2022 Harvest Menu and Announcements
I hope you’ve been enjoying your summers winemakers because the fall season will be upon us soon!
Have you started thinking about what you want to make this season? There are so many grapes and juices to choose from. Make a straight variety, make a blend, make multiple batches, we will have you covered this vintage!
The grapes are about 1-2 weeks behind last season. It feels like this season will harvest more in line with “normal years”. We will most likely have some early ripening grapes and winemaking juices arriving the week after Labor Day (September 5th). We have some new winemaking grapes and interesting vineyards being added to the MWG winemaking portfolio this season. Check out our 2022 Harvest Menu (link: harvest menu) to see what new and find your consistent favorites.
CROP OVERVIEW
Suisun Valley, CA:
We’ve started to see color changes in the Merlot, Barbera, and Petite Sirah. The Lanzas are currently walking the vineyards and doing bunch counts to get an accurate crop reading. It was a great growing season for Suisun Valley. It should be another vintage year.
Lodi, CA:
With veraison happening we are getting a clear outlook for what to expect this year in crop yields. Overall, the Lodi area has set a nice crop with estimates at or above last year’s tonnage. As you move east into the foothill vineyards, yields look to be much lighter due to the frost damage experienced back in February.
Central Valley, CA:
The berries are starting to show color in the Barbera, Zinfandel, and Merlot vineyards. Central Valley is almost always the first of the vineyards to harvest. If you are interested in CV fruit be prepared to make wine earlier in the season. We will have some new and interesting varieties from this region, such as Grenache Blanc, Fiano, Teroldego, and Touriga Nacional. Check out the Harvest Menu (link) for the full list of varieties from all vineyard regions.
Washington:
They are currently in the middle of lag phase. Washington should have crop estimations in the next week or so. The crop looks nice so far and they are about to get some hot days. As of right now they are predicting harvest will be about 2 weeks behind last year’s harvest. If you are interested in Washington fruit, plan to make wine in late October and/or early November.
What’s Available this Season?
Download our Harvest Menu to see everything that is offered this season. Please note that many vineyard specific grapes such as Lanza and Mettler do sell out. If there is a specific vineyard you want your grapes sourced from, we encourage you to put in a pre-order.
In Person Winemaking Classes
Making Consistently Flawless Wine Seminar with Daniel Pambianchi
Don’t miss out on this special opportunity to attend Daniel Pambianchi’s third seminar on advanced winemaking on September 10th, 2022, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM, at Musto Wine Grape Company in Hartford, CT.
This third seminar will focus on advanced home winemaking techniques, including advanced analytical techniques for measuring and adjusting key quality control parameters, and to integrate these learnings in reviewing detailed protocols for making outstanding white, rose, and red wines and in different styles.
This seminar is intended for intermediate and advanced amateur and small-winery winemakers. Lunch and coffee are provided. Please alert Christina of any food allergies at cmusto@juicegrape.com.
SEMINAR FEES
Until August 10th – $275.00
August 11th to September 10th– $300.00
Please email Christina Musto at cmusto@juicegrape.com with any questions.
Winemaker Bootcamp
Our Winemaker’s Bootcamp is back! We will begin on Saturday September 11th. To sign up click here. Whether you are just starting out or have a few years under your belt, our Winemakers Bootcamp will enrich your winemaking skills while having a lot of fun along the way. The only hands-on winemaking bootcamp in the area; this course offers each student the opportunity of experiencing hands-on winemaking. In addition to making wines, the course will cover the science behind modern wine making and fermentation techniques including additives commonly used by commercial wineries throughout the wine making world. Classes will be about 3 hours each Saturday, starting at 9:00 am or 12:00PM (depending on the session you pick, total of 5 sessions), in the offices and winemaking showrooms of Musto Winegrape Co, 101 Reserve Road, Hartford, CT, 06114. If you have any questions, please email Christina at cmusto@juicegrape.com.
Virtual Winemaking Classes
Our Virtual Winemaking Classes are available year-round but in order to kick off harvest, we are running a flash sale for the month of August. For the month of August our Full Winemaking Course will be discounted from $397.00 for 46 videos (over 24 hours of content) to $297.00. That’s $100.00 off! And you have access to the videos forever. If you have any questions, please email cmusto@juicegrape.com.
How to Order
We are an old school company. Give us a call at 877-812-1137 or email us at sales@juicegrape.com to get the ball rolling on your pre-order. Don’t forget, we can create custom fermentation templates for you if you would like!
If you aren’t local to New England and need your product shipped, please email sales@juicegrape.com for a freight quote. We will be shipping out of our Bronx, NY location – D’Arrigo. If you live in the Metro NY area and are interested in a freight quote please reach out to sales@juicegrape.com
Unfortunately, we cannot ship fresh juice. We can ship our sterile juices, they ship year-round without refrigeration. This is the best option for home winemakers who cannot pick up the fresh product from MWG’s facilities.
If you have a large fresh product order (2,000lbs and up), please contact sales@juicegrape.com for a freight quote.
For more information regarding the Fall Harvest please feel free to contact us at sales@juicegrape.com or give us a call at 877-812-1137. We are looking forward to helping you with your next great wine!
Sincerely,
The Musto Crush Crew
2019 Wine Grape & Juice Harvest Report
Harvest should begin in Central Valley around August 28th with grapes and juices arriving after Labor Day. This year’s crop has had moderate temperatures all summer and our grapes look fantastic. The crop is looking to be of normal size with normal ripening and tentative harvest dates.
2019 Wine Grape Update:
Suisun Valley: The Lanza-Musto Vineyards Petite Sirah is thriving! Developing into a colossal, intense grape, our Petite Sirah is looking to be one of the top grapes of 2019. The Suisun Valley grapes should start harvesting around the 3rd week in September. Did you know that Lanza-Musto Vineyards has been certified by the California Sustainable Wine Growing for our vineyard practices? This is a certification that happens every year where we must uphold the standards of sustainable wine grape growing.
Lodi: We have a new Ranch coming on board with us this year from The Mettler Family. Mettler Family wines is home to brother and sister – Adam Mettler and Kelly Costamagna. Adam was recently named winemaker of the year and Kelly runs the wine distribution end of the business. Some of you might have met Kelly at our Winemaker Dinner last winter. We will have a lot of interesting wine grape varieties coming out of the Mettler vineyards such as Viognier and Pinotage. We will also have some wonderful Old Vine Zinfandel from Zinderella, see the vineyard by clicking HERE and other high quality grapes from the Costamagna Vineyards. The Mettler Family, Zinderella, and Costamagna Vineyards have all been certified by the LODI RULES Sustainability program! You’ll be able to tell by the special seal on the label. We have put together a blog post that explains how the LODI RULES Sustainability certification works. Click HERE for more information.
Central Valley: These will be some of the first grapes on the dock! The Central Valley grapes are hitting 19 and 20 Brix! It will only be a matter of time before they arrive. One of our Ancient Vine grape growers walks us through the vineyard during verasion. Click HERE to see how the wine grapes are developing. We will have Ancient Vine Alicante, Carigane, Grenache, Barbera, and Muscat available this fall. Also, Frank Musto’s Black Muscat will be rolling this season. Ask Christina about how to make Black Muscat wine, she made a batch this past fall! Also, the King’s River, Tempranillo is looking delicious. We had a lot of great feedback on this variety. If you’re looking for something new to try, check it out.
Washington State: We will have three vineyards providing fruit for us from Washington State this year! Our Rattlesnake Hills Vineyard, and our newest Wahluke Slope and Red Mountain Vineyards. We are very excited to bring these new vineyards to you. Check out our Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon and see what these new vineyards have to offer!
New offerings for 2019: Russian River Pinot Noir (will probably be the only season we will be able to receive this awesome fruit!), Sonoma Attwood Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon, Contra Costa Italian grape varieties, Paso Robles grapes, and additional Ancient Vine offerings.
Give us a call or shoot us an email to discuss your 2019 wine! 877-812-1137 – sales@juicegrape.com
2019 Wine Juice Offerings:
California: We have many labels of high quality juices coming in from California this fall. Cry Baby, Bella California, Lodi Gold, California Select, and Colina del Sol, just to name a few. The fresh juices are stored at 35 degrees and arrive as if the juice just came out of your wine press. You can either hit the juice with SO2 and inoculate with your chosen yeast, or you can let the juice warm up and ferment using the native yeast found in the skin of the crushed/pressed grape.
Fresco Juices: Mosti Mondiale Fresco is proud to be the only product to offer home winemakers their own vineyard in one unique package. Each pail is carefully pre-balanced, inoculated with the perfect yeast, and infused with liquid enzymes to help create a delicious and palate pleasing wine. The Fresco juices come from California, Austrailia, and Italy.
Italian Juices: Our Italian juices will arrive in late October. The Italian juices are always full of flavor and provide palate pleasing, age worthy wines.
Give us a call or shoot us an email to discuss your 2019 wine! 877-812-1137 – sales@juicegrape.com
We know that was A LOT of information. If you have any questions or would like to discuss your potential order, please do not hesitate to reach out. We look forward to helping you with this year’s vintage!
Sincerely,
The Musto Crush Crew
877-812-1137 – sales@juicegrape.com
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