PA Wines—Molto Bene!

Chaddsford Winery Co-founder and Winemaker Eric Miller harvests grapes for his wines at the Miller Estate Vineyard in northern Chester County, PA.

If you grew up in a big Italian family with a last name like Giannetti, Marangi, or in my family’s case, DiAgostino, you’ve been drinking Italian, French, and Napa Valley wine with your Sunday plate of rigatoni and homemade red gravy since you were young. Growing up in such a food-and-drink driven culture with generations of foodies, top notch cooks, cheese snobs, and wine connoisseurs in my own family made me acquire strong predispositions about what I think “good” food and “good” wine is.

For example, no one in my family is running to the basement to bring up a bottle of 2005 “Merican” Cabernet Sauvignon made in Chaddsford, PA to uncork and savor with a hunk of sharp provolone—in fact, my uncle would most likely slap me in the back of the head and say, “Whatta’ you crazy? Pennsylvania makes Hershey’s ice cream, Amish pretzels, and crispy scrapple—but vino? No.”

Grapes from the Miller Estate Vineyard are typically bottled as part of Chaddsford’s prestigious Portfolio Collection of small, vineyard designated cuvées. Others make up the winery’s regional specialties, Proprietors Reserve White and Red.

However, after an afternoon of research for Longwood Gardens’ upcoming Wine & Jazz Festival that features only Pennsylvania fine wines—I am feeling brave enough to bring home bottles of what I think are some of the most sumptuous and delicious wines I have ever tasted.

Last Tuesday, I was fortunate enough to spend a few hours sipping, swirling, tasting, and talking with the Chaddsford Winery’s very own co-founder and winemaker, Eric Miller. I was very upfront and told Eric about my family and my skepticism about grapes grown in the north east—specifically in Pennsylvania. In reply, Eric said something that I wholeheartedly agree with that changed my perception about local wines. He said, “Pennsylvania people are learning to support local farms and foods more than ever. And at the Chaddsford Winery we’re seeing that people are dropping any stigma they might have had when it comes to local wine. They’re trying it—and loving it, not only because it’s world-class wine, but because it’s local. The best part for many people is they feel especially connected to our bottles of wine because they know where it comes from, and it has a story.”

Wine barrels at the Chaddsford Winery.

Eric, who founded the Chaddsford Winery up the road from Longwood Gardens in 1982 with his wife Lee Miller,  developed his interest in wine as a child when he lived in Europe with his “wine-nut” parents. In the mid-60s, after spending a year in the tiny village of Saint Romaine, Burgundy, his family moved back to New York in the Hudson Valley where they founded the state’s first farm winery, Benmarl Vineyards.

For Eric and Lee, the first step in founding Chaddsford Winery was to scour the east coast to find what they believed was the best grape growing region for their new venture—and this venture is what brought them to the Brandywine Valley. In their first year of business, Eric and Lee produced 3,000 bottles of wine, and today the Chaddsford Winery corks 30,000 bottles, annually.

While sampling some of the wines that will be featured at this weekend’s Wine & Jazz Festival, Eric convinced me that he has found the best grape growing region on the east coast. I applaud Eric for passionately pursuing his goal to work toward establishing the Atlantic Uplands as a significant American wine district. Eric, who calls himself a barrelhead and a wine geek, is most in love with this business because he gets to work with smells and flavors all day long.
At a small wood table in the rustic tasting room at the back of the Chaddsford Winery, Eric and I went through the five S’s of wine tasting: see, swirl, smell, sip, and savor.

Normally, I don’t go through all of these steps—I simply uncork, pour, and down the hatch—but Eric truly believes that by making a point to experience each of these components will help you remember the wine in the long-run.

Me at the Chaddsford Winery in May 2011 tasting some of the wines that will be featured at Longwood Gardens' 5th Annual Wine & Jazz Festival on Saturday, June 4.

Together we sampled the following wines that will be at Longwood Gardens this weekend:

Merican Cabernet Sauvignon (2005): This is a table wine I am most looking forward to bringing home to my family. When I took a good look I saw shades of brick red and almost a hint of blue-red. It smells woody, which makes sense because Eric says this wine is barrel-aged. Upon my first sip it tasted truly complex without being too aggressive. It has a smooth texture, a strong grape flavor, and kick of herbal character. Eric says this wine is ideal for paring with a simple medium-rare steak.

Naked Chardonnay (2010): Although I have a strong preference for red wines, I was delighted by the bright blast of peachy fruit notes and crisp acidity upon my first sip of the Chaddsford Naked Chardonnay. This particular bottle, which holds a golden apple colored wine, is a seasonal wine that is an early summer bestseller. Eric recommends pairing this sweeter wine with a more bitter dish like grilled asparagus.

Red Wine Sangria (2010): I was surprised to find out that Eric didn’t just make dry table wines—but that he also mastered the craft of creating fruity wines, too. Eric says wine-makers don’t discount even the sweetest of wines like sangria because it serves an entirely different purpose. “People who drink sangria are not having dinner—but they are people who want to enjoy a cocktail while being social,” says Eric. Eric says the secret to his sangria is that he makes sure (in the lab, before it’s bottled) that it tastes good watered down 10% from ice. When I look at this wine before tasting it, I see a medium bright red. Upon hitting my mouth this wine bursts with citrus flavor. I can taste notes of cherry, orange, and lemon. This glass of sangria is so refreshing. For me, the best part is that it’s not overly sweet and has a complimentary acidic after-taste.

To make this sangria even better for a large backyard party or BBQ, Eric suggests this recipe:
Sunset Sangria Punch—the perfect cocktail for anytime the sun goes down…
1 Bottle of Chaddsford Red Wine Sangria
1 Bottle of Chaddsford Blush
1 Liter of Lemon-lime soda
Fresh fruit (Freeze prior to putting in the punch: peaches, lime slices, mango slices, orange slices, lemon slices)
Directions: Combine equal parts Sangria and Blush. Then, add the same amount (to make half/half mixture) of lemon-lime soda. Serve over frozen fresh fruit.

From left to right: Naked Chardonnay (2010), Merican Cabernet Savaigion (2005), and Red Wine Sangria (2010).

Wine lovers, wine novices, and PA-wine skeptics alike, I urge you to come taste all the wines of Pennsylvania this weekend at Longwood Gardens, on Saturday, June 4 from 12 to 5:30 pm. Limited tickets for the Wine & Jazz Festival are still available on the web or you can purchase tickets by calling 610.388.1000. If you can’t make this weekend’s event, you can make a reservation for a fall wine pairing dinner with Chaddsford winemaker Eric Miller at Longwood Gardens on September, 9 at 6 pm called the “Kennett Square Mushrooms & Chaddsford Winery Wine Pairing Dinner.”

For more information on upcoming wine tasting events at the Chaddsford Winery visit the Chaddsford Winery website.

Aimee Theriault is a Marketing Communications Associate at Longwood Gardens.
Photo credits: Brian Piper.

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Plan to Plant

The veggie plot now with potato plants coming up in the forefront

Spring is finally here! Gardening and the joyful prospect of fresh vegetables are on the mind again in force. This year my experience with vegetable production is expanding as I organize Longwood’s  Vegetable Venture for the Terrace Restaurant. The Veggie Venture, as explained in a blog post last year, is a way to provide fresh, (extremely) locally grown vegetables to Longwood’s Terrace Restaurant while raising funds for the Professional Gardener student’s trip abroad. Not to mention the fact that it’s an amazing learning opportunity to gain practical knowledge in vegetable production! While we are seeking to build on last year’s experience, our goal remains the same: to produce high quality, low input produce for our guests at the Terrace

Restaurant.

A small seedling of Freckles one of our lettuce varieties

Last year was a success, and we were able to produce over 1,000 pounds of fresh veggies for the Terrace Restaurant. As I began planning for this year,  I was able to take into account what we learned from last year, including feedback from the Terrace Restaurant chef and manager. Although there are definitely some differences between planning for a home veggie garden and a vegetable garden for sale to a restaurant, I have found that many of the key considerations remain the same.

The major changes this year were a smaller space and a fewer number of crops. One of the parts of vegetable production I enjoy the most is planning and charting out my crops to produce a large harvest in a small space. Although it may seem counter intuitive, a smaller, well-managed plot can actually produce more than a large garden that becomes overgrown. Also, by reducing the diversity of crops, we hope to provide larger quantities of each.

Rodale's Garden Answers and our already well-worn planting plan.

Starting with a list of crops I knew did well in the past, I divided them into spring, summer and/or fall veggies and made sure to have a good number in each category for a continuous harvest throughout the whole season. (With some crops such as carrots, I like to relay crop them and plant multiple times throughout the season so we can have a constant harvest.) Then I calculated how much space we would need for each crop, and made a rough drawing of the space. (I like use graph paper to easily represent square feet.) Some of this knowledge simply comes from experience, but I have also found Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening, and Rodale’s Garden Answers: Vegetables, Fruits and Herbs very helpful.  Our crop list includes; snap peas, carrots, potatoes, Swiss chard, lettuce, kohlrabi, onions, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, summer squash, sweet potatoes, tomatillos, tomatoes, and winter squash. These crops were selected for their high productivity, range of harvest dates, and (in most cases) fewer pest issues.

Transplants growing in our student greenhouse

Now it was time to order seeds! Although there are many good vegetable seed suppliers, I have used Pinetree Garden Seeds for several years now, and have been pleased with their variety and well organized catalog.

Using the resources such as the books mentioned above, I calculated the sow date for each of the crops. Some we started in our student greenhouse, and others get directly

Pinetree seed catalog and seed packets

sown into the garden. Estimated harvest dates (very important for us so we can give the chef a head’s-up when crops will be harvested) were calculated using the sow to harvest days listed for each variety

in the catalog. This information, as well as crop spacing, transplant date, and total number of plants was all organized into one master spreadsheet.

Soon all this “dead of winter planning” will be fully realized as this warm spring weather continues transform our bare soil into a lush vegetable garden!

Check back here throughout the summer for updates on our Veggie Venture’s progress!

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The Newest Member of the Royal Family

Encephalartos woodii growing in the East Conservatory

In January 2010, we posted a blog about our “King of the Conservatory,” Encephalartos woodii. The Encephalartos is the most prized plant in Longwood’s Conservatory since it is extinct in its native environment of South Africa. With very few of these plants left elsewhere around the world, Longwood Gardens is lucky to have a beautiful specimen growing in our East Conservatory.

Because the Encephalartos woodii is so rare, we were very anxious to propagate it and continue the Royal line. In July of 2009, Senior Gardener Joyce Rondinella and I propagated one of the “pups” from the Encephalartos. You can watch a video, below, of the propagation process:

We hoped the “pup” would produce roots and become strong enough to stand on its own and be crowned as our new “Prince.”

Pup growing on mother plant

I am proud to report that our Encephalartos pup has successfully survived its beginning years (the toughest), and has recently produced a healthy new flush of growth! We are thrilled—the success rate for getting the Encephalartos pups to survive on their own is low. Congratulations to Joyce, who has taken extremely good care of this young plant in her tropical growing house!

Joyce with the rooted Encephalartos (April 2011)

Come visit us in the Conservatory to see how our “King of the Conservatory” is growing, and ask how our new Prince is enjoying its newly found independence.

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Making the Season Bright

Longwood's Outdoor Christmas Light Display

Christmas at Longwood Gardens: What  a wonderful time of year! Unlike most of our visitors that may begin decorating for the holidays after Thanksgiving, we start a little earlier. In order to complete this Herculean task (in 2009 it took about 2,500 hours to install, maintain and remove lights on more than 100 individual trees or cones) the arborist crew begins light installation the day after Labor Day and finishes the second week in November, just in time to help out with Christmas Changeover the weekend prior to Thanksgiving.

The outdoor display consists of two basic design elements: wraps and cones. Wrapping lights around branches and the trunk draws the eye to the structural elements of the tree. The Scarlet Oak at the Longwood Fire Company and the White Oaks along Oak Allee are prime examples of this technique. Cones are created by stringing lines from a high central point to stakes on the ground arranged in a circle around the center point. Lights spiral from top to bottom around these lines giving the impression of a coniferous tree such as a pine, spruce or fir. Cones may be attached to trees, like those at the restaurant steps, or to poles, like those on Paulownia Allee.

A tree wrapped in LED lights

In order to reduce disturbance to our guests the arborist crew begins work on the wrapped trees on the perimeter. These are followed by working on wrapped trees in the gardens. Cones usually draw more attention than wrapped trees and are left until later in the season. Similar to the wrapped trees, we start on the perimeter before working inside the gardens.

Since my first season at Longwood, the Christmas display has changed tremendously. Each year, the display is evaluated and alterations are made to improve for the following year. In 2005, the Outdoor Christmas Light Committee made the decision to experiment with LEDs (Light Emitting Diode) in certain areas of the display. As most people are aware, these lights draw a fraction of the power of incandescent lights (LEDs are 10 times more efficient) and are much more robust than glass incandescent lights. We can reuse the same strand of lights for five years where the incandescent strands rarely lasted more than one season.

The ruggedness of the LEDs also decreases the amount of maintenance we have to perform during the month of December. In 2004, the arborist crew spent upwards of 400 hours fixing lights while in 2009 we spent 73 hours performing light maintenance. What a time saver!

A Christmas Light Cone

Light removal is the next step in our Christmas display. Most of the displays are removed from the trees each year. The reason for this is twofold. Lights that are left on year-round detract from the natural beauty of our trees. Also, trees with lights on them may grow around the lights. In some cases, tree growth may break the strands but the lights may also choke smaller twigs and branches, killing them. That being said, to save time during installation we do leave some strands on certain displays for two years. These strands are strung loosely enough to allow for growth from one year to the next and are loosened further during installation the following year.

Aborists Installing Longwood's Christmas Light Display

As we finish up light removal, we have a dedicated group of volunteers who take the removed strands and pack them up for the next year. Before the volunteer team came to our aid, the arborists had to prepare all the lights during inclement weather. The volunteers have saved us hundreds of hours by taking this task off our hands!

To prepare the lights, electrical tape and outlet caps are removed from the strands before they are neatly wrapped into individual bundles and stored in bins for the following year. The volunteer team meets on Tuesdays in the winter, spring and summer to assure that the arborists have all the lights we need for the following year. Kudos to our volunteers!

The Christmas Display is the year’s biggest draw at Longwood. You can find everything from strolling carolers to larger-than-life trees decorated for the season both inside and out with breathtaking horticultural displays in the Conservatory. Whatever it is you are looking for, Longwood Gardens has what you need to fill you with Christmas spirit. I welcome you to bring family and friends to share a memorable holiday experience with us!

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Introducing The New East Conservatory Plaza

Starting Saturday, October 9, 2010, you will be able to experience an exciting, new area of the Gardens: The East Conservatory Plaza!

The East Conservatory Plaza has been in the making for over 3 years. From the beginning, we worked with the renowned, British landscape architect Kim Wilkie. We researched Kim’s work and appreciated his eye for detail and sensibility of space. The images from the terraces of Heveningham Hall were impressive and became ingrained in our memories.

View of Terraces at Heveningham Hall in England

After an initial brainstorming meeting here at Longwood Gardens, Sharon (the head of Longwood’s Horticulture Department) and I traveled to England to meet with Kim and concept architect Alex Michaelis. Kim recognized the need for an entry plaza to the Conservatory that would respect the existing conditions of the Gardens. By creating a sweeping arc of a south-facing, terraced landform, we could offer a view of the Gardens that no one had experienced before: the landform would rise up, allowing guests to see south over the Gardens from the apex.

Early Working Concept Sketch of Landform

We also needed more restrooms for our guests. Many more guests visit Longwood now than when the Conservatory was first built, and the original restrooms in the Lower Reception Suite are no longer adequate for times of peak attendance.

In response, Kim and Alex originated the concept of domed restroom pods coming off of an underground corridor. The corridor would have a glass roof and be lined with a living green wall.

The main feature to the plaza is its five grass terraces. Each terrace has grass on the face of the slope as well as the top, and the effect looks like landscape art. The faces of the slopes are positioned at a slight angle, perfect for leaning back, talking with friends, or watching the clouds move across a beautiful Pennsylvania sky.

Between the terraced landform and the East Conservatory will be a paved area made of resin bound gravel. As you walk over the paving, it looks like thousands of small stones, but the clear resin holds the stones in place.

Kim worked with Wells Appel Landscape Architects from Philadelphia and FMG Architects from New Jersey to flesh out the details of the design.

During this process, plants were selected to rim the top of the landform. These plants provide a green band, which emphasizes the beautiful, horizontal lines of the terraces. Mattei construction from Delaware worked with Kim and Wells Appel to make sure that the grading on the landform and terraces was perfect. Mattei even used a GPS-grade survey to make sure the grades were spot on.

Here Kim Wilkie works with Mattei on making the grading absolutely perfect.

Rounding the landform, guests approach the building and then enter into a new extension off the East Conservatory. Once you enter this extension, take an immediate right and then you will be greeted by North America’s largest green wall. The green wall was designed as a lush oasis for guests entering into the restrooms. The art of the design is to take something so simple, like a restroom corridor, and turn it into an experience. The walls are lined with more than 47,000 ferns and sub-tropical plants.

Come check out our new East Plaza starting October 9. We hope you will like our new Garden that we have built for you to enjoy.

Restroom Hallway with North America's largest living wall (still under construction when photo was taken)

Longwood's Terraced Landform (still under construction when picture was taken)

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