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Subjects:  Catherine’s Blend, Sweetness, the Vineyard, WINE APPRECIATION CLASS IN JULY, and Uncork the Uplands!  Concerts and Harvest!

Ahhh…enjoying a glass of Catherine’s Blend 2010, 4th bottling, and final bottling of the 2010 Catherine’s Blend.  Here’s to a great growing season this year in order to make this spectacular wine again!  We relied heavily on those hot days and cool nights last August to desiccate the grapes.  With some world famous Noble Rot, we were able to capture some delicious honey and apricot notes into this spectacular white wine!  To many, it reminds folks of a cross between a German Spatlese and an Auslese.  To me, it’s just a wonderful sweet, but not overly sweet white wine.

By the way, did you know that we do not add any sugar to our wines to sweeten them?   Raspberry, with its lower natural sugar levels, does have a paltry 15 grams of sugar added per bottle of wine (a can of soda – 44 grams).   Diabetics love us because of our reliance on the natural fructose from the ripe grapes.  I like it because I can drink a sweeter wine without the cloying sensation at the back of the mouth that sugar adds to wines.  I like a wine to finish clean and all of our sweeter wines do that.  I also like it because the natural sweetness of the grapes, perception wise, is over 30% sweeter than sugar.  Therefore, we can keep our residual sugars in check and still provide sweeter wines with alluring flavors – without the uptick in calories that sugar or glucose provides.  Taste better, fewer calories, and diabetic friendly – that’s our way! 

Speaking of that, we have been making adjustments to our vineyard to best play this weather in creating the ultimate wines for 2011.  The rain, over 85% of our annual rainfall has arrived, has allowed the vines to grow, grow, grow!  With all of that extra foliage, we have been aggressively pulling leaves and positioning shoots to force sunlight onto our beautiful berries.  A concept called “Sunlight into Wine” by Richard Smart, details the need to be vigilant directing sunlight into the grapes for proper ripening.  In Traminette, for instance, we have seen the grape bunches get buried five and six leaves deep inside the canopy.  By pulling the leaves, we can create a direct photosynthesis pathway to ripening, which produces better flavors and better balance in our wines.

Wine Appreciation Class in July!!  Yes, you heard it first here!  Or, perhaps you missed out on the Groupon we did.  Or, perhaps you didn’t see a date on the Groupon so you skipped it.  Yeah, we had a little communication issue with the fine folks at Groupon, so we’re going to discount below the Groupon price!!  On Thursday evening, July 21st, we will be hosting our always fun filled info loaded wine appreciation class from 6:30 to 9:30 PM.  Dinner included and we will be tasting and evaluating more than 20 wines.  Ever try your hand at professional judging wines?  We’ll teach you how!  For those of you who have attended a wine class before, I’ve got some new and exciting surprises.  For those who have never attended, you’ll learn a ton about wine…and not just Turtle Run wines!  It’s extremely detailed, but delivered in an easy to understand way at the same time!  The class is $30 per person.  Please call the winery at 812-952-2650, or send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Even if we didn’t teach a thing, 20 plus wines and dinner for $30 is a bargain!

Uncork the Uplands – Join the 9 Indiana Uplands Wine Trail members for a captivating food and wine experience with Andrea Robinson, considered the top wine expert in America!  The nights are the 15th and 16th of July.  I don’t want to give away much, but look for our Dry Tortuga, the beautifully barrel aged white of vignoles and chardonel, to salivate your taste buds with barbequed shrimp!  For more details, go to uncorktheuplands.com.

Upcoming Sunday afternoon Concerts:

July 10:  The Wildman! is coming!!  Jeff "Wildman" Hardesty plays a mix of Retro-Country, 70's classic rock/AM Gold, and Kickin Bluegrass along with high energy originals.  I am certainly looking forward to this concert!

July 17th:  The Rock legends aka the Vinyl Kings will be stummin’ some of the great classics from the age of rock.  Get ready for some BTO, Beatles, Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, James Brown, CCR, Dave Clark Five, Kinks, Skynyrd, Elvis, Paul Revere and many more classics!

July 24th:  Ron Jones Jazz Quartet – Just can’t get enough of the best jazz going!  They really hit their groove on Father’s Day.  I heard many folks exclaim at the synergy of the sax, the bass, the piano and the drums.  Classic Jazz!

Harvest:  We are always looking for volunteers (paid in vino) and charitable groups that want to raise money to help us harvest grapes.  The work is fun, the socializing in the vineyard is great, and the experience is something new and a time you will not forget.  Yeah, it can be warm, but we try to be done by noon!  Please drop us a note if you are interested in helping with harvest!  We normally pick on Saturday mornings starting in mid-August, running into early to mid-September!

The Catherine’s Blend has been fully drained from my glass.  What to sip next?  Hmm…how about some Red My Mind? 

New Wines:  Look for Cabernet Sauvignon, Minnesota Oak to debut soon! 

Cheers,
Jim