Merry Christmas

It is Christmas Eve, and I am taking a second here at the Winery Outlet in downtown Winfield to sit down with the blog and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!
What a whirlwind year it has truly been. My husband Randy and I just realize a night or so ago that Christmas is HERE. It has been a wonderful crazy year.
And I just spoke to Mrs. Speer who makes our apple juice for our apple wines, and she thinks we may be able to get the juice next week....Woo hoo! Poor Mr. Speer is recovering from a stroke, so they have friends and family coming to help them and then they will call us! We will be making wine in the winter, which is always fun!
We will be traveling to Emporia for the Kansas Grape Growers and Wine Makers Annual conference in a couple of weeks...that will be interesting and educational,. If you are interested in grapes as a sideline or have wonderful wine making skills or even just an interest in wine, it would be an interesting couple of days for you, and we would welcome you. Go to www.kansasgrapesandwines.com for more information.
Merry Christmas from Windswept Winery's Blog!

Cox Communication

Windswept Winery hosted a delightful Christmas Party and Wine Tasting with the wonderful folks at Cox Communications. What a delightful crew!

We laughed and chatted, sampled some fabulous Kansas grown and produced Windswept Winery Wines and one of the fellows (David) took pictures and sent them to us. Thank you, David.
There were some of the folks that had never done a wine sampling, so we quickly poured a few samples of the various wines, and explained them one and all. Thank you, to the fine people at Cox Communications, we had a wonderful time!

New Cowley County Visitors Guide

Guess what showed up on the cover of the new Cowley County Visitors Guide?

A cluster of luscious Vignoles grapes from Windswept Winery's own Storey Vineyards. There is a lovely article about Windswept Winery, which we were thrilled to see! Our most sincere thanks to the Directors of the Winfield Convention and Tourism for including Windswept Winery in the First Cowley County Visitors Guide.
Research shows that there is a tourism segment that travels to small wineries for the experience of tasting the wines, and visiting the small boutique wineries. The same research shows these wine tourists are likely to engage in other activities in the area, eat in the local restaurants, and stay in local accommodations.
Since the Windswept Winery locations are both in Cowley county, we sincerely hope our presence adds to the attractiveness of Cowley County as a tourist destination, and deeply appreciate the support!
The article coincides with the release of the ever-popular Whispering Wind White sweet dessert-style award-winning white wine. It is now available in Winfield and in Udall.

Missed us by this much

Check this out.....the Windswept Winery building is at 711 Main!

From the Winfield Courier:

"Man mad at girlfriend takes out anger on business entries

By TYLER GASKILL
Reporter

A Winfield man in a fit of rage damaged three downtown businesses Wednesday night following a disturbance with his girlfriend, according to police.

Just before 11 p.m. Wednesday, officers with the Winfield Police Department responded to the report of an alarm at Ruppelius Jewelers, 808 Main. When they arrived, they found the front door of the business had been rammed by a vehicle, according to a press release from the department.


This one is across the street and south from our building (808 Main)



The building directly west BEHIND our building, across the alley, is pictured here.

And the third building is two doors south of our building (719 Main).

A little too much excitement for me! Thank God he didn't take it out on the wine!!!!

Full story is here.
http://www.winfieldcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=27760

New Windows

The outlet for Windswept Winery continues to improve...
This weekend Randy and I spent some of the fabulous warm weather installing new windows in the second story of the building. It looks cleaner and more fresh. We even decorated the upstairs windows for Christmas....the building has not looked this good for years. We are so pleased that it is reflecting our pride in being a part of downtown Winfield. We still have more work on the front signs and the actual bricks, but that will be next year, I think!
And the best Windswept Winery Report: Whispering Wind White is in the bottles, mmm, it is awesome. Sweet, tropical Asian pear and pineapple flavors, maybe a hint of peach.
Now we have a bottling run of the Blushing Beauty to accomplish, and we will have everything back in the bottle for Christmas, don't delay...we are sure to run out of some of them, and want you to get yours.

Brrr! Baby it's Cold outside....

Welcome to Decembrrrrrr
The wind blew (very appropriate at Windswept Winery) yesterday, and the cold weather settled in. The leaves are gone, I will try to get pictures out here for you to see the vineyards.
We have three more bottling parties, and then the wine will be safely in the bottles. We are still awaiting the apple juice, so hopefully we will have it sometime in 2009, which is only 30 short days away.
We had to close the main Winery in Udall for a couple of days. Seems that some respiratory virus struck Mom Storey pretty hard, and I was away in Missouri for a few days visiting my mother. (I did enjoy some wonderful Missouri wine while I was there...) With no spare hands to help, we kept the outlet in Winfield Kansas open, and the main winery will be back in action today! So please stop by and check out the......

Newly bottled Rustling Leaves Red Sweet Concord.

Rumor has it some of the Whispering Wind White made from Vignoles may be available today or tomorrow.....we know you were patiently waiting!
The Kansas Grape Growers and Winemaker's Association Annual meeting is scheduled for January... if you have amateur wines that are awesome, there is a competition for you. There will also be wonderful speakers and all things Wine and Grape at the meeting in Emporia. Check out this address for more information... www.kansasgrapesandwines.com

Bottling underway

We bottled wine this weekend and on Monday! Special thanks to Annetta for lending us a hand yesterday...
The Landrush Red Dry is now securely bottled. It is a wonderful wine, made from the Chambourcin grape. This is the 2006 vintage, and we are blown away by it's natural smoky overtone. Nice rich black cherry notes, a fruity aroma....one taste and you can see why this French American hybrid has achieved acceptance in France's own Loire region. Grown, tended picked and fermented in our Estate Vineyards.

And for all you sweet wine lovers...we also bottled the sweet Rustling Leaves Red.....mmm...it is a mouthful of grapes in every sip. Lovely, easy to drink, not very complicated and very flavorful.

Next weekend we plan to bottle another sweet, the Landrush Red sweet, and then we should be almost ready for the Blushing Beauty and the sweet Whispering Wind White featuring the Vignoles grape. Our plan is: By the time we see December, you can find these at the Main Winery and at the Outlet.

Getting Ready to Bottle

It is the time of year for bottling. Heavenly reds, wonderful whites...ohh what a terrific time. Bottling is the most fun of any step in the Winery, because every step or station is easy. We bought a new pneumatic corker a couple of years ago, and I love that thing.
The corker just pushes the cork in while you press two buttons...so easy!
Bottling involves a little assessment of quality, while the bottling is underway, just not too much, otherwise who knows how the labels and capsules will look ;-).
If I remember at the right time, I will try to get pictures of bottling, wouldn't that be cool?
We have three wines ready to bottle, another that will be ready in about two weeks, and another maybe a week after that. Thanksgiving is going to look like full shelves for the Winery! Except for the apple wine...it will be a while longer. We still are waiting for the Apple wine to be made and ready to go. We are still holding out hope for Christmas.

Frosty

The first killing frost settled over the vineyards last Tuesday, October 26. While according to normal averages, it came late; it seems to me that it comes earlier every year.
The vines have already lost their leaves, and they always look so cold and forlorn...but they are only resting after their hard work of growing wine.
We have a bunch of bottling to do, Rustling Leaves Red, Land Rush Red, dry and sweet, and some blush and Leaning Tree Red...what a fun time.
The concord will be ready to bottle in a week or so, YUMMY! And it looks to be awesome. Then the apple juice will be ready at Spear's orchard near Arkansas City in another couple of weeks, according to Mrs. Spears when we talked on the phone this morning. We are ready to start making the fun Apple Wine.

Outlet Improvements

We worked on the outlet with the kind assistance of TonyEastman at Bair's Glass, right next door to the Windswept Winery Outlet in Winfield, and got the window replaced and re-decorated to match the south one.
It looks so much cleaner and more presentable. Now we have to get the upstairs windows replaced and the old building will really have a new persona. We are really excited with the improvements, both for Winfield and for Windswept Winery.
And wouldn't a picture be grand? Once we have the upstairs windows in...I promise you a new one.

Bottling one of the the Medal winners

2008 Award Winning Kansas Wine now available. One of the joys of winemaking is bottling the wine. And Kansas Wine making is no different in this regard.
This is a very pleasant task when the wine has won a medal, and is a joy to, um, sample, while you work. Such was the case Monday when Randy, Mom Storey, and I bottled our Leaning Tree White dry white wine.

The Leaning Tree is our signature wine series, and is named after a wind driven tree on the south east side of Winfield city lake, incidentally. But I digress.
So as we are sipping the wine some bottling occurs, or vice-versa. It so happens that the Leaning Tree White wine was honored this year by one of the precious Kansas People's Choice medals from the Kansas State Fair, and we are grateful for the recognition. Thanks to the People of Kansas for voting for us for this gem.
We had slipped enough out of the tank for the competition, and now it is available to the public in the tasting rooms until the supply runs out. (How about that? The first time I got to refer to the tasting "rooms" in the plural!)
Light, Dry, and lovely, the Leaning Tree White will enhance a fish or chicken dish, as a traditional pairing. I like it with a Cobb salad. Hurry and get some, before it is gone, because as with any small winery, when it's gone, it's gone.

Awards for Windswept Winery

In an abundance of busy-ness I have failed to keep the blog up to date on one very important detail for Windswept Winery. We are thrilled to announce that the People's Choice Awards have bestowed TWO more medals for Windswept Winery's marvelous Wines. Thanks so much to the people who love our wines!
To recap: The Blushing Beauty a semi-sweet delicate blush and the Leaning Tree White a delightful dry white were the two wines we selected to enter this year for Kansan's evaluation, and both were awarded medals.
Thanks again, to the people of Kansas we will keep working hard for you!

AH-ctober

What a tremendous morning. Cool but not cold, brisk refreshing, WOW!
We have a few leaves turning that absolutely impossible shade of red that wine grapes can turn, and they are amazing. I will try to get some pictures.
And have you noticed the days are a little bit shorter now? Fall is upon us, and it looks lovely.
The grapes are all picked, and the wonderful Windswept Wines are being made, time to do some bottling and make some plans for next year...
It is a terrific time of year for a good bunch of friends to gather and enjoy a great glass of wine!
A lot of new merchandise for the gift shop is on it's way and it is going to be fun shopping this year at Windswept. Remember, Christmas is 12 weeks away. Don't delay, get your shopping done today.

Wines are Fermenting

It smelled like a winery this morning at 4:30 am, when I took my turn at punching down the must to ensure the wine has a wonderful rich taste, and color.
Big wineries have big pumps and systems to do this, but we do it the old-fashioned way, by hand.
Randy is busy putting up a mural at the outlet today...and it looks awesome! It really changes the look of the place.

The Outlet is OPEN

Wow, what a difference a month makes!

The Winfield Main street folks helped us upgrade the facade, by removing what was there to let the historic brick shine through...

A great big "Thank you!" to Ralph and Cathy Royston, Jim Day, Dallas Jordan, Vernon Goertz; husband of Design Committee Chair Cindy Goertz, and Don Key.

There is lots more to be done, but we wanted to put our best foot forward for the Walnut Valley Festival, and for Winfield. Our wonderful friends, Bruce and Nina, said: "The outlet does not have to be done...people want to sample the wine, not look at the walls, open the doors for them."

So that is exactly what we did, and it was wonderful advice.....Thanks, you two!

We officially opened the Outlet on Saturday September 13. Thank you to everyone who came to see what we were about. Watch us while we continue to improve the building, the shop offerings AND another newsflash...Jack and Mildred Speers have been blessed with apples this year, so the Cowley county Apple wine will be back! Hopefully in time to warm your Thanksgiving table.

Grapes all picked

Late last night under the full moon the final grapes were brought into the winery from the vineyards just outside. Everyone was in a fabulous mood. There were grapes being crushed, grapes being pressed, juice being sampled, C-O-L-D grapes coming in from the vines, and you could just barely see your breath in the lights.
Wow, what a great day (and night).
Now on to finishing up the crushing and pressing today, seems like there are some fabulous flavors to the grapes this year....we will see how that translates to the wine.
Cheers!

Open for Business, Lots of Rain, and Harvesting all the grapes.

Whew what a busy few days!
The GREAT news is....we are open for business at 711 North Main. The building is not complete, and lots of woodwork and wood trim remain to be installed, but there is wine-tasting to be done, the wood will wait! We had a good turnout on Saturday, and a big "Thank you" to all our customers, old-and-new who helped us christen the building with a sip of wine....CHEERS!

We had a downpour of rain Saturday morning, and the winery was flooded briefly. We had a similar incident two years ago, and did some re-work of the dirt, but we apparently had 5+ inches of rain and it came in anyway...no real harm, just pushed it out the door, very early in the morning, dry-vacuumed and all is well.
That downpour of rain is not-so-good for the grapes, though. You may know that heavy rains before harvest can have two effects:
First they can change the water content in the grape berries, and second the water can make the grapes split open.
SO the harvest began immediately, and by the time the grapes were splitting we had a lot of them picked, thanks to our FABULOUS picking crew, who are sporting their new Windswept Winery signature "crush crew" tee shirts!
And we got all the grapes in except for one variety and we are picking that TODAY, Monday. We usually space out the harvest a little more, but it's almost all in, and we are looking forward to more GREAT WINE!!!! The flavors are proving to be wonderful.

Opening Thursday?

Hold on, Winfield, we are trying to open the Winfield Windswept Winery LLC outlet tomorrow, September 11.
The State of Kansas says the permit is in place (on-line at least).
We had to turn folks away at the door yesterday, and we sincerely apologize to the folks who came to buy wine. Please bear with us, we want to open to serve you!

What could be more appropriate than sipping a bottle of Land Rush White after the "Land Rush" at the Walnut Valley festival?

The Historical Land Rush into Oklahoma for land is pictured on the bottles of Windswept Winery LLC's, Land Rush White wine. The "Land Rush" at the internationally acclaimed Walnut Valley Festival is named for the day when camping for the festival can begin. Stampede on down tomorrow afternoon and try some.

Outlet Opening Delayed

Our apologies to our customers! We are all dressed up and no where to go.

Seems the State of Kansas, by statute, is supposed to issue Winery licenses within 30 days....
That would have been Last Friday, September 5, so we thought an opening day of September 9 was safe enough.
We still don't have the permit, so please bear with us...

We are still hoping for maybe Thursday, Maybe Friday, Maybe Saturday....
We are working hard to get the doors open.
Thank you all for your support and understanding.

Picking Time!

Oh my favorite time of year...picking the grapes.

It is always a wonderful feeling to get the grapes harvested, crushed and in the tank! All the year's hard work, sitting in picking lugs ready to crush and make wine.
I will try, try, try to get pictures, seems like I am so busy I just forget every year!
We have two varieties picked; the Vignoles and the Cynthiana. A big thanks to: Annette and Bryan and our cast of pickers: Cassandra (the most pounds), Melissa (greatest hatred of nature), Grandma, Caye, David, Robert (greatest distance ever from Wichita), Brian, Misael, Rita, and Mark! Thank you all!

Outlet Work - Ready for the Winfield Walnut Valley Festival

Randy and I spent long hard days this weekend working on the Outlet building, and his masterpiece tasting bar. It is beautiful, darling, what wonderful work!
We still have lots to go, planning for an opening at the Winfield Music Crawl, September 9.
Why oh why did I take no pictures during the rehabilitation? Oh well, pictures of the renewal will be here soon.
Maybe I can grab a picture of the first customer through the door? Maybe it will be you?
We will be open every day from Sept 11-Sept 21 for the Bluegrass party, Walnut Valley Festival!

Out with the old....

And here is the picture of our soon-to-be Outlet building on Main Street in Winfield, Kansas. This picture was taken before we bought it, (it is the red building on the right side after a major storm Spring 2008).

It is nearly 100 years old, and has quite the 'history', but more on that later.
Looks pretty sad, eh?

;-(((

But don't fret: Just wait for the new picture! It already looks completely better. The outlet is starting to feel the love.
Hm, maybe I can get a picture of the 'middle' of the progress?

Grapes and Building Renovations

Our grapes are ripening away, and it appears that we will be harvesting some this weekend.
Woo HOO! After all year of watching them grow they are on soon to be on their way to tasting yummy!

After a lot of worrying and sweating the front of the Outlet building has been partially restored to it's original brick, YEAH! The brick will need some serious work to become as pretty as it can be, but getting the awful exterior off was a big job. A special thanks to the Winfield Main street association for the hard work and equipment.

The Secret is out

The bad news is: we are really bad at keeping secrets!
The good news is that the new Windswept Winery, LLC Outlet at 711 North Main in Winfield is nearly open. It is amazing what a little paint and elbow grease will do for a 100 year old building. Even a building "with a history", as the euphemism goes. (Come in, we will explain about the history.)
We are planning to open the doors Sept. 6, with a "Grand Opening" in October. New gift lines, a new wine release, and the same friendly faces!

Pruning is done!

The careful reader has missed the vineyard's second-favorite post of the year....that would be the one when we proudly, and tiredly exclaim that the pruning is DONE. (Our favorite post will be when the grapes are all harvested and safely in the tanks.)
Well, we fell behind this year...wind damage cleanup, etc etc. BUT WE ARE DONE NOW!!!!
We finished up May 10, the day before Mother's day...this was our latest end-of pruning date by probably 6-8 weeks. Fortunately, the vines are very late in budding this year, and the vines we did not have pruned are always the last to bud, so Praise the Lord, we are done now!
My mother-in-law, Betty, has her clematis in exquisite form, they are blooming away, and are so beautiful. I will see if I can get a picture of them posted.
Last week somehow, a pair of wrens found their way into the winery building, and we have been gently 'encouraging' them to roost elsewhere. They are adorable, but outside (!) is the place for wrens.
The vines are looking good in most cases and after the years of cold and late freezes we are blessed to have what we have.

This morning, my dear sweet crazy husband was mentioning planning to put in more acres of vines.... more on that to come as the planning kicks off.

May be Fun!

We are planning a fun time at Windswept Winery, and I can't wait!
Our first Wine and Bovine night. KC Strip Steak cooked any way you want it..... Salad bar, baked potato bar, and dessert bar.
We have promised to do this for two years, and here you go. Wine and Bovine!

We are hoping the weather behaves itself, and we can enjoy the beautiful patio. The clemantis are springing out of the ground, the bluebirds are flitting around, and there have been hummingbirds spotted at the flowers feeding.

Wow, come and enjoy our patio, sample the wines, then grab yourself a bottle to share or glass of wine, dive into a nice juicy steak and all the trimmings, and enjoy a night in the vines. Bring a camera, and some friends... (If you make reservations, we might even sit a table up out in the vines for you....how cool is that?)

April was a crazy month.
Windswept Winery had some wind damage, so that took time to repair, but it is more beautiful and better than ever!

A Parkinson's Research Wine Tasting featuring Windswept Winery wines in Wichita was a thrill for us to be associated with and one of the highlights of the month. A toast to finding the cure!Thanks to Dorothy Roush for getting us involved.

Windswept Winery re-landscaped the patio area, and a great big THANKS! to the Queen-mother of the Winery, Betty Storey, for the designing and a lot of hard work!

Tyson and Kendra's Most Excellent Wedding occured on April 26th.
What a special couple setting out on their journey together! We had a wonderful time hosting their patio wedding and Panache room reception. Mother nature cooperated with the event; and it was beautiful. Our congratulations to the happy couple!

Womens Shows

Cowley County is having a pair of Women's Shows during March. How much fun does that sound to be? They are scheduled from 5:30 to 8 pm on March 11 and 25th in Winfield and Arkansas City. We will be there and I am thinking our giveaway may be a Private Winetasting with the winemaker! How much fun is that?

Pictures of previous booths......

So drop by and see me, I am looking forward to chatting with some of Cowley county's nicest ladies.

Pictures of Valentines

Thanks to Deb, we can show you a Valentine's Feast Picture or two now....hope you enjoy!

We had a grand time, and are planning another soiree in April....Windswept Winery's Tax Relief Party Saturday, April 19. Check the website for the "Toast your Return", or "Wine about your Tax Bill" Party.

Wine-ing

So what's a vinedresser to do? More sleet and ice hit the vineyards this morning. It is chilly out there, so there will be no pruning yet. Oh, well, I will try to get a picture of the c-c-cold vineyards posted for you soon.
We have a new camera that I am just itching to use....stay tuned.
Maybe I can get a shot of the vineyard cats? We have two resident greeters...Grables, and Scruffy. Hm, maybe a picture of them would be fun! Grables has been with us for years, and Scruffy just adopted the winery during pruning-time last year, when probably a better moniker would have been, "Half-dead". She was a complete bag-of-bones and could not even walk to the house by herself, so I am guessing she would not have made it another week. Lucky for us all, a little coaxing and hand feeding, and she is now quite well-fed; maybe we should have called her "fluffy"?
Menawhile, tonight or tomorrow we will be working on a new wine...
Cheers!

Website Woes

While updating the website yesterday, I managed to "upset the apple cart", so to speak. Some of the pages are not displaying properly. I am working diligently on getting it in good working order. It looks like I have a lot of new pictures that are boggin it down a little. I deleted most of them, and some will have broken links until this is resolved, sorry for the inconvenience.
Thank you for your patience.

Valentines 5 Course Feast At Windswept Winery

Wow, what a wonderful night of food and wine and Windswept Winery on Valentines Day.

I walked into the Conference Room and Betty (my precious mother-in-law) had transformed the conference room, the Panache Room, into a Valentines Day delight. The room was decked with Valentines, and all the (many many) glasses were set at the ready on the elegant tables....

This was Windswept Winery's inaugural Valentines Feast. We presented an exquisite meal, paired with our Estate grown and vinted wines, to the most fabulous people. Special Thanks to the Wackers..and a pic from their Blog...

The laughter, the tinkle of wine glasses, the stories, the quiet elegance of a fabulous event in our family winery. We were elated and thrilled at the responses! Thank you to all who attended.

(You missed it? NO fears....we have a Winemakers' Dinner event planned on Saturday, April 19...you may "Toast" your Tax return, or "Wine" about your Tax bill. Guest Chef Jared is busily working on the Menu, and my mouth is watering, aleady. More information will be posted soon!)

U-tube Wine Tasting and Winery tour

Brrr. It is cold outside. I updated the Website and it needed it! One of the things I added was the U-tube and this blog link. Special thanks to Clyde and Katie Gill from Peaceful Bend Winery in Steeleville, Missouri for dragging us into the 21st century.
Here's the U-tube location.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYB63wKZFxw
It includes How to Taste Wine, and a little tour of the Winery. Enjoy.
Rebecca

2008 The Windswept Blog begins

Welcome to Windswept Winery's Blog

I am Windswept Rebecca and I'll be updating you about the Winery Happenings.

Remember that January is a time for catch-up in Wineries...we are doing our paperwork, thinking about pruning, doing more paperwork, and planning, plus a little paperwork, perhaps?

;-)


We are planning to be bottling more wine soon... the Blushing Beauty, which is a very popular sweet blush, is a bit low...


It is raining with the threat of ice and snow tonight; makes you want to just curl up with a warm mug of spiced wine and throw another log on the fire.