April 2021
Final Pruning
As we roll into spring, we’re in the final stages of pruning the vineyards. Pruning is one of the most important vineyard tasks of the whole year; it shapes the vine’s architecture to allow the grapes to sit in the best spot on the trellis, shaded by the canopy and exposed to drying breezes.
Delaying pruning into the Spring is an often-used technique to protect against frost events. Buds located higher up on the vine will wake up before those located underneath, so by retaining these extra buds on top, the important buds will stay dormant longer. Hopefully that will buy us enough time to move past any damaging cold snaps.
Will is showing us how it’s done here, looking good!
Herb Festival
We’re excited to announce our first event of 2021, the Swan Creek Wine Trail’s annual Herb Festival! Enjoy delicious herb infused foods paired with a wine sample at each of the four vineyards, and jumpstart your spring garden with four potted herbs to take home.
One ticket gives 2 wine samples (1 oz each), 2 food pairings, and 1 potted herb (4”) at each vineyard. Food and wine samples will be individually packaged/served for safety. Come out and make a weekend of visiting the Swan Creek Wine Trail!
Dobbins Creek - Basil | Laurel Gray - Cilantro
Shadow Springs - Lavender | Windsor Run - Rosemary
Dates & Ticket Info
Friday April 30th | noon-5pm
Saturday May 1st | noon-5pm
Sunday May 2nd | 1-5pm
$25 per ticket (limited tickets available this year)
Call (336) 468-5000 to purchase tickets
New Wines Incoming
If you like wines on the sweeter side of life, these two are for you! Rouge is a sweet red blend, similar to our holiday wine “Tinsel”. Drink it chilled in the summer for a refreshing treat!
Sunlight is semi-sweet white blend, comprised mostly of Petit Manseng and sweetened with Seyval Blanc juice (similar to Buddy’s Best).
Both will be released at the tasting room this weekend starting Friday, March 26th! We’ll be closed on Easter Sunday, and if you can’t wait to try these two, you can order both Tinsel and Sunlight online now!
A Mighty Chiller
Everybody needs a refrigerator to keep their food from going bad, but what does a winery need? Well, it turns out we need a REALLY big refrigerator!
During fermentation, when the grape juice becomes wine, the yeast put out a ton of heat. In fact, if these yeasts are left unsupervised, they may end up killing themselves from their own heat before their job is done. So when you have lots of tanks undergoing fermentation at the same time, you need a big chiller to keep everything at the right temperature!
When a compressor failed in our old chiller, we decided it was time to upgrade to this beast manufactured locally by Pro Chiller of Mocksville. This new unit nearly doubles our cooling capacity and will serve us well in the coming years.