FAQ

Can grapes from other states be used to make wine in Pennsylvania?

Yes indeed, although we like to keep it local! Until a few years ago, PA law stated that PA wine had to be made from grapes grown within 350 miles of the winery. This law was overturned, unfortunately, and now wineries in PA can bring grapes in from anywhere. If the label on a bottle of wine says “Pennsylvania”, that means that at least 75% of the grapes used in production were grown here. But, that means that it’s possible 25% of the grapes used were grown elsewhere. If less than 75% of the grapes were from PA, the label needs to say American or the state in which the grapes were grown.

The “buy local” idea has been gaining in strength lately. With that in mind, it seems very odd to me to sell Pennsylvania wine made from grapes grown in California!

How are the solar panels working out?

In honor of Earth Day this month and the increasing interest in installing alternative energy products due to tax incentives, we thought this a good time to talk about our solar photovoltaic system. We installed an 11 kilowatt solar energy system a few years ago and if you drive around the winery, you will see an entire roof filled with solar panels, also known as photovoltaic modules. When the sun’s energy hits the silicon cells of a module, electrons are stimulated to flow in a circuit. This electricity is in direct current (DC), so it goes to 3 inverters we have installed on the crush pad for inversion into alternating current (AC). Then the electricity goes to the electric panel where it can be distributed throughout the building to power equipment. If the solar electricity is not needed, it travels out to the electrical power grid for someone else to use. About 30% of our electricity needs are met using solar power that we generate ourselves. In addition to the savings resulting from generating our own power, solar energy producers get Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SRECs), which are supplied by the energy companies in order to meet government requirements. These SRECs equate into cash at the end of every year. So, financially and environmentally, we are very happy to have our own solar system!

What is a Late Harvest Wine?

Late harvest is a wine term that simply means a wine made from grapes picked toward the end of harvest. The grapes are typically allowed to hang longer than usual so the sugars accumulate, the flavors intensify, and the grapes get very ripe. Late harvest wines are sometimes confused with ice wines which are made from grapes that are allowed to hang even longer until they actually freeze on the vine.

The most popular varieties used to make late harvest wines are Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Muscat, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc. The final two are used to make probably the most famous dessert wine, Sauternes, in France’s Bordeaux region.

Our late harvest Muscat is made with four different Muscat varieties: Muscat blanc, Muscat Ottonel, Muscat of Alexandria, and Orange Muscat. We grow the Muscat Ottonel in our own vineyard and the other three are from Pagoda Hill Vineyard in Oley. We are loving this wine - hope you do too!

What is an appellation?

The government requires a winery to put the geographic origin of the grapes used to make the wine on the label. This is the appellation and it can either be defined by political boundaries, such as the name of a county or a state, or by American Viticultural Areas (AVAs), which are federally-recognized growing regions. Famous AVAs include Napa Valley or Sonoma Valley. Obviously, we use the appellation Pennsylvania on our wine labels, but does that mean that all of the grapes have to be grown in Pennsylvania? Sadly, the answer is No. The government allows up to 25% of the grapes to be grown from outside the state. That means that even though a bottle of wine has the Pennsylvania appellation on the label, it could possibly contain a significant amount of grapes grown in California! Crazy, huh. So how do you know if you are actually getting a locally-grown product? You have to ask the producer.

We at Manatawny are committed to using local fruit. We grow about half of the grapes that we need and the rest are purchased only from vineyards in Pennsylvania, with the majority from local vineyards. The exception is Niagara and Concord grapes which we buy from the Erie, PA area.

What is Gewurztraminer?

Gewurztraminer is a grape variety widely planted in the Alsace region of France, close to the border of Germany. Some of these vines are also planted elsewhere in the world including Germany, the United States, and New Zealand, but the best and most well-known wines are produced in Alsace. Gewurtz means spiced in German and these grapes can definitely have a spicy character reminiscent of cloves and nutmeg. Other characteristics of this wine include floral notes such as roses and lychee nuts. Gewurztraminer wines, similar to Riesling wines, are available in varying degrees of sweetness, from bone dry to very sweet. Pronunciation of the grape variety leaves many people tongue-tied but looks like Guh-VURTS-trah-mee-ner. Since Gewurztraminer is such a boldly-flavored wine, it overpowers many foods and is best paired with spicy Asian dishes.

What is Mead?

I think there is some confusion out there about Mead because of the fact that it can be made into both a wine and a beer. Mead is basically an alcoholic beverage fermented by adding water to honey; honey will not ferment without the addition of water because the sugar is too concentrated. If nothing is added after fermentation, you have honey wine. If grain mash and hops are added, and carbonation is performed, you get a beverage more resembling a beer. Mead can be finished dry or sweet or anywhere in between. So, as you can see, there are many different styles of mead!

We make our mead, or honey wine, in a sweet dessert style. Mead seems to be a divisive drink – people either love it or hate it!

What is the difference between Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio?

There is actually no difference at all - just two different names for the same grape. Pinot Gris was created from a natural mutation of its ancestor, Pinot Noir. The Pinot family also includes Pinot Blanc and Pinot Meunier, other natural mutations. Gris is French for gray which refers to the grayish-pink color of these grapes (as opposed to white for blanc and black for noir). The wines produced from Pinot Gris are usually white but can have a pinkish hue from the skins.

The Italians call this grape Pinot Grigio and tend to produce a light, crisp, dry style of wine. In contrast, the Alsatians in France produce Pinot Gris wines that can be rich and sweet. Since we make our wine more similar to the Italian-style, we chose to use the name Pinot Grigio on our version of this classic varietal.

What is the difference between Syrah and Shiraz?

The answer is nothing! Syrah is the name of an ancient red grape thought to have its origins in the Middle East. It is widely planted in the Rhone Valley of France which is where it gained its reputation. In the mid-1800s, the Australians started planting Syrah and called the resulting wine Shiraz. So we see Syrah from France and Shiraz from Australia, but what about the United States? Most of the U.S. wine producers call their wine Syrah, but a few use the term Shiraz to show a stylistic difference. Shiraz wines from Australia tend to be fruitier than the often-times smoky, peppery Syrah wines from France.

And, contrary to what you might think, Petite Sirah is an entirely different grape variety rather than a small version of Syrah. Just to make things more confusing…

What is the scoop on Chambourcin?

Chambourcin is a red grape variety that was developed in France by Joannes Seyve and released in 1963. One of the French-American hybrids, its exact parentage is unknown because Seyve died before he could document his achievement. These hybrids were developed in France after many of the French vineyards started declining due to Phylloxera, a root louse that was imported on grapevines from the United States. European vines are now grafted onto naturally-resistant American rootstock to combat phylloxera, but at the time, these new varieties were developed in response to the phylloxera problem. Another purpose in hybridizing was to create varieties that were much more tolerant to fungal diseases. Chambourcin was created to be a disease-resistant, deep-colored red that does well even in cooler climates. Government regulations in France prohibit the blending of hybrid wines with that of traditional, vinifera varieties which has kept Chambourcin from being much more than a table wine consumed locally in France. In addition to France, Chambourcin is also grown in Australia, Canada and the Eastern and Midwestern United States. It is very well-suited to Pennsylvania and you’ll find Chambourcin wines at many Pennsylvania wineries, with styles ranging from dry and oak-aged to off-dry and fruity.

What is the source of the beautiful fabric on your labels and website banners?

The batik fabric background is courtesy of Hoffman Fabrics International. Check them out at www.hoffmanfabrics.com. I do some quilting and have always loved Hoffman's batiks. When we went to redesign our labels, the batik grape fabric kept sticking in my head. I contacted Hoffman and they graciously agreed to let us use the copyrighted designs!

Why shouldn’t I leave wine in my car during the summer?

This may seem like a stupid question, but it happens a lot! As anyone knows from getting into a closed car in the summertime, it doesn’t take very long for temperatures to rise to intolerably hot levels. When wine bottles left in a car get hot, the wine and the gas in the headspace start expanding which can cause wine to leak out around the cork. If the seal between the cork and the bottle is tight, the expansion will force the cork to actually push up out of the bottle. Wine that is exposed to extreme heat is not “bad” in that it can’t hurt you, but it will start to develop some cooked flavors. This also applies to our Sangria pouches by the way; expansion from heat will cause the wine to start leaking at the seams of the pouch. The pressure has to go someplace!

Can we reuse wine bottles?

We get lots of people wondering if they should bring back their empty wine bottles for us to reuse. We cannot do that because wine bottles need to be sterile when bottling. The bottles arrive to us from the manufacturing plant in a sterile condition, because very high temperatures are used to make glass wine bottles. The amount of time and energy required to sterilize a used wine bottle is prohibitive for us. So what should you do with your empty wine bottles? Give them to your home winemaking buddies. Or if you’re creative, check out the web for all kinds of ideas including wind chimes, candles, pourers and even cutting in half to make drinking glasses. And if you’re not creative or drink a lot of wine like we do, put your empty wine bottles in the recycle bin to get reused elsewhere.

Can wine bottles be green?

That is green in the sense of environmentally-friendly, not the color! In our increasing effort to be sustainable, we are always on the lookout for packaging materials that will help us reach that goal. Saint-Gobain, one of the country’s largest glass manufacturers has come out with its Eco line of wine bottles and we have started to use them. The first wines you’ll see in these eco bottles are the Harvest Red and Chambourcin. These bottles are manufactured using a large percentage of recycled glass and they are thinner and lighter, thereby reducing the amount of raw materials and energy needed to produce them. More and more glass companies are starting to produce environmentally friendly bottles and in a wider variety of styles, so hopefully all of our wine bottles will be “green” in the not too distant future!

How do you use a waiter’s corkscrew?

This may seem like a silly question, but I ran into so many people having trouble at the festival, I thought it was worth a mention. The first thing to do is to use the knife to cut off the capsule just above the lip of the bottle. Then, insert the point of the worm in the center of the cork and start twisting. The trick is to leave about 1 ½ turns of the worm sticking out of the top of the cork – do not screw the worm all the way down into the cork. Then put the hinge down on the top of the bottle and pull straight up with the handle. The picture to the left shows the correct position. Once you do it a few times, the waiters corkscrew might become your favorite because it is so convenient – I have several around my house, one in each of my wine bags, one in each suitcase, one in the car and even one in my golf cart! You never know when you’re going to need one. By the way, the hinge part opens beer bottles too.

What is a Sixtel?

And why would we put wine into one? A sixtel is a beer keg whose volume is 1/6 of a full barrel, 1/3 of a full keg or 5.2 gallons. We had no intentions of ever putting wine into sixtels until approached by the cool people at London Grill restaurant who wanted to do wine on tap. As they tap wine out, nitrogen replaces the wine in the keg and keeps the wine fresh since no oxygen can get in. Beer is served in the same manner except carbon dioxide is used as the gas instead of nitrogen to keep the beer carbonated.

What is the deal with wine in a box?

The technology of bag-in-a-box has its devoted fans. Inside the box is a thick plastic bag with a spigot. The main advantage to using the box is that as the wine is dispensed through the spigot, the bag collapses; so, instead of that wine being displaced with air as happens in a bottle, the wine remains in contact with the bag. Thus, no oxygen can get in contact with the remaining wine and the wine will last a lot longer. Once a bottle of wine is opened, it needs to be consumed in a few days before going bad, whereas a box of wine will last several weeks after opening.

Other advantages include the ease of opening and serving since no corkscrew is needed and the fact that it’s not made of breakable glass. A box can be taken to the beach, pools, picnics or anywhere without worrying about broken glass.

Why are there different shapes and colors of wine bottles?

Some wine bottle shapes and colors are based on tradition such as the use of dark green high-shouldered bottles in the Bordeaux region of France. Therefore, most of the world's wineries use these bottles when bottling "Bordeaux" varieties such as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Sloped-shouldered bottles are used throughout the Burgundy and Rhone regions in France to bottle varieties associated with these areas like Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah. Other countries typically follow suit when bottling these varieties with the notable exception of Australia, who bottles their Shiraz (same grape as Syrah) in Bordeaux-style bottles. The tall, slender hock or flute style of bottle is used in Germany and Alsace and is associated with varieties grown there such as Riesling and Gewurztraminer; the hock bottles are brown in the Rhine region of Germany and green in the Mosel region. Some bottles have punts or an indentation at the bottom of the bottle - this doesn't serve much purpose in still wine except for presentation, but is important to reinforce the bottle to withstand pressure in sparkling wine. For hybrid varieties without the tradition history, anything goes! So we put our Vidal Blanc in a bright blue hock bottle just for the fun of it.

Why did we switch back to using natural cork?

Some of you may have noticed that there are natural corks in our new 2010 releases. For years I have been complaining about the problem of cork taint in wines bottled with natural cork. A compound called TCA is produced in cork when it is in the same environment as fungi and chlorinated compounds. The TCA is transferred to the wine which causes musty off-odors. So what has changed? One company has developed a process where cork bark taken off the trees is ground into a flour and then washed with carbon dioxide under high pressure to eliminate the TCA. The cork flour is then molded into nice-looking corks. Gotta love technology!

Why did we switch to synthetic corks at Manatawny Creek Winery?

The main reason is the problem of cork taint with natural cork. People say a bottle of wine is corked when it has this problem. Cork taint occurs when compounds found in natural cork react with molds and chlorine in the environment resulting in development of a compound called 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA). TCA causes problems at concentrations as low as a few parts per trillion (a few grains of salt in an Olympic-size swimming pool). In the worst case, TCA causes a wine to have moldy and musty off-aromas and flavors, making the wine undrinkable. A mild TCA contamination may just leave the wine muted with an absence of fruit. Experts estimate that somewhere between 1% and 8% of corks are tainted which is why we have moved away from using natural cork. The two main alternatives are synthetic corks and screw caps and the main hurdle with screw caps is consumer acceptance. So, until people stop associating screw caps with jug wines (and until we can afford a new screw cap machine), we won't be switching to screw caps anytime soon!

Why does wine in an opened Sangria pouch keep longer than wine in an opened bottle?

With the release of our Z-Z-Zangria in pouches, this question becomes very common in the tasting room. The simple answer is exposure to oxygen. When you drink half of a bottle of wine, the remainder of that space in the bottle is filled with air which is about 21% oxygen. Wine exposed to oxygen causes spoilage reactions to occur; using a vacuum pump cannot remove all of the oxygen. Note that spoilage in wine doesn’t mean anything that can harm you, only affecting flavor.

Enter pouch technology. Since the pouch material is flexible, unlike glass, when you tap wine out of the pouch, the container collapses. Thus, no air can enter and contact the wine and no reactions with oxygen can occur. So the wine inside stays fresh. We have tested an opened pouch over the course of a month and the wine has not deteriorated.

You may ask, why then do we not put more wine in pouches? The downside of the plastic is that unopened wine cannot keep as long in a pouch as it can in a glass bottle. We suggest that the Sangria be consumed within a year.

After you plant a grapevine, how long does it take to harvest the grapes?

The quick answer is 3 to 4 years. Planting grapevines usually takes place in April in Pennsylvania. After the first growing season, when the plant goes dormant in November, the vine will get cut back to a few buds, almost to the ground. During the second growing season, the vine is allowed to grow as much as possible, but all the grape clusters will be removed. We want the plant to put its energy into developing its root system and becoming strong instead of ripening grapes. The following winter, the vine will be pruned back to the fruiting wire, which is about 3 feet off the ground. During the third growing season, canes will be laid down along the fruiting wire to form cordons, and depending on the strength of the vine, some grapes will be kept and allowed to ripen. A full crop of grapes will then be harvested following the fourth growing season. All good things take time!

Do Japanese beetles affect the grapes?

YES, they sure do. I thought this would be an appropriate question for July since the first of the Japanese beetles arrived in our vineyards this week. In many years we can ignore them because their populations are small and they only do a little damage to the vines. The last two years, however, have been absolutely horrible with regards to the beetles and it looks like 2008 may be another bad year. How much damage can they do you may ask. Well, if we don't kill them, they can completely strip a vine of leaves. Without leaves, photosynthesis cannot occur and the vine cannot ripen the grapes. Unfortunately, nobody has found a natural solution on a commercial scale that has been very effective on the beetles and we need to spray insecticide when the populations get too high. There are so many beetles that after spraying, you can walk on a crunchy carpet of dead beetles in the vineyard which is quite disgusting!

Do really cold temperatures affect the grapevines?

Yes, they can, depending on several factors. The first is the type of vine; cold-hardy hybrids can survive lower temperatures better than vinifera. But, certain types of vinifera can survive lower temperatures than others. For instance, Cabernet Sauvignon vines are more cold hardy than Syrah vines. Another factor is how much time the vine has had to acclimate. If the temperatures drop too quickly in November and December, before the grapevine has had a chance to get used to the cold, more damage can occur. Other environmental factors include how much stress the plant has had during the growing season, how well-drained the soils are, how much air movement can happen around the plant, and how much insulating snow is on the ground.

Do very warm temperatures in the winter affect the vines?

60 degree days in the middle of the winter are great for us humans, especially when we have to work outside, but not so great for the grapevines. Just as the vines acclimate to cold temperatures in the fall and early winter, the vines must also acclimate to warm temperatures in the late winter and early spring. After the first killing frost that happens usually in late October or early November, the vines go into dormancy where they remain until budbreak in the spring. If the temperature gets too cold, too fast the vine does not have a chance to acclimate and may suffer bud damage or even death in extreme conditions. In the spring, typically April, as there are many days with sustained temperatures over 50 degrees, the vine gets ready to come out of dormancy. The risk with high temperatures in January or February is that the vine gets ready to come out of dormancy too early and then winter returns with plummeting temperatures; this results in bud damage to the vine. So when warm weather strikes before normal in January or February, we can only hope that winter doesn’t return with a vengeance!

How are the grapes picked?

Our volunteer pickers know the answer to that question – all by hand! In many parts of the world, large machine harvesters are used where the grapes are shaken off the vine. Grapes can be harvested very quickly when machine-picked but the disadvantage is that everything gets picked – there is no opportunity to cull out unripe or rotten fruit like there is when hand-picked. The main disadvantage to a machine harvester, however, is the cost. Only larger vineyards can afford to use them. Hand harvesting is done with clippers or grape knives and the entire cluster is cut off the vine. A good picker can pick about ½ ton in an eight-hour day. Compare that to about 5 tons per hour picked by the machine harvester. Picking for us here in Pennsylvania starts at the end of August and will go until after frost. So far this year we have picked most of our hybrids including the Steuben that gets used for Autumn Blush, the Foch and Chancellor that gets used in the Harvest Red, and the Seyval Blanc and Cayuga White which gets put into the Soleils Jumeaux. Vinifera that has been picked include Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir. We will probably pick our Chardonnay, Vidal Blanc and Gewurztraminer this week. Varieties like the Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chambourcin typically will not get picked until after frost, in late October or early November. Once we get a hard frost, all the leaves will turn brown and fall off the vine which makes for very easy picking!

How do we decide when to pick the grapes?

Beginning the last week in August, we collect random samples of the early grape varieties. This is done by taking grapes from different parts of the cluster, from different clusters and from different vines along the row until we have approximately 100 berries. The 100-berry sample is put into a Ziploc bag where the grapes are smashed by hand to simulate crushing. The juice is then carefully poured out of the bag, leaving the skins and seeds inside, and centrifuged to get a relatively clear juice sample. There are three tests performed on the juice: sugar, acid and pH. The seeds are examined to see if hardening has occurred. As the grapes ripen, the sugar content increases, the acid content decreases, the pH rises and the seeds turn hard and brown. As important as all these analyses are, the most important factor in determining ripeness is the flavor. Tasting the grapes and the juice allows a determination if flavor development has peaked and picking time for that particular variety has arrived. Berry sampling continues all during harvest season for each variety. Of course Mother Nature has a large say in picking time since we don’t want to pick the grapes in the rain!

How does a lot of snow affect grapevines?

As much as we hate trying to get anywhere in huge amounts of snow, we love to see the vineyards with snow up above our knees! The vines are dormant at this time of the year and the snow actually acts as an insulating blanket to cold temperatures. Some of the grapevine varieties we have planted can only withstand temperatures down to around 5 degrees Fahrenheit. In fact, cold winter temperatures were long thought to be one of the limiting factors for growing vinifera in Pennsylvania because vines would die over the winter if it got too cold. We have not had very cold winters in recent years, but with piles of snow around, we don’t even have to think about harmful temperatures. Of course there is always a downside - pruning the vines while standing in deep snow is not all that enjoyable!

How is composting done?

How is composting done? As part of our sustainable agriculture practices, we apply compost to our grapevines instead of chemical fertilizers. Composting is an amazing way not only to add nutrients to the soil for the vines to use, but also to increase the level of beneficial microorganisms and the organic matter in the soil. We collect horse manure from our neighboring horse farms, add grape pomace and stems during harvest, and also add spent filter sheets from filtering wine in the cellar and make large compost piles in a field on the farm. The compost piles are turned over using our tractor every week or so until the compost is ready. Then, usually in the winter or spring, we apply the compost to the vineyard using our compost applicator. 

We scoop up the finished, rich, black compost from the piles with the loader bucket on the tractor and dump it into the applicator. The tractor pulls the applicator through the vineyard rows and compost is shot out the side. The black compost lying underneath the vines is only in a thin layer and almost can't be seen; it doesn’t look like much, but a little compost goes a long way.

What is a teinturier grape variety?

This is an applicable question since we actually have a teinturier variety in our vineyard - it's called Foch and it is used to make our Harvest Red. Most red grapes have red skins but the pulp inside is white; the color in the wine comes from extracting the red color from the skins. A teinturier grape, however, actually contains red pigment in the pulp inside the skin. Teinturier varieties, the most well-known including Alicante Bouschet and Rubired, are typically used for blending to increase color. As a total aside, Foch is a hybrid developed by French scientists and named after General Ferdinand Foch, an Allied commander and French war hero during World War I. Internet rumor has it that the dark red grape was appropriately named because of all the blood spilled when General Foch ordered Allied soldiers into battle. What a connection!

What is happening in the vineyard during the winter?

The grapevines go dormant in November and will remain in their dormant state until budbreak sometime in late April or early May. While the vines are dormant, pruning takes place. Pruning is a huge job where each of the approximately 25 shoots per vine are cut back to 2 buds. These 2 buds contain the 2 shoots for the next growing season and there are typically 2 grape clusters per shoot. Pruning is necessary in order to maintain the size and shape of the vine and to ensure consistent productivity. If a vine is left unpruned, it will become unruly and out of control, fruit production will decrease, and the quality of the fruit will severely decline due to too much vegetation. The best quality grapes are from a balanced grapevine and pruning is essential to achieve this balance

What is the deal with the spotted lanternfly?

Everyone seems to be talking about the spotted lanternfly that made its appearance a few years ago. Unfortunately, we are pretty close to Ground Zero where this intrusive insect came in from Asia; Berks County is inundated now with this bug and it is spreading rather fast, despite the quarantine. I’ve heard reports that they have been spotted in Virginia vineyards.

We spent a lot of time this past winter scraping off egg masses from our grapevines and have been keeping the lanternfly under control so far this year with spraying. Nobody is quite sure how much damage they can do, although there are some pretty scary reports out there about loss of vines due to these creatures sucking out the sap. Those of you who picked grapes with us last year may remember the horrible time we had with yellow jackets during picking. We believe that the sweet honeydew excreted from the lanternfly attracted more yellow jackets. I don’t think we directly lost fruit to the lanternfly, but we sure did to the yellow jackets!

We are participating in Penn State’s research on the lanternfly by hosting vineyard space. They have planted 72 screened in Chardonnay vines populated with lanternflies in order to study effects on the vines and on the fruit. Hopefully, we can help provide an answer on how to rid our land of these awful creatures!

What is Veraison?

(Pronounced veh-ray-zohN). Sounds like one of those fancy French names that nobody has a clue about! Even though it is of French origin, us English have adopted it and use it to indicate when the grapes are transitioning from berry growth to berry ripening. At this point, the red grapes start to obtain their color. At veraison, the sugars start to increase in the berries, the acidity drops, and compounds like anthocyanins, which are responsible for color, accumulate.

When is harvest?

First of all, grapes yield only one crop per year. Grape harvest for us usually starts the first week in September and lasts until the end of October. The Foch, which is one of the grapes in our Harvest Red, is the first grape variety to be picked and once in awhile it actually gets picked during the last week of August. The grapes that go into our oak-aged reds like Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon are the last grapes to be picked and we typically wait until the first frost to pick them. In some years, therefore, this means that we’re picking into November. The timing of picking depends obviously on the ripeness of the grapes, but also on the weather. We can tell when the grapes are ripe when the sugar percentage rises and the acid level lowers. The seeds start turning from green to brown and most importantly, the flavors develop. The weather plays an important role because we do not want to pick in the rain or following a rain event; the grapevines will soak up the water and dilute the grapes. Rain can also cause disease issues. All of our grapes are picked by hand (as our wonderful volunteer pickers know!). Some larger vineyards harvest by machine which mechanically knocks the grapes off of the vine and collects them. And last but not least, contrary to I Love Lucy, nobody stomps the grapes with their feet after they’re picked!

Who else wants to eat our grapes – Part 1?

We have competition from lots of different wildlife for our wonderful grapes growing in the vineyard, but the species that does the most damage is deer. In the spring, the adorable creatures come into the vineyard and chomp on the young tender shoots; if they eat too much, they can actually kill a vine. More damaging, however, is in the fall when they come in and eat the ripening grapes. It’s absolutely amazing how many grapes a herd of deer can eat in one night. In 2009, we lost at least 10 tons of grapes to deer. Yes, that is 20,000 lbs of grapes!!! Not wanting a repeat of 2009, we had 8-foot deer fences installed in both vineyards in 2010. Now we watch and laugh as the deer stand outside the fence, longingly wishing for the good old days. It’s very satisfying.

Who else wants to eat our grapes – Part 2?

Last month we told you that deer do the most wildlife damage in the vineyard and we’ve solved that problem with a nice, high deer fence. The creatures that run a close second to deer are the birds. We have the adorable backyard birds like robins, doves, bluebirds and goldfinches that peck a few grapes here and there. The real culprits, however, are the huge flocks of starlings that swoop down en mass from the trees and peck many grapes at once. To avoid bird destruction, we put bird netting over every single row of grapes in the vineyard. That is the easy job. Once the grapes are harvested, we have to pull off the netting and stuff it back into the bag for next year which is the harder job. If we didn’t net our vineyards, the birds would eat all of our grapes! Of course sometimes "smart" puppies get stuck after playing in the nets and need a little assistance.

Why do we need to spend so much time in the vineyard during the summer?

People are surprised that summer is the busiest month in the vineyard since we’re not picking grapes until the fall. It’s amazing how much work it takes to grow quality wine grapes. Earlier in the summer, we did a lot of shoot thinning and positioning. At this point, the main tasks we abbreviate to THC (nothing to do with pot!) which stand for Tucking, Hedging, Clipping. Shoots need to be tucked into the catch wires, especially after a storm. When they grow too long, they get cut or hedged off the top and then the wires get clipped together to try and contain the shoots and neaten it all up. The other time-consuming task is pulling off leaves around the fruit to expose those grapes to the maximum amount of sun and ripeness. Ripe grapes = Delicious wine!

Are our wines suitable for vegetarians?

The answer is Yes! The basic ingredients in wine are grapes and yeast. Other compounds that may be added during fermentation include sugar, tartaric acid, pectic enzymes, and tannins derived from wood. Some winemakers add fining agents after fermentation that are possibly derived from animal products such as gelatin, egg whites, isinglass (derived from fish), and casein (derived from milk). I, being a vegetarian myself, never use these products. A related question that we get at the winery is if our wines are gluten-free. The answer to that question is yes as well.

How do you prevent hangovers over the holidays?

We all do a little too much drinking (hopefully wine) over the holidays and then spend even more time complaining about our hangovers. Besides the obvious answer of not drinking so much, what else can be done? One of the keys to preventing hangovers is to stay hydrated! Make sure you drink one glass of water for every glass of wine you drink – I know it sounds like a lot, but force yourself to do it and you’ll be so happy you did in the morning.

Another tip is to make sure you have fatty foods in your stomach before drinking which makes the alcohol absorb slower. Finally, one study suggests that people who are happy while drinking and not feeling guilty about it, have less hangover symptoms. So eat fatty foods, drink water and be happy about it – simple!

How many calories are in a glass of wine?

This is one of the most common questions I get via email! There is a very handy calculation to approximate the number of calories; multiply the number of ounces times the alcohol content times 1.6. You can do this either by the bottle (approx. 25 ounces) or by the glass (the ounces will depend on how much of the bottle you drink!) So a bottle of 13% alcohol wine contains 25 x 13 x 1.6 or 520 calories. If you have a 6-oz glass of wine (or a quarter of a bottle), which is pretty typical, that equates to about 130 calories per glass.

Now all of the above is for dry wine. If you drink sweet wine, you need to add in the sugar calories. A simple approximation is multiply the residual sugar percentage by 30 to get total additional calories per bottle. A bottle of our Riesling contains about 3% residual sugar so add 90 calories per bottle.

Is our wine gluten-free?

All wine is inherently gluten-free, but there has been concern over the use of wheat paste used by some traditional coopers when they construct barrels. This process has led to people with gluten intolerance avoiding barrel-aged wines, which may be unnecessary. The practice of using wheat paste has largely been replaced with wax by most cooperage houses and those that still use it only use very small amounts. The founder of glutenfreewatchdog.org tested wine aged in oak barrels that were coopered with the wheat paste and found the wine contained less than 10 ppm – the FDA considers less than 20 ppm gluten-free. Hopefully, this is comforting news for those that love wine but have an issue with gluten!

Is red wine really good for you?

We get a lot of people in the tasting room whose doctor has told them to start drinking red wine for their health. How encouraging! So what exactly is going on in red wine that benefits your health? The first benefit comes from the alcohol itself; moderate amounts of alcohol raise the good cholesterol, prevent the bad cholesterol from forming, and also thin blood, thus having cardiovascular benefits. This is true for alcohol in white wine, beer, and liquor as well as red wine. However, red wine contains compounds that these other types of alcohols do not. When red grapes are fermented in contact with the skins, antioxidants like resveratrol and other polyphenols are leached from the skins into the wine. These antioxidants attack free radicals in the body and are thought to aid in prevention of some forms of cancers and also reduce the risk of heart disease. There have been some studies that link the compounds in red wine to the possible prevention or postponement of dementia diseases like Alzheimers. Something that tastes good with all those benefits is a must on everyone’s dinner table!

What are the benefits of grapeseed oil?

Grapeseed oil is made by cold-pressing the seeds of grapes, after the grapes are used to make wine. It is ecological since what is typically a waste product is being used. It has a high smoke point which makes it ideal for sautéing or frying. Its relatively neutral flavor makes it perfect for salad dressings and marinades since it won?t overpower other flavors. Also, it emulsifies well and stays liquid in the fridge so you can use the cold salad dressing right away. Grapeseed oil is high in Omega 6 and studies have shown that it can help decrease LDL or bad cholesterol.

We sell grapeseed oil made in California (sure wish somebody would set up shop in PA!) in cans and also oil infused with flavor in bottles. I use the plain stuff in cans to make my kids? chocolate chip cookies, corn muffins, salad dressings, sautéed veggies ? you name it! It's also very good for your skin and I make a salt scrub with it to use in the shower. An all around awesome product!

Why does wine cause headaches?

There are a few reasons why drinking wine could cause a headache and the answer really depends on the individual. The first cause is simply dehydration. Not keeping your body hydrated when drinking any alcohol can cause a headache. The second cause is tannins. Tannins, which are found in the skins of grapes and are the compound that causes your mouth to feel dry and puckery when you're drinking red wine, have been shown to make the body release seratonins and high levels of seratonins can cause headaches. Tannins are present at much higher levels in red wine than in white wine, so if only red wine gives you headaches, tannins may be the cause. The third potential cause is histamines. Histamines are also present in the skins of grapes and the fact that some people lack an enzyme to break down histamines efficiently has led researchers to believe that histamines can contribute to headaches. This theory, however, has been questioned based on other studies that have not supported it. Once again, only red wines would cause headaches if histamines were the culprit. The last potential cause of headaches is sulfites. This theory is questionable, however, because typically white wine contains more sulfites than red wine and red wine is usually to blame for headaches. Also, a more typical response to sulfites is respiratory problems rather than headaches.

So what should you do if you get headaches? I personally make sure that I drink one glass of water for each glass of wine consumed. If you think tannins may be the cause, try and choose red wines that are lower in tannin content; for example, drink Chambourcin instead of Cabernet Sauvignon. The histamine hypothesis people believe that taking an anti-histamine before drinking wine could help. Obviously, asking the advice of your doctor would be a good idea. Another good idea would be to keep a log of which wines that you drink cause the headaches and see if any kind of pattern emerges - hopefully your favorite wines are not the culprits!

At what temperature should wines be served?

Everyone knows that you chill whites and you don’t chill reds. But the problem with that simplistic rule is that white wines generally get served too cold and red wines too warm. A good rule of thumb is to take white wines out of the fridge 20 minutes before serving and pop the red wines into the fridge 20 minutes before serving. Ideal serving temperatures for white wines are around 45-55 degrees; if they are too cold, they are refreshing but can lose some of their taste. Most red wines are best when served at about 65 degrees which typically is a little cooler than room temperature. An exception to this rule of thumb is sparkling wine which should be chilled thoroughly before popping the cork in order to prevent gushing and losing a good portion of the bottle.

How do you pair wine and chocolate?

How do you pair wine and chocolate? Many people, in fact, think that wine and chocolate don’t go well together at all, but I think that great matches can be made between the right wine and the right chocolate. As with wine and food pairings, balance is the key; you don’t want the wine to overpower the chocolate and vice versa. With that in mind, the key ingredient in chocolate pairing success is sweetness level. I believe that oftentimes people try and pair sweet chocolate with dry wine that may not work very well. Sipping a dry red without any perceptible sweetness will taste sour and bitter after taking a bite of sweet chocolate.

The goal with chocolate pairing, therefore, is to try and match the sweetness level of the chocolate with the sweetness level in the wine. This can run the spectrum from a sweet Moscato with white chocolate all the way to 85% dark chocolate with Cabernet. We really like the way 60% dark chocolate complements our Cabernet Franc Port which is why we serve it to our customers in the tasting room. Of course subjectivity is also a factor, as is typically the case when talking about wine. Gather your friends with different kinds of wines and plates of chocolate and see what you like!

How long should a wine be aged?

We hear this question all the time and the answer is quite complicated. But basically, it really depends on the type of wine, how it’s made and personal preference. Let’s discuss each of these 3 factors one at a time.

The type of wine is very important when considering how long to hold a wine before drinking it. As a wine ages, it tends to lose fruit and gain complexity. Typically, fruit wines and most white wines should be consumed young before they lose a lot of fruit character. Oak-aged white wines like Chardonnay can sometimes be held longer because they have acquired some tannins from the barrels that give them some aging capacity. Red wines can typically be aged longer than white wines, although there are exceptions. Certain specialty wines, like Vintage Port, can be aged for a very long time. The grape variety and the location of the vineyard plays a critical role when determining aging capacity; a big Cabernet Sauvignon made from grapes grown in Bordeaux will last much longer than a fruity Concord made from grapes grown in Pennsylvania.

Winemaking practices have an effect on aging capacity of wine. Factors that affect the aging potential such as levels of acid, alcohol, sugar and tannins can be manipulated by winemakers. Taking tannins that we discussed in last months’ Question of the Month as an example, a winemaker may leave the wine in contact with the skins during fermentation for a few weeks to make a highly tannic red wine. Alternately, there are fining agents that can be used to remove tannins to make a less tannic wine. A highly tannic wine will taste much better after years of aging because upon aging, tannins bind together and create a softer, more drinkable wine.

Possibly, the most important factor when deciding on how long to age a wine is personal preference. Some people prefer fruit-forward wines while other people will exchange fruit for complexity. Some people like tannins while others don’t like that puckering sensation that tannins can cause. The list goes on. Preferences can also be affected by what you are eating with the wine, but that is another topic!

So what do we recommend for our wines? All of our fruit wines and white wines will be best if consumed within 1 year. The exception would be our oak-aged Chardonnay which some may prefer with another year of aging. The fruity red wines like the Harvest Red, Concord and Chambourcin also fall into the 1-year category. Our dry, oak-aged reds like the Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and the Meritage are made to be consumed upon release, but will also do well with up to 2 or 3 years of aging. Our Port definitely needs a year or two of aging before reaching its peak and should be drunk within 5 years.

How long will a bottle of wine last after it is opened?

After a bottle of wine is opened, the wine is immediately exposed to oxygen which causes spoilage reactions to occur. If an opened bottle with headspace is left out on the counter in your kitchen, the wine’s flavor will start to change and the wine may spoil in a few days. Spoilage does not mean that the wine is harmful to drink; in this context it could mean anything from vinegar to just not “tasting good” anymore.

So how do you make an opened bottle of wine last longer? There are 2 major things you can do. The first is to chill it by putting it into the refrigerator; with red wine, you would just need to allow enough time to warm the wine up before serving again. The second is to remove the oxygen. The pump apparatus that people use helps a bit because it removes some of the air, but you can’t create enough of a vacuum to remove all of the oxygen. Spraying compressed gas (Private Reserve for example) into the bottle helps also because you are replacing oxygen with an inert gas like nitrogen or argon. But the absolute best way to remove the oxygen is to pour the remaining wine into another smaller container. Our suggestion is to get a 375-mL bottle (half-size bottle) and when you open a bottle that you will not finish, pour half of it into the smaller bottle. That leaves 2 glasses for now and 2 glasses for later!

What does it mean to let a wine breathe?

You’ve probably watched someone open a bottle of wine and instead of pouring into your glass for consumption, letting it sit in order for it to “breathe”. Is it necessary? For some wines, the answer is Yes! Allowing a wine to breathe simply means contacting it with some air for a period of time. This can be accomplished either by pouring the bottle into a decanter or simply pouring the wine into glasses, allowing a lot of air space. Sometimes a wine is described as “closed” immediately upon opening meaning the flavors are somewhat masked. Red wines that are a bit tannic can benefit from breathing because the air contact will soften the tannins. Be careful not to let an older wine breathe too long because it can deteriorate quite rapidly. And how long should you let a wine breathe? The answer, of course, depends on the wine; experimentation is key. If the wine tastes good immediately upon opening, by all means, drink it right away. But if the wine tastes harsh or lacking in flavor, pour some into a glass and let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes and try it again. I always find it fascinating to see how a red wine changes in the glass with time!

What does the term "dry" mean?

I think many people misunderstand dryness as it relates to wine. A dry wine simply means a lack of residual sugar. Tannins in a wine can bind to proteins in your mouth, making your mouth feel dry and giving you a puckering sensation. Oftentimes we hear people saying that a wine is too dry when really what they mean is that the wine is too tannic. For instance, most Pinot Noirs and Cabernet Sauvignons are dry since all of the sugar has been fermented to alcohol, but Cabernets typically contain more tannins and therefore are perceived as being drier.

If you would like to know how tannins feel in your mouth, over-steep a cup of black tea. Let it cool, don’t add any sugar, and swirl it around in your mouth. You should feel the tannins drying out your mouth and may then have a better sense of what tannins in wine feel like.

What is decanting, when is it necessary, and how is it done?

Decanting is simply separating the liquid wine from solids that have developed in the bottle over time. It is necessary to perform on old wine and on vintage port. As wine ages, large molecules are formed and precipitate out, leaving sediment. How old is old? Depends on the wine, but a good way to tell if decanting is needed is to gently lift the bottle out of the wine rack and see if any sediment has formed on the side of the bottle with a flashlight. In the case of vintage Port, the wine is bottled very young, with the expectation that a lot of sediment will form and the Port will be decanted. Before decanting, it is best to stand the bottle upright for at least a day or two to allow the sediment to fall to the bottom of the bottle. Holding a light source, like a flashlight or traditionally a candle, at the neck of the bottle, the wine should be poured slowly into a decanter until the sediment can be seen at the neck of the bottle. If you are cheap like me, you can pour the remaining sludge through a piece of cheesecloth or a coffee filter to get every last drop.

What is the best way to store unopened wine?

Wine should be stored in a cool location where a constant temperature is maintained. Heat is a wine's enemy so no matter how nice it looks, don't install a wine rack in a cabinet above your stove or refrigerator! High temperatures make a wine age must faster than normal. Fluctuations in temperatures force air in and out of the bottle and can also cause rapid aging due to exposure to oxygen. Wine coolers are a great way to store wine, but are rather expensive. Usually, a nice, cool basement is a good location for wine storage.

One other thing to remember when storing wine with natural cork is that the cork must be kept wet. That means the wine either needs to be stored on its side or upside down. If the cork dries out, air can get into the bottle easier and cause spoilage. Wines with synthetic corks or screw caps can be stored in any position.

What wine should I serve with turkey?

When the holidays start getting close, we get this question asked quite a bit. Trying to find the perfect wine to match all the different flavors on the Thanksgiving table can be rather daunting. The main rule to remember is not to try drinking a style of wine you don’t like, just because someone tells you that is what pairs the best with turkey. Turkey is pretty forgiving, so if you like dry whites, Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio will be perfect. If you like something a little sweeter, try a Riesling or the Autumn Blush; I personally think that Riesling may be the most versatile wine to have on the table since it can match to many of the traditional side dishes like sweet potatoes as well as the turkey. If you prefer red wines, a lighter-bodied Pinot Noir is the best choice. At our holiday table, we typically have 4 or 5 different kinds of wines open to make sure everyone has their favorite. It’s also fun to try different wines with each course and hear everyone’s differing opinions about the best pairings.

Do we add sorbates to the wine?

Some wineries add potassium sorbate, a preservative, to their wine to prevent wines with any residual sugar from re-fermenting. Sorbate does not kill any remaining yeast cells, but does inhibit their activity so they can’t ferment the sugar and cause the wine to become bubbly and possibly blow corks out of the bottle.

Manatawny Creek Winery does not use potassium sorbate; instead, we remove any remaining yeast cells by sterilizing our bottling equipment and sterile-filtering sweet wines. We run water at 210 degrees generated by our kerosene-burning pressure washer through our bottling line to kill any bacteria or yeast, effectively sterilizing the equipment. Sterlizing the equipment will not do any good unless you remove the yeast and bacteria from the wine before it enters the equipment. This is accomplished through filtration. We pump the wine through a sterile filter cartridge before it enters the bottling equipment. Sterile bottling is a lot more work than adding sorbates, but many people find the taste of sorbates offensive, and we feel a higher quality product is achieved without their use.

Do you actually add any of the flavors to the wine that you describe in the tasting notes?

The answer is that we never add any flavorings to our wine - all the flavors that are described occur naturally from either the grapes themselves, the yeast during fermentation, or oak barrels during aging. For example, even though most of our wines are made from grapes, other fruits like strawberry, cherry, raspberry, and blackberry emerge from the grape during fermentation. These fruit flavors and aromas are very subtle most of the time, but often you can detect them when you are looking for them. Other aromas and flavors, like butterscotch for example, are caused by malolactic bacteria during a secondary fermentation (see website for last month's question of the month). Wines that are aged in oak, like the Cabernet Franc and Merlot, exhibit aromas of vanilla and toasty wood, which are extracted from the barrel into the wine during the aging process. Certain types of grapes make wines with distinct characteristics. As an example, Gewurztraminer, a white grape, will often make a wine that has aromas of rose petals and lychee nuts. Pinot Noir, a red grape, may contain aromas of strawberries, mushrooms and violets. So next time you've got a glass of wine in front of you, open your mind to all of the many possible flavors and aromas, and see if that changes your wine-drinking experience!

What are sulfites and should we be concerned about them?

Sulfites are a class of compounds added to wine and other foods as a preservative. They are natural compounds that have been used as an anti-oxidant and anti-microbial agent in wines since early recorded history. Concern arose over sulfites when people got sick by eating food at salad bars that was treated with very high levels of sulfites. There are some misconceptions about sulfites that we'll try to clear up:

* All wines contain sulfites ? red, white, French, American, Australian, etc. Yeast naturally produce sulfites during fermentation. Nearly all winemakers add sulfites, including those from all over the world. The U.S. Government requires wine sold in the U.S. to label wine if it contains sulfites. If you drink foreign wine while abroad, you are not being warned, but the wine still contains sulfites. Organic wine must be made without added sulfites, but these wines are quite perishable. The level of sulfites in wine is very small, especially when compared to other foods. Typical levels in wines are about 80 ? 100 ppm (parts per million). Dried fruit, such as apples and apricots are typically packaged with 500 ? 2000 ppm sulfites.

* Research has shown that sulfites do not cause headaches. There is something in red wine linked to headaches, but the cause has not yet been found. We recommend drinking extra water when you drink wine, simply to avoid dehydration which can cause headaches.

What are tannins in wine?

Tannins are compounds in wine that dry out your mouth; in fact, many people get the terms “dry” and “tannic” confused for that reason. Dry simply means a lack of sweetness. Tannic means a noticeable level of tannins. They are detectable because they bind with the proteins in your mouth leaving a dry, puckering sensation. These compounds are present in the skins and seeds of grapes. Red wines have more tannins than whites since red grapes are fermented in contact with the skins and seeds. Winemakers who want to get more tannins in their red wines, will leave the wine on the skins and seeds for a long period of time during fermentation. Winemakers who want less tannins may use fining agents to remove tannins from a wine. Tannins are also present in oak, so wines that are aged in oak barrels tend to be more tannic due to the tannins extracted from the barrel.

Tannins are a part of a group of compounds called Phenolics and have antioxidant properties which have been in the news lately because of the health benefits. The amount of tannins that people like in a wine is a very subjective thing. Some people like more than others. The type of food you are eating with a wine may also determine your enjoyment level regarding tannins. At Manatawny Creek Winery, we tend to make our wines with relatively low levels of tannins.

What are tartrates?

Sometimes you will find some tartrate crystals in a bottle of wine, particularly stuck to the cork or settled to the bottom of the bottle. These crystals are comprised of potassium bitartrate, also known as cream of tartar in your kitchen, and are completely harmless. During the winemaking process, a wine is often cold-stabilized to try and remove these crystals; this is accomplished by holding the wine at a very cold temperature for a length of time, usually a few weeks. However, the removal of tartrates is a solubility issue as well as a temperature issue and can take a long time. Therefore, after a wine is bottled and held for a time, more tartrate crystals may precipitate out of the wine and show up in your glass. But now you know that they are no big deal and you can impress your friends at dinner parties with your knowledge of potassium bitartrate!

What do oak barrels contribute to a wine and what is the difference between French and American oak?

White oak is the favorite wood used in barrels and imparts both flavors and tannins to wine. Typical oak flavors include vanilla, toast and smoke. The barrels lose their ability to impart flavors after 3 to 5 years of use and the oak character diminishes each year. Wineries who use new oak every year need to charge more for the wine because barrels are so expensive; a typical American barrel costs about $350 while French barrels can cost over $700. Many winemakers think that American oak has a stronger, sweeter character than its French counterpart. The other major region of the world that supplies oak for barrels is Hungary and Hungarian oak barrels seem to have a more smoky character than others. Most of the oak in America comes from Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and Ohio, but it turns out that the Appalachian mountains in Pennsylvania are a great source for slow-growing oak and companies are starting to make PA barrels. Most of the barrels we use at Manatawny Creek Winery are Pennsylvania oak barrels for a truly PA product. French oak is used in our Pinot Noir and Hungarian oak is used in our Merlot, but PA oak dominates the Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Meritage!

What does Methode Champenoise mean?

We tell you that our Blanc de Blancs is made in the traditional Methode Champenoise style but what does that really mean? And how on earth do you pronounce it? According to my favorite book, Wine Lover’s Companion, it is pronounced may-TOD shahm-peh-NWAHZ. It is a process where the bubbles are produced by a secondary fermentation that actually takes place in the bottle. We put a base wine with some added sugar and yeast into bottles closed with crown caps. The yeast ferment the sugar producing carbon dioxide that has nowhere to escape to, causing bubbles to form. After about a year in “tirage”, these bottles are put in riddling racks, where they are subjected to turning every day until all of the sediment from the fermentation has fallen into the neck of the bottle. Then, one cold day in the winter, we disgorge to remove the sediment; this is done by freezing the necks of the bottles so the sediment is trapped in an ice plug. The bottles are turned over, the crown caps removed, and the ice plug shoots out of the bottle. We than add a dosage of wine and sugar and cork the bottle. A wirehood is placed over the cork so the cork is not pushed out of the bottle by all the pressure. It’s a heck of a lot of work, but well worth it!

What exactly is Port?

Port is a sweet, fortified wine that is typically served after a meal. The process to make port differs from the typical winemaking process for table wines in that the fermentation is stopped about halfway by the addition of grape neutral spirits. This results in a wine with an alcohol content between 18% and 20% with a lot of the natural sweetness from the grape remaining. Port originated in Portugal’s Douro Valley and the name comes from the fact that historically, these wines were shipped out of the city of Oporto.

There are three basic categories of port made with red grapes – vintage, ruby and tawny (white port is made with white grapes but is much less common). Vintage ports, the expensive type, are made from grapes of a single vintage and are typically bottled with only a little more than a year of aging in barrel. They are only made in declared years in Portugal and the consumer is expected to do most of the aging since Vintage port gets better with age and often needs many years to become drinkable. Ruby port can be made from grapes of different vintages and is aged for about 2 years before release. It is typically ready to drink when released and is simpler and less expensive than Vintage port. Tawny ports are made from grapes of different vintages and aged in barrels to purposely undergo slow oxidation; this turns the color of the red wine to a tawny color and gives it a unique character. The label of a Tawny port will often show the average number of years of aging - typically 10, 20, 30 or over 40 years.

The grape varieties used in port in Portugal are numerous and varied and do not include anything that we grow in Pennsylvania. At Manatawny Creek, we make our port from Cabernet Franc, one of the red varieties that grows very well in our area. We produce it in the vintage port style, using grapes from a single vintage and bottling the wine after 1 year of aging in neutral oak. Our port definitely benefits from several years of aging and, just like true Portuguese Port, is the ideal beverage to pair with chocolate!

What happens to all of the grape skins, seeds and stems leftover after processing?

The first step in making wine is running the grapes through the destemmer/crusher which separates the grapes from the stems. The second step is separating either the juice or wine from the skins and seeds in the press. Since we process about 60 tons of grapes at our winery during harvest, a lot of waste is generated. We take all this waste, along with horse manure from neighbors, out to our composting area and turn waste into fertilizer. If you are standing on the deck at the winery in the wintertime (when the leaves are off the trees), you may be able to see the composting area in the field behind the line of trees. There are several compost piles in various states of completeness going from young brown piles to old black piles. Once the piles are nice and black, we spread the completed compost on the dormant grapevines in November to add nutrients, organic matter, and beneficial microorganisms. The use of compost precludes the use of chemical fertilizers and is a large part of our goal to farm in a more sustainable manner.

What is a Malolactic Fermentation?

Malolactic (often shortened to ML) fermentation, sometimes called the secondary fermentation, typically follows the primary fermentation (where the yeast convert sugar to alcohol). In this ML fermentation, bacteria convert malic acid in the wine to lactic acid, thereby reducing acidity and making the wine softer. Sometimes these bacteria produce a buttery or butterscotch character during the fermentation. ML bacteria are added to certain wines depending on the desired style. At Manatawny Creek Winery, we put all of the dry reds through ML including the Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Meritage and Chambourcin. The only white that typically gets put through ML is the Chardonnay; the butterscotch character that may be noticeable in the Chardonnay is due to the ML fermentation. The Pinot Grigio may or may not get put through ML depending on the acidity. Fruity wines like the Riesling or Vidal Blanc will not get ML bacteria added, because we do not want anything to take away from the fruit.

What is ice wine?

Ice wine (or Eiswein in Germany ) is a term referring to a rich, sweet dessert wine made from grapes that have been picked frozen on the vine and pressed before they thaw. Since a lot of the water present in the grapes is frozen and stays in the press, the resulting juice is very concentrated, yielding high sugars and acids. The wine made from this juice is very concentrated and flavorful, the high level of sweetness balanced out by the high acidity. Ice wine is typically very expensive because of the low yields that occur from pressing frozen grapes. Temperatures of 18 degrees Fahrenheit are needed to freeze the grapes on the vine, which should explain why we, at Manatawny Creek Winery, do not make it - we are a bit too far south to get these temperatures on a consistent basis.

Ice wine is traditionally made from German white grape varieties such as Riesling. Ontario , Canada has made a name for itself by making ice wine out of Vidal Blanc. There is a bit of a controversy in the ice wine world regarding cryo-extracted or "freezer wines" where the grapes are picked and put in a freezer before they are pressed. Some countries, such as Canada and Germany , have laws forbidding labeling these types of wines ice wines. However it's made, ice wine makes a wonderful dessert wine and, if the global warming trend reverses, maybe we can make it someday!

What is that big tank on the crush pad used for?

It is our Ganimede tank and is a special tank used to ferment red wines. There is a cone inside that collects the carbon dioxide generated during fermentation; every few hours, a valve is opened that releases the carbon dioxide and disturbs the cap that is formed. In this manner, the skins that rise to the surface to form the cap now come in contact with the wine, imparting color and tannins. We can only use this tank when we have at least 3 tons of 1 variety of grapes. Otherwise, we need to ferment in the macrobins and punch the cap down by hand which is backbreaking work sometimes.

If you happen to be sitting on the deck during harvest, you may feel like you’re in the middle of an earthquake when the valves on this tank open – it gets rather violent!

What is the difference between Champagne and Sparkling Wine and why don't we call our bubbly Champagne ?

The answer is pretty simple; our vineyards are not located in Champagne, France. So why the confusion? Because some of the large bulk wine producers in California and New York started calling their cheap sparkling wine Champagne . This, of course, infuriated the French. True Champagne comes only from France 's northernmost winegrowing area, the Champagne region. Manatawny Creek Winery, along with most American sparkling wine producers, elects to use the term sparkling wine in order to show respect to this great wine-producing area. True Champagne also requires the use of ?methode champenoise? which is the traditional method of producing bubbles in the wine by conducting a secondary fermentation in the bottle. Both of our bubblies are produced using methode champenoise, a very labor-intensive production method. But one that produces very tasty results! And remember, Champagne and Sparkling wines are not just for New Years' celebrations ? they should be enjoyed throughout the year!

What kind of alcohol is added to the Port?

This question was asked by a customer in the tasting room last week and I thought it was a good one. Port is traditionally made by stopping the fermentation through the addition of alcohol; the alcohol kills the yeast so there is remaining sugar left in the wine to provide sweetness. The alcohol added is termed “brandy”. The definition of brandy is an alcohol that is distilled from wine, the wine usually being made from grapes. Commercial brandies, such as Cognac, are not what is used to make Port – these are usually about 40% alcohol and have been aged in barrels to acquire flavor and color. Brandy used in Port production is very neutral and has an alcohol content of 70 to 80%, often called grape neutral spirits. We leave our Cabernet Franc Port in neutral oak barrels for at least a year to allow the grape neutral spirits to integrate with the wine, creating a delicious Port!

What makes a pink wine pink?

Both our blush and rosé wines are actually made from red grapes. Typically red grapes are crushed and fermented on the skins so the color is extracted from the skins into the juice. This process usually takes about a week to ten days before the wine is separated from the skins in the press. To make a pink wine, the skins are only left in contact with the juice for a short time, usually about 24 hours. This short contact time allows only a small extraction of the color from the skins. This lack of skin contact also results in a lighter-bodied wine with less tannins. Rosé wines are popular in France where they are often made slightly sweet, especially in the Loire Valley. The term blush wine has replaced the term rosé wine in the United States for the most part and probably the most well-known blush wine in the country is White Zinfandel which is made from red Zinfandel grapes.

What's involved with pressing red wines?

Red wines are fermented in macrobins, the same bins we pick our grapes into; they hold about ½ ton of fruit and ¾ ton of must. The first picture shows 2 bins with completed red wine fermentations. The red wine in the bins needs to get separated from the skins and seeds. It gets pumped out through large hoses using a must pump, shown in the second picture. The must is pumped into the press (third picture) where compressed air fills a bladder and forces the must against a stainless steel screen. The wine flows out through the slats in the screen and is pumped into a tank for settling. After this process is finished, the bladder is deflated and the press rotated to dump the dry pomace, which is transferred out to our compost area. It’s all very messy and by the end of the day, everyone is covered in red wine stains – we need to change clothes before going anywhere lest people think we were part of a crime scene!

Why do we do "punchdowns"?

This question comes from my 13-year-old son who asked it while he was actually doing a punchdown; it was my turn in the rotation, but my back was tired! We ferment red wines on the skins in a macrobin. Four times per day we do a punchdown where we punch the cap of skins formed from rising carbon dioxide back into the fermenting juice/wine mixture. In this manner, we get the skins in contact with the liquid so the color compounds, called anthocyanins, that exist in the skins can get transferred to the wine. This is what gives red wine its color. Other compounds, mostly tannins, are also extracted from the skins. A great way to get an upper body workout in while making wine!