It is a partly cloudy morning along the shores of Seneca and over the vineyards of Glenora our temperature is 62 with the wind coming from the south at 9 miles per hour. We certainly can tell Fall is approaching (Tuesday) as the days are much shorter (well daylight hours-days still total 24 hours). It is dark now when the Gazette is being written.

            In the vineyards-another somewhat dry week, only .34 inches of rain this past week. Other than yesterday the temperatures never crossed the 70 degree mark and the low for the week was 37 on Friday morning. In spite of the cooler temperatures the Brix (sugar level) of most varieties seem to be rising, although the acid levels are still quite high. This coming week is the last full week of September so the harvest pressure is on-do we wait for the sugar levels to rise and the acids to drop hoping that we will not have a killing frost until Thanksgiving, or do we start harvest with the numbers such as they are? Given the odds of not having a killing frost until Thanksgiving we have started harvest--Baco this past week at Knapp

            On the Press Deck-On Wednesday the Press Deck Team welcomed the first grapes of the season-Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Glenora Farms. These grapes will be used for our Sparkling Wine Cuvee with most of the Chardonnay planned to be made into a Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine, our first in several years. This coming week we will be harvesting and "bringing in" Seyval and Cayuga at Glenora, Seyval, Cayuga and Vignoles at Knapp, and Seyval and Baco at CLR. We "might" bring in some Pinot Blanc at Glenora as well.

            On Wednesday winemaker Steve and the editor met with folks (professors and researchers) from RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) to discuss E.D. This is a topic while a bit old is now beginning to come out in the open. Always wanting to be leaders we wanted to fully understand ED and its implications for us. Currently the are over 150 wineries throughout the world that use ED (electro-dialysis) to remove tartrates from wine- a process somewhat similar to human dialysis. The benefits to ED are many-it removes tartrates quickly (in hours), less stress on the wine, less utility costs, and much less labor costs are the major benefits. It also has some impact (positive) on pH. We are also working with the RIT folks with respect to cross-flow filtration which also provides similar benefits to those of ED. There are wineries in the Niagara Peninsula (Canada) that are using this technology---ROAD TRIP!!

            On the road-Belinda (Knapp), Hallie (Glenora), and Christine (CLR) spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in NYC presenting our wine at these events-an OPICI tasting at Luke House as part of Riesling Launch, another OPICI tasting at Brooklyn Oenology (both of these venues carry our wines) and at Harvest in the Square tasting which also was part of the Riesling Launch in NYC. We received some great Facebook, Twitter and Instagram reports from them.

            Last evening Chef John and crew presented their monthly wine dinner-the theme--Farm to Table-Part One. It was a sold out event-filled 2 weeks before the dinner. Chef John's dinners are extremely creative and yet done using many local products. As well, the dinners feature wines from Knapp, Glenora, CLR and Zugibe. The dinners and wines present a great cross section of the bounties of the Finger Lakes Wine Country. Farm to Table-Part Two is next month's theme.

            It has been a wedding double header weekend at Glenora with weddings and receptions taking place on Friday and Saturday evenings.

            If you are in the Rochester/Penfield area on Tuesday evening stop by Lisa's Liquor Barn around 6:30 PM. The editor will be there presenting a tasting of some of Glenora finest, talking about the wines and Finger Lakes wine history as well as answering any questions that are posed. On Tuesday the 30^th we will be in Buffalo marketplace during the day with a tasting and presentation at Premier Wine and Spirts-from the pre-registrations calendar it appears that there is only one seat left!!

            Thought for the week:                                                 Ego

            An orotundity, which I define as Nobelitis a pomposity in which one is treated as representative of more than oneself by someone conscious of representing more than himself.