A blueberry treat for your sweetheart

Seriously, what could be sweeter than treating someone you love to a decadent, blueberry wine? Well, nothing really except for treating yourself and your sweethearts to Lakeland Winery’s deliciously sinful Fresh Blueberry Wine! From now through Valentine’s Day, we’re offering a special on our fresh, New York State blueberry wine. Buy a bottle for $12 and get a second bottle for $6.* That’s sweet!

So, what could be sweeter than sipping a glass of tangy blueberry wine? How about a Fresh Blueberry Wine dessert!  Sure, blueberry wine is packed with antioxidants that might be good for your heart, but it’s also stacked with the goods to make a perfect Valentine’s dessert.

Whip up a French blueberry wine coulis, a fruit-filled sauce, to pour over cheesecake, a chocolate torte or ice cream.

Combine 1 lb. blueberries, a cup of Lakeland’s Fresh Blueberry Wine, 6 tbsp. of sugar and a splash of lemon juice in a sauce pan. Simmer ingredients over medium heat for about 5 minutes, and then process them in a blender. Strain and chill before serving this Valentine’s day dessert! You can find variations on this recipe here and here.

*Limit one case

Walsh told us that participants “liked the laid back structure of the event. They could talk and mingle but still learn about the different wines.”

But, a fundraiser at Lakeland isn’t just great for the supporters. We also make it easy on the organizers. You may reserve a day and register your event online through our Book Appointments link, making registration easy for participants.  And you have control over the event — you may set up your own registration fee and all proceeds from ticket sales go to your organization. As Walsh said, “That was nice. Many times, this is dictated to us and makes it harder for us to sell tickets.”

The CNY Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association held their fundraiser at Lakeland Winery on August 4, 2011 as a way to kick-off their Walk to End Alzheimer’s. The party at Lakeland Winery consisted of three, one hour long wine tastings. Thirty four people attended. The admission fee and a portion of wine sales made during the event went to advancing research for a cure and providing support and care for the millions of people and their families affected by this disease. Alzheimer’s disease is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States.

Visit our Fundraising page for more information.

Ends Sunday night May 8th at 11:59pm

Our friends over at Groupon Syracuse have helped us to set up yet another great deal for everyone!

Our previous wine deal on Groupon was such a great success—we sold well over 250(!!)—that we could not help but offer up an even better deal this time around!

$109 for a Winemaking Party and 30 Bottles of Wine at Lakeland Winery

• Deal ends Sunday night May 8th at 11:59pm
• Invite as many as 29 friends to wine-making party
• Wide variety of wine flavors
• Bottle, cork & label wine
• Limit 1 per person, may buy multiple as gifts.
• Expires Oct 5, 2012

Via Groupon Syracuse:

Winemaking is generally considered the best way to get to know wine, narrowly beating out writing it letters and getting stuck with it on top of a ferris wheel. Make a delicious new acquaintance with today’s Groupon: for $109, you get a winemaking party and 30 bottles of homemade wine at Lakeland Winery (a $218 value).

Under the guidance of Lakeland Winery’s grape gurus, you and up to 29 friends will craft 30 bottles of Island Mist Series wine-based fruit juice. Wine-whisperers commence the 90-minute soiree by choosing from Island Mist’s easy-drinking incarnations of grape goodness, including pomegranate zinfandel, peach-apricot chardonnay, and black-raspberry merlot, while munching on snacks brought from home. Once a flavor is selected, it’s poured into a fermenting bucket, mixed with ingredients like elderflowers and oak, stirred, sprinkled with yeast, and air-locked to hibernate for seven weeks at the Lakeland warehouse.

Following the fermentation, guests return to Lakeland to exorcise, bottle, cork, label, and dress 30 wine bottles. Finally, guests head for home with the bounding bundles of bottled joy, then let them nap in the cupboards, and wake them up just in time for dinner. For an extra fee, customers can upgrade from the Island Mist Series to one of Lakeland’s Estate Series wines.

Pittsford native Cynthia Kolko, following the release of her first novel, “Fruit of the Vine,” will visit Lakeland Winery from 1-3pm on July 9, 2011. Attendees will be able to meet the author, get signed copies of the book and chat about wine and the Finger Lakes. Books are $14.95 and will be available for purchase at Lakeland Winery and can also be purchased through Barnes & Noble, Amazon and www.cynthiakolko.com.

The book is set in the 1990s in the fictional Finger Lakes town of Sawhorn, NY. The story finds its roots in Kolko’s heritage, her admiration for the people of wine country, and in her own rich imagination. Jem, a young vineyard worker, finds himself torn between tradition and progress in the small town. At its center is the conflict of nature versus nurture: “The main character, Jem, has it in the heart of his struggles,” explains Kolko, “In a sense, wine is an expression of nature and nurture as well. It’s the result of what nature makes and what people cultivate.”

Growing up surrounded by wine aficionados and appreciating the beauty of the Finger Lakes led Kolko to set her first novel in the region. “I’ve traveled to numerous wine-growing regions in several countries; the Finger Lakes region is as majestic as any of them and the wine is in the same league,” says Kolko. “Yet, my enjoyment of wine country stems not so much from what’s in the glass, though I enjoy that very much, but from the small pieces that make up the experience, the parts that aren’t so obvious. I inserted the quirky types of characters I like to read about into that backdrop.”

Readers can connect with Kolko on her website, www.cynthiakolko.com, the book’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/FruitoftheVine, and Cynthia’s Twitter feed at www.Twitter.com/CynthiaKolko.

About the Author

Cynthia Kolko graduated from Hamilton College with a bachelor’s degree in English. She has worked as a corporate, advertising and editorial writer, and as a broadcast scriptwriter. Her writing has been published in many periodicals including P.R. Journal, How, Interactivity, Progressive Railroading, Rochester Business Journal, and the Democrat and Chronicle. Kolko lives with her husband and two children in her hometown of Pittsford, NY.

Unlike many growers, Mr. Beckstoffer only sells grapes to other wineries; he doesn’t make wine himself. “That’s an entirely different business,” he said. It simplifies matters and reduces expenses and also answers the inevitable question about growers who also make wine from their grapes: Don’t they keep the best fruit for themselves?

via WSJ.com.

Are most of us wine newbies? If you were teaching newcomers to wine, what would you tell them?

Wine Spectator’s Drinking Out Loud blog has the answers:

The key point is this: Most American wine lovers are almost as new to wine as most Asian wine lovers are. I don’t know about you, but I remember vividly the bafflement of wine: all that label lingo (in French no less); the seeming arbitrariness of pricing; the snobbery; the humiliation of facing a big wine list in a restaurant skewed to exorbitantly priced wines. Do you remember all that? I’ll bet you do.

via What Should Wine Newbies Know? | Wine Spectator.

Andy Watkins, expert winemaker and owner of Lakeland Winery, tackled this peculiar topic in an interview with television NewsChannel 9 WSYR.
 

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