Cork tree

Making or growing “real” cork takes a LONG time! The cork grows in oak forests in Portugal. The cork actually comes from the bark and cannot be stripped until they are twenty-five years old.

Cork!

The trees can only be stripped once every nine years after the first stripping, and it takes to the third stripping to get to wine cork quality! Demand for cork is increasing, the prices are rising. This is where the synthetic or what many people call “plastic” cork comes in.

Synthetic Mad Cow cork

The synthetic cork appeared in 1993 and they cost about seven cents each while natural cork is 13 to 75 cents each. Natural cork seals better but can give way to “cork taint” or TCA. Synthetic corks are only being used on bottles that are to be consumed with five years or less.

TCA is trichloroanisole results from the interaction of of mold, chlorine and phenols in cork. These chemicals are found in all plants. TCA produces a dark and moldy smell with the flavor of cardboard. Wines that develop TCA are often called “corked” wines. About 5% of all wines develop TCA, you just never know.

Chemical structure of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA), the compound primarily responsible for cork taint

The screw cap is another option. The screw cap is fitted on to bottles and is quickly gaining popularity as it prevents TCA and air completely. Some people don’t like the caps because unscrewing the top takes away from the experience of drinking a bottle of wine. But they really seem to work. The machinery to use screw caps is pretty expensive for smaller wineries to implement also.

Screw cap wine cap

We use both kinds of corks at Maize Valley. On our dry reds and some of our dry whites we use real cork. Our fast sellers all get synthetic, our “Mad Cow” cork is highly sought after at events and in the winery.

Bottom line is if you don’t plan on keeping a wine long do not worry about synthetic corks.

If the appearance of cork when serving the wine is important it’s cool, just be aware you do stand a greater chance for that wine to be tainted. We will probably switch to screw caps as soon as we can justify the investment, that’s what I would buy no matter what the end use of the wine.

Enjoy!

Remember you can always go back and get more wine but you can never go back and make more time!

Maize Valley at Vintage Ohio

It’s time to get your wine on………! The Midwest’s largest and best known wine and food festival is just around the corner. Twenty five wineries from every corner of the state attend this gala event.

And the're off!!!

Exceptional food [note the menus from Cleveland’s own Gourmet Food Trucks], 3 stages of live music, Friday fireworks, a cooking stage and educational seminars by the American Wine society, all amid huge oak trees and the rolling grassy fields at the Lake Farmpark. Full details are listed at http://www.visitvintageohio.com/ So plan a little getaway.

Look for the "Circle MV"

Tell the boss that Friday August 5 you have ‘important’ plans — or forget mowing the grass on Saturday, August 6th. Hop in the car and spend a wonderful weekend with your friends from Maize Valley and all of their fellow winemakers. Order on line at http://www.visitvintageohio.com/or call 800-227-6972 to save by purchasing your tickets in advance. August 5th and 6th from 1 til 10 pm each day.

Michelle says Come on by!

See you at Vintage Ohio!

At the Bahahamas!!

Although my mom and dad work a lot, and we somthimes don’t get to spend as much time as a family that we’d like. We took a really big vacation this spring, and we got to go on the brand new disney dream! As a kid I have been to disney 4 times, many of which when I was little.

Top deck at night

I wasn’t sure how the cruise ship was going to be, or if I was going to like the vacation. But I did discover, that the magic of Disney is still there for me! It really made our vacation truly, magical. And yes, even at almost 18 years old, I STILL have fun with my mom and dad. I know that everything that they do is for us!

A "Angle" 4 Brett!

LaCrescent vines sleeping

What goes on in the vineyard in January, well not too much. These vines are very winter hardy and can handle temps. down to 30 degrees below zero farenheit. They had a good growing season last year with lot of heat and sunshine and not too much or too little rain.

July vs. January

We had a early harvest due to the good growing season. This allowed for the leaves to hang on a long time since we had a late “killing frost” also. The vines were able to load lots of energy via the fall sunshine and hopefully store some good energy in the root systems before they went dormant. This helps on these long cold days.

We prune these grapes later than most to see what and if any late frosts take away buds we may be counting on.

These reisling vines pictured above are not as winter hardy as the LaCrescent and we will see, this might be their last year on the farm. We may replace these with another French American Hybrid called Traminette.

So while the grapes are outside enduring the winter, our guests are inside enjoying the fruits of their labor from seasons past!

At Maize Valley We Make Great Wine…FUN! Last weekend we had the Island Dr. aka Scott Alan in. We have live entertainment every Friday and Saturday night and this past weekend the Dr. brought the house down! Great guests desended to form a massive conga line, limbo and just a whole bunch of other Island style fun.

How low can you GO?

Stomp the Grapes 2010

Cruise In July 22nd 2010

Pink Poker Run 2010

Cane Burning Par-Tay

Hartville Radishes from Maize Valley Farms

2010 was a great year at Maize Valley Farm Market and Winery, thank you! We really mean that. We are a family farm business that has been making a living with the soil since the 1800′s. Throughout all those year’s my wife’s family the Vaughan’s have been leather tanners, school teachers, carpenters, and all along farmers. You see you just did what you had to do to survive. As Dorie says in finding Nemo, “just keep swimming, swimming, swimming!

We grow about 52 different crops on about 700 acres but the most important crop is fun! Fun = memories and we try and build special events that cement those memories and last a lifetime. Our event calendar is loading up for 2011. We are working on making new events and adding and improving old ones too.

Look for our Vines, Wines, and Pines, cross country race to expand to include a “Farmathlon”, yea it’s gonna be cool! We are working on the half marathon and with any luck will be able to handle the expected growth up towards 2,000 runners.

The Pink Poker Run to raise money for Susan G. Komen 3 day for the cure will be back with a “Bike Rodeo” on the back side of it and hog roast.

We are pulling the plug on the Haunted corn maze and will be planting pumpkins in that area and making the woods part of the wagon ride paths. Plus the Pony Express is going to make it’s way back into the Corn Maze design.

The cane burning Par-Tay is gonna have a bigger pile, the monthly “Vintner Dinner” series keeps selling out so look for some new ideas coming there, the cruise-ins’ are every week starting in May and well wait to ya see the giant Hill-Slide we are building…..! Whew, and that’s not all! Stay Tuned!

At Maize Valley, We Make Great Wine…FUN!

My wife is a "Survivor" more than I can say 4 this van!

Pink Van 4 Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the cure

Marlboro Madness getting ready 4 work

Straw Crawl "Pre-Season"!

Straw crawl "Post Season"!

It was a long and wonderful fall harvest season here at Maize Valley! BEST one EVER! Thank you to all of those of you who came out and enjoyed one of the best weather fall periods we have ever experienced. It all started on Sept. 18th with the balloon lift off and wrapped up with Oct. 31st finding our crew still hard at work in the Carnage in the Corn Haunted Corn maze which was way too much fun!

Great weather came together with great effort to make this season a rewarding time for all of us. The grapes had their best harvest ever with all the heat from the summer and a late frost letting them store up extra energy for the coming winter after we were finished picking.

The half marathon was a huge success, a new greenhouse is going up at the main farm and the vintner dinners keep selling out. We are looking forward to a great Thanksgiving and Christmas season and then we will start pouring the coal to next year’s slate of special events.

All this is only possible with great staff, great neighbors and wonderful guests each and every day. Thank you all and look for Maize Valley to “Bring it” even harder in 2011. At Maize Valley We Make Great Wine…FUN!

Wow Dad this pile is HUGE!

Brett Helping Dad bring in the pile!

The Cane Burning Party will take place in our hilltop Pavilion on Saturday, May 29. Admission is $10 ($5 of which will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation) and will include hamburgers, bratwurst, potato salad, chips and s’mores around the fire. With Live entertainment for “Me and this other guy”.

My wife Michelle was diagnosed with Breast Cancer last August. She is walking in the 3 day walk. You can donate directly and learn more about her journey by visiting www.maizevalley.com and click on her picture and link.

Come on out and enjoy a good old fashioned big ole’ “Bon Faaarrr”, from Back in the Day. The canes are the wood we prune from the vineyard, not disabled persons walking aids either!! When they burn down we have more wood to add! We might even take a “moon light wagon ride” once the tunes die down, C how it goes!

Food starts about 6:00, wine sales in the pavilion too, we “Light it up” bout 7:00, probably hang out till bout 10:00-11:00 ?

Tractor broke!

Haunted Maze path

View from the seat of our John Deere 1020

Well I say it many times yes this blog is called Ohio Wine and More. You might say we R a winery with ADHD most of the time. You see we came from the agricultural world of dairy cattle, grain farming and vegtable production then direct farm marketing and agritourism. Maize Valley has evolved over the years to meet emerging opportunities the best we can.

So what has that got to do with wine you ask? Well we do have fun here. We say there are many places you can go and have a very nice time, but come to Maize Valley when you want to have fun. Last year our dry red blend won Double concordance gold at the Ohio Wine competition. This spring our Red Raspberry made from our own home grown Red Raspberries did the same at the Finger Lakes Wine Comp. Plus dozens of other medals from other respected shows and competitions. But we don’t take that too seriously or ourselves.

You can always go back and buy more wine, you can’t go back and make more time. So we do things still like haunted corn mazes pumpkin cannons, pig races and more. We make a great product but serve it with a flash. So come and see why Maize Valley is the place to be. If you don’t care for the stuff mentioned above that’s cool just chill with great food or wine in the market and cafe’, It’s all good!

See below how we start the prep for this years haunted corn maze adventure. Come and see why Maize Valley IS the place to BE!

No-tilling sorghum

Galen and Tim planting sorghum

Back in the day we ran a haunted corn maze attraction. We started it because people asked us and we thought it would be fun to chase people around in the dark with a chain saw over our heads screaming at them till some of them peeeed their pants. Well yes that was fun for a while, then we got older the winery business started taking off and I lost my brother-in-laws help managing it as he was off making wine and taking care of customers. Whatever……

So a few years ago I was up there in the dark by myself and I felt like the whole place was just spinning out of control. People running everywhere, the main maze was getting torn apart, and I was dead tired. It seems it is harder to pull 18-20 hour days when you get older and plus my chain saws were wearing out, or maybe it was me. So we pulled the plug on the haunted business.

Boy did we hear about it the next year. From who you ask??? Church groups, families, Mom and Dads and kids and teens too. You see when I do something I give it my all and do 150% or more and people loved our haunted attraction. I always focused on not just scareing people but entertaining them too. We would have entire families go through our haunted event and the kids came out scared Mom a bit shaken and Dad laughing sometime crying and a time or two even sacred much to his suprise.

So we are reloading the event this season wtih the help from Terry’s Tire Town to help get the word out. Anyhow you can get and up close look at how a John Deere No-Till grain drill works too!

At Maize Valley We Make Great Wine…FUN!!