Dear Friends,    

Beautiful weather, beautiful grapes, beautiful wine! Hope that means we'll see some of you beautiful people this weekend! Most of you will have a three-day so we expect some love for your favorite winery at least one of those days!
We have entertainment scheduled for Saturday and Sunday from 1-5pm at our Wine and Beer Garden so come out and dance. We promise we won't judge you on your dance moves. In our eyes the "snorkel" is still cool!

It's Harvest time! Have we mentioned that?? So far we've started harvesting our early aromatic whites such as Seyval Blanc, Vignoles, and we'll harvest Traminette and Chardonel this week. The last white will be Vidal and then on to the reds, St. Vincent and Chambourcin. Last but not least of the reds will be big, bold Norton.
Then of course late harvest for our Icewines. 

Last weekend we had a great group for our Vine to Wine Class and hope that you all enjoyed the vineyards! Look for more classes in the future. Next up will be our Port Class in November. We've reserved September and October to enjoy the changing of the season and to have fun with all of you coming out to wine country.

One more thing.. We have a contest running on Facebook right now! "Like" us on Facebook and then answer the contest questions. Share the contest with your friends and you'll be entered into the drawing for a Private Wine Tasting for 10! Look to the left for links to our Facebook page and the contest.
Good luck! and Hurry! Contest runs through Labor Day!

Enjoy this issue.. it's time for my glass of Traminette. 

Swirl, sip, and Enjoy! 

Hope to see you soon! - The Augusta Winery staff 

Wine Tasting Techniques..
The Senses: SIGHT - Part 2
BRIGHTNESS: a function of both acidity and of a wine's quality. A wine may be clear and yet not bright, and a wine that is dull by sight may taste "dull" as well, usually because it lacks acidity. This could be the case  with a young wine made from grapes that had seen too much sunshine, more likely it will be a wine that is just getting old and tired.

TINY BUBBLES:  Carbon dioxide, a natural by-product of fermentation, is present in all wines, although in still wines its presence can rarely be seen or felt. We expect to see its telltale bubbles in sparkling wines, but they are sometimes also visible in "still" wines. At the visible level, with a few bubbles clinging to the walls of the glass or hanging just under the surface of the wine, their prickle on the tongue provides an added degree of freshness to many a white and a few reds that are meant to be drunk young. Fine carbon dioxide bubbles rising in a mature, classic red wine would probably indicate an undesirable secondary fermentation, but this is extremely rare.

LEGS: "tears", "arches", and so on are the viscosity of wines. The liquid that clings to your glass after a good swirling gathers to form droplets which then run back down the glass. The heavier or more viscous the wine is, either from a high degree of alcohol and/or a high proportion of natural sugar remaining in the wine after fermentation, the more of these "legs" there will be and the longer they will take to form "tears". However with different factors playing in like the surface of your glass and how clean it is, the most reliable judge of viscosity is your palate.

COLOR: Examining a wine in a tilted wine glass is the best way to see its subtleties and variations of color. There are three sections, the rim edge, rim proper and the eye or bowl. The rim edge is the outer most edge, mostly appearing to be watery or thin. The rim proper extends from the watery edge to the main body of color. The rim may be only a few mm wide in a young, concentrated wine, or a cm and more in a light or mature wine. The eye or bowl is the main body of color.

The differences in the "eye" and the "rim" proper are what to look for. In a red wine the color of the rim will give some indication of the wine's age and/or readiness to drink: in young or immature wines it will still be purplish, but as the wine ages and matures the rim will become wider, paler and increasingly brown-red to brick colored. There's so much more to color that we could do an entire class on it.. but for now we'll digress.

In the next newsletter look for more wine tasting techniques, moving on to the sense of SMELL. 

Every Wine Wins!

Below are the top awards for each and every wine on our tasting list.  

2008 Norton 

GOLD - 2011 Florida State Fair International 

GOLD - Missouri Wine Competition 

2008 Chambourcin
GOLD & Best Buy- 90 Rating - 2011 Midwest Wine Review

La Fleur Sauvage 

BRONZE - 2011 Missouri Wine Competition

2010 Vidal Blanc

GOLD - 2011 Riverside International 

2010 Traminette 

 SILVER - 2011 Jerry Mead New World Invitational 

SILVER - 2011 Mid-American Wine Competition 

2010 Chardonel

*Chairman's Award (Unanimous Gold) - 2011 Riverside International  

GOLD - 2011 Pacific Rim International 

GOLD - 2011 Missouri Wine Competition

2010 Estate Vignoles (Dry)

*Best of Class Dry White & GOLD - 2011 Missouri Wine Competition

Reserve Red

GOLD - 2011 Missouri Wine Competition

2010 Seyval Blanc

GOLD - 2011 Pacific Rim International 

GOLD - 2011 Riverside International 

2010 Vignoles (Semi-Sweet)

*GOLD & Best Buy - 91 RATING - 2011 Midwest Wine Review

GOLD - 2011 Pacific Rim International

Blackberry

SILVER - 2011 Missouri Wine Competition

Raspberry

SILVER - 2011 Missouri Wine Competition

River Valley White

GOLD - 2011 Mid-American Wine Competition

River Valley Red

SILVER - 2011 Mid-American Wine Competition

2009 Estate Icewine

SILVER - 2011 Missouri Wine Competition

2008 Vintage Port

SILVER - 2011 Missouri Wine Competition 

** The Augusta Wine Company won a special award at the 2011 Riverside International Wine Competition in California called the TERROIR AWARD. This award goes to the winery that best displays the regional character in its wines.

Ask about our other medals and awards in our tasting room! 

                                                                                                  

Sit back and relax...