Spring Wine Up!

In partnership with the Burton Learning Center, ALGGS presented a wine tasting course on May 4 at the Burton Community Hall.  The course focused on beginner tasting techniques and food pairing for white wines.  The course was presented by Linda Harrop and Jerry Botti who opted to deliver the course outdoors, much to the delight of the 11 attendees.  Summer is trying to push through so we must make the best of it when it does.

The tasting featured three New World wines, Australian Chardonnay, Chilean Sauvignon Blanc and Californian Gewürztraminer and, as a taste comparison, an Old World Chardonnay from the Cote d'Or region in Burgundy, France.

It was amazing to watch and listen as everybody discussed the bouquet or taste and hear the descriptions become more in-depth as the afternoon progressed (well, maybe that was the wine talking).  And of course watching someone slurp in air while they have wine in their mouth is always entertaining!



With discussions on white wine making, old world vs new world wines and stemware thrown in for good measure, the afternoon proved to be a great success. Look for a introductory red wine tasting and food pairing this fall.

Anchor Post Installation

It ha been a busy past few weekends for ALGGS volunteers.  April 22 saw Joel Henschke and Bob Parkinson and his tractor, discing and leveling out the plot area.   Jody Scott and myself followed on to measure out the rows widths and end posts in anticipation of installation.  Our test plot size was expected to be about 160'x200', and oh, wait what?  Hmmm somewhere along the way we only made the plot 160'x140'!   So a quick meeting of the minds and Sterling Simpson volunteering his time and equipment, some additional space was tilled and by evening of May 3 we had succesfully expanded our plot to 185' length.  Not the 200' we had thought, but hey what is volunteer labour without a few bumbs along the way.

That set up  May 4 when Ron Volansky, arrived with Jody in the morning with skidster equipment, including a post pounder and auger attachements.  Jerry bailed just before lunch to set for the Spring Wine Up (which you can read about later) but Joel arrirrive after lunch and by mid afternoon all 42 end posts and anchors were installed. 
Joel had favricated an attachment for the skidster and the anchors so all could be installed by machine and not man - great time/work saver!



Our soil suffered from some compaction, so to make it easier for the new vines, we have opted to auger through the compaction with a 12" auger. This will allow the roots to grow and establish themselves a bit easier.   We finished the day about 6PM, with still more drilling to complete but we were hot, tired, dusty, and very thirsty.  To the deck at Harrops - cold refreshments were calling!