Stock up on Shiraz Sale! (It’s over now, but you can still read about it!)

The days of our February Wine Sale are long gone, but every once in a while we get an itch to do a case sale.  Shiraz 2008 is on sale for a 40% discount, when purchased by the case.  Regular Price – $132.00 and the sale price is $79.20.  That is $6.60 per bottle.  It is the perfect wine for all of your Fall activities!

Team Leader Drew K grabs a case for a customer. Come in and get yours today!

Last year, our staff discovered that they could make Mulled Shiraz during the chilly fall days.  We tweaked the Mulled Beanblossom Hard Cider recipe, added some brown sugar and warmed the souls of all of our dry red wine drinkers.  See the recipe below.

The cases are moving quickly and the sale won’t last long!  We hope to see you soon.

Mulled Shiraz Recipe

1 bottle of Shiraz 2008
2 cups of water
½ cup of mulling spice mix (or to taste)*
¼ cup of brown sugar (or to taste)

Mix all ingredients in a crockpot or stove top, stir well and heat on low until ready.  Other additions include orange or lemon slices, cinnamon sticks, or ginger pieces.

* Aspen Mulling Spices are available for purchase in the tasting room.

Vidal Blanc-A Versatile Variety at Creekbend Vineyard

Post by Sheila Z, Vineyard Staff

We create three different wines from the beautiful, golden Vidal Blanc grapes.  The first picking is for our sparkling wine and occurred on August 31.  The second round harvest was on September 15 for our Vidal Blanc Reserved Sweetened wine.  The final picking for this grape occurs when we make ice wine.  A process that requires the outside temperature be down below 10 degrees overnight in order to freeze the grapes solid.  If the temperature during harvest rises over 15 degrees, we will stop harvest,  since the grapes must be frozen in order to process them.

Beautiful ripe clusters of Vidal Blanc grapes

Harvesters fill lugs with grapes

Lug contents are then transferred to bins

Bins are loaded onto the trailer for transfer to the winery. Full bins weigh approximately 1000 pounds.

Empty lugs waiting to be washed for another harvest

If you haven’t had a chance to taste these three delicious wines made from one fabulous grape variety, I encourage you to visit us soon. The pumpkins are on display and we will start making our famous hot, mulled  Beanblossom Hard Cider as soon as the weather cools down. To tide you over, follow this link to our recipe for hot and tasty mulled cider.

It’s Pumpkin Time!

The pumpkins from Creekbend Vineyard have arrived at Oliver Winery. We sell these beauties for $.40/pound. The tasty varieties of squash are sold individually as well. So come on out and see us this weekend. Bring your cameras too!

A Year of Wine Competitions

Post by John Metzcar, Assistant Winemaker

Oliver Winery has had an excellent season in this year’s wine competitions.  We did well in every competition we entered and received several outstanding awards.  The highlight of our competitions this year was the Indy International Wine Competition, where we received the Winemaker of the Year award out of the 1453 domestic and international wineries who submitted entries.  In addition to that prestigious award, our Beanblossom Hard Cider won the Indiana Grown Fruit Wine of the Year and Harvest Flavors Mango won the Danville Honey Honey-Wine Blend of the year.  Also, we received a Double Gold medal for Soft Rose, Riesling, and Traminette at this competition.

Several other highlights from this season of wine competitions include our 2009 Pinot Grigio.  At the International Eastern Wine Competition, it received a double gold medal and won best of varietal from among Pinot Grigios submitted from all over the country and the world.  At other competitions, all of our Soft Wines received gold medals, as well as our Gewürztraminer, Ice Wine, Chambourcin Rosé (actually 2 gold medals) and several others.