Windswept Winery Blog -- Visit the website, too! -- www.windsweptwinery.com

Summertime, it's busy-time

2009-06-19T14:58:00.001-07:00

What is happening at Windswept Winery?
The Seaman/Storey Family reunion is happening next weekend...June 28, at Windswept Winery we will get together for lunch and a great visit.
The conference room is large, spacious and air-conditioned. A wonderful location and we will be happy to see everyone again.

Joe and Angel's Wedding

2009-06-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

Joe and Angel got married at Windswept Winery
A wonderful wedding, catered by Joe's family, and wonderful wines were enjoyed inside the Panache room.

The band played out under the stars on the beautiful and elegant patio and the dancing was wonderful.

A beautiful wedding, a wonderful committment to life together, Congratulations Joe and Angel!

Cheers!

Birthday at the winery

2009-05-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

We hosted Gingi's birthday party on April 17. What a wonderful time we had. The birthday girl had no idea that she was on the way to her surprise event, and how fun was that?!!

Happy Birthday, Gingi.

Winter Returns

2009-03-26T04:52:00.000-07:00

A major winter storm is bearing down on us, and I need to be in the vineyard pruning. Oh, well! Late winter storms have a serious advantage of usually not lasting very long. Additionally, we could use the moisture on the grapes.
Unlike the great Easter Freeze of 2007, the grapes are not budded, although the buds are swelling. Hopefully, the damage will be minimal, and the temperatures will stay above 30F. We can only hope for a coating of ice on them, before any colder temperatures or that the snow is 'sticky' enough to give them some cover if it goes below that temperature.
Maybe, just maybe I can get some pictures, that would be fun?

Time to mull some wine and watch the white stuff fall! Cheers

March Already?

2009-03-11T05:18:00.000-07:00

We have been knee deep in trying to prune the vineyards, and the weather is not cooperating. It has been warm during the week and cold on the weekends. Then lots of plants started to bud and blossom, including the forsythia, the hyacinth, the pear trees, and the peach trees.
I brought in a pear blossom, so I could enjoy it, because it was not going to survive the cold, because mother nature fooled them all. Last night we had 20 degrees, with the forecast that the temperature will barely claw it's way above freeze for the next few days.
This weekend is supposed to be warmer, so maybe we can work on the pruning again, then.
Maybe we can get some pictures or a 'before' and 'after' pruned vine.
Until then, bundle up, and have a wonderful glass of Windswept Winery Wine!

Valentines Dinner at the Winery is Saturday Feb 14

2009-02-10T04:46:00.000-08:00

Wine, chocolate, Stuffed tenderloins of Beef and Pork...candles and roses. This is a wonderful experience, and there is still room. See the full menu at www.windsweptwinery.com and call the winery at 620-782-3952 to get your reservations.
What a fabulous menu, what wonderful wines. Everything you can delight in for a fabulous evening to remember! It all gets started at 7:00 pm at Windswept Winery. Just 25 minutes from Wichita, this is a wonderful culinary delight to the senses.

Sleet and ice and snow, oh my

2009-01-27T04:46:00.000-08:00

What a difference a week makes. It was warm and sunny last week...nearly 60, and today it looks like a frozen wasteland. I can guarantee there will be no pruning of the vines today!
Just under three weeks to the Windswept Winery Valentines Evening at the Winery...a 6 course Gourmet Dinner, make your reservations now!

Valentines' Gourmet Winemakers Dinner and jump started pruning

2009-01-23T04:44:00.000-08:00

The Wine Makers' Dinner is happening again for you this year on Valentine's Day at Windswept Winery. Featuring a 6 course Gourmet Meal paired with wonderful Windswept Winery Wines! This year, it turns out that Valentines Day is on Saturday Night, so be sure to mark your calendars and make your reservations soon for a fabulous event...this is a very limited seating event, so don't delay. When we are full, we will shut down the reservations. I will have the menu out here in the next few days. And it will be posted on the website.

Wednesday and Thursday this week were fabulous: warm, not windy, wonderful. So I headed to the vineyard, and did some assessments and began pruning one of the hardiest varieties. It is too early to prune, and I do not recommend you do this yourself. We really should wait until mid to late February. I may be sorry, but just needed to get out there. With snow and ice predicted for early next week, it may be a while before I can work on that again.

Kansas Grape Growers Annual Meeting KGGWA

2009-01-12T04:16:00.000-08:00

This weekend, my husband, Randy, and I attended the Kansas Grape Growers and Winemakers Annual meeting, held in Emporia this year. Randy was President of the organization in 2008, and we had a marvelous time at the event.
Some of the highlights were: The amateur winemakers' competition; this year 72 wines were in competition. The KGGWA does award actual metal neck-hanger medals in bronze silver, and gold. John Oswald, of the KGGWA worked very hard on this event and it was very well run and very well attended. Terry Turner also provided a lot of hard work for the hard workering amateur winemakers. Contact Randy or Rebecca Storey at Windswept Winery, and plan to enter your fabulous wines in the 2009 competition...or go to www.kansasgrapesandwines.com and see the rules and forms for this year. 2009 forms will be posted there, when they are available, as well.
The conference speakers this year were a stellar bunch: Dr. Bruce Reisch from Cornell in New York, Dr. Keith Streigler from the University of Missouri, Andy Allen from the University of Missouri, and Doug Moorhead from Presque Isle in Michigan, provided some of the highlights, along with Rebecca Ford-Lampoor from Missouri, Susie Pryor, Pat Murphy (KSU) and George Blush. The Kansas Alcoholic Beverage Control division also sent a host of personnel to answer questions on Winery rules and regulations. Hats off to Joanne Kuhlman and Terry Turner for a fabulous conference, and the gourmet meal that followed paired with fabulous Kansas Wines was a true treat.
This conference gave everyone new insights, and charged us up for another fabulous year in Kansas wines.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-05T04:51:00.000-08:00

Celebrating Christmas
Our granddaughter, grandnephews and grandnieces helped us celebrate Christmas....can't help but show you the girls' precious picture... Thanks to our niece, Amber, for sending them.

Isn't it amazing how fast the New Year comes?
We have wonderful news, the long anticipated Apple Wine is now started in the Winery. It will be our first wine of 2009, and is finally underway. How exciting, and I can't wait. We are looking forward to a wonderful 2009.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T11:34:00.000-08:00

It is Christmas Eve, and I am taking a second here at the Winery Outlet in downtown Winfield to sit down with the blog and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!
What a whirlwind year it has truly been. My husband Randy and I just realize a night or so ago that Christmas is HERE. It has been a wonderful crazy year.
And I just spoke to Mrs. Speer who makes our apple juice for our apple wines, and she thinks we may be able to get the juice next week....Woo hoo! Poor Mr. Speer is recovering from a stroke, so they have friends and family coming to help them and then they will call us! We will be making wine in the winter, which is always fun!
We will be traveling to Emporia for the Kansas Grape Growers and Wine Makers Annual conference in a couple of weeks...that will be interesting and educational,. If you are interested in grapes as a sideline or have wonderful wine making skills or even just an interest in wine, it would be an interesting couple of days for you, and we would welcome you. Go to www.kansasgrapesandwines.com for more information.
Merry Christmas from Windswept Winery's Blog!

Cox Communication

2008-12-23T04:24:00.001-08:00

Windswept Winery hosted a delightful Christmas Party and Wine Tasting with the wonderful folks at Cox Communications. What a delightful crew!

We laughed and chatted, sampled some fabulous Kansas grown and produced Windswept Winery Wines and one of the fellows (David) took pictures and sent them to us. Thank you, David.
There were some of the folks that had never done a wine sampling, so we quickly poured a few samples of the various wines, and explained them one and all. Thank you, to the fine people at Cox Communications, we had a wonderful time!

New Cowley County Visitors Guide

2008-12-15T17:32:00.000-08:00

Guess what showed up on the cover of the new Cowley County Visitors Guide?

A cluster of luscious Vignoles grapes from Windswept Winery's own Storey Vineyards. There is a lovely article about Windswept Winery, which we were thrilled to see! Our most sincere thanks to the Directors of the Winfield Convention and Tourism for including Windswept Winery in the First Cowley County Visitors Guide.
Research shows that there is a tourism segment that travels to small wineries for the experience of tasting the wines, and visiting the small boutique wineries. The same research shows these wine tourists are likely to engage in other activities in the area, eat in the local restaurants, and stay in local accommodations.
Since the Windswept Winery locations are both in Cowley county, we sincerely hope our presence adds to the attractiveness of Cowley County as a tourist destination, and deeply appreciate the support!
The article coincides with the release of the ever-popular Whispering Wind White sweet dessert-style award-winning white wine. It is now available in Winfield and in Udall.

Missed us by this much

2008-12-11T17:20:00.000-08:00

Check this out.....the Windswept Winery building is at 711 Main!

From the Winfield Courier:

"Man mad at girlfriend takes out anger on business entries

By TYLER GASKILL
Reporter

A Winfield man in a fit of rage damaged three downtown businesses Wednesday night following a disturbance with his girlfriend, according to police.

Just before 11 p.m. Wednesday, officers with the Winfield Police Department responded to the report of an alarm at Ruppelius Jewelers, 808 Main. When they arrived, they found the front door of the business had been rammed by a vehicle, according to a press release from the department.

This one is across the street and south from our building (808 Main)

The building directly west BEHIND our building, across the alley, is pictured here.

And the third building is two doors south of our building (719 Main).

A little too much excitement for me! Thank God he didn't take it out on the wine!!!!

Full story is here.
http://www.winfieldcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=27760

New Windows

2008-12-09T04:14:00.000-08:00

The outlet for Windswept Winery continues to improve...
This weekend Randy and I spent some of the fabulous warm weather installing new windows in the second story of the building. It looks cleaner and more fresh. We even decorated the upstairs windows for Christmas....the building has not looked this good for years. We are so pleased that it is reflecting our pride in being a part of downtown Winfield. We still have more work on the front signs and the actual bricks, but that will be next year, I think!
And the best Windswept Winery Report: Whispering Wind White is in the bottles, mmm, it is awesome. Sweet, tropical Asian pear and pineapple flavors, maybe a hint of peach.
Now we have a bottling run of the Blushing Beauty to accomplish, and we will have everything back in the bottle for Christmas, don't delay...we are sure to run out of some of them, and want you to get yours.

Brrr! Baby it's Cold outside....

2008-12-01T04:39:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Decembrrrrrr
The wind blew (very appropriate at Windswept Winery) yesterday, and the cold weather settled in. The leaves are gone, I will try to get pictures out here for you to see the vineyards.
We have three more bottling parties, and then the wine will be safely in the bottles. We are still awaiting the apple juice, so hopefully we will have it sometime in 2009, which is only 30 short days away.
We had to close the main Winery in Udall for a couple of days. Seems that some respiratory virus struck Mom Storey pretty hard, and I was away in Missouri for a few days visiting my mother. (I did enjoy some wonderful Missouri wine while I was there...) With no spare hands to help, we kept the outlet in Winfield Kansas open, and the main winery will be back in action today! So please stop by and check out the......

Newly bottled Rustling Leaves Red Sweet Concord.

Rumor has it some of the Whispering Wind White made from Vignoles may be available today or tomorrow.....we know you were patiently waiting!
The Kansas Grape Growers and Winemaker's Association Annual meeting is scheduled for January... if you have amateur wines that are awesome, there is a competition for you. There will also be wonderful speakers and all things Wine and Grape at the meeting in Emporia. Check out this address for more information... www.kansasgrapesandwines.com

Bottling underway

2008-11-18T04:04:00.000-08:00

We bottled wine this weekend and on Monday! Special thanks to Annetta for lending us a hand yesterday...
The Landrush Red Dry is now securely bottled. It is a wonderful wine, made from the Chambourcin grape. This is the 2006 vintage, and we are blown away by it's natural smoky overtone. Nice rich black cherry notes, a fruity aroma....one taste and you can see why this French American hybrid has achieved acceptance in France's own Loire region. Grown, tended picked and fermented in our Estate Vineyards.

And for all you sweet wine lovers...we also bottled the sweet Rustling Leaves Red.....mmm...it is a mouthful of grapes in every sip. Lovely, easy to drink, not very complicated and very flavorful.

Next weekend we plan to bottle another sweet, the Landrush Red sweet, and then we should be almost ready for the Blushing Beauty and the sweet Whispering Wind White featuring the Vignoles grape. Our plan is: By the time we see December, you can find these at the Main Winery and at the Outlet.

Getting Ready to Bottle

2008-11-08T13:37:00.000-08:00

It is the time of year for bottling. Heavenly reds, wonderful whites...ohh what a terrific time. Bottling is the most fun of any step in the Winery, because every step or station is easy. We bought a new pneumatic corker a couple of years ago, and I love that thing.
The corker just pushes the cork in while you press two buttons...so easy!
Bottling involves a little assessment of quality, while the bottling is underway, just not too much, otherwise who knows how the labels and capsules will look ;-).
If I remember at the right time, I will try to get pictures of bottling, wouldn't that be cool?
We have three wines ready to bottle, another that will be ready in about two weeks, and another maybe a week after that. Thanksgiving is going to look like full shelves for the Winery! Except for the apple wine...it will be a while longer. We still are waiting for the Apple wine to be made and ready to go. We are still holding out hope for Christmas.

Frosty

2008-10-30T11:08:00.000-07:00

The first killing frost settled over the vineyards last Tuesday, October 26. While according to normal averages, it came late; it seems to me that it comes earlier every year.
The vines have already lost their leaves, and they always look so cold and forlorn...but they are only resting after their hard work of growing wine.
We have a bunch of bottling to do, Rustling Leaves Red, Land Rush Red, dry and sweet, and some blush and Leaning Tree Red...what a fun time.
The concord will be ready to bottle in a week or so, YUMMY! And it looks to be awesome. Then the apple juice will be ready at Spear's orchard near Arkansas City in another couple of weeks, according to Mrs. Spears when we talked on the phone this morning. We are ready to start making the fun Apple Wine.

Outlet Improvements

2008-10-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

We worked on the outlet with the kind assistance of TonyEastman at Bair's Glass, right next door to the Windswept Winery Outlet in Winfield, and got the window replaced and re-decorated to match the south one.
It looks so much cleaner and more presentable. Now we have to get the upstairs windows replaced and the old building will really have a new persona. We are really excited with the improvements, both for Winfield and for Windswept Winery.
And wouldn't a picture be grand? Once we have the upstairs windows in...I promise you a new one.

Bottling one of the the Medal winners

2008-10-06T22:30:00.000-07:00

2008 Award Winning Kansas Wine now available. One of the joys of winemaking is bottling the wine. And Kansas Wine making is no different in this regard.
This is a very pleasant task when the wine has won a medal, and is a joy to, um, sample, while you work. Such was the case Monday when Randy, Mom Storey, and I bottled our Leaning Tree White dry white wine.

The Leaning Tree is our signature wine series, and is named after a wind driven tree on the south east side of Winfield city lake, incidentally. But I digress.
So as we are sipping the wine some bottling occurs, or vice-versa. It so happens that the Leaning Tree White wine was honored this year by one of the precious Kansas People's Choice medals from the Kansas State Fair, and we are grateful for the recognition. Thanks to the People of Kansas for voting for us for this gem.
We had slipped enough out of the tank for the competition, and now it is available to the public in the tasting rooms until the supply runs out. (How about that? The first time I got to refer to the tasting "rooms" in the plural!)
Light, Dry, and lovely, the Leaning Tree White will enhance a fish or chicken dish, as a traditional pairing. I like it with a Cobb salad. Hurry and get some, before it is gone, because as with any small winery, when it's gone, it's gone.

Awards for Windswept Winery

2008-10-05T21:48:00.000-07:00

In an abundance of busy-ness I have failed to keep the blog up to date on one very important detail for Windswept Winery. We are thrilled to announce that the People's Choice Awards have bestowed TWO more medals for Windswept Winery's marvelous Wines. Thanks so much to the people who love our wines!
To recap: The Blushing Beauty a semi-sweet delicate blush and the Leaning Tree White a delightful dry white were the two wines we selected to enter this year for Kansan's evaluation, and both were awarded medals.
Thanks again, to the people of Kansas we will keep working hard for you!

AH-ctober

2008-10-01T04:39:00.000-07:00

What a tremendous morning. Cool but not cold, brisk refreshing, WOW!
We have a few leaves turning that absolutely impossible shade of red that wine grapes can turn, and they are amazing. I will try to get some pictures.
And have you noticed the days are a little bit shorter now? Fall is upon us, and it looks lovely.
The grapes are all picked, and the wonderful Windswept Wines are being made, time to do some bottling and make some plans for next year...
It is a terrific time of year for a good bunch of friends to gather and enjoy a great glass of wine!
A lot of new merchandise for the gift shop is on it's way and it is going to be fun shopping this year at Windswept. Remember, Christmas is 12 weeks away. Don't delay, get your shopping done today.

Wines are Fermenting

2008-09-24T05:01:00.000-07:00

It smelled like a winery this morning at 4:30 am, when I took my turn at punching down the must to ensure the wine has a wonderful rich taste, and color.
Big wineries have big pumps and systems to do this, but we do it the old-fashioned way, by hand.
Randy is busy putting up a mural at the outlet today...and it looks awesome! It really changes the look of the place.

The Outlet is OPEN

2008-09-21T08:57:00.001-07:00

Wow, what a difference a month makes!

The Winfield Main street folks helped us upgrade the facade, by removing what was there to let the historic brick shine through...

A great big "Thank you!" to Ralph and Cathy Royston, Jim Day, Dallas Jordan, Vernon Goertz; husband of Design Committee Chair Cindy Goertz, and Don Key.

There is lots more to be done, but we wanted to put our best foot forward for the Walnut Valley Festival, and for Winfield. Our wonderful friends, Bruce and Nina, said: "The outlet does not have to be done...people want to sample the wine, not look at the walls, open the doors for them."

So that is exactly what we did, and it was wonderful advice.....Thanks, you two!

We officially opened the Outlet on Saturday September 13. Thank you to everyone who came to see what we were about. Watch us while we continue to improve the building, the shop offerings AND another newsflash...Jack and Mildred Speers have been blessed with apples this year, so the Cowley county Apple wine will be back! Hopefully in time to warm your Thanksgiving table.