The Atwater Times - September 2020
OFFERING TASTING RESERVATIONS THROUGH 10/31
In the Vineyard
As of yesterday morning, harvest is underway with Vignoles and Grüner Veltliner first to the press deck.
We finally got a good dose of rain, which will help the vines function well as the ripening process finishes. Although drier weather is usually helpful, our site has been a little drier than we would like. We had only gotten 2-1/2 inches of rain from the beginning of June until a couple of storms the last week of August, about a third of what we would normally expect in that time period.
Despite the dryness, the vines have held up robustly, and we are busy preparing for a high-quality year.
Wine Cellar Updates
The last of the 2019 reds have completed their journey from barrel to bottle, including estate-grown Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and for the first time at Atwater, a blend of Blaufränkisch and Cabernet Franc! Now with the barrels and tanks emptied, all eyes and hands are focused on the upcoming harvest season.
We are excited to Wes Andrew back to our winemaking team this year. Wes, our 2019 harvest intern, spent the 2020 growing season in the vineyards and will now be joining us in the cellar to transform our grapes to wine.
Thanks to a very warm and dry summer, we are having an early start to the vintage with grapes starting to arrive on the press deck starting in mid-September.
New Releases
Vignoles 2019
New Release
Hand-picked and whole-cluster pressed with 75% botrytis, the Vingoles was aged in stainless steel tanks for eight months.
With a light straw color, this medium-sweet wine packs complex aromas and flavors of honey, tropical fruit, and caramel apple.
It’s bright and silky with acidity that balances the finish. We enjoy a cool glass with a spicy Thai dish or a nice cheesecake.
PURCHASE NOW
From the Tasting Room
Twenty years ago this month, Ted Marks purchased the former Rolling Hills Farm Winery, and Atwater opened its doors for wine tastings and sales in September of 2000 with the help of his daughter, Ann, and former son-in-law, Phil Hazlitt.
We couldn’t be prouder to celebrate twenty years of bringing you excellent wines—something we couldn’t do without our excellent staff or our loyal customers, many of whom have supported us for years.
Vinny Aliperti, winemaker, sums up our feelings about the future: “I am excited to see what the next twenty years will reveal: I'm confident that Atwater's best days are still ahead!”
Thank you to those who shared your memories of Atwater:
“2005 was a very lean year for Finger Lakes grapes, Riesling in particular at a time when Riesling was "the" marketable grape that was going to define our region. The winter of 2004 was marked by widespread winter injury so we knew 2005 would be a recovery year. As it turned out it was the hottest growing season since 1991 with drought conditions. The crop estimates were way under normal. At the end of August the remnants of Hurricane Katrina gave our vineyards a much needed soak thus increasing berry size. With the heat and sunshine through September our Riesling crop was much less than normal but was of "Reserve" quality. We gathered all employees and family and hand harvested all of our Riesling as it was a precious crop. Not a berry to be missed. This wine was entered into the The Canberra International Riesling Challenge and won top honor: Atwater's 2005 Reserve Riesling Best North American Riesling. A proud day and delicious vintage!”
—Denise Clappier, Office Administrator
"I love working someplace where the staff feels like family and we treat each other with respect and kindness. To have made lifelong friends with so many of the wonderful customers that come in to enjoy and purchase, but also to catch up like old friends. To be able to enjoy the sunset and everyone and everything stops to capture that moment in time to hold in our memories like each sunset is the first. From birthday gatherings, boat rides, and tasting excursions. Working long exhausting festivals and having a smile on our faces when we are done. Lending a helping hand during harvest or wherever is needed to make Atwater a success. . . Now being in charge of a great staff that makes me proud every day, not just for their great customer service skills, but the way they roll with the punches, pivot when needed, help each other out without being asked, and always have a smile on their faces. I have watched Atwater grow these last 18 years and can't wait to see what is up our sleeve in the future."
—Amanda Gumtow, Tasting Room Manager
“A special memory for us was hosting a pre-wedding celebration with friends and family at Atwater the night before our wedding. People still talk about how much fun they had and the amazing sunset they experienced with a glass of wine in hand. Amanda and staff helped to make the night so personal with little touches. The next day we were able to have our first look at Atwater and our wedding toast was with Riesling Bubble. I guess you could say Atwater has become part of our family.”
—Greg and Michelle Shippos, Club Members
“I don’t know if I can say I have only one favorite memory of Atwater because over the past 19 years the ongoing experience of visiting has been a highlight adventure I look forward to annually. I do have to say that being introduced to many new vintages in recent years, like your Blaufränkisch, Cabernet Merlot and Pét-Nat, were a near orgasmic experience. Never a dull moment and always a fantastic time.”
—Debbie D., Club Member
NEW BUSINESS HOURS
Our new hours are 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily for both wine tastings and al fresco service.
Tastings are offered by reservation only. We are now accepting reservations through October 31, 2020. During these tastings for up to four people, one of our experienced hosts will present your choice of five wines along with cheese and crackers. You’ll learn about the winemaking process, the vintage, and the special characteristics of our estate.
Enjoy wine by the bottle or glass, wine cocktails, and small bites in our outdoor seating area through mid-October.
GETTING OUR WINE
Ground Shipping
Our $10 per case ground shipping. Quantity and club discounts apply.
Curbside Pick-up
Order online and choose the "Pickup" option at checkout. When you arrive, park and call (607) 546-8463 to let us know you’ve arrived. We'll bring your wine out to you and load it in your vehicle.
Local Delivery
Order wine by noon Monday through Friday for same-day local delivery. Call us at (607) 546-8463 or place an order online and select the "Local Delivery" shipping option. There is a six-bottle minimum and a twenty-five-mile radius delivery limit.
Orders for pick-up or delivery can include specialty food, puzzles, and even wine keys! Browse our selection here.
CLUB HOUSE
One benefit of wine club membership is access to extremely limited library wines. We’ve just released two of these wines with fewer than 25 bottles each to club members.
Big Blend 2011
Pinot Noir 2008
UPCOMING EVENTS
Follow our social media channels to keep up with our harvest activities!
Sep 16, 2020 at 12:39 PM
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New Business Hours
Effective Friday, September 11, our new hours will be 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. for both tastings by reservation and al fresco service.
Outdoor service will be available through mid-October depending on weather: follow our social media and website for more information as it is available.
You can find more information about preparing for your visit here.
We look forward to seeing you soon!
Sep 10, 2020 at 9:45 AM
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The Atwater Times - August 2020
NOW OFFERING TASTING RESERVATIONS THROUGH 10/31
In the Vineyard
We are starting to see the first of veraison in our earliest varieties. This is the time when the berries begin to soften and change color. The next couple of weeks will bring us completely through that process. Harvest is not far now!
Animals like grapes as much as we do, so we are in the middle of deploying all our wildlife deterrent devices. We use a combination of netting, “squawkers” that produce bird in distress sounds, and cannons that sound like gun shots. There are many challenges throughout the year getting good quality fruit to the press deck, but this time is among the most stressful. We’re hoping for good weather to hold out for the rest of the season and for the birds to stay away!
Wine Cellar Updates
We recently blended, coarse filtered, and bottled 496 cases of our Big Blend 2018, a combination of estate grown Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Merlot after its long twenty-one-month slumber in barrels. Next, we’re moving to the Cabernet Sauvignon 2018, a straight up bottling from some of our most expressive barrels from the 2018 vintage.
Before August slips by, our last major bottling effort before harvest will be wrangling the very delicious 2019 reds, which will include Cabernet Franc and Syrah as well as a very special single barrel from the 2017 vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon!
End of Vintage
We’ve only got a few cases left of this vintage. Order before they are gone!
Dry Rose of Blaufränkisch 2019
New Releases
Pinot Gris 2018
New Release
Hand-picked and hand-sorted, 95% of the grapes were tank fermented and aged sur lees. 5% were skin fermented and barrel aged. The result is a crisp, mouthwatering Pinot Gris with notes of sweet and spicy orange blossom mixed with vanilla crème and tangy white peach and pear flavors that finishes with a rounded, silky, vibrant mouth-feel.
Gewürztraminer 2016
New Release
Our Gewürztraminer grapes were hand-sorted. Half were skin-fermented in open-top bins for fifteen days and the rest pressed and barrel fermented. They were separately aged eight months in neutral French and American oak barrels and blended prior to bottling. The resulting dry and complex wine shines with peach blossom and delicate floral aromas. The cool, slightly tart lychee palate is a thing of beauty. Richly textured with a creamy, caramel-like finish that lingers.
From the Tasting Room
Tastings are offered daily from 10:00 to 5:00 by reservation only. We are now accepting reservations through October 31, 2020. During these tastings for up to four people, one of our experienced hosts will present your choice of five wines along with cheese and crackers. You’ll learn about the winemaking process, the vintage, and the special characteristics of our estate.
“The one on one personal tasting and pre order of the cheeseboard is fantastic especially during this new way of living because of the Covid virus. Everyone is extremely friendly and knowledgeable of both the wines and the area.”
“The tasting was excellent! Jim was knowledgeable and pleasant. The wines were delicious! The view was impeccable!”
“We really enjoyed our time at the winery. The whole tasting felt like a special experience. And the ability to enjoy a bottle on the beautiful grounds afterwards really topped it off. Thank you for a great time!”
Atwater After Hours
Now that the sun is setting earlier, Atwater After Hours is 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. Friday through Sunday. You can enjoy al fresco wine by the glass or bottle, wine cocktails, and small bites. No reservations are required. For more information, please visit our website.
Employee Spotlight: Bobby Iszard
Bobby first came to Seneca Lake to attend a Boy Scout Camp and returned as a camp counselor where he met his wife. Her parents had a cottage at Glenora, and he was attracted to the lake’s beauty and serenity. They bought a house on Glenora Point in 1981.
Bobby was introduced to the wine industry and wine making by a NYS Supreme Court judge and his son-in-law as well as his son who worked at a winery as a teenager on a press pad. After he retired, his son, a Director of Sales/Marketing at a winery, asked him to help at wine events on the road. He was then asked to work in the sales room of a winery on the west side of Seneca Lake. Last year he joined us at Atwater.
Introducing our guests to the great wines from the Finger Lakes and how the lakes make up so much of the character of the people give Bobby satisfaction. He’s also gratified by how they react to our wines and the intimacy of our tasting venue. Not only do they appreciate our wines, but they share our love for the beauty of the Finger Lakes.
Since we’ve changed our tasting room procedures in the wake of COVID-19 for the safety of our guests and staff, our hosts have had to undergo new training. Bobby observes that the new format has had many positive effects, primarily that hosts are able to spend more personal time with each party to explore our wines.
Picking a favorite Atwater wines is like picking which one of your children is your favorite—not easily done. However, Bobby is a big fan of our Dry Riesling and our Pinot Noir. At the same time, he thinks all our wines well-balanced with the concentration on the fruit.
Bobby loves to interact with our guests to learn more about them as individuals and how they react to our wines. Life is so complex, especially now with all that we are going through that concentrating on the wine, the beauty of the lakes, and the people allow a focus on the beauty of the moment!
GETTING OUR WINE
Ground Shipping
Our $10 per case ground shipping. Quantity and club discounts apply.
Curbside Pick-up
Order online and choose the "Pickup" option at checkout. When you arrive, park and call (607) 546-8463 to let us know you’ve arrived. We'll bring your wine out to you and load it in your vehicle.
Local Delivery
Order wine by noon Monday through Friday for same-day local delivery. Call us at (607) 546-8463 or place an order online and select the "Local Delivery" shipping option. There is a six-bottle minimum and a twenty-five-mile radius delivery limit.
Orders for pick-up or delivery can include specialty food, puzzles, and even wine keys! Browse our selection here.
CLUB HOUSE
We invite you to explore our Atwater's Edge Wine Club.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Check out our Events Calendar for the latest events at and around Atwater Vineyards.
Aug 15, 2020 at 8:37 AM
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The Atwater Times - July 2020
NOW OFFERING TASTINGS ON THE DECK BY RESERVATION
SEE DETAILS BELOW
In the Vineyard
It has been a very dry spring/early summer, and we’ve received less than an inch of rain in the past two months—six or more inches less than average. Fortunately, our soils have good water holding capacity and the grapevine roots go deep. We are seeing little stress, although we would be happy to get some rain! We have watered our young vines a couple of times because their root systems are not as developed as those in our older vines. It must be done by hand and is a time-consuming process since we do not have irrigation installed. The dryness does provide benefits: very little disease pressure and good fruit set, which is when the flower forms a berry. We often battle rain at bloom, which can cause poor fruit set. We did not have that issue this year, so there is a good crop out there if we can make it to the finish line with no problems.b
Wine Cellar Updates
On the heels of bottling the Pinot Noir 2019 and a couple of “orange” wines from the 2016 and 2017 vintages, we tackled the Stone Bridge Red 2019 in July.
This Atwater favorite is a blend of Marechal Foch and Chancellor; both are fermented on the skins and barrel aged for eight months in neutral American oak. The wine is usually finished with a few grams of residual sugar to increase the fruit expression and help round out the mouthfeel.
Later this month, we will begin to start pulling out the 2018 and 2019 reds from their slumber in the barrel cellar for our final round of bottling before we begin preparations for the 2020 harvest season.
End of Vintage
We’ve only got a few cases left of these vintages. Order before they are gone!
Cabernet-Merlot 2016
Pinot Gris 2017
New Releases
Blaufränkisch 2017
New Release
Grapes were fermented in open-top bins for eight days, then the wine was aged in American and Hungarian oak barrels for nine months. It offers aromas of chocolate which merge into smooth silky tannins on the palate with favors of maraschino cherry and a caramel toffee finish.
Dry Riesling Navone 2016
New Release
The grapes in this wine were sourced from the Navone Vineyards. Fifty percent were barrel fermented and fifty percent fermented in stainless steel. The wine was aged in neutral French and American oak for eight months sur lees. Bright and zesty, it shows more mineral and spice than fruit. The flavors are rich and flinty with citrus and apple remaining upfront, and a delicate nuttiness rounds out the finish.
From the Tasting Room
We’ve been re-open now just over a month, and we’ve loved having guests at the vineyard again. We are pleased to offer al fresco service with wine by the glass or bottle and wine cocktails or tastings by reservation only.
Since our last newsletter, we’ve also opened our deck for tastings by reservation. During these experiences, you’ll have a gorgeous view of our vineyards and Seneca Lake while one of our hosts guides you in an immersive wine tasting covering our estate, winemaking practices, and vintages.
Indoor and Deck Tastings
- Reservations are required and may be made online. When making your reservation you have the option of ordering add-ons such as cheese plates and chocolate selections.
- Each scheduled tasting is up to an hour and will be offered from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
- The maximum group size we can accommodate is four (4).
- Only those individuals on your paid reservation are allowed inside or on the deck for tastings, and we cannot admit anyone under twenty-one years of age.
- To maintain social distancing, your host will lead you through your tasting, take any bottle orders you have from your assigned seating, and package your purchase for curbside pickup.
- Dogs are not allowed in the tasting room or on the deck.
Al Fresco Service
- Wine by the glass or bottle service is outside. We have covered picnic tables and an assortment of lawn chairs. You may also bring your own chairs or blankets. Please be mindful of the weather when you prepare your trip.
- Seating is first-come, first-served. Our hosts will be on hand to direct you, take your order, and answer any questions your may have.
- Al fresco service will be available from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10:00 to 9:00 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
- The maximum group size we can accommodate is six (6).
- Leashed dogs are allowed in our outdoor areas and must maintain social distancing.
We will be observing all New York state mandates regarding COVID-19 safety measures. Guests must wear a mask in all common areas; they may be removed once seated. We ask you follow all directional and traffic flow signs and observe social distancing (six feet) between groups. Please do not come to the winery if you are displaying signs of COVID-19 or another contagious disease or if you have been exposed. Thank you for helping make this a safe and pleasant environment for our other guests and employees.
For those outside of the area or who are still wanting to stay at home, we are offering a ground shipping offer, curbside pickup, and free local delivery.
Ground Shipping
Our $10 per case ground shipping. Quantity and club discounts apply.
Curbside Pick-up
Order online and choose the "Pickup" option at checkout. When you arrive, park and call (607) 546-8463 to let us know you’ve arrived. We'll bring your wine out to you and load it in your vehicle.
Local Delivery
Order wine by noon Monday through Friday for same-day local delivery. Call us at (607) 546-8463 or place an order online and select the "Local Delivery" shipping option. There is a six-bottle minimum and a twenty-five-mile radius delivery limit.
Orders for pick-up or delivery can include specialty food, puzzles, and even wine keys! Browse our selection here.
CLUB HOUSE
Amanda and her staff are busy preparing the next quarterly shipment for wine club members. Due to COVID-19 social distancing and space concerns, we will not be having a pick-up party in August, but we encourage you to take advantage of your free tasting or al fresco service for wine by the bottle or glass while picking up your wine. If you have questions, please email her at amanda@atwatervineyards.com or call (800) 331-7323.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Check out our Events Calendar for the latest events at and around Atwater Vineyards.
Jul 15, 2020 at 8:53 PM
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