Welcome to the Bridge - Monthly Newsletter of Grand Island Vineyards

Grand Island Vineyards will be closed Easter Sunday, April 9th

Welcome to Grand Island Vineyards!

Join Us Saturday, April 1, 2023

1 day advanced booking is required.

Price: $5.00 - $10.00 Duration: 3 hrs

Spring Wine Release, Hapa Wood-Fired Pizza & Music by Sweet Rio!!!

Spring is here! Please, join us for a lovely day of wine, pizza & music. Ticket purchase includes a glass of our brand new 2022 Pinot Gris (first ever varietal release)! All of our wonderful wines will be available for purchase by the glass or bottle (wine tastings are not offered during live music events.)

Enjoy the sounds of Classic Rock & Contemporary music performed by Sweet Rio. Hapa Wood-Fired Pizza will be onsite with delicious options available for purchase. Please, NO outside food during this event. We look forward to welcoming springtime & spending the day with you! 

Check Out This Exciting New Wine - Pinot Gris!

Written by Winemaker, David Shattuck

We are very excited to be adding pinot gris to our collection of single varietal wines.  I mentioned a little bit of information about pinot gris in a previous wine spotlight but I am going to talk about it again here. This varietal is often sidelined as simplistic, because many people are only familiar with its mass produced box wine called pinot grigio. While these two names apply to the same varietal, the winemaking style and region the grapes are grown in make all the difference.

I love this wine as a cocktail hour wine with cheese plate or with dishes like smoked pork chops, roasted whole fish, and spaghetti aglio e olio. Because we could only harvest a limited amount of this amazing wine, we are releasing it to our reserve club first.

This wine displays a slight coppery hue from the skin contact. The aroma is a massive burst of passion fruit, grapefruit pithe, and hibiscus blossom. As the wine opens, there is an interesting sweetness that is reminiscent of almond liqueur that marries perfectly to the crushed gravel and oyster shell flavor. The wine has a zesty acidity that provides counterbalance to the rich mouthfeel and ripe citrus flavors.

Explaining our Wine Brands and Different Clubs

Written by Winemaker, Ed Seikel

Here at Grand Island Vineyards we have three different brand labels for our wines, along with two wine club levels. I'm sure that could lead to some confusion, so I wanted to touch on what all of these things mean to us and, hopefully, it can help everyone understand why we do what we do.

The three labels we currently bottle wines under are Grand Island Vineyards, Bridgehead, and Salman Family Reserve. The most important thing to know is that all three are made using only estate grown grapes made here in our cellar by David and Me. The Grand Island Vineyards label is where you can find our flagship single varietal offerings, most of which will have new releases every vintage. The Bridgehead label is for our more fanciful blends and non-vintaged releases. The Salman Family Reserve label is for wines that are aged longer, require higher amounts of new oak barrels, and/or have very small lot sizes with limited amounts for sale.

Our two wine club levels are GIV Wine Family and Family Reserve. The GIV Wine Family level has quarterly shipments of GIV and Bridgehead wines along with discounts on those wines and other member benefits. The Family Reserve club has biannual shipments of Salman Family Reserve and Limited release wines with discounts on the Reserve wines as well.

This is why our limited availability Pinot Gris will first be available to the Reserve club despite being bottled under the GIV label.

BRIDGEHEAD

GRAND ISLAND VINEYARDS

SALMAN FAMILY RESERVE

Join Us for Another Great Event this Weekend!

Written by Tasting Room Manager, Tess Jonson

Last newsletter for me for a bit, I'm just sitting here at home not so patiently waiting for this baby boy's arrival. Let's all cross all the things in hopes that we don't have a baby that's two weeks late, again! See you all in August!

Spring has arrived and I hope you are all loving the sunshine that we are having. With the spring weather bringing in more guests, be sure to make your reservations for indoor or outdoor seating.

Live music event this weekend!! Don't miss the release of our very first vintage of Pinot Gris, live music by Sweet Rio, and Hapa Wood Fired Pizza will be serving up some delicious pizza. No picnicking allowed during this event. Make your reservations today!

Vineyard Seems A Little Behind, but All is Well!

Written by Operations Manager, Joe Salman

It is still pretty quiet in the vineyard. I would say at this point, we are about one month delayed from last year. 

We do have budbreak and push in Chardonnay yet many varieties are still asleep. This doesn't mean a lot just yet, and one might describe what is going on as "the old normal."  

The vines' response to its climate is very amazing to me, and as things warm up it will be amazing to see the rapid expansion and growth of the vines, thus my overall concern of where we are today doesn't mean a lot to where we will be at fruit ripening. 

It is raining again, we have some wet fields and some really wet fields. We have a couple more days of pruning varieties like Petite Sirah and Cabernet Franc and then we have a lot of days of tractor work to mulch up those prunnings as equipment has not made it out for a while. The winter weather has made things slow down this winter and that is OK. 

Stay warm and dry the best you can, and I hope to see you at Grand Island Vineyards soon.

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