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To become a member, simply buy a case of wine once a year. Case club members enjoy exclusive offers and benefits. After becoming a member of the case club, you will receive the normal $10 discount per case and a bottle of wine for $1 (worth up to $15) with every case purchased. You may instead choose to receive a $13 case discount. Wines to be shipped will be given $13 off due to packaging material constraints. Added benefits: Receive periodic newsletters with special discounts. Refer a friend: Receive a free bottle of wine. We’ll notify you first of our special events.
March 2012 Vino Times
Who Are You and Why Are You Emailing Me?
You are most likely wondering why and how you have received an email from von Stiehl. These emails only arrive in the inboxes of the most super special oenophiles and you are one of them! At some point in the past year or two, you (or your spouse) gave your email address to us for this newsletter when purchasing a case of wine at our winery in Algoma. This letter is unlike our monthly enewsletter in that it is written specifically for case buyers. If you're not interested in a bunch of news from that winery somewhere up near Door County then by all means please opt out of the list. Before deleting, please take a look at the bottom of this newsletter. You will find wine specials in this correspondence at least three times per year that are not offered anywhere else to anyone else.
One last thing to be aware of. This newsletter is written by one of the winery owners. If you're interested in point scales, imports, or any other highfalutin aspect of wine, that would be another reason to opt out. If you're a big wine snob, big talker, everybody listen to me while I wow you about my enriched wine knowledge from my trip to France kind of person, then you definitely want to opt out. This comes from a member of a family that has been in the wine industry since 1981. After that many years, a new type of romance develops that is difficult to define. It might best simply be described by the saying "Live life, drink wine."
If you made it this far, you might as well read the rest of the newsletter. After all, you did buy a case of wine.
Case Club Vino Times Goes Electronic
Let's go back to the beginning of the snail mail newsletter...
A new tourism season was approaching. My brother and I were digging our paint-covered high-tops and stonewash jeans out of our dressers for another season of dipping wine bottles into latex paint. Sure, it was only May, but hand-dipping and labeling 8,400 bottles of Holiday Wine wasn't the kind of thing that you procrastinated. Dad was getting the last of the cherry and apple wine finished up because we would also be hand-bottling up to 300 cases per week all summer long.
On the home front, my parents had just invested $600 in a used Macintosh Plus (with external 30 meg hard drive) which trumped the VCR as the most expensive gadget in the house.
Somewhere along the delivery route, I'm sure in northern Wisconsin, or perhaps Milwaukee, Dad had an idea to make some money with the new gadget. It seemed that customers were interested in buying a whole case of wine if they could get a discount. Maybe he should create a club for those who purchased a case. Maybe they'd like to hear about what was new at the winery. So it was born: a case club, with a newsletter!
In June of 1992, the first customers signed up. There was a serial number, followed by the first two letters of the last name, followed by the last two digits of the year. Every once in awhile, a customer will come in with an old red case club card with the last two digits of the membership reading “...92”. Isn't it terrific that they're still coming back?
I can't list the date with absolute certainty, but sometime that summer or fall the first case club newsletter was born. One printed from the Mac Plus, photocopied on the winery's desktop copier, and hand addressed. If you still have one, won't you please send it in? It's worth a case of wine to you. Who says you only need to save things for seven years?
And then, twenty years passed. We've been writing the case club newsletter since 1992 and have no plans of stopping. However, with over 14,000 members from 20 years of the case club, we've found that it's not that economical to keep mailing newsletters. The most recent 4,000 purchasing case club members received a snail mail newsletter. This year, we'll be sending out an enewsletter to every case club member who has provided an email address. All members who have purchased within 12 months who refuse to deal with a computer will continue to get a mailed newsletter in 2012. We're not sure after that. While we're on the subject, if you don't like computers, get a Mac, though something newer than a Mac Plus. At the very least, get one of those tablet things so that we can continue to send you newsletters after 2012. Getting an email address is free and if you have a grandchild that you want to spend more time with, ask them to teach you how to use it. Really any child over 5 will do, and there aren't too many things more fun than getting taught something by a child. After all, the world might not be coming to an end this year, but the paper newsletter just might.
Two Great Events in March!
There are two upcoming events that you need to know about now, our first-ever Date Night on March 16 and the Futures Tasting on March 24. Date Night offers an extravagant meal with paired wines for two in a romantic and intimate setting. Reservations must be in by March 9, and space is limited. The reception begins at 6:00pm, with dinner served at 6:30pm and the cost is $120/couple.
The Futures Tasting will take place in our barrel aging cellars, and will involve tasting high-end wines straight from the barrels with the opportunity to reserve bottles for purchase when the wine has finished the aging process. Again, space is limited, and the times available are noon-1:30 and 2:00 to 3:30(although this one is filling up fast). $20/person.
Call 1-800-955-5208 to reserve a spot for either event.
Wine & Swap Meet in April!
It's tax day, so don't even think about spending any more money. Instead, dig into your closet and bring all those tired scarves, purses, and jewelry to von Stiehl and swap them out for someone else's (due to space constraints please limit what you bring to these categories).
We will have finger foods and wine to enjoy while you "shop", and you'll be able to go home with a whole new look without spending a dime! Oh,except for the entry fee...$15/person which includes a glass of wine,
light finger foods, entry into the swap meet and VIP treatment to 25% off von Stiehl wine that day! If you choose not to take home your items at the end of the day, we'll be donating them to a local charity that can put them to good use!
Please call 800-955-5208 for reservations and/or details for this unique wine and shopping event!
And Then... 45 Years Passed
Forgive the overuse of the phrase. Who hasn't gotten better in 45 years of life? That's our line when people say “oh, you just make cherry wine.” The response is “we do make great cherry wine, it's in our heritage, but we also produce some fantastic dry reds and whites now.”
Unlike dry red wines, there is something in the building that hasn't gotten better with age, the outside steps! This April we will be re-landscaping the front yard to make a new set of steps with treads that won't make you swear. We'll also be adding an uphill path to the front door just in case you don't like steps at all!
Marachal Foch Red
Certainly not a new one, but one that has been lying dormant for the 13 years of our vines' existences, is the thought of producing a dry red from the Foch and Frontenac grapes of our Stony Creek Vineyard. We've tasted reds made from these grapes from wineries in the Midwest, but have never felt that the characteristics of these grapes matched the von Stiehl red wine flavor profile.
We typically ferment our 10,000 pounds (give or take) of these grapes into a semi-dry wine named Stony Creek Rosé. For grins and the satisfaction of knowing of what our vines are capable of, we produced two barrels of dry red from these grapes. It turned out much better than we anticipated, and we have been very pleased with the influence of oak on this red. If you attend the March 24 barrel tasting you'll have a chance to sample and buy it before everyone else. It might sell out at this event, so if you're not coming to the March 24 tasting, that means you fall into the “everyone else” category and will most likely get to try it in 2013 when we make more than two barrels. Until we come up with a name for the new wine, we're referring to it as Sylvester, our grandfather, and the second Schmiling generation to own the land that the vineyard occupies.
Old Cellars & New Labels
If you were a Bohemian immigrant in Ahnapee (now Algoma), Wisconsin in 1865, you might have said to yourself “what is this town missing?” If you were a German immigrant and civil war veteran, and our great, great, great, great uncle, Henry Schmiling, you might have thought to yourself “making beer in the basement is fun, but I could make this lager style for so many more people!” If you were either of those two guys, you might have concocted the idea for Ahnapee Brewing, the first business to occupy our building.
Of course, to lager beer you would have needed to make a room that could stay very cool. Calling up the refrigeration guy wasn't an option. Building underground tunnels and connecting them to an ice house by the river was your best bet. At this point you would have called the masons, carpenters, electricians and plumbers. Well, maybe just the first two. A “cool” grand would probably be all it took to get you into a reasonable sized brewery. As you witnessed the last of the mortar drying and the last cedar shingle being nailed in place you might have thought of the motto “built to last.”
We kept your 177 year-old thoughts in mind when creating a new look for our special vintages aged in these cellars. Those lagering tunnels work extremely well for barrel aging and we have been taking full advantage since the stainless tanks were moved across the street last June. Over the course of the next two years, watch for this new line of wines. It will begin this summer with Zinfandel and barrel-fermented Chardonnay. Some of the more robust wines including old-vine Merlot and Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon will stay put for an extra year.
May 12 Fundue Fest at Captain's Walk Winery
Six years ago we wondered, what could be better than owning a winery? How about owning two? On May 12, 2007 we opened Captain's Walk Winery in downtown Green Bay. The wines have distinct flavor profiles and the place has a life of its own. To celebrate, we will be throwing a party five years to the day of our grand opening. Come join us as the original band, In Black 'n' White returns with Reggae Rock 'n' Roll from Milwaukee. The free admission event will run from 2 PM to 6 PM, and will offer plenty of (you guessed it) fondue to be enjoyed with your new favorite Captain's Walk Wine.
920-431-9255 • CaptainsWalkWinery.com
Spring Wine Specials - Case Club Members Only
Valid March 16 through April 16, 2012
Come to the Winery to receive the following special:
Buy twelve bottles of wine,
and receive three bottles of wine for $3 each.
Maximum value of $15 on bottles purchased for $3, and bottles must be of equal or lesser value
If you cannot visit us, then please take advantage of the following special:
$10 off of the shipping cost on any six bottles, or
$25 off of the shipping cost on any twelve bottles purchased.
Sign Up for our e-newsletter at www.vonstiehl.com for future upcoming specials & event information.
Fine Print: Specials cannot be combined, then they would be super special. No other discounts, coupons or offers, whether regular or special, can be combined with the above specials. You’re super special though, and don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise! As always, other exclusions may apply.
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