For the winery assignment I decided to visit  Whitecliff Vineyard and Winery. Whitecliff is an artisanal family run winery created from the ground up by owners and founders, Michael Migliore and Yancey Stanforth-Migliore. Whitecliff Vineyard and Winery is located at 331 McKinstry Rd, Gardiner, NY 12525 and it has one of the largest vineyards in the Hudson Valley, with over 20 varieties of grapes. They are growing: riesling, reserve riesling, dry rose, cuvee, sheer chardonnay, reserve chardonnay, oaked seyval blanc, vidal blanc, pinot noir, syrah, cabernet franc, merlot, malbec, dessert wines, sparkling wines etc. They also have wines that are blended with different grape varieties. Their vinification process is very simple: they harvest the grapes, then crush them when ready, they do fermentation process and bottle the wine. They have wines that mature in the barrel, and some that mature in a bottle. While they do use machinery for spraying, all the other field work is done by hand. They also try to follow an Integrated Pest Management Program (IPM). Viticulture at Whitecliff winery is to spray the grapes to protect them from diseases, netting and machinery. I had a chance to take a tour through the vineyard and I was fascinated with acres and acres of vines. Their customer service was very good, they had different options for wine tasting. They had various tasting flights from $8-$16, depending on a wine type and also depending on a quantity. They also have something called “GOLD TASTING”  which costs $35 per person for groups of 4 or more. They are offering tasting of 8 premium wines, cheese plate & brief winery tour and they Include souvenir glass.The knowledge of tasting room personnel was very good and very professional. I had many questions for them about winery itself, grapes, making wine process and they answered each question very patiently. I also asked about food pairing, and I learned about some great dishes that could be served with different types of wine. I

Overall, I had a very good experience and this assignment was very helpful for my future career. I would recommend this winery to anyone who is looking to try good wines and also enjoy wonderful atmosphere and spacious tasting room.

www.whitecliffwine.com

https://www.newyorkwines.org/

For the Beverage Production Experiential Learning Analysis, I visited the Brooklyn Brewery. I chose this brewery because I have seen it so often and their logo with a big B is just so recognizable that made it my first choice. the brewery has two main parts; the lobby and the production behind it. When I entered the brewery the lobby is packed with visitors, there is a counter that sells draft beer and the line is just so long that I didn’t even want to wait.

After a few minutes of waiting, a tour guide called Sean came to lead us the production line to see how the beer is been made. He was so knowledgeable that was able to answer everybody’s question and encouraged people to ask more questions. Their beer is made with four main ingredients; Grain, Hops, Yeast and water. The process of making beer is actually pretty simple. After chosen the malt, they will crash it and mix it in a tank with hot but not boiling water for an hour to release the sugar for later fermentation. After an hour they transfer the sweet liquid to a vessel called kettle and add hops. the mixture will ferment in the Whirlpool; it’s just another big tank. Then the tank will remove the unwanted malt and hops to get a sweet liquid that is later been fermented.

Fermentation tanks were in a different area about 20 steps away. In the fermentation tank, they will add yeast and sugar to produce alcohol. During the fermentation process, they will also add hops for aromas. They used about three to six hops depends on the beer. Then when the beer is matured they will be filtered and carbonated and transferred to another tank. Beer will be bottled when it is ready. Right next to the fermentation tanks are the bottling line and the machines that make cage beer.

Some facts about the Brooklyn Brewery are their highest alcohol beer were 13.3%, they sell beer in more country than states and they do a collaboration with other breweries in a different area. Sean also told us that there are only two types of yeast which made it only two types of beer; Ale and Lager. However, there can be many sub-categories of both.

Since they have so many beers I asked how do they brew new beer and I got a very surprising answer. Every other month, Brooklyn Brewery will rotate their employees to brew their own beer from imagination; almost every employees have to take terms, even the Bottling staff. Beer brewed from their imagination then will be tested for sell, if it sells well they will produce more.

The only thing I didn’t like was the waiting line, it takes about 20 minutes to get a draft beer and space is kind overcrowded were a lot of people were standing.

This is me and Sean at the brewery. He is indeed a very knowledgeable staff and well prepared for any question.

This area is where people buy draft beer and sit down for a drink.

This is the Whirlpool where the sweet liquid will be separated from the hops and malt.

These huge fermentations tank are used to ferment beer and hops will also be added in.

This is the bottling line of Brooklyn Brewery.

This machines makes cage beer.

This is be alone with the big B logo of Brooklyn Brewery

Reference:

Brewery, B. (n.d.). Welcome to Brooklyn : Brooklyn Brewery. Retrieved from https://brooklynbrewery.com/about/about-the-brewery

Brooklyn Brewery | Brooklyn, NY | Beers. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45/

Brooklyn Brewery Expands Distribution to California, Begins Test Brewing at 21st Amendment. (2019, January 16). Retrieved from https://www.brewbound.com/news/brooklyn-brewery-expands-distribution-to-california-begins-test-brewing-at-21st-amendment

Macari Vineyards

Have you ever been to a vineyard? Because it wasn’t until last Monday that I realize there was a whole new world filled with acres of land dedicated to wine growing on the other side of New York.  Macari vineyards has about 180 acres of land to be exact and located at the North Fork of Long Island. The North Fork has a total of 52 tasting rooms, and there first vines were planted in 1973.  Stepping into the winery you can already smell a strong but pleasant scent of fresh fruits as a vinous imagery of wine comes to mind.  The theme of Macari vineyard is just as you imagined, they had polished wine glasses, and a variety of wines stocked up neatly on the shelves, as the seats and tables were located perfectly overlooking every inch of the vineyards.

Macari Vineyards

Before my tour,  the guide, Jul Fedele presented me with a few facts about vinification, starting with the fact that wine was discovered about 6,000 years ago.  She then went on to explain how their process of fermentation goes at Macari vineyards, red wines take about a week, and white wines can take several weeks, to bring out more flavors and aroma.  On the other hand, when it comes to their viticulture they prefer dry soil and a terroir environment.  The viticulture at Macari prefers the type of soil called Sandy loam which is good for drainage.  If the vineyards have higher yields it will produce lower quality wines.  As we all know the region that the grape is grown will mostly determine how the wine will come out due to its temperature, soil, sunshine, etc.  That is why at Macari vineyards during late October this ava brings out more red wines than usually due to its healthy environmental factors.

Macari Vineyards

At Macari vineyards they have quite a few common but very well-known grape varieties that are grown.  There top grape varieties for red wine are Bordeaux, Malbec, Merlot, and Pinot Noir.  On the other hand, there top grape varieties for white wines are Chardonnay, Sauvignon blanc, Viognier, and Riesling.  Throughout the North Fork, Long Island, Pinot Blanc is very well known, however at Macari the most sold wines are Merlot and Chardonnay which tends to be quite popular throughout the region.  Most wines are fermented stainless steel at Macari due to it being cost efficient, durable, airtight, and good aging.  Most wines were held off in barrique, which was used for storing and aging wines.  When it comes to the alcohol content, 14% is as high as it mostly goes.

Macari Vineyards

Barrique

A special attribute of the ava Macari vineyard is the specific oak that they used which is porous.  During the tour we passed through quite a few locations such as the vineyards, tasting rooms, and the room where they make and store the wines. The vineyards were neatly lined off, and very spacious.  The reason for this is because of better airflow which help disease control against the vines.  Of course, the vines can’t be protected a hundred percent due to phylloxera, which are insects that destroys grape vines by attacking their roots.

Macari Vineyards

Overall Macari Vineyards was a success, but what stood out to me the most was the wine tasting room. It was located underground as the pathway seem like it led to some ancient underground tunnel. The room had an antique earthy smell that really stood out as the place was fully sealed off with polished wood at every corner, keeping every drip of smell trapped in the room.  Everything in the room looked like it was made from natural resources including the seats, tables, walls, shelves, which gave it that crafty nature look. This was definitely an experience I enjoyed and can definitely see myself laid back sipping on a glass of chardonnay overlooking the beautiful view of North Fork, Long Island.

Macari Tasting Room

Macari Rose

For the beverage production experimental learning analysis as an alternative I decided to go to a beer brewery, because I couldn’t have the opportunity to go to a winery during the past 3 weeks. Which I found very interesting since we took the class beer 101 with the instructor and beneficiary of the Sixpoint Brewery. In which the class was able to learned many things about the beer industry such as the beer process, ingredients use to make beer, type of beers and tasting terminologies. The Brooklyn brewery is a great place to get some knowledge about beer in the city located at Brooklyn New York. The brewery offers free tours on weekends for a specific time depending on the audience. Yesterday on May 11th I was able to attend to one of the tours at 3:00 pm where a tour guide gives a brief explanation about the beer industry, and the way the company made their beer.

This is the entrance of the location once you walked in of the outside this are the first vessels that you’re going to see.

Selfie time outside of the brewery

Unfortunately the tour was not al long as I was expecting because there was not too many rooms or places to go within the brewery, however, the tour was short but very informative. A interesting fact that I noticed about this tour was that most of the people that was there where from Europe and Japan, the tour guide mentioned a bit of the history about the brewery which was establish on 1987 and how the owner start making beer after coming back from the Middle East to the United States.

The first room we visited was the brew room, where all the beer is store with the usage of the old brewing system and the old brewing system. It can also be used to store water.

Something that caught my attention about this beer vessel was that apart from being the biggest they had in the brewery, it was made 32 years ago in Germany and was brought to the US.

During the tour the guider explained us about the four major ingredients used to make beer in the brewery which are HOPS, BARLEY AND WATER. However, the major component and essential to make beer is water which is 85 and 90 % (percent) of beer. The brewery gets a high quality crystallized and naturalized water from the Catskills Mountains, which is not require to have the water go through a lot of treatments. half of their beers are made with malted barley. Malted are cereal grains germinated. The barley goes through a hot water process which cause the breaks down of its sugars. The final step is to transfer all the water from the procedure which is now all sugar from the grains.

These buckets contains waste of unmade beer.

Hops sample from the bar.

Barley grains from the flowers.

Malted barley

All this process of making beer start from the steps of brewing which are mashing, lautering, and vorteuting, our tour mentioned that the time limited to boil the water varies it could be  1, 2 or 3 hours, the color of the beer comes the the malt barley. That includes the process of malting which involves soaking the barley, allowing it to germinate and then stopping the germination with hot water.

Our tour guide was amazing a person who has been working for the industry for the past 15 years who name is Kristine. A very interesting and knowledgeable person.

During the tour I also learned that their technological systems can make 7 thousands of beer bottles per hour. At the end of the tour we where directly taken to the tasting are which is the bar, to taste their seasonal beer “summer ale” .

The “tasting room” which is the bar, and is where they also put all of the hops and barley samples they have.

Last but not least the cone shaped container, that contains all the barley and malted that is added to the fermentation tanks.

References

Last Saturday, on April 27th, I visited the Brooklyn Brewery. I wasn’t as fortunate to have visited a vineyard during my break so I went with an alternative. Brooklyn Brewery is located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. According to their website, on Saturdays, Brooklyn Brewery hosts free tours every half hour. The brewery only holds a certain number of people at a time so I waited in a very long line before being able to get in. I was able to attend a 4:30pm tour where the workers explain the brewing process of how beer is made.

The line outside to get into Brooklyn Brewery. It was nice out so it wasn’t too bad

Surprisingly, there weren’t too many locals on the tour. A lot of people on this tour were from out of the country: Japan, Brazil, Sweden . Our tour guide mentioned that Sweden is the second largest market in the beer industry; the five boroughs of New York, specifically Brooklyn being the largest. The first stop on the tour was the brew house, “where the magic happens”. In this brew house, they store their current brewing system as well as their old brewing system which isn’t operational because it works manually and it’s hard to work with it in the volume of beer they make daily. However, they do use it to store water.

These large vessels are the brewery current brewing system where beer is made

The four major ingredients used to make beer is hops, barley, yeast and water. Ninety to ninety five percent of beer is just water. One thing that makes their beer so special is that the water that they get here in New York City comes from the Catskill Mountains and gets a lot of natural filtration. They don’t have to do a ton of treatments to the water. Malt is the process of germinated cereal grains. Most beers tend to be made with malted barley. The barley is grinded up and put through these travel pipes where it meets hot water almost as if making tea. What this does is activates enzymes in the grains that cause it to break down and release its sugars. Once this is all done you drain the water from the mash which is now full of sugar from the grains. This sticky, sweet liquid is called wort. It’s basically unmade beer, sort of like how dough is unmade bread.

A sample of the malted barley was passed around so everyone could see

The wort is then boiled  while hops and other spices are added several times. According to Beeriety, hops are the small, green cone-like fruit of a vine plant. They provide bitterness to balance out all the sugar in the wort, provide flavor and also act a natural preservative. Hops are also responsible for the aromatics of beer.

Sample of hop pellets that were passed around

Once the wort is done boiling and is cooled, strained and filtered. It is then put in one of the large brewing vessels and yeast is added to it for fermenting. The second stop of the tour was to the packaging hall and fermentation room. The tour guide explains that their are two big families of yeast used to make beer and they are ale and lager yeast. Ale yeast ferments very quickly, usually one to two weeks and ferments at a warmer temperature than lager yeast. Ale beers leaves behind flavor associated with the ale yeast itself such as fruity flavors, spicy flavors, banana and clove, etc. Lager comes from the word “lagern” which means to store and it typically takes a longer time to ferment, usually four to six weeks at a cooler temperature and more cleanly not leaving behind any flavors. It tends to be crisper. Basically the yeast eats up all that sugar in the wort and spits out carbon dioxide and alcohol as waste products.

My tour guide was very knowledgeable on how beer is made despite only working at the brewery on the weekends for 3 months. However, she does make whiskey on the weekdays at another establishment and says you have to know how to make beer first before you know how to make whiskey

After the tour, we were directed towards the tasting room which wasn’t the typically tasting room I was expecting. It seems more like a lounge where people came in to buy beer and sat and hung out. Kids and pets were allowed in this area.

Tasting room is a huge open space where people try different beers

This is the menu of beers people chose from for tasting

Me at Brooklyn Brewery as I pose for a stranger to take my picture .. Until next time

References

How Beer is Made | Beeriety. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://blog.beeriety.com/2009/07/06/how-beer-is-made/

Brewery, B. (n.d.). Visiting The Tasting Room : Brooklyn Brewery. Retrieved from https://brooklynbrewery.com/visit/visiting-the-brooklyn-brewery#_ga=2.9866230.214292393.1556916543-965157385.1556916543

My Winery Analysis is about Red Hook Winery. The North Fork of Long Island is dominated by the sea, in every sense. The growing region is situated on a narrow “fork” of sea-level land that is sandwiched between the Great Peconic Bay on one side and by the wide Peconic Sound on the other. (https://www.redhookwinery.com/) 

This is where the cashier is and where to pay for your products

It was a little annoying to find Red Hook Winery because one, the roads were very bumpy and two, there was a warehouse that was so big and everything looked the same on Pier 41. The windows of the shop were I believe very tinted to the point you can’t see the inside. From the outside, the shop seems huge, but when you walk in it’s pretty small for a winery.

This is an outside view/look of Red Hook Winery

Red Hook winery has many grape varieties grown, such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, etc. (http://www.winethirtyflight.com/blog/2016/7/27/red-hook)

This is a tasting room inside Red Hook Winery

Red Hook Winery’s tasting rooms have a lot of wood and barrels around, seems like rooms to have great conversations and drink wonderful wines in. Your table to drink on is a barrel, which I liked because it’s different and creative than just a normal table.

This is some of the wines on sale for $25 in Red Hook Winery

Their prices weren’t so bad, they ranged from $25 to $60. Customers can also do a tasting of four selections for $18, 2 oz pours, of a party of 6 or more, and also you can receive a 10% off a single bottle with tasting.

This is some barrels with wine and the equipment used to make them

This is Red Hook Winery’s vineyard and grape vines

Red Hook Winery’s vineyard is huge and beautiful and it grows grapes, such as Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and many more.

The Winery has 3 winemakers that have different vinifications. One is Abe Schoener that prefers to make wine with limited control and interruption to the fermentation process. Another is Robert Foley, that is more traditional in his winemaking approaches, such as he tends to resemble Napa Valley reds and French whites and all of his wines are aged in old French oak barrels for an extended period of time. The last one is Christopher Nicholson, that allows the terroir to speak through the wine, and his goal is to interpret what a single property tastes like through the wine and his methodology varies based on the grape.

This is Me inside Red Hook Winery

The staff in Red Hook Winery were very friendly and greet you once you enter, sounded very knowledgable about wine and winemaking. A Yelp user named Ashley P. said “This is my absolute favorite local wine shop.” (https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/the-red-hook-winery-brooklyn?select=1nByNS6-LMHELVBXKYlQjw)

Reference List

The Red Hook Winery Website, https://www.redhookwinery.com/vineyards

• This is Red Hook Winery official website, which talks about the Winery’s Story, wines, vineyards, and Island Hope.

Jennings, K. (2016), Red Hook Winery showcases New York State viticulture in an urban on-water setting, http://www.winethirtyflight.com/blog/2016/7/27/red-hook

• This article is about how Red Hook Winery makes its wine, how to get to Red Hook Winery, and Red Hook Winery’s Tasting lineup,

Ashley P. (2014), The Red Hook Winery, https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/the-red-hook-winery-brooklyn?select=1nByNS6-LMHELVBXKYlQjw

• This is a Yelp review by Ashley P about her experience with Red Hook Winery

Franklin Hills New Vines

Over the break, I visited Bangor, Pennsylvania to visit Franklin Hill Vineyards and M&M Vineyards. The vineyards differentiated in viticulture, vinification, and distribution of their wines (2018). The first stop on my road trip was Franklin Hill Vineyards, where the estate featured French American vines, a tasting room, and a vinification cellar. Throughout the tour, I learned that they harvest from their oldest vines which are 42 years old.

Old Vines of Franklin Hills

They have newly planted vines that are seven years old. The new vines have a trickle irrigation system due to lack of rain. The old vines never needed this system. The used soil is sleight which helps keep an even flow of water to vines. Their main grape varieties are Vidal, Catawba, and Chambourcin. They do a lot of blends. For harvesting it takes about seven weeks, starting in September. They produced 3000 gallons of wine their first year. For fermenting must, they use Dominos Sugar or fructose to sweeten all wines, which is chaptalization. Fermentation happens in steel tanks. To incorporate oak flavors they use wood chips. They use jams to add different flavors into the wine.

Ally checking out the steel tanks at Franklin Hill

This vineyard and winery have a 95% women staff, which I love because the start of the company came together by a group of women in Pennsylvania who knew nothing about wines, let alone how to grow grapes (2019). To hear of their journey and the success they’ve achieved is heartwarming and amazing. Within their vinification cellar, they had a small lab area in the corner where Bonnie, one of the first women, would blend wines in search of their new specialty wines. Along the wall were medals and awards for their past and current wines.

Franklin Hills Awards/ Bonnie’s Lab

As we completed the tour we stopped in their tasting room, which resembles a cabin with a patio outside. Inside is colorful but dark lighting with a center bar.

Franklin Hills Tasting Room  

Behind the bar is a fridge with available wines to taste and a large chalkboard with all sorts of writing pertaining to the wines of the season and different varieties. The tasting was five dollars per person with five wines each. Their options consist of reds, whites, rosé, hard ciders, and specialties. Giving us a total of twenty-three wines to explore. I chose two red, two whites, and a specialty. Overall their wines were very sweet, not many tannins, but very fruity. I do feel that their wines weren’t balanced. After my third tasting, I was overwhelmed by the sweetness and wasn’t sure if I could continue.

Inside Franklin Hills Tasting Room ( Chalkboard)

Next stop on my road trip was M&M Vineyards.

M&M Wine Selection

This vineyard is fifteen minutes from Franklin Hills and had a completely different atmosphere and wine production. Riding up to M&M it’s very spacious and the vineyard is smaller than Franklin’s. Walking into their only building, the tasting room, awaiting is one of the owners Mrs. Sidhu. I introduced myself as a student and automatically she goes into teacher mode. Mr. and Mrs. Sidhu are both retired professor in science. They started to the vineyard to experimenting with vines and it’s something they studied for years and enjoy. It took two years of research to find this specific area to be a cornfield.

Three-year-old Vine at M&M Vineyard

When starting out three years ago they ran into issues with their soil. They had issues of milestones that were left from corn crops (2016). To fix this they began to plant mustard plants and loam in between vines to promote growth and manage the soil. They made sure to plant vines on a slope for even sunlight. They practice making hybrids by taking strong roots and putting them onto weak ones.

Neutral Barrels used for fermentation

The details and consideration they took into making this vineyard are amazing. You can taste the difference in their wines apart from Franklin Hill’s wines. M&M wines are only three-year vintage, using neutral oak casks. Including the use of oak chips to impart flavor. They only produce Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Vidal, Chardonnay, Merlot, Riesling, and sauvignon blanc grapes. What I enjoyed about their tasting is the menu had notes descriptions of what to expect. Overall their wines were very oaky, with vanilla flavors, lots of tannins, kind of dirty in taste and long finishes.

Our Selfie

References

D. (2016). Facts on Milestones. https://fernie.civicweb.net/document/79115

Certified specialist of wine: Study guide 2018. (2018). Washington, DC: Society of Wine Educators

The Morning Call. (2019, The Morning Call). Elaine Pivinski: Lehigh Valley helping winery, Social Still flourish