Tassel Ridge Winery

Tassel Ridge Winery–May 2008

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Mark Your Calendars for Two New Wine Release Parties in May

On each of the weekends below, we will release the wines as noted and offer all of our guests appropriate hors d’oeuvres to enhance their enjoyment of the wine. The hors d’oeuvres are free and are first-come, first-served! Come and have a good time!

May 17-18: Pink Catawba

Our Pink Catawba is a refreshing semi-sweet fruity pink wine made entirely from Catawba grapes. This wine offers tropical fruit aromas with pineapple and other tropical fruit, green apple, and citrus flavors on the palate. When served chilled, Pink Catawba is a great sipping wine.

Price: Pink Catawba in a 750 ml bottle is $13.00 plus tax

May 31 and June 1: 2007 Iowa Steuben

Iowa Steuben is back! Made entirely from Steuben grapes grown in Mahaska County, the 2007 Iowa Steuben is a light, fruity, easy-drinking style wine that is best served chilled. On the nose, Iowa Steuben displays cherry and apple notes with just a hint of cinnamon. It is semi-sweet with cherry and apple flavors, and has a slightly spicy, tangy finish. Perfect as an aperitif or try it with an Asian stir fry or chicken salad.

Price: 2007 Iowa Steuben in a 750 ml bottle is $13.00 plus tax.

Future new wine releases include:

Are you coming to Tulip Time in Pella?

If you are coming to Tulip Time in Pella, May 1-3, visit one of our three retailers in Pella: Cammies’s Place just off the square at 804 East 1st Street, Hy-Vee Wine & Spirits on Oskaloosa Avenue just east of downtown, and the Casey’s Westport at Exit 40 on Pella’s west side. And, Tassel Ridge Winery is only ten miles east of Pella just off State Hwy 163.

Upcoming Events

Mark Pearson, the WHO Radio Farm Guy, Celebrates Vine Planting with a Live Remote at the Winery on Thursday, May 15.

Mark Pearson, the WHO Radio Farm Guy, will do a live remote broadcast during grapevine planting at Tassel Ridge Winery on Thursday afternoon, May 15. He will be describing the vine planting process as he interviews Steve Richardson, Vineyard Manager and Bob Wersen, Owner.

The program starts at 3:00 p.m. and continues until 6:00 p.m. and WHO Radio is at 1040 AM on the dial.

The public is welcome to come out to the Winery that afternoon and actually plant a vine or two or just watch others do the planting. Mark may even demonstrate grapevine planting techniques himself. Iowans are generally accustomed to seeing corn and beans being planted but may not yet have had the opportunity to witness grapevine planting. All visitors will be welcome in the tasting room during the afternoon.

Wine and Food Pairing Dinner on Sunday, May 18 Features catering by Waterfront Seafood Market

Des Moines’ finest fresh seafood market and restaurant, Waterfront Seafood Market, is back by popular demand! Watch as your dinner of fresh seafood is grilled to perfection right on our terrace by Mark Andrews and his staff. Enjoy Cajun Barbeque Shrimp and Mushrooms, Salad, Fresh Grilled Sockeye Salmon with Pasta and Vegetables, and Dessert. Make your reservations early for this event by calling 641.672.WINE (9463). Reservations accepted through Thursday, May 15 or until dinner is full. Price is $60 per person.

 

Tassel Ridge Winery Hosts Photo Exhibition on Saturday, May 24

John Young, a talented photographer from Knoxville, IA will display a selection of his photos at the Winery on May 24. John developed his passion for photography while studying commercial art in college. Since then, he has studied photojournalism, portraiture, and fine art photography while mastering the tools of his craft and developing the artistry to produce a wide range of beautifully rendered images.

Besides fine art photography, John is a portrait and wedding photographer, and retouche and graphic design artist. Currently, John is employed by Treasured Portraits, a portrait studio in Knoxville, IA.

John is an award winning photographer who works with the most up-to-date tools and techniques using both digital and film technology.

Mark Your Calendars for the First Tassel Ridge Winery Croquet Tournament on Saturday, June 7

Join us for outdoor fun on the beautiful Tassel Ridge Winery grounds at our first annual croquet tournament! Come any time between 11:00 and 1:00 p.m. If you need a refresher course or have never played croquet before; croquet experts will be standing by to teach you the basics of this classic lawn game. The tournament will begin at 1:00 p.m. Prizes will be awarded to the winners! Form your own team or come and join a team when you arrive. Final details of this event are being developed. Call the Winery at 641.672.WINE (9463) or visit the events calendar on our web site for more information.

Tassel Ridge Winery Harvest Club

We are pleased to announce the formation of the Tassel Ridge Winery Harvest Club. Members receive four shipments of Tassel Ridge Wine each year in March, May, September, and November. We’ve picked those months because they are usually temperate enough that we can ship wine without excessive heat or cold to damage it. Each shipment contains two bottles that are priced at retail plus shipping unless club members pick the shipments up at the Winery. In that case, there is no shipping charge. The average price of each shipment with shipping is $45.

We offer two wine preferences:
• Dry wines for pairing with foods
• Sipping wines that are generally sweeter

Re-orders of full case quantities of the Harvest Club selections are always priced at retail less 20% when orders are placed within sixty days of the original shipment.

Harvest club members have the first opportunity to purchase limited edition wines before they are offered to the public. They are also offered special tasting opportunities when they visit the Winery. In the future, we plan to have wine and food pairing dinners for club members only, special tastings with the wine maker, and opportunities to see how wine is made all of which are designed to make the experience of consuming Tassel Ridge Wines especially enjoyable.

The Tassel Ridge Harvest Club is open to people 21 years old and older. Shipments are paid for with a credit card that is kept on file.

Consider a Tassel Ridge Harvest Club membership as the perfect gift for a person who enjoys wine. One year gift memberships are available.

Heart of Iowa Wine Trail 2008 Passport

The Passport is your ticket to fifteen different Iowa wine country experiences. You can take advantage of the fact that there are now fifteen wineries within a 60 mile radius of Des Moines and each offers different wines. The Heart of Iowa Wine Trail Passport guides you to each of the wineries while providing you with a list of amenities. Purchase your passport any member winery for $25.00. As you visit each winery, you will have the appropriate page in your passport stamped. When your passport is full, one page is removed and exchanged for two elegant commemorative wine glasses.

Purchase your 2008 Heart of Iowa Wine Trail Passport at Tassel Ridge Winery. Price is $25.00, the experience is priceless!

For more information about the Heart of Iowa Wine Trail, visit the website at www.heartofiowawinetrail.com.

Custom Labels are a Great Way to Recognize Success and to Celebrate an Accomplishment

Most Tassel Ridge Wines are available with custom labels that allow you to celebrate a big zero birthday, recognize a friend’s special achievement, or to thank the person who already has everything. Provide us with a photo and some guidance as to what you want on the label and we will do the rest. We have a one case minimum (12 bottles) and we charge a $10 fee for label set-up. Custom labeled wine does NOT qualify for the case discount. Check our notebook of special wine labels to find ideas for your label.

Do You Want To Ship Wine Out of State?

We can now ship to the following six states:
• California
• Florida
• Iowa
• Illinois
• Minnesota
• New Mexico

If you’d like to be able to ship wine to other states not mentioned above, please let us
know and we investigate what kinds of licenses and permits we need to ship there.

What’s Happening in the Vineyard?

We are hard at work pruning vines. With nearly 30,000 vines to prune this season, we are about one week behind our original pruning schedule. We still expect to be done with pruning by the time we start planting new vines in the week beginning May 5.

Weather has not made our pruning effort easy. We weren’t even able to get into the vineyards until late March and now the vineyard floor is so wet, it won’t support any kind of equipment.

We have not yet applied the lime sulfur spray either because it has been too windy or because it has been too wet to run the tractor and spray rig into the vineyard without tearing up our vineyard floor.

Planting of new vines will start about May 8 and will continue for about three weeks. We will be planting about 5,000 new vines this year. About one-third of these vines will finish out our Marquette vineyard, another third will be Steuben that we are planting to replace the Norton and Foch that we’ve removed from an underperforming vineyard, and the remainder will be replacements for vines that died or had other problems.

Above, our vineyard puppy Boomer visits the winery after a long day in the vineyard.

What’s Happening in the Cellar?

Bottling, bottling, bottling…..that is our mantra in the cellar these days. We are making great progress and will have several new wines to introduce soon.

 

At left, 2006 Iowa St. Croix being bottled last week.

 

 

 

Tassel Ridge Winery in the Marketplace

New Retailers:

We have several new retailers this month:
• Cedar Rapids: Edgewood Road Hy-Vee & Spirits
• Clear Lake: Quick Shop
• Marion: Hy-Vee Wine & Spirits on U.S. Highway 151
• Mason City: Hy-Vee Drugstore on Fourth Street
• Montezuma: Super Valu
• Newton: Prairie Gas & Deli
• West Des Moines: Jordan Creek Parkway and West University

Featured Retailer:

Main Attractions Gift, Collectibles, and Antiques is located in Lake Mills, Iowa just 10 minutes west of the Diamond Jo Casino along I-35 in North Central Iowa. You can visit their store on the web at www.mainattract.com.

The owners of Main Attractions are Mike and Rosalie Helgeson, both of whom are natives of Lake Mills. They opened their specialty gift shop in March 1994. It consists of fine antiques and collectibles as well as spacious and creative displays of new home décor items. They also offer a large assortment of baby and bridal gift registry items. Their motto is “the best of the old and the latest of the new.” Reflecting their Norwegian heritage, they showcase Norwegian gift items that include rosemale plates, tiles and clocks, fine linens, and a variety of items from Scandinavia.

The Helgesons added native Iowa wines last fall, starting with Tassel Ridge wines. The wines compliment their range of gourmet food items.

Correction: This photo ran by mistake last month with an article about Mrs. T’s Mercantile in Vincent, IA. We apologize for any confusion this mix-up caused.

Our Hours:

In May 2008, we are open for tours, tasting, wine, and gift shop sales seven days per week during the following hours:

We are open seven days per week!

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. view maps

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

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--Bob Wersen, President