Posts Tagged“shaw vineyard”

Finger Lakes Growers Begin to Check for Damage to Vines Following Brutal Cold Snap

On Saturday, Steve Shaw of Shaw Vineyard spent about an hour carefully cutting buds from canes he pulled from his vineyard. It had been several days since the coldest weather to hit the region in years had finally lifted. Reports varied from county to county, town to town, vineyard to vineyard. The lowest temperatures had plunged perilously close to ten degrees below zero. Shaw wanted to know how his canes had dealt with it. There is no hard line of temperature that will inevitably cause vine death, but ten below is an unofficial rule of thumb. Growers will say that ten below for three hours…

Shaw Vineyard: Reds Against the Machine (and a Little Green Too)

By Jason Feulner, Finger Lakes Correspndent (Note: this story is part two of a two-part series highlighting some unique production choices at Shaw Vineyard.) Shaw Vineyard just released its 2005 reds this month. In the Finger Lakes, that fact would normally be the story in and of itself, but the true story starts in 2004 when Steve Shaw called the Europress California office to order a specialty-built Rauch A-8 Crusher/De-stemmer. "I tried a French de-stemmer that had some very limited variable options," winemaker and owner Steve Shaw remembers. “It just didn’t work well as I wanted. I called Europress to…

A Surprising Second Label at Shaw Vineyard

By Jason Feulner, Finger Lakes Correspondent (Note: this story is part one of a two-part series highlighting some unique production choices at Shaw Vineyard.) Wineries that produce a second label do so for many reasons, although the secondary nature of the label almost assuredly implies less-expensive, less-focused wine.  Some top-flight establishments offer a second label that is still a solid wine by almost any standard, although many wineries throw whatever they can into a bottle and call it a day, often not focusing on quality in the process. On a recent tasting at Shaw Vineyard I encountered this pinot grigio, a part of their second-label…

Bottling Reds at Shaw Vineyard

By Jason Feulner, Finger Lakes Correspondent Although Ravines Wine Cellars is located on Keuka Lake, owner-winemaker Morten Hallgren crafts his wines using space at Shaw Vineyard, located a few miles to the east on Seneca Lake. Hallgren and Steve Shaw, winemaker and owner of Shaw Vineyard, work independently but of course try to coordinate production schedules to enhance services and manpower. Before the fall harvest, Steve Shaw invited me over to the winery to watch as he bottled some of the reds wines from both wineries. I was interested to check it out because both winemakers use a mobile bottling…