Wash (defrost) cherries.  Remove pits.  Place in large saucepan with sugar, water and salt.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 5-8 min.  Blend the cornstarch and water, add to cherries and cook until sauce has thickened.  Cool and drizzle on brownies with chocolate sauce.

Chocolate Sauce

Chop the chocolate into small pieces and set aside in a stainless steel bow.  Combine cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a sauce pan over low heat.  Bring to a boil, stirring often.

Remove from heat and pour over chocolate, let stand until chocolate is melted, stir until smooth.  Stir in vanilla and Cherry Dessert Wine.  Drizzle over brownies with Fresh Cherry Sauce.

Bel Lago is one of the few wineries picking the Pinot Grigio grape for Ice Wine, versus Riesling.  Pinot Grigio, slightly botrisized, tastes of baked pear, mango, raisin, honey, caramel, brown sugar and figs, making it an excellent grape for the production of Ice Wine.  The juice will slowly warm up and ferment into a decedent desert wine over the next few weeks.   We hope to be able to bottle around 60 cases in late fall of 2012.

This year, seventy wines were selected as Jefferson Cup nominees; these wines were nominated by the five judging committees to be considered for Jefferson Cups. Out of those seventy honored wines, the judges collectively picked twenty-two wines to be awarded the Jefferson Cup.  Bel Lago submitted 4 wines, all of which received a nod from the judges.  The 2010 Riesling Semi Dry, 2010 Chardonnay and Leelanau Brillante NV were all nominated for a Jefferson Cup in their respective categories, while the Leelanau Primavera was given a “Certificate of Merit”.

The Bel Lago winemaking team is comprised of Charles Edson, Kevin Uhl, and Cristin Hosmer. “We were thrilled to learn of the granting of the Jefferson Cup”, said Charles Edson, Proprietor/Winemaker at Bel Lago. “We have always been dedicated to quality at Bel Lago, so it is a real pleasure to achieve this recognition for our efforts”.

The vineyard crew hand-picked and the winemaking team processed almost 140 Tons of grapes from mid September until the first week of November.  About 70% of the grapes harvested in 2011 were white wine grapes and 30% were red wine grapes.  The tonnage of key varieties we picked is as follows:

• 35 Tons of Pinot Grigio
• 20 Tons of Chardonnay
• 18 Tons of Riesling
• 17 Tons of Pinot Noir
• 11 Tons of Cayuga

We picked out heavy on almost all of the varieties, which turned our small cellar into a chess board of what juice to put where and when.  We even had to order some additional barrels last week because we reached full capacity.

Overall, for the tremendous 2011 crop, the sugars were high, but so were the acids.  An unlikely combination, but one we are very excited about because the high sugars will translate into a good amount of alcohol, but high acids will give the wine a great backbone and staying power.  Charlie Edson, proprietor and head winemaker, is most excited about the Pinot Grigio, professing that “the fruit driven flavor profile and crisp acidity of the Pinot Grigio will be a star of the vintage.”  While Kevin Uhl, production winemaker, is excited about the bubbly cuvees per usual, given his fixation on all things sparkling.  Cristin Hosmer, ubber part-timer in the cellar (because of her baby, Dylan), is pumped about the Auxerrois and the expanded use of neutral barrels on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

The last reds wines were pressed off their skins this week and we have begun racking the wines that have finished fermentation.  We will soon begin building our complex blends as we try to tackle the monumental task of tasting each batch of wine and scheming the right moves so that we end up with the perfect amount of each wine to bottle and an empty tank.  We will begin bottling the white wines from 2011 in early spring of 2012.

But wait….don’t forget the 6 rows of Pinot Grigio we left hanging in the vineyard.  Yes it is true; we are making an ice wine this year!  The nets and electric fence, we hope, will keep the critters at bay just long enough to reach 40 brix sugar, a requirement to call it ice wine.  Over the next few weeks we are looking for freezing temperatures and very little precipitation so that we get a nice concentrated juice with very little botrytis.

Cheers to a great vintage~

Cristin

Fall Harvest Soup Recipe
1 gallon of rich chicken stock
1/2 # of ground Italian sausage
4 cups of thinly sliced fresh spinach or 1 cup of frozen chopped spinach
4 cups of thinly sliced fresh kale or 1 cup of frozen chopped kale
4 cups of frozen vegetables for soup( like a 5 way blend with peas,carrots, corn, green beans and baby lima beans)

Heat the chicken stock until it reaches 170 degrees
Sauté the Italian Sausage until thoroughly cooked, then drain through a strainer. Rinse under hot running water to rinse remaining fat from the sausage.  Add the sausage, frozen vegetables, spinach and kale to the chicken stock.  Add fresh ground black pepper and salt if needed to adjust the seasoning.  Immediately prior to service sprinkle freshly grated Parmesan cheese over the top of the soup