Mount Airy, MD – Friday May 14, 2010

It’s been quite a while since my last installment to the “Wine Thinks” column as things have been busy in the winery the past few months. We have been filtering and bottling like crazy these last few months. The last of the ’09 white wines are in cold storage for cold stabilization prior to bottling. There they will sit for weeks at 27F for final acid reduction and tartrate stabilization. May has brought with it the addition of our seasonal treat, May Wine. This slightly sweet German style ‘09 white, is spiced with Sweet Woodruff which gives the wine a slight cinnamon background. Traditionally served with fresh strawberries in the glass, this is a great wine for casual entertaining out on the deck of patio. As normal, production of this wine is limited so I don’t expect it to be around long. With festivals just around the corner and the grapes about to bloom we are looking forward to another great year of “Great Wines and Fun Times” for 2010. So in your travels make us a stop along the way and taste the new wines.

Anthony Aellen - Your Winemaker

Mount Airy, MD – Thursday December 02, 2009

Welcome to this section of our website where I will occasionally post "Wine Thinks" which are happenings in and around the winery. So, people have this idea that, as the winemaker, I get to sit and sample wines all day. That's perfectly true, except only in their imagination. The real world, unfortunately, gets into the "romance" and injects a certain amount of reality into the situation. This column is designed to be a sort of peek at the real happenings here at the winery. Well that being said, it's been a long and winding road to get us to the end of harvest this year. Winemakers all over the East and Midwest were just looking to find the end of the prolonged tunnel, which was our harvest season. The cold and wet spring worked into a cold and wet summer, which was followed by a cold and wet fall. Ripening was about a month behind schedule and our Vineyard manager, my brother Eric, and his crew worked their respective tails off to keep the fruit in prime condition. Production from our vineyards was up four fold this year and the flavors, although delayed due to the weather, showed up as ripening progressed. The juice went through a long cold fermentation and the wine is now coming out of fermenters. The first of our '09 wines, our Nouveau, was released on November 1st. Typical of young reds, our Nouveau shows more fruit when it is young balanced by a slightly higher acidity. We are in the process right now of centrifuging whites to remove the yeast, which has done its magic in transforming the juice into wine. The clean wine is being transferred to stainless steel aging tanks, where it will be allowed to sleep over the winter as it develops its true personality. You will see these wines in the spring and summer of 2010. I just have to say they taste delicious. Okaaay, so we have to do some “quality control”. If you have any questions, I am reachable at Anthony@Linganorewines.com. Thanks for your continued support in our family's endeavor and I hope you enjoy my entries in the life of a winemaker.

Anthony Aellen - Your Winemaker