Eagle City Winery - Email Newsletter #35 (August E-Newsletter)

Hello Eagle City Winery Friends,

What a lovely summer we're having!  We were recently walking through our vineyard and noticed our grapes are beginning to turn color and that reminds us that harvest time is coming soon!  In this newsletter you'll find an opportunity to join us for our annual grape harvest - volunteers wanted; information about our successes at wine competition, our Fall Open House, and many other interesting tidbits.

Each year we host our annual Fall Open House.  Please accept this invitation to join us for our Open House (September 27-28).  Enjoy free wine tasting, snacks, live music, tractor trolley rides in upper Eagle City Park and donkey cart rides behind EC the winery mascot. Bring your friends for a great afternoon of entertainment. Our events are family-friendly and give us all a chance to reconnect (or if you're new to Eagle City Winery, a chance to visit a little and for you to try our wines). 

We'd love to have you visit us soon and remember we're back to our normal business hours.  Open Tuesday-Saturday: 10am to 5pm; Sunday: 1pm to 5pm; and closed Mondays. 

Hope to see you soon!

Ken & Carolyn

HARVEST VOLUNTEERS WANTED - Our wine grapes are beginning to turn color and that means one thing... harvest time is coming soon!

If you've ever wanted to be a part of a wine grape harvest here is your opportunity!  Eagle City Winery is seeking volunteers to help us pick our grapes this fall.  Right now it's still too soon to know exactly when they'll be ripe we do anticipate sometime in the first week or two in September (Of course harvest date is ripening dependent - they need to be nice and ripe). 

Since our weekend schedules are so packed we're going to try to schedule the harvest for a weekday.  Your "Wine Reward" for helping us pick our grapes is a nice meal and a complimentary bottle of wine (must be 21 or over to receive the wine reward). 

Interested?  Send Ken a note of interest and we'll put you on our list - send to: Winemaker@eaglecitywinery.com -- include PICKING in the subject line.

NEED EVENT SPACE?  Need a venue for your upcoming special event, wedding rehearsal, reception, reunion or party?  Eagle City Winery has facilities and space available to rent.  Please visit our website: www.eaglecitywinery.com or call 641-939-7755.

WINE AWARDS:  Eagle City Winery enters wine competitions for several reasons.  Getting a second opinion from trained wine tasters and wine experts provides reassurance our wines are as good as we think they are, and we also use those results to share with our friends and fans.

Over the past 14 years our winemaker, Ken winemaker and owner of Eagle City Winery, has entered his wines in 80 regional and international wine competitions yielding dozens of medals.  In competition all wines go head-to-head, regardless of winery size, and Eagle City Winery continues to earn recognition from world-renowned wine judges by winning gold and double gold awards.

Most recently, Eagle City Winery has earned gold medal recognition for Black Currant, Cranberry, Raspberry and Harvest Blend.

In fact, recently The Tasters Guild raved about Eagle City Winery's Black Currant, saying "The very pure nose is not unlike a very ripe Merlot. Strong overtones of raspberry and peach will survive any fruit based dessert such as Gateau de Framboise."

This summer Eagle City Winery has earned the following awards at competition:

Indy International Wine Competition: Gold - Harvest Blend, Silver - Black Currant, Silver - Strawberry.

Iowa State Fair Wine Competition: Silver - Black Currant, and Silver - Harvest Blend.

Mid-American Wine Competition: Silver - Black Currant, Silver - Harvest Blend, and Bronze - Strawberry.

Please join us in saying congratulations to our winemaker, Ken!

FALL OPEN HOUSE - September 27 and 28:  Plan to attend the annual Fall Winery Open House at Eagle City Winery (September 27 and 28, 1:00 to 5:00 PM) -  Free wine tasting , snacks, live music, tractor trolley rides in upper Eagle City Park and donkey cart rides behind EC the winery mascot. Bring your friends for a great afternoon of entertainment. Try our new wines Harvest Blend and Strawberry Wine!

JUDGING WINES: Eagle City Winery is committed to making quality wines and that means more than just loving the wines we make.  We go to great lengths to ensure our wines are the highest quality and that means submitting our wines to the Iowa Quality Wine Consortium IQ Program for review.  As another indicator of quality we send many of our wines to state, regional and international wine competitions to get a second opinion from very experienced wine judges.  And finally, in an attempt to keep our palate sharp we participate in wine judging events, such as the Iowa State Fair Amateur Wine Competition.

ASK FOR QUALITY WINES.  Not sure which Iowa wine to choose? Use your IQ.  Wines with Iowa Quality (IQ) Wine Consortium seals have been independently tested and quality approved so choose confidently and enjoy Iowa Quality wine!  We're proud to announce our newest wines: Harvest Blend and Strawberry are IQ approved - That makes a total of 13 Eagle City Wines that are Certified!

WINE UPDATE & INFO:  Our supplies of Harvest Blend and Black Currant are beginning to run low, so if you're wanting some, get 'em while they are available.

NEW RETAIL OUTLETS.  You can now find Eagle City wines at these fine retail locations.  Visit: www.eaglecitywinery.com and click on "Retail Outlets".

ONLINE STORE:  Want to ship Eagle City wines to friends across the country? We currently ship our wines to 18 states across the US.  Give your family and friends a taste of Iowa by sending them a bottle or two today! 

Check out our online store: https://www.vinoshipper.com/wines/eagle_city_winery

EC WINES IN IOWA:  Does your favorite wine store carry Eagle City wines?  You can help us find new homes for our wines, simply by dropping us a note winemaker@eaglecitywinery.com or posting a note on our Facebook page.

You can find Eagle City wines at many Iowa locations:  http://eaglecitywinery.com/pages/ - click on the Retail Outlet tab.

FACEBOOK - "Like" us on Facebook, share your memories and photos.  Find us here:  www.facebook.com/EagleCityWinery