Crush Time

The Syrah and Merlot are crushed and fermenting!  It has been a great year for the grapes.  Stop by and sample some of the ripe wine grapes while you sample the finished wine.

Spring is Coming!

We are starting to see wildflowers blooming!

It's been cold!

 

 We have had some cold foggy weather, with the upside being some really beautiful hoar frost covering everything.

World's Best Mac & Cheese for Thanksgiving

 Beecher's Mac & Cheese for Thanksgiving Weekend!  It is pretty darn good!!!
Stop by the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving to sample some and some Steppe Cellars wine too.
We will have the grapevines ready to go for grapevine wreath making.

Grapevine Wreaths

I am working on getting some grapevine wreaths made up as samples for Thanksgiving weekend.  Got a little inspired with some I saw and thought it would be fun to have a few ready to go.  Check out our pinterest page for what I'm shooting for - know they won't look quite like that --but will give a few of them a go!
http://pinterest.com/steppecellars/

Mushroom Hunting

We took advantage of things slowing down a little and went out mushroom hunting with some friends.  Found some chanterelle mushrooms and had them in a wonderful soup  -(with a little wine!).  The forest was gorgeous - after a little rain and sun shining through in shafts of light.  Love this fall weather!

Crush

 These pictures are from earlier this month - when we were pressing the Riesling grapes. 
The first picture is of the juice from the grapes being pressed out into the collecting tray of the press.  We apply gentle air pressure to a rubber bladder - or mat - that squeezes the juice out of the grapes. 
Next we have a hose connected to the press, which takes the juice to the tank.
In the tank there are cold bands that allow us to slow down the yeast for a nice long fermentation.

Harvest and Crush

We have been busy with harvest of all sorts this month - (apples, grapes, hay and this morning we opened up the corn field!)- The picture shows Baltazar, Tom and Neil hand selecting the grapes we will be using for our 2012 Dry Riesling.

2012 Bottling!

Neil took a few minutes to show some of the prep work we have to do before actually putting the wine into bottles. Take a look!

Gala Harvest

We will begin harvesting the Galas this Monday.  We have been enjoying them all week & will have them out to share in the tasting room again this weekend.

Bee Keeping

This past spring I started a new hobby of raising bees.  I got set up for 2 hives and put the boxes with their frames on a pallet just north of the Riesling grapes. At the end of March my 2 "packages" of bees arrived.  Each box had about 3 pounds of bees and a queen in a cage.  I shook the bees out of the box and into their hives, and then placed the queen cage in between two of the frames in the lower box.  The worker bees eat through a little candy/marshmallow plug at the end of the queen cage. This takes a little time which allows the workers to adjust to and accept the pheromones from the queen.  

 From the get go my hive to the east was always the stronger more active hive.  After waiting too long- I called a local expert to ask for help.  As it turns out- the weak hive had lost the queen at some point during the summer.  So I bought a new queen, and introduced her to the week hive.  

This is a picture of the bees surrounding the queen cage as we tried to introduce a new queen -more updates to come

Wood-fired Pizza - August 25

Come on out and enjoy the sunshine and views with some wood-fired pizza and a glass of wine at Steppe Cellars.  Guerra's Gourmet will be creating some more great pizzas utilizing the fresh local foods of the Yakima Valley.

Pizza

We have the pizza oven fired up and will be making wood-fired pizzas all day.  Come on out and enjoy some pizza - and while you are here -  look around at the results of the very odd storm we had yesterday !

Winemaker's Dinner Saturday, April 28

Make your reservations now for our annual Spring Barrel Tasting dinner Saturday, April 28. This event sells out, so get on the list early. Spend an evening with the winery owners and winemaker as we discuss the wines we are drinking and the wines that are being made. Two wines with each course will allow us to compare a variety of flavors with each course.  Chef Roger and Chef Joreen from Bon Vino's always deliver an outstanding meal. Dinner starts at 6:30PM at our tasting room in Sunnyside. Tickets are $65 per person.  Contact Susan for details and reservations: steppecellars@steppecellars.com or 509-830-8891 Visit the website for more details.

Menu

1^st Course

Venus Cheese with Lime Citrus Scent & Lemon Zest

Italian Meatball drizzled with Huckleberry Sauce

Wines: Semillon & Big Sage Red

2^nd Course

Mixed Greens & Arugula Salad with Dried Berries & Caramelized Walnuts Circled with Cilantro Pesto Goat Cheese Sauce & drizzled with Champaign Vinaigrette

Wines: Merlot & Cabernet Sauvignon

3^rd Course

Grilled Lamb with Herb Butter & Grilled Pork Loin with Black Berry Pepper Sauces served with Grilled Asparagus & Roasted Herb Red Potato

Wines: Syrah& Tempranillo/Granache/Mourvedre

4^th Course

Fig Tart & Spice Truffle

Wines: Riesling & Artemisia

Open for the 2012 Season April 6 & 7

We will open for 2012 on Friday April 6. Please visit us the Friday or Saturday of that weekend. We will be closed Sunday April 8. Regular weekend hours will begin the following weekend. We will be open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, and by appointment

Our First Press Today

We are going to pressing the Merlot today.  If you are out touring wine country today, stop by to see the first grapes of 2011 get pressed and enjoy some wine and wood-fired pizza too!

Two more Pizza Saturdays

We will be firing up the pizza oven just two more times this season.  Come out and join us Saturday, October 15 and Saturday, October 29 when Chris will be cooking up some of his wood fired pizzas.

The Reds are Fermenting

The pictures here show us "punching down" the grapes.  This means mixing up the grapes and the juice during the fermentation process.  In one of the pictures, you can see Susan pushing down through the cap that forms on the top.  In the other picture you can see the bubbling from the fermentation as the yeast are working away turning the sugars into alcohol

Fire burns off our Shrub Steppe land

We had a range fire that burned up all of our shrub steppe dry land.  It came right up to our irrigated land where we grow our crops, but fortunately did not hurt any of our farm crops ( the wine grapes are fine!)  We were a bit worried - especially when we had flames going above the height of the corn.  A neighbor brought up a water truck and along with Tom and Neil helped to get the fire out.  It is wonderful to have such great neighbors and friends to help.  No damage to people or buildings - but we have no more sagebrush.  It will be interesting to watch the regrowth.

Pizza this Saturday

We will have the pizza oven going again this weekend. Stop by Saturday August 27 for some of those great pizzas and a glass of wine under the shade trees at Steppe Cellars.