Endless Summer Winery

[Midwest Vintner]

oh yes, my father was under the impression we had to fill the sheets out monthly. so after the third month they called and asked if we were going to make X gal (not sure of the number, but something like 50,000 to 100,000+ gallons) of wine during the year. my dad laughed and said we won't ever make that much! so we filed monthly for the last two months in order to finish '10 and now will do them yearly. i swear we've been in touch with someone in the loop of getting this thing going daily. many days, multiple times a day. i'm glad my dad is jobless or one of us would have had to quit at this point to just keep up the progress!

thanks for the tip on the cola's! will do asap in the morning!

we had to buy a gas heater for the winery because of the weather. hope the power stays ON!

Al>lovin your sig, "I got my vino at Fulchino's" lol. it's catchy.

i think my biggest fear now is the wine won't be ready! i mean, i'm a stickler for excellence and i hope to not disappoint anyone who is going to travel any distance to visit! i'm excited to get this open, but we have to make sure we have good, properly aged wine. so i wouldn't mark any dates on a calender yet.

 

[AlFulchino]

"i think my biggest fear now is the wine won't be ready!"

same here...but that is EVERY year you will feel this...then one day you will walk in do a tasting for yourself and the aroma / nose will arrive....and then one day the flavor profile will be there...you will taste a second and third time because you cant believe it and then let others taste...and then surprise surprise...you will be selling it!

PS...by a generator....its not just the winter need for heat...in the summer the humidity will wreak havoc w your bottles and labels

 

[grapeman]

Here's hoping the power stays on for you and everyone else. Stay warm.

 

[wvbrewer]

Good luck with everything, I am sure you will make some quaity wines. Are you going to ship them out of state? It would give us all a chance to try them.

Dave

 

[Midwest Vintner]

we are not planning on shipping out of state at this point. some states have a transferrable type license. meaning one from another state will work. others, like CA, you have to buy their specific shipping license. gets pricey and we aren't very big.

al> we just did buy one two days ago. can't risk losing power in there!!!

thanks guys for the nice comments.

what's your guys's and gals take on filtering? me, i like to wait for clearing, but we don't have time and i don't think aging in the tanks we have is a good call. not going into specifics, but we are doing a two stage type. a very, very pourous stage and then a final filtering. even in final filtering, not a super fine filter will be used. i've only filter wines a few times, ever! lol. should be interesting. got our setup yesterday and going to use it since i can't go to work tonight! i'm snowed in for sure!

 

[AlFulchino]

you can look at VinoShipper.com to act as company to use to sell your wine in several states....in essence they hold the licenses for a bunch of states....the customer goes to their website per your instructions and when the purchase is made, you are notified...then you ship to the client....in the end what is happening is you are selling wholesale to Vino Shipper and they take about 20%

as to filtering...i do not filter any of my reds....never have...last year i only filtered two of the 4 whites that i released.....but would not hesitate to filter a white or an wine that needed to be sterile filtered

 

[countrygirl]

hey, midwest, keep us updated on your weather status...we're hoping you're staying safe, and, after the ice storm we had here in ky 2 yr. ago, i'm VERY glad to see you got a generator!!!

 

[Wade E]

As the years go by here Im finding myself wanting to filter more and more. Ive aged many wines well over a year and have still had them drop out sediment in the bottle. Some were more color then sediment and I would bt a paycheck on it that even a rough filter would have eliminated that.

 

[Midwest Vintner]

wade>yeah, that's kind of what we are trying to avoid. with not a long time in a secondary>bottle, we are pushing it slightly, to open. not being too fast getting it into the bottle, but faster than we are used to. typically, we never filter and just wait for it to settle. now, with limited tanks, we don't really have that ability.

country girl> thanks for your concern. we missed the 5" of sleet STL got (they got some snow too, but not as much), but we did get about 10-11" of snow. i missed my first day of work since i started in april of last year. turns out after calling in, they called everyone else and told them just to stay home! lol.

i'm beat after shoveling for 2 1/2 hours so i could get to work tonight. didn't get any wine racked yesterday

 

[countrygirl]

wade>yeah, that's kind of what we are trying to avoid. with not a long time in a secondary>bottle, we are pushing it slightly, to open. not being too fast getting it into the bottle, but faster than we are used to. typically, we never filter and just wait for it to settle. now, with limited tanks, we don't really have that ability.

country girl> thanks for your concern. we missed the 5" of sleet STL got (they got some snow too, but not as much), but we did get about 10-11" of snow. i missed my first day of work since i started in april of last year. turns out after calling in, they called everyone else and told them just to stay home! lol.

i'm beat after shoveling for 2 1/2 hours so i could get to work tonight. didn't get any wine racked yesterday

thank goodness u missed the ice/sleet and didn't have any major problems!

 

[Midwest Vintner]

just an update. we have cut most of the red tape for now and moving along with building the tasting room. the building has been set back due to the ground being so wet. we are hoping for july, but in reality, it might be september. we just have so much work to do. the wine is coming along nicely though and should be ready. might get some more aging, which is not a bad thing! lol.

i'm would post pics of something, but there's not much going on. we are doing lots of landscaping as my parents are ex-farmers and both really big on plants of all sorts. i'm not so good with live ones. lol.

this is just one orchid

we've done alot since this pic, but it's another example of how they like plants. i do, just can keep them alive too well.

 

[Wade E]

Looks wonderful. We do want some shots now of the winery so we can see the improvements later!!!!

 

[AlFulchino]

agreed...keep us posted

and you folks are that green already!!! wow...just not fair!

 

[Midwest Vintner]

agreed...keep us posted

and you folks are that green already!!! wow...just not fair!

nope, right now it's cold and snowing. this was last spring. there have been many changes since these pics. the production building is still about the same as in the pics i posted up a while back, but now with wine in the tanks. lol the property is going to change alot, so i take it you are wanting to see what we are doing as it goes?

 

[winemaker_3352]

Yeah - think MO got a little snow surprise this morning. Not sure what the Herman area got - but Lake St. Louis area had about 5".

 

[Wade E]

Yep, step by step somewhat. theres nothing better then progress!

 

[Midwest Vintner]

Yep, step by step somewhat. theres nothing better then progress!

true. ok. will take some pics when i get a chance.

we had about the same here winemaker.

 

[Midwest Vintner]

just an update. going to show what we are doing with the property. unfortunately, we have to cut alot of trees. many are elm's that have become diseased (dutch elm disease, probably). we had 2 trees go from really healthy to have lots of dead limbs and some limbs not putting out leaves. the big one here was going to stay until it lost its leaves on some limbs early and it's right next to the seating area. wanted it for shade, but it was going to die.

^the pad will be our seating area outside. we are also going to have a small patio off the front of the tasting room. all on concrete, so no mud/dirt to walk on.

 

[Midwest Vintner]

here is another tree, a maple tree, that had been topped. it had some dead limbs and was near the driveway. not a good thing.

we are planting trees, too. we have a black gum, ginko, 4 pear trees, 4 cherry trees and a red maple.

 

[grapeman]

We lost almost all the elm trees here 30 years ago. You drive down elm street now and there are no trees........

I need to get my patio area built soon in front of the tasting room. The dirt really does get tracked in, especially when it rains, etc.

A shame you needed to cut the trees. They would have been great near the buildings for shade.