Tassel Ridge Winery

Tassel Ridge Winery–July 2007

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New Wines:

2005 Twilight

2005 Twilight is our beautifully balanced dry red wine made entirely from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes grown in Lake County, California. It was aged in American AND Eastern European Oak for 14 months and then blended and bottled. This wine displays jammy fruit and vanilla on the nose with plum and spice on the palate. Serve at room temperature. Store at 55º-60ºF. Great with fully flavored foods such as steaks, prime rib, and spicy pasta dishes.

Available ONLY at the Winery until August 1.

Price: 2007 Twilight  in 750 ml bottle is priced at $20.00.

Summer is Rosé Season

The weather is hot. Grilled meats ranging from fish and chicken to pork and beef are popular foods. The combination of hot weather and grilled meats is made-to-order for a nicely chilled rosé that has enough body to compliment meats from the bar-b-que. 

Tassel Ridge Winery currently offers three different rosés with different amounts of body and levels of sweetness. 

And, they are all on sale in July and August in full case quantities.  Prices are:

Recipe

Frontenac Rosé Makes a Great Sangría

The Tassel Ridge Winery Frontenac Rosé makes a great sangria. And, it is easy to make, too. Pour a bottle of Frontenac Rosé into a 2 quart pitcher or carage. Add your selection of fresh fruit including: ½ to ¾ cups each of blackberries or raspberries, ripe white nectarines, a peeled and sliced orange, sliced black seedless grapes, and sliced strawberries. Sweeten to taste.  Consider adding a cup of Grand Marnier or Triple Sec. Chill completely.  Makes about 1.5 quarts. 

Picnic at Tassel Ridge Winery

Tassel Ridge Winery is a great place to have an unhurried picnic. Bring your own food or buy some freshly baked bread, some cheese, and soon a package of VandeRose Ham and other meats from our deli case and sit down on our terrace overlooking our vineyards and Mahaska County farm country. Of course, we offer a nice selection of cool wines to compliment your picnic and we will lend you glasses to make it all easy. 

Plant Your Own Grape Vine

We’ve been asked on several occasions about how to plant and grow grape vines and thought that our customers and visitors might like to grow a grape vine themselves.  

We have a limited supply of Edelweiss and Reliance vines that are potted in two gallon containers and are ready to plant in your garden. Edelweiss is a white grape with seeds that Elmer Swenson, its developer, liked “because it tasted good!” Reliance is a blue, seedless table grape. 

Both grape varieties can be grown on the side of a wall or fence. They provide copious amounts of seasonal green leaves during the growing season. They should produce fruit by September 2009.

We have a limited supply of each variety and we won’t get additional inventory this season. They are first come, first served.

Price: Grape Vines priced at $14.95 each.

Tassel Ridge Winery Now Ships Wine to Iowa Addresses and Eleven Other States including California:

We can now ship wine to addresses in Iowa and the following states: Alaska, California Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. California was added in February. 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.

What’s Happening in the Vineyard?

June and July are the months that we struggle to keep ahead of the weeds. Frequent rains are welcome but they keep us out of the vineyard, especially with farming equipment. So the grass between the rows grows almost as fast as we can cut it and the weeds in the rows are having a holiday. 

In addition to mowing and weed-wacking, we are removing suckers on our vines that compete with producing canes for plant energy. We are also beginning to engage in canopy management where we remove excess leaves on the east or morning side of the vines. We leave the leaves on the west or afternoon side of the vines to keep the grapes from getting sunburned. Removal of some leaves on the east side of the vines promotes air circulation that reduces the chance for fungus growth while allowing sprays containing fungicides, insecticides, and fertilizers to coat all of the leaves on both sides.

We planted 5100 Marquette plants from nursery cups in mid-May. I really admire the physical conditioning and tenacity of our young vineyard workers as they planted a new vine on their knees, stood up to move to the next plant, and started all over again. I doubt if I could have done it very well for more than an hour but they were out there for days. Although these plants are doing VERY well, they are still very fragile. So, if we go for more than 4-5 days without rain, we have to hand water all 5100 plants! Two people working for 12 hours can get it all done thanks to our watering rig consisting of a Gator and Gator trailer and two water tanks

The Easter Week freeze did do some limited damage to one of our varieties but on the whole, our vineyards dodged a big bullet. We are very fortunate. We will start estimating harvest volumes next week and we will base our estimates on cluster counts multiplied by projected cluster weights.      

What’s Happening in the Cellar?

As July approaches, cellar operations focus on bottling as we try to get our tanks empty in preparation for our next harvest. Last month, we bottled another batch of Red, White, and Blue. Fans of this traditional, sweet wine will have a big supply to work on for several months. 

We will soon bottle our 2006 Chardonnay (we will use a proprietary name for this wine, however) as well as our Cherry, Plum, and Cranberry wines. We will also be bottling our 2006 Steuben and sweet red that is a blend of Zinfandel and Muscat. 

In addition to lots of bottling right now, we are also blending, stabilizing, and filtering wine, all in preparation for bottling. Bottling will continue right up until we start harvesting in late August. 

Gift Idea: Personalized Labels!

Are you or a loved one approaching a special birthday or anniversary?  Or, are you or a colleague retiring?  We can prepare specially labeled wine that will be a gift that will be remembered. Or, you can provide the wine for your party that everyone will remember!

Our minimum order is 12 bottles of one kind of wine and there is a $10 set-up fee. The wine is priced at the standard retail price. No case discounts apply on special labeled wine.

 

Custom Birthday and Retirement Labels

Tassel Ridge Wines Now Appearing in Retailers Near You

For a complete list of retailers, click here.
Selections of Tassel Ridge Wine are now available at the retailers and restaurants listed below. Note that most retailers do NOT offer all of our wines, but rather focus on those wines that sell the best. Ask your retailer or contact us directly for other wines.

Ames: Lillie Mae Candies, 417 Main Street

Des Moines: Dahl’s Food Store, 3425 Ingersoll Ave

Des Moines: HyVee Wine and Spirits, 3221 SE 14th Street

Mt. Pleasant: Hy-Vee Wine & Spirits, 1700 E. Washington

Woodward: Northern Prairie Chevre, 1247 310th Street

If you have a favorite retailer where you’d like to purchase Tassel Ridge wines in the future or a restaurant where you’d like to consume Tassel Ridge wines, please e-mail me at bwersen@interpower.com and we will arrange to contact them. 

Now Available Free:

2007 Iowa Bed & Breakfast Directory: More than 100 Iowa B&B’s are listed in a 32 page directory that is available at the Winery free of charge. Please ask for your copy.

Upcoming Events:

Sangria weekend
July 13-15
Tassel Ridge Winery. Tickled Pink Sangrias will be sold by the glass. While at the winery, enjoy yard games on the lawn.

S•WINE
July 14
An Iowa Pork and Wine Festival
4:00 - 9:00 p.m. DMACC Campus, Ankeny
Sample Iowa wines and gourmet pork dishes

Ankeny SummerFest
July 14
1:00 - 4:00 p.m. Leisure Gardens
Prairie Ridge Center

Wine Tasting
July 15
Northern Prairie Chevre'
12:00 - 5:00 p.m. Woodward
1247 310th St

Wine and Food Pairing Dinner
July 19
The evening at Tassel Ridge Winery will feature a multi-course meal featuring a Chicken Cerise (cherry-glazed) with our Frontenac Rosé. The meal with be paired with different wines for each course. Musical entertainment will also be provided. Tickets are $40. Please call Sarah at 641.672.9463 to make a reservation.

Wine Tasting
July 26
Dahl's Foods
7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Des Moines
5003 EP True Parkway

Complete list of local wine tastings

Our Hours:

Effective February 1, 2007, we are open for tours, tasting, wine, and gift shop sales as follows:

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.

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

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--Bob Wersen, President