Wine-Grower-News #207 July 6, 2012 Midwest Grape & Wine Industry Institute: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Wine Information in this issue includes: 7-(20-22), 2nd Annual IWGA Summer Bus Tour – 7-13 Deadline New Iowa commercial vineyard and winery map is now complete 101 Iowa Grape and Wine Industry Facts Grape Disease Control 2012 - A must read! (41 pp.) 7-28, Nebraska Viticulture Field Day – Save the date. 3-(15 & 16)-13, IWGA Annual Conference in Des Moines Small Scale Commercial Wine Making School IX – Nebraska City Deadline Extended to 7-11 for Mid-American Wine Competition VESTA - Fall Course Enrollment Now Open Upcoming Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) Exam Dates & Sites – Midwest Comments from Readers Notable Quotables Marketing Tidbits Neeto-Keeno WWW Stuff Articles of Interest Videos of Interest Show n Tell (Tassel Ridge Wine Barrel Workshop) Calendar of Events 7-(20-22), 2nd Annual IWGA Summer Bus Tour – 7-13 Deadline! The Iowa Wine Growers Association will be sponsoring its second annual bus tour this coming July 20-22. This educational and entertaining bus tour is open to both members and non-members. We will be given private tours of some of the Minnesota wineries, vineyards and nurseries that helped to start the Cold Climate wine industry. We have also included a visit to the Cannon River Falls Wine & Art Festival and a couple of private Minnesota brewery tours thrown in just to add some variety! What: Iowa Wine Growers Association, 2nd Annual Summer Bus Tour When: 8 a.m. Friday – 7:30 p.m. Sunday day, July 20-22, 2012. Agenda: Friday, 7-20-12 8 a.m. - Leave DMACC Campus in Ames, IA Noon - Indian Island Winery – Winterhaven Vineyard & Nursery – Janesville, MN 4 p.m. – Univ. of MN Research Vineyards & Winery Excelsior, MN 1 8-10 p.m. Open evening in Stillwater, MN Overnight at Super 8 in Hudson, WI Saturday, 7-21-12 Central Iowa Transit of Ames, Iowa 9 a.m. – Lift Bridge Brewery in Stillwater, MN will be providing the Transportation 10:30 a.m. – St. Croix Vineyards & Winery in Stillwater, MN 1:15 p.m. - Cannon Falls Wine & Art Festival – Cannon Falls, MN 5 p.m. – Cannon River Winery - Cannon Falls, MN 6:30 p.m. - Dinner at the Mills Street Tavern with the wine folks in Canon Falls, MN Overnight at the AmericInn in Faribault, MN St.Croix Vineyards & Winery at Stillwater, MN Sunday, 7-22-12 10:15 a.m. – Schells Brewing Company – New Ulm, MN Noon – Lunch at Morgan Creek Vineyards – New Ulm, MN <- Schell’s Brewery, Morgan Creek Vineyards -> 7:30 p.m. Arrive back to Ames, IA DMACC Campus Indian Island Winery – Janesville, MN Cannon River Winery – Cannon Falls, MN DON’T MISS THIS AFFORDABLE, EDUCATIONAL AND ENTERTAINING TOUR. 2 REGISTER EARLY – SEATS AND ROOMS ARE LIMITED (First Come, First Served.) Registration Details: http://iowawinegrowers.org/category/news/ Feel Free to pass this tour information along to others who may be interested. New Iowa commercial vineyard and winery map is now complete I just completed putting together the 2012 Iowa Commercial Vineyard and Winery map for Iowa. I have been putting this map together ever since 2004. I compile this from my database of commercial vineyards and the federal and state database of licensed wineries. I consider a commercial vineyard any vineyard who intends to sell some or all of their grapes. Our number of wineries continues to increase. We are now at 99 wineries versus the 33 wineries we had in 2004. We now have 306 vineyards compared to a high of 413 in 2010. Most of our wineries have become a full time endeavor for the owners who are doing their best to keep the doors open as a full time job. Most of our vineyards were started as part-time endeavors while the owners were working a full-time position somewhere else. Many of these part-time vineyard owners were in their mid-50’s when they started growing grapes 5-10 years ago. Many are now hitting those golden retirement years and have decided not to be a slave to their vineyard. Our vineyard industry is starting to mature very quickly. Though our vineyard acreage remains the same at around 1,200 acres, the number of vineyards continues to decline. People are starting to realize that more acres are required to justify the equipment and the labor necessary to successfully operate a successful commercial vineyard. mlw See the new 2012 map below. This map will soon be posted on the ISU Midwest Grape & Wine Industry Institute site here: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/wine/industry-information 3 101 Iowa Grape and Wine Industry Facts NEW! Check it Out: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/wine/industry-information Sleepy Creek Vineyards – Great Videos to share with your wino friends! Check out the latest, Episode 4 “Corked” along with the other 3 humorous videos from the Up The Creek comedy web series about a financially struggling winery and its dysfunctional staff. They call it a "sipcom", a shorter version of a sitcom. You can find all four here on Blip TV: http://blip.tv/upthecreek/episode-4-corked-6231388 The idea for this series came from Joe Taylor, owner of Sleepy Creek Vineyards in Fairmont, IL. The videos are all shot there and are used to help market the winery. You can learn more about Joe and his other business, “ Taylor Studios” in this 2-23-12 blog article: http://blog.ruggieriteam.com/2012/02/joe-taylor-serial-entreprenuer.html Additional videos worth watching: Vino Veritas is a 16 min short video they did a couple years ago about a California wine snob that visits a Midwest winery. It was made for the Sleepy Creek Winery Freeky Creek Short Film Fest that is held around Halloween every year: https://vimeo.com/29759029 The American Spirit is a short piece they made about the history of drinking in America. Meant to be shared around the 4th. https://vimeo.com/45020411 Grape Disease Control 2012 - A must read! (41 pp.) Annual update from Wayne Wilcox, Department of Plant Pathology, NYSAES, Cornell University, Geneva, N.Y. http://www.fruit.cornell.edu/grape/pdfs/Wilcox-Grape%20Disease%20Control%202012.pdf 7-28, Nebraska Viticulture Field Day – Save the date. What: A field day to be held at the site of the former George. Spencer Vineyard near Gibbon, Nebraska on Saturday, July 28, 2012. UNL Weed Specialist Lowell Sandell will discuss 4 aspects of spray technology, and types of sprayers and nozzles will be demonstrated in the morning. Trellis construction, changing trellis systems, vine balance and canopy management will be discussed by UNVP specialists that afternoon in a “hands-on” fashion so that all participants will be able to gain knowledge about these and related topics. When: Saturday, July 28, 2012 Presented by: Nebraska Wine & Grape Growers Association (NWGGA) Growers Council in cooperation with the University of Nebraska Viticulture Program. Cost: FREE, lunch included. Details Later: http://agronomy.unl.edu/viticulture/ Mark Your Calendars 3-(15 & 16)-13, Iowa Wine Growers Assn. Annual Conference at the West Des Moines, Iowa Marriott. Details later: http://www.iowawinegrowers.org Friday & Saturday, October 19 & 20, 2012 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Both days. Where: University of Nebraska Kimmel Education & Research Center, 5995 G Rd. - Nebraska City, NE. This state-of-the-art regional conference facility is located on the grounds of historic Kimmel Orchard and Vine-yard. Visit its site at: http://www.kimmel.unl.edu/ Who: Alan Dillard is the owner/winemaker at Limestone Creek Winery in the Shawnee Hills area of Southern Illinois. He has been growing grapes (viticulture) and making wine (oenology) since 1970. Cost: $375 per person. (Price includes class materials, Friday lunch and dinner, wine tasting and refreshments, and Saturday lunch.) Class size is limited to 26. Registrations are accepted on a first-come-first served basis. 5 Presented by: Five Rivers RC&D, PO Box 626 – Tecumseh, NE Full Details: http://www.nercd.org/council-of-twelve/five-rivers/what-were-doing-five-rivers/ Deadline Extended to 7-11 for Mid-American Wine Competition You are invited to enter the 6th Annual Mid-American Wine Competition being held on July 13, 14, and 15, 2012. We have updated the wine competition this year based on valuable feedback from our participating wineries. We will be sending a postcard and invitation email to wineries in the Midwest. If are a winery that would like to participate, but have not received these, please email us at [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Below is some of the highlighted information for the 2012 competition. Our website will be updated in the near future. · July 11 - Deadline for Wine Entries · NEW – Wine Categories have been updated · NEW – Rules of Competition have been updated · NEW – Credit Cards can now be accepted here: http://www.midamericanwine.org<http://www.midamericanwine.org/ · Physical Medals will no longer be awarded for the Label Competition · The Food-Wine Pairing competition is July 13th - Reservations are required - An entry to the Food-Wine Pairing Competition consists of 2 (two) bottles of wine and $25.00 - Traditional Wine Competition is July 14th and 15th - An entry for the Traditional Competition consists of 4 (four)bottles of wine and $40.00 VESTA - Fall Course Enrollment Now Open Don’t miss the perfect chance to broaden your understanding of grape growing and wine making. Online classes are now forming and now is the time to enroll. Enrollment Deadlines: August 1 – General Education Courses August 15 – VESTA Courses Details here: http://www.vesta.usa.org 6 Upcoming Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) Exam Dates & Sites – Midwest Here are the upcoming Exam dates and sites for the Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) certification through the Society of Wine Educators.