Kingfisher Co Free Fair August 2011

Sandyland Vineyard received a purple Champion ribbon for our 2010 Chenin Blanc. Our Riesling and Chenin Blanc competed in Oklahoma Grown Grapes receiving a white and blue ribbon in their division.

In September 2011, Hennessey United held their first wine and chocolate festival in Memorial Park.  Their success was beyond  imagination as over 500 people attended.  Scott,Diane, Leon and I (with the help of friends) were overwhelmed with the turnout.  We stood and served wine and talked about our grapes for over three hours!  We also placed 2nd in a contest with professional bottlers.  We lost only to a winery in Lahoma that does NOT own ONE GRAPE VINE! Join us next year!!!!

Sandylandvineyard.com

Ryan and Tom has set up our new website sandylandvineyard.com   It is under construction now but hope to have it up and running soon.  Thanks to Ryan and Tom!!!!!!

Harvest 2011

Harvest 2011 is over....details and more photos to follow......12 cases of Gatorade and water consumed to keep the workers hydrated.  It was dark when we started each morning and hot when we finished.  Thanks to everyone who helped.  The hail damage hit us hard but we were still able to bring in over 6000 lbs of grapes. Please visit Windmill Winery in Roosevelt to purchase our 2010 crop.

                                                                      Harvest 2011

                                                                  The night before......

                                                 Field testing the briix with the refractometer

                                                                Sangiovese grapes 2011

                                                                        Pretty grapes !!

                                          The juice and pulp after going through the de-stemmer.

                                                                     The discarded stems...

                                                                       First fermentation...

1st Annual Alumni Wine Tasting

 

 

     This picture says it all!!!Thanks to everyone who fought the heat and joined us for our first wine tasting.  We really appreciated that so many of you came to taste our wine.  The Class of 71 rolled out and put the Class of 66 to shame.  I guess it was too early, or too hot or maybe because you are too old!!! We gave tours of the vineyard, the campsite AND we enjoyed the fruits of our labor. Thanks to everyone who purchased our wine.  We hope you have enjoyed the wine and jelly!!!!Let us know if you need more!!! Again, Thanks to everyone!!!                                                                        

Harvest 2011
On Saturday July 30, 2011 we met and harvested 860 pounds of our Sangiovese grapes. By 9:15 AM the grapes were on their way to Windmill Winery.  There was so much hail damage in June that our tonnage is way low considering what we expected. 

1st Annual Alumni Wine Tasting

Please join us this Sat. June 25th for our first annual alumni wine tasting.  Rusty Allard of Windmill Wineries, Roosevelt, Oklahoma will be available to provide wines that have been bottled by him but grown at Sandyland Vineyard.  The tasting will be from 8 AM to 1PM or call 580-482-1539 to arrange a private tasting and tour.

Last Thursday, Scott, Leon and I were at the vineyard when a hailstorm come through the trees and pounded us in the barn for what seemed like forever!!  The hail was pea size to some dime size...While there is damage to our 2011 crop the full extent remains to be seen.  The nature and hard work of farming bows once again to Mother Nature!

Tom, John, Scott and Trish will be available for tours of the 1900+ grape vines and to answer questions about Sandyland Vineyard.

Please join us!

Trish

Wine Tasting

On Sat. June 25th, we will be having a wine tasting at the vineyard......details to follow.

May 8, 2011

The vineyard looks great.  There is so much new growth....The grapes will be growing soon!  It is hot and dry in SW Oklahoma. The wheat looks bad, the lake is very low.  Thank God we have the drip system and the water storage tank.  John and Scott have been working hard this spring.  We haven't been there much with wedding and shower activities.  The vineyard has been mowed and all the new growth has been tied up many times.  John and Scott hand fertilized all the plants.....but what we need is some good rain.

1ST BONFIRE OF THE YEAR!

The guys built an awesome bonfire with some of the ice damaged trees from 2010.  No s'mores or hot dogs to roast but it was a beautiful evening.  The fire was toasty warm!

Jan 22, 2011
Barbara, Tom, John, Scott, Trish and Leon met to work in the vineyard to rake and gather the vines that were pruned to prepare for the new growing season.  We still need to get the remainder of the wines off the ground so we can come in and spray.  By spraying this time of the year we can prevent some of the noxious weeds we fought last year.  Some of the vines are really getting big and we discovered a few whoops here and there.

We also met to plan the budget for 2011.  Work weekends will be starting soon.  If you have a free day or weekend you might try to get with some of the others and do some work.  We need to use the ag-ties to get the thick, heavy cordons secured to the wires before spring growth. And we really need the vines raked and carted off to prevent disease reoccurring in the new growth.

Here's looking forward to the spring and summer work at Sandyland Vineyard!!!

Jan 2011