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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How many glasses of wine can I expect to serve from a bottle?
I am having some friends over for dinner. How many bottles should I buy?
This question can be tricky, even if you know your friends’ preferences fairly well! The best answer is to estimate on the high side. People who enjoy wine will commonly drink 1-2 glasses prior to dinner, and another 1-2 glasses with dinner. So that person will drink the better part of a bottle him/herself. How long will the wine in an opened bottle last?
A tough question to answer precisely, because several factors influence how long wine will last: a. the wine’s sugar content (sweet wines last longer) b. the alcohol content of the wine (strong wines last longer) c. the quantity of wine left in the bottle (fuller bottles last longer) d. whether you use a wine pump (pumped bottles last longer, because you remove the air that oxidizes the wine) Here’s a rough guide:
We grow 13 varieties of grapes, including Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, Riesling, 6 hybrid French-American varieties and 4 native American varieties.
Do you have a signature wine?
Our Vidal Blanc Ice Wine helped us achieve a national reputation and remains our signature wine. We grow about 50 acres of grapes. We use about 60% of these grapes to produce our own wines, and sell the rest to other wineries and producers. How many grapes does it take to make a bottle of wine?
About 2½ to 3 lbs. of grapes (for a regular 750mL bottle). How many bottles or cases of wine do you produce?
We produce about 11,000 cases (approx. 132,000 bottles) of wine annually. How long have you been making wine?
Art & Joyce Hunt released their first vintage in 1981. We had quite a celebration in 2006 for our 25th Anniversary! When do you harvest the grapes? When do you bottle the wine?
On average, we harvest most of our grapes in mid-September. Grapes destined for Late Harvest wines are normally picked in October after experiencing a couple of light frosts. Those for Ice Wine are left to freeze on the vine and are picked by hand at about 10 degrees Fahrenheit, usually in November or December. The actual harvest time in any given year depends a great deal on the previous months’ weather. It can vary up to 2 weeks before or 2 weeks after the average. Although we harvest our grapes at one time of the year, we can bottle at almost any time of the year, due to big differences between wines in the amount of fermentation, oaking and aging. How many people do you employ?
We employ about 8 people full-time and another 20 or so people part-time. We also contract the services of crews to help prune vines and pick grapes. Do you close in winter?
No, we're open! The tasting room greets visitors and hosts a number of special events. Our marketing people meet with distributors, visit wine retailers, conduct tastings and prepare the year’s promotional programs. The vineyard team focuses on annual maintenance of equipment. Our winemaker and his team remain very busy throughout the winter, monitoring and crafting the next series of wines and preparing them for bottling and release. I would prefer to visit you on a quiet day. What would you recommend?
About 40% of our guests visit on Saturdays, our busiest day throughout the year. Although we do receive large groups on other days, we would recommend to weekend travelers to visit on Sunday if at all possible, or on any weekday, with Tuesdays and Wednesdays being the quietest. What kind of dogs do you have?
We have two Bernese Mountain Dogs, Gus (7 years old) and Bärli (meaning “little bear” in Swiss German, almost 2 years old). The Bernese Mountain Dog was one of the breeds from which the St. Bernard was developed. At maturity, they weigh over 100 lbs., and have a very patient and sweet disposition. The answer is "both"! We pick most of our grapes with a 1973 vintage harvester and our 3- or 4-man crew. Our Vidal Blanc Ice Wine grapes, and occasionally small blocks of late harvest grapes, are picked by hand, with cold fingers!
Our Vidal Blanc Ice Wine is an intensely sweet wine of great complexity, with apricot and honey aromas. The perception of sweetness depends a great deal on the nature of food consumed before or with the wine. It also depends on our expectations. Strawberry preserves are about 60% sugar, almost 3 times as sweet as Ice Wine, but it tastes as we expect it...we just enjoy it. So it is with our Vidal Blanc Ice Wine, once you know its luscious sweetness and exotic flavors!
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