As the dust settles after the wild hours of another completed grape harvest it may seem like a time for a *sigh* of relief, but the real work is just getting underway! I’ll save all the gory details, but in short:

• de-stem/crush grapes
• put in stainless steel tanks
• ferment in tanks
• age in tanks or move to barrels for aging
• filter
• bottle
• label bottles
• RELEASE 2016 VINTAGE

While that may seem like a short list—it all takes many human hours. It takes testing, testing, and more testing. Our apprentice, Patrick, has been learning how to do all the testing from our winemaker, Anne—and, honestly, I would not have the patience to do what they do! And here I sit blogging about it instead…

Winery

This week has already been a busy week of measurements—and sometimes the rest of us get a complimentary whiff of the future good stuff. Don’t tell anyone, but Amanda and I got to put our sniffers amongst the beautiful aromas of a future ICE WINE! Wondering how you can get a bit of that in and around your mouth before the rest of the public? Have you heard of this pretty cool club “Paragon Wine Club”? I bet you have. Here’s a link: https://soldiercreekwinery.com/paragon-wine-club/ One of the (many!) benefits of being a member of the “club” is that you get to taste pre-released wine—talk about VIP service!

Events

It does actually seem that we have more time to devote to you, our dear dear customer, than we have in the past—partly because we’ve split the jobs that two people have been doing among three people instead! And with that comes more fun parties for you all:

• Vinyasa in the Vineyard: (inside during the cool months) our newest monthly event!

We will have our inaugural event on November 19 at 1:30. It is an hour of yoga with

certified professionals and then a wine-d down =) Light snacks will be provided.

• Craft Night with Annie- Snowmen: We have expanded this to another night!

Tuesday, November 15^th still has *a few* spaces available—with your registration

fee you get to make 2 of your very own Snowmen and you get 2 glasses of your

favorite Soldier Creek Wine!

• Holiday Open House for Small Business Saturday: We will have extended hours

that day—from 1-8PM, local crafters will be at the winery from 1-6PM, we will

be providing complimentary cookies from Creative Cakes and our

Signature Glühwein (mulled wine) to show our customer appreciation.

We will also be having a bottle sale: buy 4 bottles, get $8 off.

It’s already been a whirlwind of an Autumn, but, boy do we love it!

Until next week, with “Midbest” love,

Meg