Kinkead Ridge Vineyard and an Estate Winery Weblog

Every house should have a medicine cabinet like this!

These photos were sent to me by a friend in England... they call this their "medicine cabinet". What a concept!

Your friendly wine blogger

Nancy Bentley, Owner/Managing Partner, Kinkead Ridge 
 
 
 
 
 

The Wizard of Oz. What would the tin man's costume cost today? Huge increases in the cost of tin capsules.

We just got our 2011 quote for our custom tin capsules and stock capsules. After reviewing it, we have to wonder what the costume for the tin man in the Wizard of Oz (1939) would cost today! The expression on his face is similar to how we felt when we got the 2011 quote.

I fished out data from Ramondin Capsules from 2006 to 2010. (2001-2005 is upstairs in our attic). Our custom capsules come from Spain, with our logo on the top in gold and "Kinkead Ridge" and a stripe as side decor. Volume is important; they prefer orders of 25,000 but since we are small we order 10,000 capsules at a time. Here's a historical view of the price increases.

Custom capsules:

2006    $144/1000
2007    $152/1000
2009    $187/1000
2010    $206/1000

And now in 2011 we are looking at a whopping $318/1000!

Stock capsules (plain colors) have had similar jumps in price. Cork, bottle and label prices have also increased. We are holding wine prices under $20 for 2011, and we hope everyone appreciates that, but these increases certainly impact the bottom line. There are many wineries in Ohio selling their wines in the $35 and up price point... which Gary Vaynerchuk  (winelibrarytv.com) thought was outrageous when he reviewed red and white Ohio wines. He pretty much eviscerated wines at that price point, even if the wines were acceptable.

Your friendly wine blogger

Nancy Bentley
Owner/Managing Partner, Kinkead Ridge

Arizona Winery Adventure Part II: Javelina vs. Wild Turkey

Here's another photo of Dick Erath's vineyard in Willcox... all over Arizona there are mountains in the distance.

This dramatic shot is of Wilhelm Family Vineyards.

We spent the second half of our visit with northern Arizona vineyards and wineries. This terrace is at Alcantara.

We had a very interesting conversation with Paula at Page Springs about animal predation. Before harvest they have to net the fruit right down to the ground; bird damage is not the only problem. Here's what we have in common with regard to animal predators: raccoons, possums, rabbits, birds, deer. Not in common: they don't have wild turkey.

They have Javelina (skunk pigs). These things are SCARY. Huge teeth. They are omnivores, and will eat small animals, although their preferred food consists of roots, grass, seeds, and FRUIT. Uh-oh. At least we don't have the big baboons that devastate vineyards in South Africa.

They also have rattlesnakes here. Dick Erath's worker Juan is terrified of snakes, so Dick gave him the go ahead to put up some owl boxes, with the thought the owls would eat the mice, then the snakes would have nothing to eat and would go away. To Dick's surprise, Juan put up THIRTY owl boxes!

A few more shots of Arizona... the red rock country... and Ron in the saguaro. Saguaros have a relatively long life span. They take up to 75 years to develop a side arm. Some specimens may live for more than 150 years; the largest known saguaro is the Champion Saguaro. It grows in Maricopa County, Arizona, and is 13.8 meters (45.3 ft) tall with a girth of 3.1 meters (10 ft).

We loved the Prescott area. It is cooler due to a higher elevation. So over the next couple of years we will try to decide whether to retire to Arizona or North Carolina. Of course, the house, vineyard and winery will be put up for sale. Anybody interested, let us know!

Your friendly wine blogger,

Nancy Bentley, Owner/Managing Partner

Arizona Winery Adventure: Part I

January/February is the time of year we can "get out of Dodge". Otherwise Ron's life in the vineyard and winery is 24/7 March-December. Here's what we left last Saturday:

Arizona scenery is incredible. You just cannot capture it with a camera. Here's a view of the road into Sedona today...

In between we looked at a lot of real estate for potentially retiring here. Prescott is a great town. We looked at incredibly steep hill property and also found ourselves on dirt roads with tumbleweeds like this one.

And of course we visited wineries. We also attended the Arizona winemaker/grape growers quarterly conference. Arizona only had a few wineries years ago and they are growing by leaps and bounds. Although our good friend Dick Erath (Erath) was not in town, we visited his vineyard with Todd Bostock (Dos Cabezas) outgoing president of the Arizona Association. We also spent time with Kent Callaghan (Callaghan Vineyards), and had some excellent wine from Kief-Joshua Vineyards. Here's Todd Bostock waving hello from Arizona in Dick Erath's Wilcox vineyard, followed by a photo of Wilhelm Family Vineyards, this photo gives you a good idea of the landscape.

And on to Northern Arizona, where it was quite exciting to spend tiime with Eric Glomski (Page Springs Cellars) who also partners with the lead singer of Tool in Arizona Stronghold. These are the two that were covered in the movie documentary "Blood Into Wine".

Here's one of my favorite photos from the trip... Tombstone Arizona... site of the Wyatt Earp gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Ladies dressed in period dress from the time and cowboys and stage coaches with horses roam the town. And note the "politician" sign on one of the bars.

 

And as a final note... you know you're staying in a nice hotel when they fold the towels like "kissing swans"!