Standing Stone Vineyards

Newsletters

Periodically, Standing Stone provides newsletters with helpful information about upcoming classes, articles on winemaking and more!

Standing Stone News to Share

There is a lot happening here at Standing Stone. Below are our most recent press releases and announcements.

4/14/13

Unusual wine pairings

Popcorn, wings, pizza and . . . wine?! Why not?

Late last year, the Lodi Library asked if we would be interested in holding a seminar about wine and food pairing. Since we love to eat and drink, and since we pair wine with everything that we eat, we thought this would be a natural. As we thought about how to approach the seminar, though, we grappled with our observation that so many folks are really, really intimidated by wine. It seems often that they get even more intimidated when thinking about how to pair wine with food. So we started planning with the idea that the first thing we would do is avoid any attitude, and focus on fun.

Tom experimented with a new chicken wing recipe one night, and the seminar started to fall in place. While many folks think of casual food like wings, pizza, and the like as food to serve with beer or soda, we drink wine with wings, we drink wine with pizza, we drink wine with everything. That got us started, and from there it was easy. Casual get togethers – game night, movie night, kids back from college night, planning the baby/wedding shower night – these are perfect times to add in some wine, with food that is already a staple.

Wings and pizza go together, so that was easy. What else? Popcorn! This was a bit of a stretch, even for us. But as we planned out the seminar, the popcorn proved to be very interesting and the most fun pairing overall. Our first inclination was to pair the popcorn with Riesling or Semi Dry Vidal, and let the sweet fruit of the wines balance the salt of the popcorn. But the butter just screamed Reserve Chardonnay, and that proved to work very well. Much easier to convince folks to drink Reserve Chardonnay, with its rich butter and creamy flavors, when it pairs perfectly with a simple bowl of buttered popcorn. The wine is far more likely to go home with a customer than it is when we describe it as “lovely with lobster”! Then, for a twist, we used Chinese five spice powder on a second batch of the popcorn. This is THE answer to introducing people to Gewurztraminer. As one of our testers exclaimed “I don’t even like Gewurztraminer, but the popcorn and Gewurz together is awesome.” So now we had a springboard to explain why Gewurz, with all of its complicated floral, spice and fruit flavors, works so well with spicy food, especially with some cinnamon in the mix.

The wings were also educational and a big surprise to all. We used 2 sauces: one was the Chef Lehrman BBQ sauce, molasses based, and the other was Tom’s Bootleg BBQ, more of a pepper spice based sauce. Pinot Noir 2008, which often gets sneering looks at the tasting bar due to its light color, showed rich complexity and round ripe flavors when paired with the Molasses based sauce, and the Semi Dry Vidal also complimented that sauce beautifully. The Gewurztraminer worked with the Tom’s – again showing that spice and spice is nice.

Pizza and wine. Very natural and normal in our house, but a big surprise to all who attended the seminar. First plain, just sauce and cheese. Smokehouse Red was nice, and the Pinot Noir also showed well, again tasting much fuller bodied than when served on its own. Adding some green peppers and onions was the big surprise. Everyone liked the Semi Dry Vidal with this version, surprising on two fronts. First, no one expected white wine to work with pizza with red sauce, and second, most did not expect to like the sweetness of the Semi Dry Vidal. But there was real consensus here, and a sense of finding one of those special combinations where the food and wine together are much better than each separately. Finally, a little pepperoni. Again the Gewurz worked very well, with the round fruit and spice of the wine finding a good match with the fat and spice of the pepperoni.

So, first, many thanks to the Lodi Whittier Library (and their funding from the Delavan Foundation) for inspiring us to create this seminar. It was good for us to spend the time tasting and thinking through the pairings, and we will use the concepts to help shape our tasting notes and suggestions as we present the wines. Much more, though, it was a fun experience to sit for an hour at a time with folks who are truly interested in food and wine (our daily passion). This is why we make wine, to serve and enjoy with food – all kinds of food. We are really looking forward to a year of exploration on this theme. c

9/24/2012

Harvest thoughts and Riesling Vertical report

Part of the fun of this crazy business is the fact that we are always looking back AND looking forward, while dealing with what needs to be done NOW. This is  a risk factor –  the constant distraction means we might never focus on any one thing. But it is also the joy of winegrowing. We constantly analyze and reflect on what we have done in the past, we stay sharp today to make good decisions in the present, and we always think about how to sustain the vines and wines into the future.

I was very mindful of this during the past week. We are fully into the present harvest season, with all the fear and trepidation that brings. Each morning, noon and night we analyze the weather, the grapes, the weather, the labor situation, the weather, the equipment, the weather (do you notice the trend here?).

We do this hoping to make the most perfect decisions bringing the grapes to the point of no return – harvest.

At the same time, the tasting room is humming with the increased fall traffic. Not all people really understand WHY it is good to come to the wineries in the fall, but they do seem to know that it is the right time to come. At the tasting bar we offer selections from several harvests past. These are wines from grapes that were picked when perfect, pressed with care, fermented under our watchful eyes and with frequent tastings to make sure that yeast knows what it is supposed to do, and, in fact, does it. We tell the story of those years and those harvests, while keeping one eye on the sky and the weather now.

During the harvest season many wineries have special parties to celebrate. We prefer small gatherings. This past weekend we hosted one of our Vertical Tastings, where we reflect on  the past while tasting many vintages of the same wine. We believe that the discipline of reviewing past vintages offers information to improve our winemaking and grape growing skills.We have opened these tastings to include select customers, several times a year. The Vertical this past weekend was Riesling.

The Riesling Vertical tastings do not always sell well, and we have cancelled several. This time, I had decided that I was going to taste the wines regardless, to prepare for this year’s Riesling harvest. Fortunately, two of our barrel owners also signed up, so I had some company. We went ahead, with more folks joining in at the last minute –  and what a pleasure it was.  We had the usual arguments about preferences over the 2008 Dry or Regular Riesling, one taster strongly advocated for the 2007 Riesling, and the 2006 kept winning more supporters. THEN I opened the 1994 and the 1995, and the room was quiet. All sipped slowly, and comments began to emerge: “I had no idea”, “look at that color”, “how much of that can I buy” “truly beautiful”. We were actually finished with the formal tasting and information in an hour, yet we all sat and sipped the 2 older wines for almost another hour. If there were more bottles, we might be there still. The magic of Riesling conjured up a few more supporters that day.

We started Standing Stone Vineyards with the express commitment to make Riesling and Gewürztraminer, believing that those 2 varieties truly belong in the Finger Lakes.  There have, however, been vintages that seemed to question this founding belief, as Riesling has not been the most popular variety. This tasting, and the avowed enthusiasm and interest in Riesling, was very gratifying.  What did we learn? Stick to the plan, make Riesling when it is not the thing to do, care for the vineyards even in light of more popular and trendy grapes, and KEEP MANY MORE cases each year. Older Rieslings are truly magic in the glass.

Bring on the Riesling grapes – we are ready!

9/2/2012

Pre-harvest update

.Harvest?! Why are we asking this question NOW? Usually as we approach Labor Day, we are anxiously making sure that the grapes are actually working their way through veraison. This year, we are starting to sample, so that we know how soon we will start to pick.As you can see, that is not the case. Following the color , there is flavor, and we are not surprised to taste developing flavors of mature Pinot Noir grapes. This is highly unusual, but seems to be “the new normal”. In 2010 we picked Pinot Noir on September 18 (so technically in summer). We were at 18 brix last week, which is where the 2010 Pinot Noir was on September 1. I guess we are ahead.Chardonnay is also ripening nicely. Normally we would not even think of sampling yet, but we did last week. The Chardonnay is slightly behind Pinot, but that is to be expected. We thinned the Pinot Noir fairly radically, and we pulled leaves to expose fruit. We have not done that in the Chardonnay, because we don’t want too much sun directly on the grapes. Some shading and a heavier crop in the Chardonnay gives us the nicest and most balanced flavors. Beautiful Chardonnay fruit. Gewurztraminer is also moving ahead nicely.Classic Gewurztraminer grapes – almost red in colorWhen I headed out to sample, it felt like I was making an excuse to take a nice walk in the vineyard, but it turned out to be a good idea. The sample juice was pushing 20 brix, the pH is up to 3.15, and there are virtually no green flavors. We will not be harvesting in October this year – these grapes won’t wait. Speaking of Gewurztraminer, we cleaned up some tank space with our last bottling run on August 13. The 2010 Gewurztraminer is now available in the tasting room, and it is finding many fans. We are somewhat unusual, in that we often release Gewurztraminer when others have sold out the vintage. In our opinion, Gewurz is a wine that wants to age, and only shows off its true nature when it has had time to develop. We think we are ready for harvest, which means we have butterflies in our collective stomachs, and we are cleaning everything. We are always much happier when we actually start to pick grapes. But we know not to rush, and to wait patiently for the perfect alignment of brix, pH, acid and flavor.

Reasons to Visit Us

We sent an email to B&Bs and hotels, and also to Limo and bus companies, showing the benefits of a visit to Standing Stone Vineyards. To see the content of that email, link here.

6/12/2012

Many shades of green

That's what June is - green, green, green and more green. This is the month that we revel in the lush vegetation as all things growing - grow. My camera cannot do justice to the view. As we sit at night and look out over the aquamarine lake, I can pick out umpteen different shades of green. There is the dark hunter green of the edges of the hills on the west side of the lake, just beyond Glenora. The very tops of the hills turn dark sage green as the sun dips over the horizon. The several-weeks-old leaves on the fruit trees are emerald green, contrasting against the chartreuse new growth on the tips of the vines. Classic forest green of the black pine tree needles provides an elegant backdrop to the proud Serbian spruce’s stately silver. The grass AND lawn weeds are all showy Kelly green. Jade shows off in the large “elephant leaf” hosta under the English walnut tree, the leaves of which are pure lime. Rich olive leaves on the Russian olive trees wave against the shimmery pale yellow green of the willows near the pond. And people ask why we don’t go away for an early summer vacation – not a chance!

This verdant month is when we learn more about the potential of this vintage. The grapes are flowering now. During this stage of flowering the pollination and fertilization of the grapevine takes place with the resulting product being a grape berry, containing 1-4 seeds. Most Vitis vinifera grape vines are hermaphroditic, with both male stamens and female ovaries, being able to self-pollinate. At the beginning of the flowering process the only part that is visible is the fused cap of petals known as the calyptra. Shortly after the calyptra is shed, liberating the pollen from the anthers of the stamen. During the process of fertilization, the pollen fertilizes the ovary, which produces seeds as the flower begins the transformation into a grape berry, encapsulating the seed. Detrimental weather (cold, wind & rain) can severely affect the flowering process, causing many flowers not to be fertilized. So, as we have all spring, we continue to worry about the weather. Hopefully all goes well, and flowering leads to “fruit set”. At that point we have an idea what this year’s crop will be, so we will start to have answers to your many questions about what the weather this spring has done to the crop. We’ll keep you posted and report on fruit set next week.

5/31/2012

Roller coaster spring!

Roller coasters used to be fun. But when it's the weather that we are riding, we just have to hang on and hold on! Many people clearly enjoyed the sensation of wearing sandals when it usually is snowing. We weren’t smiling, though, as we knew that it probably would not last. We understood the risk of cold weather following the intense warmth - the danger that risk posed to the vines was real. Mother Nature threw everything at us, or should we say at the grapes. First, 80 degree sustained temperatures in early March. Then severe cold on March 26th – down to 22.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Fortunately the buds were just swelling, and they seemed to handle the temperature shift with little damage.

Then it warmed up again, and the warm weather held. Early April was warm and dry, and the vines thought it was time to get started. We had record setting early bud break on April 12, or maybe even a day or two earlier – we actually tried to ignore it and pretend it was not happening. As we got ready for our big April bottling run, scheduled for the week of April 23, we remembered that same week another year in recent history started with a foot plus of snow. “That can’t happen again” we said, wishfully. We were wrong. We woke to 5 plus inches of snow on April 23, and the snow continued, while the temperatures warmed up. The snow got wetter and heavier. Fortunately, although I cried buckets of tears for my broken tree peony, we only lost branches on ornamentals – the tree peony, lilacs, and some small shrubs. The grapes were fine. (And, actually, the tree peony and the lilacs are fine as well.)

We finished the bottling run and relaxed for the evening, blissfully unaware that more cold was coming. On Friday night, April 27, the temps dipped below 30 again, and we were inspecting buds and leaves the next day. Yes, we had frost, and yes, it did “toast” some of the leaves and buds. Pretty scary – we were on edge for the next week or so, checking buds and leaves every day.

One month later, we are calmer. The vines look healthy, with only a few buds that clearly did not grow after their cold shock. So now it is full speed ahead into the growing season.

April 28, 2012

Late Spring Snow!

News from Standing Stone Vineyards http://conta.cc/JMoAg5

3/29/2012

Gewurztraminer and Gewurztraminer Ice get attention from Wine Spectator

We are please that the Gewurztraminer Ice 2010 received a 91 score from the prestigious Wine Spectator, AND that the Gewurztraminer 2009 was the daily pick for March 29, 2012! Come in and taste them for yourself. We hope to see you soon.

2/27/2012

Late winter news

The theory: this is our down time. As in – not busy, nothing to do, lots of time to go away, read, contemplate life. Somehow, we miss this concept!
Reality: we can’t find time to read a good book (and we have long lists!)
Maybe Tom and I are just truly workaholics, and can’t help ourselves. Or maybe the work of crafting exceptional world class wines from superb grapes just takes time, patience, more time, and more patience. We think this is probably the best answer.

So, what have we been doing? Late fall means lots of cleaning up work. Once the wines are fermented (and that, in itself, requires a fair amount of attention to keep fermentations progressing smoothly) we turn to plans for early spring bottling. This year, the pressure was on: we knew that we had to bottle in January as our Riesling and Semi Dry Vidal were almost gone and gone, respectively.
We are not enthused about bottling in January. Lots can go wrong, and for several reasons. First, the new wines are clearly being pushed into the bottle, which adds to the preparation pressure. Second, cold weather is a risk condition for handling all wines. Finally, the “ice style” wines are just generally tricky to bottle, as the high sugar adds even more to the risk factor. We usually try to minimize or eliminate one or more of these risk factors – this year we gamely forged ahead and bottled with all risk factors present! Fortunately our team is crackerjack and well up to the challenge. Marti and Jess carefully tested, tasted and blended, and tested, tasted and blended, and tested, tasted and blended, . . . . (Have we mentioned how much fun it is to be winemakers?!) Tom was required to double check our analysis, both the testing, and the blend trials. Todd and Brad were diverted from the vineyard to move tanks, rearrange pallets, stack wine and pick up all needed pieces. Preparation paid off, and the bottling run went well. Our customers and we are enjoying the Riesling 2011 and the Semi Dry Vidal 2011.

What’s next? We are sneaking in a quick bottling run in March to put the rest of the 2011 Riesling in the bottle, so that our other markets (Boston, DC, Florida and more) can order Riesling at will. We will finish up the rest of the 2011 white wine bottling in April, and we’ll bottle the 2010 Saperavi. (although it won’t be named Saperavi – more on that later).

January 11, 2012

2011 in review

November 3, 2011 (started); January 10, 2012 (completed and posted).

What was that freight train!?! It was called harvest, and it hit with velocity and vigor. It is FINALLY over, and we are officially tired. All the writers in and outside of the industry may have been telling you that this was the year from H**L – and on one level, they are all very correct. BUT grapes have a will to be wine, and wine they will be, at least when grown where wine is obviously supposed to grow. We won’t bore you with all the technical details, although if you come to the winery, you can learn more.

2 months ago, when I started to write this, I could barely breath with all the work to do. Grapes to punch down (yes, Cabernet Sauvignon is always pushing the November limit for harvest!). Fermentations to monitor, which includes twice daily tasting and testings. Blends to begin to consider, especially with a scheduled bottling run in January! Customers coming through the door in herds. There wasn’t an “un-busy” front on the farm.

And now, all is quiet, at least that’s what we’ve been led to believe should happen. But it doesn’t. We are already thinking about pruning, we are still tasting and testing twice daily, and we are seeing more customers than we usually expect at this time of year.

2011 was a monumental year in many respects at Standing Stone Vineyards. We started the year with the decision to replace our HUGE billboard style sign, with something more artistic. Only a month later, we had some inspiration for that project, when a tractor trailer rolled over and flattened the sign. We hastily put up some parts of the old sign, and got to work on the new one. Several months later, we finally installed the work of art, and have had many nice compliments on our new sign.

We had been dragging our feet on building space, and suffering cramped quarters on all wine making, storage and vineyard fronts to avoid unnecessary expense. We finally decided the expense was necessary, and our new Morton building is up. Even though it is now the biggest building on the farm, many long term customers, suppliers and former employees don’t notice it until we point it out.

Oh – and what about grapes and wine? The year was a roller coaster for all in the Finger Lakes. Wet early, then intense heat and drought, then more wet, just when we did not want it – at harvest. But, grapes are tough, and we are tougher. We did everything we needed to do in the vineyard (not many days off this year), and we stayed on our toes through harvest. The resulting wines in both tanks and barrels are tasting like weather was not an issue.

How did we do it? Hard work, lots of thinking and planning, a willingness to change plans instantly, and LOTS of good help. Our vineyard crew was always paying attention – thanks Todd, Brad, Victor, Emilio and the H2A crew of Mexican workers. Wine work requires a willingness to get wet, keep tasting (oh darn!), clean everything twice, and keep tasting – thanks to Angel and Jess for all their work here. And the tasting room – what a team! Always smiling, always willing to help others learn, always willing to take folks on a tour, always willing to answer questions, and always willing to clean, clean, clean! Many thanks to Ann, Jim, Gary, Sandy, Shirley, Diane, April and Corey, and our “sometimes” helpers Nicole, Stefani, Denis, Jenn, Caz, Mark, Judy and probably a few more! We all hope to see you in 2012.

10/4/11

Harvest 2011 update

Time flies! Our last news was about our new building, which was going up quickly. We didn’t even talk about the vineyards because we were just watching and waiting. And wines from the 2011 vintage were just a remote thought.

Just 2 months later, everything is changed. The building is done (well, almost – we are waiting for lights.) The vineyards have been through hell and back, almost literally. Intense high heat and dry conditions in late July and then late August threatened the vines themselves. Fortunately, we have irrigation available, and we used it. (For a video of water dripping – see our Facebook page). Then, the rains started. Hurricane Irene meant nothing to us as we only saw small showers as a result. So we breathed a sigh of relief – too soon! Since then, it feels like the rain has not stopped. Either rain, light showers, excessive dampness, some kind of wetness has been with us almost constantly for the last 3 weeks.

Rain in September is not normally a huge problem, other than dampening our pre-harvest excitement. The grapes weather the storms, the rains stop, and October happens. October – the month of sunshine and warmth. October – the month of beautiful fall colors and crisp clean air. October – the month of HARVEST.
Public perception has a funny way of altering reality. Question after question from customers have focused on the terrible weather this year. “What is it doing to the grapes? How can the wines be good?” we hear, over and over. Yes, the weather is horrid, BUT – grapes seem to have a very strong urge to be wine, and seem to somehow turn themselves around and ripen as needed.

So, the results thus far? Pinot Noir numbers at 21 – 22 Brix, very respectable. pH 3.38 and TA 7.04. That all means a wine that will work – chemically speaking. All the parts are there, and with minor tweaking we will have a very drinkable wine. The most important harvest perameter however, is flavor. We have no options to substitute for that, and fortunately, we don’t have to. Ripe strawberry flavors, texture showing some of the earthy beet and leather that we like, and aromatic beyond belief. As we enter the warehouse to do punch downs, the aromas overwhelm us, filling the room, and making us happy! And Chardonnay – PERFECT! 22 Brix, TA 7.12, and ph 3.34. No need for any additions, just let the wine make itself! Flavors of melon, banana, some bright citrus overtones and vanilla notes showing up even before we think about barrels. Perfect!

8/17/11

New building in the works

How fast can a building go up? Amazingly fast. On Monday, July 25, our blank ground was too sloped. So in came the excavators (yes, plural) and moved the dirt around - lots of it. When they were done, we had a nice, smooth, flat building pad site. Then, lots of stone came in, then back to the big machines moving stone around, and on the third day they rested! The next day, the BIG drill showed up, and made some holes for posts. After that, it was a blur. Posts went in, framing went up, chains adjusted framing, walls went up – whew! When they first told us we would have a building in 10 days, I laughed. Now, I'm a believer.
Why do we need a new building? First, to take advantage of a government grant for agriculture mixing facilities, to instill safer practices with our vineyard spray program. Next, 5 tractors will now live inside - which means they will live much longer. Equipment storage: you may never have noticed how many pieces and parts are stored out in the field north of the parking lot, but those will all now be dry and comfortable inside. Last - wine storage. Instead of trucking wine to another storage facility and then trucking it back here when we need it, we can keep it here.
You may recognize the logo on the building, the “M” stands for Morton (not Macinski?!), and represents a high quality, well thought out, American product.

5/3/11

Spring has (finally) sprung

Although winter did not seem to want to let go, spring finally took over! Bright green colors are popping up and out everywhere, and that means Tom is no longer sleeping well. In addition to the normal vineyard work, which seems to be neverending, we have about 3,000 vines to plant. Most of those are to fill in holes and keep the vineyards as filled in as possible. So now that we want to get into the vineyards with tractors - "rain,rain, go away". That's our chant, but it is not working. Next time you are at the winery, ask to see all the vines waiting to be planted!

04/12/11

LOTS of bottling!

We needed wine - new vintages, cleaning out tanks, just clearing out space in barrels. So we did the biggest bottling run EVER for Standing Stone Vineyards - almost 4,000 cases! What a production that was. 12 hour days, lots of hoses everywhere, and trucks filling the parking lot to hold the empty bottles and the finished wine that we store elsewhere. All is done, and we are proud to report no major calamities, and lots of good wines in the bottles. We will soon release the 2010 Riesling. Last weekend the newly bottled 2010 Semi Dry Vidal was the big seller, and we have changed vintages on the Vidal Ice and Chardonnay Ice. Come on in and try some new wines. We hope to see you soon.

01/19/11

Winter and frozen grapes

We are having a busy winter at Standing Stone Vineyards. Although many of you seem to think that we don’t have much to do in the winter around here, as a result of our 3 90 plus ratings for Vidal Ice, Riesling Ice and Gewurztraminer Ice, we HAVE to make LOTS more! So we have a big truck in the parking lot, running the freezer to keep the frozen grapes cold. We load the press every day or two, and then wait, and wait, and wait, while the frozen grapes gradually release the nectar of the gods. Then we dump out the press, take the grapes (less their juice) to the compost pile, and reload the press. We will do this for the next month or so, and then we start making the wine.

It is labor intensive, but well worth the results. When you visit, ask for a tour to look at our very fancy grape slide – that’s how we move the grapes from the bins into the press without lifting. And taste a drop or two of the VERY sweet juice – and imagine the wine that will be released this summer.

01/12/2011

The kudos keep coming!

We are learning (slowly) how to tweet and have a presence on Facebook. In fact I was at a meeting to learn more, when I got a bonus. “Congrats on the wine of the day, Marti”. I decided that I couldn’t fake it, and simply said “What?” To my delight, I learned that the Wine Spectator chose the 2009 Chardonnay as the under $15 daily wine pick on January. Most important for you to know, is that this wine is ON SALE in the tasting room (or online) for the amazing price of $9.99 per bottle, or $84 per case. You can’t beat that!

And there’s more – Lenn Thompson’s NY Cork Report, a terrific blog covering all wines New York recognized the Standing Stone Vineyards Riesling Ice 2008 as the best Finger Lakes Dessert Wine for 2010. One again, not only do we not raise the price after such recognition, but we offer extra special discounts. If you buy 4 bottles of the Riesling Ice, or any combination of 4 bottles of our Ice products, you will get a 20% discount! How fun is that?!

December 15, 2010

Holiday Wine Sale

December 15, 2010

Visit our Tasting Room!

Holiday Wine Sale
Let us help you with your holiday shopping and entertaining. Come in this weekend to take advantage of special holiday wine discounts. This weekend only, we are running a 25% discount on many of our library wines, including past vintages of Callioux, Pinot Noir, and Pinnacle. We're also running our 20% quantity discount on our Ice style wine - purchase any 4 bottles and recieve 20% off! You may order by phone, email, or in person. Call us with any questions!

Standing Stone Vineyards Tasting Room
Take advantage of the low foot traffic winter days and come see us in the Tasting Room. No lines and plenty of attention from our knowledgeable and friendly staff! The perfect time to get away from all the bustle of the holiday season and unwind with a wine tasting.

December 15, 2010

Facebook and Twitter!

Now you find us on facebook and twitter!
www.facebook.com/standingstonewines
www.twitter.com/ssvny

November, 2010

Wine Spectator Best Value!

Wine Spectator
More Wine Spectator Accolades for Standing Stone! The October 15th edition of Wine Spectator (page 48) lists Standing Stone Riesling 2009 in its Global Values Wish List. We are the only Finger Lakes wine included in this impressive selection of international wines. You may also view it online at www.winespectator.com/magazine/show/id/43512

November, 2010

Become a Cornerstone!

Become a Cornerstone!
Love our wines? Want to be able to purchase more wine for less money? Want to receive special invitations and free tastings? Want first notification on releases of special library and reserve wines? Join one or more of our Loyalty Clubs: Case Club, Wine Club, and Barrel Owners! For more information, please call or email us, visit our website at www.standingstonewines.com/about/club.asp, or stop into the Tasting Room. We'd love for you to join today!

October, 2010

Wine Spectator Scores!

Vidal Ice did it - not again, but better than ever! We were all getting tired of hearing Marti complain about being in a rut - "four 90s for the Vidal Ice, I wish we could top that by at least a point!" And here we are - the September 30 issue of the Wine Spectator will list the Vidal Ice 2008 as a 92 point scoring wine! And the best news for you? NO PRICE INCREASE! We are being mindful of the economy, and VERY appreciative of your continued support for our wines, so we will hold the line and keep the price right where it is - an affordable $24.99. AND THAT'S NOT ALL. Yes another 90 plus score for Standing Stone Vineyards with a 91 for the Gewurztraminer Ice, to go along with the 91 score for the Riesling Ice, and there's more . . .

Chardonnay Ice 2007: 89, Pinnacle 2007: 87, Pinnacle 2006: 86, Cabernet Franc 2008: 84, Gewurztraminer 2007: 84, Pinot Noir 2007: 84, Dry Vidal 2007: 83.

This is the highest score yet for a Standing Stone wine from the Wine Spectator. In fact, with these new scores, we hold just over 10% of the 90 plus scores for New York wines in the Wine Spectator! Scores are certainly not everything, but these kudos are always welcome and are a nice pat on the back for the hard work we put into the vines and wines here at Standing Stone. Feel free to stop by and try all of our high scoring wines today!

10/24/09

Vidal Ice 2008 wins GOLD!

So, we were packing up the wines for the Wine & Food Classic, and filling in the entry forms. We got the call saying they could not find the 20007 Vidal Ice that we entered (I KNOW I put it in the box - oh well!) We had just run out, BUT we had also just bottled the 2008 Vidal Ice. Now, we normally don't like to enter wines in a competition 2 weeks after bottling, but we had already written the check, so we made the switch and sent in the 2008. Well, we're not sure what would have happened if it had been in the bottle longer, but even at this young stage, it was awarded a GOLD MEDAL! So, come on in and taste this new wine - it is selling fast!