Glenora Inn
Glenora Wine Cellars & The Inn at Glenora
Knapp Winery & Vineyard Restaurant
 

 

 

It is Robert Burns Day (Auld Lang Syne) To celebrate you should have or make some Haggis. Haggis is a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately three hours. You should serve it with "neeps and tatties" (turnips and mashed potatoes) and a dram (a glass of Scottish Whiskey)--you can start your preparations--after you sit back, relax, pour a glass of Glenora's finest and enjoy this week's edition

 

 

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Vol. 25   No. 1-15
 
 Robert Burns Day      Rabbie Burns Day
 
 
25 January 2015
 

The Glenora Gazette

                                                         
      Est. 13 April 1994
 

 

    

 

 

          Under a partly cloudy sky, it seems to be a typical January morning along the shores of Seneca and over/in the vineyards of Glenora. Our temperature is 22 made to feel more like 12 due to the wind which is coming from the west northwest at 8-10 miles per hour.

            In the vineyards: A quiet week, other than pruning no big events taking place there, including the weather. Our temperature high for the week was 39 and the low 2. From looking at the forecast that pattern will continue for the next few days-a good thing, no wild temperature swings. This is the time of year when it is very easy to get into what is known as the very dangerous state of mind called "The Vineyard Lull". "The Lull" is caused by the days having less day light, cold temperatures and the calendar. When looking at, or feeling, all of these it is easy to get "lulled" into the feeling that Spring is a long ways away and there is lots of time for pruning. Often times we have seen Spring, at least time to start tying, arrive in Mid-March to early April-meaning there are only 64 days left until April-discounting weekends (16 days) that leaves us with 48 days left to prune-fortunately for us Vineyard Manager Chris and his Team have not been "lulled", which does not seen to be the case in some Finger Lakes vineyards.

            Last weekend's Seneca Lake Wine Trails Pasta and Wine Event was a big improvement over the 2014 event, for Team Glenora, with total sales improving by 17% and this was accomplished by the retail team in spite of an only 1.4% increase in Pasta and Wine visitors. We certainly hope this trend (the sales) continues throughout 2015.

            On the road: In addition to our usual in store tastings the Knapp, Glenora and Chateau LaFayette Reneau Team traveled to the First Arena in Elmira to take part in the 14th annual Wine-on-Ice event. Team Leader Tash became a news reporter or interviewee on Friday evening as part of WENY TV's coverage of the event-great job Tash http://www.weny.com/news/local-news/14-years-at-wine-on-ice-1-23-15

            This is also the time of year when the local chambers of commerce hold their annual dinners. On Friday evening members of Team Glenora took part in the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce Dinner which was held at the Harbor Hotel. On the same evening Team Knapp attended the Seneca County Chamber Dinner held at Ventosa Vineyards. These dinners are always interesting and are great fund raisers for the chambers. On February 7th we will be joining the Yates County Chamber at their annual dinner.

            Today is the annual Glenora Bridal Show!! Kathy and James are reporting that there will be 27 vendors present to show and/or demonstrate their wares to the 90-pre registered brides. Since each bride to be is usually accompanied by 2-3 others it will be a very busy afternoon at Veraisons and the Inn. Preparations started last evening after dinner-sort of an all-nighter for the Special Events and Maintenance Teams.

            In the cellar-production area: The bottling team is on a 5 day a week schedule (usually 4 which allows for moving inventory etc.) as they prepare for the April shut-down (a term used by distributors). In our situation the "shut down" is to allow for the complete resurfacing of the wine cellar and bottling room floors which is scheduled to start on April 6 (We are not sure what distributors use "shut down for"). Actually as far as wine production work is concerned it will be close to three weeks as the cellar has to be emptied in order to do the resurfacing. This coming week we will be finishing our cellar floor drain project as well-it will be interesting to see if the water flows in the right direction!!

            Some interesting numbers from the Production Team: As a result of vacation days and generally not bottling during harvest there are approximately 220 days available to bottle during the year This year the team bottled on 165 days or 75% of the time available, which is actually close to 100% when one considers case good inventory movements. They bottled 61,032 cases which consisted of 183 different UPC's (labels)-a busy group of folks.

            Kerry and Hallie presented us the with the Goggle Analytics Year in Review on Friday. One could spend hours looking at that. General observations: In terms of visitation and resulting sales (Winery) our top three markets are Rochester, Buffalo and Williamsport, PA. The top markets for the Inn are Rochester, Syracuse, and Buffalo. The top for states for Inn visitation: NY, PA, NJ, OH. Lots of information for planning purposes-advertising.

            Thought for the week:                                     Possessions - Principals

When your life is possession centered, the important thing is what you have; when it is principle centered, the important thing is who and what you are.

 

       

 
This Week's Pictures: 

      


 

Do you remember Wally? Circa--2001  This was before he was "decorated"

by some of the "good ole boys"

              

    


 

 

Cayuga Cathy's Knapp retirement party

 

From left to right: Chef John, Rachel-retail manager, the editor, Cayuga Cathy,

Cathy's husband Gary, Belinda--general manager, Bob

                     

  
 

Tish--enjoys a party too

    

 

 

Knapp memories--perhaps a return??

                 

 

 

 

                       

 

 

 Working on the drains in the north tank room

                        

   

         These poured (concrete) in 1977  

   
 

New drains in the barrel rooom

          

 

Sample of the new floor coating

                  
  

  

 

Laser Art

          

 
 

Sunrise and Fog early this past week

   

 

 

 

 

Needed some color!