This month...

1. Letter From Andy
2. Bring in a Friend for $25 Off
3. Become an Official Lakeland Winery Winemaker
4. This Friday: The Chocolate–Wine Tasting Party (TAKE 2!)
5. Winemaking Tip(s): Making Wines from Juice-Concentrate
6. Posts from Andy's Wine Blog
7. Italian Concord Grapes for Sale
8. We're Hiring!

Dear Friends,

From the moment I tasted my first sip of wine made from juice-concentrate (as we do now), I was convinced that "this is what wine should taste like"! I'm passionately committed to sharing my own enjoyment of fine wines with you through our Personalized Winemaking experience at Lakeland Winery.

This is my goal and personal guarantee to fellow winemakers. I will always strive to help you produce the best quality wines possible.

But we are only beginning to make strides to get the word out about the delicious quality of young, fruit-forward wines. We, and myself especially, speak out against wines that are encumbered with harsh tannic oak flavors to the point that you can't taste the fruit of the vine. That's like smothering your expensive steak with too much A-1 sauce—you can't taste the steak! You won't find our wines spoiled to the point of ruining the natural grape taste. Just enough oak flavor is added in the form of natural oak chips (American oak, French oak and Toasted oak) to offer a hint of rich, delicate oak-perfumed aroma, and delicious, heavenly oak-sensory flavor with every sip.

Many of you know that our Estate Stag's Leap Merlot and Estate Washington Columbia Valley Riesling are by far our best sellers. Incidentally, they are most approved by judges around the world—evidenced by gold and bronze medals won at the Winemaker International Wine Tasting Competition . At this competition, pasteurized juice-concentrate wines are judged against both fresh juice, and grapes made by amateurs. The next competition will be held on May 16–17, 2008 in Sonoma County, CA. Stay tuned—we'll let you know the results as soon as they happen.

I just returned this weekend from my son's wedding in Dover, Delaware. Everything went so well, to the point of perfection actually. Even the weather cooperated with sunshine and warm temperatures. I surprised them with personalized wine labels on 150 wedding bottles. That's how many people of the legal drinking age attended the reception. There were 320 people total in attendance! Chris and Kim are probably relaxing in Cancun as you read this. What a nice inexpensive memento idea for your own wedding guests.

As a reminder, we offer Personalized Winemaking Gift Certificates and will work with you to make personal arrangements for your wedding, family reunion, anniversary, wine cellar collection, or any other special occasion. Just call us or stop by!

We’re open every weekday evening by appointment, and Saturday from 10am to 5pm. Choose a free hour from our calendar, and call me at (315) 572-4763 or shoot me an email to make an appointment.

Thanks,
Andy

For April: Bring in a Friend for $25 Toward Your Next Batch of Wine

For the month of April, you'll get $25 off your next batch of wine when you bring in a friend. Of course, they must make their own wine too!

Become an Official Lakeland Winery Winemaker

For those of you who have personalized their winemaking experience with us before or plan to in the future, we have been advised—and are now requiring—that everyone sign up to become an Official Lakeland Winery Winemaker and Member of the Lakeland Wine Club before making their next batch of wine.

We just want to make sure we have all our bases covered—legally, that is! But no need to worry. There is absolutely no fee to join, and we'll help you sign up the next time you come to the winery, or you can easily sign up on our Lakeland Wine Club site.

Additionally, becoming an 'Elite Member' for $5/month brings more benefits besides making your own wine: Purchase individual bottles of our wine at wholesale prices—the same prices we sell to restaurants, hotels and stores...plus shipping of course!

Syracuse Wine Meetup Group Event on April 18th: The Chocolate-Wine Tasting Party

Back by popular demand, we already have 29 people signed up to attend April's Syracuse Wine Meetup Group event this Friday: The Chocolate–Wine Tasting Party . We keep growing every month! Sign up and come meet fellow Wine Enthusiasts as we pair chocolate and wine. If you've never had dark chocolate and dry red wine, you're sure to have an unforgettable experience! Everyone's welcome, from new bouquet-sniffers to educated connoisseurs.

To attend our events, please join on our web site: http://wine.meetup.com/405

Next Meetup
Chocolate-Wine Tasting Party
When
Friday, April 18, 2008 at 7pm
Where
Lakeland Winery, 877 State Fair Blvd., Syracuse, NY 13209
(Get directions)
Who Should Come
If you've never, ever had dark chocolate and dry red wine together, then you've missed an unforgettable experience.
Why
The room will be warm with the sound of laughter. "If that ain't love, I don't know what is."
Details
Back by popular demand...The Chocolate-Wine Tasting Party!

In February, we had a successful Chocolate-Wine Tasting event that wasn't attended by everyone. Sorry if you couldn't make that one, but thankfully I still have some left over chocolate I scraped off the fountain from our last party :) "If that ain't love, I don't know what is." (musical notes; I love that song!). Typically, dark chocolate goes well with dry red wines such as Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon; while milk chocolate goes well with...Lakeland Winery's very own 'Chocolate-Raspberry Port'. Other sweeter wines I might suggest are our Cabernet Franc Ice Wine or Riesling Ice Wine. Everyone is welcome to come and relax with a glass of wine in one hand, and one of Karen's famous truffles in the other. Bring a favorite chocolate recipe to share and a bottle of wine to match. I'll provide the glasses. Maybe someone will bring a chocolate pizza from Marcellus Pizza Company - I heard they're great! —Andy

"Sounds like a deliciously good time!" —Jennie

"Had to miss the last one. Looking forward to this though." —Wes

"The chocolate parties are too much fun to miss. The wine and cheese party was great. " —Bill

Winemaking Tip(s) of the Month: Making Wine from Juice Concentrate Kits

Making wine yourself from a 'kit' is easy, fun and exceptionally tasty. Well, it's easy if you have the right equipment. At Lakeland Winery, we use a few simple devices that make winemaking simple. So, instead of a single Winemaking Tip this month, here's a full list:

• While stirring wine to stop fermentation, I personally like using a simple oak stick . But I have in the past used a special stirring rod attached to a cordless drill with satisfactory results.
• If you have made wine with us before, you've noticed we rinse bottles with a basic bottle washer attached to the faucet. It's a handy time saving device.
• What could be easier than disinfecting bottles with Potassium Metabisulfite using a bottle rinser. This allows you to fill and rinse in the same motion.
• And, if you want to bring bottles in rather than buy them new, a useful tool to dry bottles at home after they're clean is called a bottle rack.
• Instead of taking days 'racking' the wine to separate the 'lees' from the 'must' , we use a three filter system to polish your wine. You may rent a smaller version of this filter at the Winery.
• I don't suggest bottling your wine with a large pump style bottler, especially if you only make one kit every 6 weeks. Instead, use a small siphon bottle filler. It works quick and effectively.
• Corking wine bottles is much easier if you have a bench or floor model corker. The hand held corkers work, but they are difficult to use.
• You can always buy winemaking supplies at Lakeland Winery and easily make wine at home, but if you have never made wine from a juice concentrate kit, learn how to do it under expert supervision from our own experienced winemaker, yours truly!
• Making your own wine is easier than you think.
• For the home winemakers out there, we have all these supplies available for purchase. Just give me a ring at (315) 572-4763 or shoot me an email.

From Andy's Wine Blog: www.lakelandwinery.com/blog

‘How to Make Wine’ winemaking videos coming soon…
— We are in the middle of putting together a few ‘How to Make Wine’ winemaking videos... [Continue Reading...]

A permanent vacation in Argentina: buy your own ready-made vineyard
— In Mendoza, Argentina, you can buy a ready-made vineyard for a permanent vacation... [Continue Reading...]

See our news room for videos of Andy on CNY’s ‘Bridge Street’ and ‘Food for Thought’
— We’re building our news room piece by piece and just put up video of Andy featuring Lakeland Winery wines on WCNY’s Food for Thought with George Kilpatrick and WSYR’s Bridge Street with Rick and Julie... [Continue Reading...]

Italian Concord Grapes for Sale

A nice older Italian women who lives in Liverpool has about 15 bushels of Italian Concord Grapes she want to sell inexpensively. Maria's phone number is (315) 457-8778.

She comes from the old country, so have patience with her accent. Please call her. This is the second year she has tried to sell me her grapes. Unfortunately, all my wines are made from juice-concentrate but you are more than welcome to bring these grapes in, press them and make your own wine. This might be the first chance you have to make wine from fresh grapes. If you need any help, please let me know.

We're Hiring!

We're on the search for a young women to sell bottles of our Lakeland Winery wine at the Central New York Regional Farmers Market, Saturdays from 7am to 2pm. Beginning May through October and for $10/hour.

Until Next Month...

—Andy
(315) 572-4763
andy@lakelandwinery.com
www.lakelandwinery.com