Chambourcin Wine Grape Harvest - Rowe Ridge Vineyard & Winery - Wyandotte County, Kansas
Chambourcin Wine Grape Harvest - Rowe Ridge Vineyard & Winery - Wyandotte County, Kansas
Wine growing states like Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Arkansas experience much colder winter months than Pacific coastal states. As a result, varietals like Pinot Noir are nearly impossible to keep healthy without dying. Heartier grape vines like Norton and Chardonnel can live through the long weeks of the brutal winter cold; however, they invariably lack the gentle palate and delicate fruit qualities of more sought after premium wines.
Wine Tasting Chambourcin at Rowe Ridge Vineyard & Winery
Our personal Rowe Ridge journey began on another beautiful crisp autumn Saturday in Kansas City. Only a few sparse trees contained leaves turning brown. The sky was sunny and the temperature around seventy degrees as we excitedly opened the door to the Rowe Ridge wine tasting room. That's where we met Pam Rowe (co-owner and co-founder with her husband, Marc).
The Real Joy Of Wine Tasting Includes Great Conversations
We had just finished our first two tastings of Chardonel and Seyval Blanc. Both whites - both refreshing and smooth. But it was during our third wine when Kimberly said, I think that's one of the first Chambourcin's I've tasted that I actually liked! Her revelation cracked the place up. Like I said, Chambourcin can be extremely bitter - and very notably earthy. While I'm usually the outspoken one of the group, that's an example of how comfortable wine tasting at Rowe Ridge can be. In fact, over an hour had passed before we realized how much in-depth conversation and knowledge Pam had afforded us. (We talked at great length about winemaking, local varietals, local liquor laws and Kansas Winery Trails).
It was finally five o'clock and closing time when our exit rapidly approached. Today had been another truly exceptional wine tasting experience, so I expressed my interest to Pam about recording some video at her winery. Given our comfortable rapport, she was more than open to the idea and asked if we wanted to come back next weekend to join the Chambourcin wine harvest volunteer group. What an offer! We asked what time, she said around nine and we thanked her for the invite. We'll see you next weekend, we chimed as we smiled and left. Kimberly and I were thrilled; we wouldn't miss that for the world!
Chambourcin Wine Harvest at the Rowe Ridge Family Farm
Along with many others, we arrived just after 8:30 am on Saturday, September 16th. It was fun to watch the gathering group of volunteers and winery workers all here to pick the Chambourcin wine harvest. They suited up with work gloves, harvest tools, and yellow plastic containers - while I mounted my cell phone as a video camera onto the swivel head of my metal Bogen tripod.
As we entered the field of grape vines, Pam thanked us for coming to donate our time and enthusiasm. Then she described where to cut above the grape cluster at a visible curved elbow as she led the group to the rows of vines in the fields where she demonstrated how to place the clipped wine grape clusters in the yellow bins. These hold about 20 pounds of grapes, she explained. After the large blue bin was brought by the tractor, then it could be filled with the smaller yellow bins, and then the tractor would take that large bin back for temporary storage - before sorting.
We are harvesting Chambourcin, Pam me, so we depend on volunteers to come help us get our grape crop in. They're very instrumental in getting everything picked. They (the wine grapes) should be about perfect. I asked Pam ideally what mature grapes should look like and so she showed some to the camera. There's a nice cluster right here. See that? That's a good cluster. For the most part, it's a good size, all the grapes seem to have ripened about the same - we've got a little down here at the bottom that's not ripe - but for the most part, this is the size of cluster we would like to have. And, if you take one off and open it up you can see that pretty juice and the brown seeds and the soft skin. And it tastes good.
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