wreath out of the vines at Tassel Ridge Winery. Enjoy a picnic lunch with a wine-a-rita in a Tassel Ridge Winery souvenir glass on our beautiful terrace. Advance reservations are required by Wednesday, April 15.
Sunday, April 19—A Taste of Iowa
Wine & Food Pairing Dinner
Wine Tasting: 6:00 p.m.; Dinner Seating: 6:30 p.m.
Cost: $55 per person, plus tax
Experience a Taste of Iowa at Tassel Ridge Winery where you will enjoy Iowa grown chevron, pork, and apples paired with award-winning Tassel Ridge wines. This dinner will feature Hawaiian chevron mini-kebabs, stuffed pork tenderloin with bacon and apples in Tassel Ridge American Dry Riesling sauce and seasonal vegetables paired with select Tassel Ridge wines. For dessert, a luscious apple cake will be served with Tassel Ridge Prairie Snow. Advance reservations are required by Wednesday, April 15.
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What is Happening in the Vineyard?
Beginning March 1, we begin our annual pruning. Our objective is to assure the vine produces the best fruit possible and in a quantity that is optimized for the vigor of the vine. In the process of pruning, we will remove as much as 90% of the previous season’s growth. This process takes 7-8 minutes per vine if we include the time it takes to retie the vine to the trellis. Ideally, we’d like to be able to prune all of our 31,000 vines on the last day of April and be done with it. Because of the amount of time required to do all of our pruning, we have to start in March. Unfortunately, pruning itself stimulates the vine to bud and since hard frosts as late as late April are not unheard-of, we have to engage in a two-step process whereby we long-prune vines until mid April. We go back and finish the pruning as soon as we are past the worst of the frosts.
So, why do we go to all of this work? Left to its own devices, a grape vine will look for a structure to grow up on as it searches for a place where its grapes can grow in at least partial sun. I know of one wild, native American grape that has grown nearly 60 feet up a tree and down a branch to a point at which the grape producing canes simply hang down in the sun. The trunk of this vine is nearly twelve inches in diameter at the base, and the tree that supports it is probably only 24 inches in diameter. But, this huge vine produces only 10-12 pounds of grapes per year.
By pruning, we can get the vine to confine its fruit to a specific zone. This assures that we can manage leaf growth so that the fruit is exposed to sunlight at least part of the day. We also assure that there will be about 15 leaves on each fruiting cane past the point the fruit is growing. This provides sufficient photosynthesis to ripen the fruit.
This year, we are pruning with Lithium ion battery powered electrical pruners for the first time. Each of our four pruners wears a battery that looks like a little backpack. Our pruning team is followed by two people who tie the vines securely to the trellis wire. This is very important since we will be mechanically harvesting this year for the first time.
This is also the time of year that we spray the vines with a lime-sulfur solution. We use a high pressure sprayer that covers two rows at a time. The lime-sulfur solution is applied to penetrate the cracks in the trunk of each vine and kill any fungus or other organism living on the vine. We are also applying a pre-emergent herbicide under the vines to attempt to minimize the number of weeds that will compete for water later in the growing season.
What is Happening
in the Cellar?
This time of year, our cellar crew focuses on final steps in making our fruity semi-sweet and sweet wines. We do our final fining and in some cases, de-acidification. Then, run the wine through our filtration system for its final clarification. The last step is bottling. We’ve recently bottled our White Blossom, Edelweiss, and Steuben. We normally hold the wine in bottles for at least three weeks after bottling before release to let the wine recover from bottle shock. With our dry red wines, the holding period after bottling can be as long as nine months.
Moroccan Dinner Event a Big Success
Our first Moroccan dinner featured chicken couscous served under our “desert tent.” We used the visitors’ gallery at the winery and turned down the lights in the wine cellar. The atmosphere was so pleasant that we forgot about the blizzard that was raging outside.
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.
Last Call on Wines About to Run Out
We are nearly sold out of the following three wines:
- Fruit Stand Raspberry Fruit Wine
- Fruit Stand Cranberry Fruit Wine
- American Dry Riesling
We have small quantities of each of these wines available at the Winery on a first come, first served basis. Case discounts of 10% on twelve bottles of any of our wines apply.
Our Hours:
In April 2009, we are open seven days a week for tours, tastings, wine, and gift shop during
the following hours:
- Monday, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
- Tuesday, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
- Wednesday, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
- Thursday, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
- Friday, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
- Saturday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
- Sunday, 12 p.m. – 6 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 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.