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- Written by Virginia Wheeler
Harvest has arrived at White Birch Vineyards! Harvest entails an all-hands-on-deck mentality and precision scheduling to ensure the grapes are harvested at their peak performance; all while negotiating with the weather, the birds and various environmental elements that can affect the grapes. When the weather is perfect to harvest, the vineyard becomes a flurry of activity to arrange for the equipment, machinery and labor to pick those heavy, beautiful clusters from the vines. Harvesting by hand is hard work but allows the pickers to be precise and thorough and ensure that each cluster receives personal attention. Once picked, these bins of grapes are immediately sent to the winery to be pressed, to ensure the utmost freshness and sweetest juice. So far White Birch has harvested Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Gewürztraminer, Lemberger and is now harvesting Riesling.
Another long, beautiful grape growing season is slowly coming to a close and the result of the efforts of the White Birch Vineyards staff is in now in the process of being turned into the wonderful White Birch wine we all love so much.
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- Written by Virginia Wheeler
As summer winds down in the Finger Lakes, White Birch Vineyards is preparing for the 2018 harvest. Today our team met at the vineyard to walk the rows, review the season's crop, determine the order of picking of varietals based on their progress and of course, to sample the grapes!
Today our group consisted of Morten Hallgren (Wine Maker), Dave Pittard (Vineyard Consultant), Melissa Zell (Owner), Marie-Helene Gingras (Tasting Room Manager), Julio Parillo, (Vineyard Employee), Brian Taylor (Farm Manager), Alison Ferretti (Tasting Room Associate) and myself, Virginia Wheeler (Asset Manager).
The weather was beautiful and the grapes were delicious, bountiful and guaranteed to make perfect Finger Lakes wines.
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- Written by Virginia Wheeler, Asset Manager
The Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival launched their 60th Anniversary season by opening with the sensational hit 'Mamma Mia!' last night.
The show runs June 6 through June 27 at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Emerson Park.
White Birch Vineyards is proud to be a sponsor of the Festival and is excited to have our wines featured at the Playhouse for Mama Mia!
Tickets for Mamma Mia! are extremely limited, and can be purchased by phone at 315-255-1785 or toll free at 1-800-457-8897, and online at FingerLakesMTF.com and enjoy White Birch Vineyards wines during intermission.
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- Written by Virginia Wheeler
On Thursday April 19th, the Sherwood Inn will be presenting a five course wine dinner featuring White Birch Vineyards wine.
Tickets are $55/pp. To reserve your seats call 315-685-3405 or visit sherwoodinns.com
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- Written by Chris Fluri, Vineyard Manager
The season is slowly winding down and the preparations for the winter are under way. The left most picture is the first frost of the season, which was cold enough to freeze the leaves and close out this growing season. The second picture is the vineyard on the following day. As I type this blog, it is 20 degrees outside and there is an inch of snow on the ground.
This season's harvest in the Finger Lakes was one for the record books with vineyards producing more grapes than they have in quite some time. The weather last summer during the bud forming stage was good and the winter was mild so the buds lived to produce clusters of fruit. The season started off with more than average rain and then September was dry and warm to help the ripening once again. For the last few years good weather in September has helped push the grapes to ripeness.
Let’s hope next season isn't just helpful in September but helpful all summer long.