Seasons greetings and happy holidays. As 2019 draws to a close and the New Year approaches, we took a look at the past year to take stock of what we've accomplished and experienced.

First and foremost, Fence Stile Vineyards and Winery celebrated its 10th anniversary with a party in April, uniting with friends, wine club members, frequent guests, and the public. We added new Wine Xenos glassware and T-shirts, released new wines, and offered a drawing for a Fence Stile oak barrelhead. We also added new flute glassware for sparkling wine.

What does Wine Xenos mean? Xenos (zee-nohs, rhymes with fructose), is a Greek word that refers to a stranger or guest. When a stranger arrives, a host is xenial and treats them as a guest, extending hospitality to visitors. The spirit of xenos matches the welcoming motto of Fence Stile Vineyards and Winery. We like to say, “Good fences make good neighbors, a Fence Stile makes neighbors, good friends!”

Established in 2009, Fence Stile opened its doors in a modest 600 square-foot tasting room and winery that is located on the south side of the fire pit on the patio. ​Next door, the current modern tasting room, winery, and wine caves have been in operation since 2015. Over the past decade, we expanded the original six acres of vineyards, which were planted in 2007, to a full ten acres. Here's to the next ten years!

In April 2019, we released Tramonto as a late harvest dry Vidal Blanc craft wine. Read more about this small-batch wine. We also released 2018 NorCyana in July 2019, a Norton aged for 18 months in a bourbon whiskey oak barrel. This wine continues to be a strong seller, bearing characteristics of oak and bourbon in its aroma and taste. Learn more about Norcyana. 

We also made some improvements and additions to the estate. We added a water fountain to the pond next to the Tasting Room, creating a water feature that lights up at night. The fountain has been stored for the winter so look for its return in the spring. Behind the scenes, we upgraded our chiller. This upgrade increases our ability to control the quality of wine with fewer additives. ​

Last spring, we added lighting and light poles (photos below) to the upper terrace of the patio. Other projects included updating the kitchen with new cabinets and tile to make it more functional and attractive. We also added garden beds to the south near the blackberry bushes. We are eager to begin planting in spring so the kitchen has fresh produce grown on the estate. Further, we installed light poles in the parking lot that will cast ample illumination. The light in the parking lot will be handy spring through fall, when we once again expand Tasting Room seasonal hours later in the day from March through November.

We hosted several wine and food events, including a Farm and Market multi-course rosé dinner (photos below) and a benefit dinner for the March of Dimes featuring a guest chef from The Savoy. We also collaborated with The Elms on two wine-pairing dinners to highlight our wines and the food of Elms chef Nash deJesus. We catered food for our growing Wine Club at members-only quarterly wine pickup parties, a birthday party, wedding, bachelorette party, and Vineyard LifeStile Market Day. We also hosted North Kansas City Hospital, Centurions, Lockton, and other groups for private events. Finally, our chef catered a three-course meal paired with Fence Stile wines at Inn on Crescent Lake in Excelsior Springs.

We also hosted an Acoustic Music Series in our Wine Cave over the summer, featuring artists Joy Zimmerman, Bob Morrison, and Laura Lisbeth. Each artist performed solo for an audience in a candle-lit setting with amazing acoustics that proved to be magical and inspiring.

We took a summer field trip with guests on the Excelsior Springs Chamber Trolley to Fair Share Farm in Kearney. Farmers Rebecca Graff and Tom Ruggieri led us on a tour of the farm and their fermentation operations. Speaking of the Chamber Trolley, we're pleased to work with them and other local/regional businesses as part of the Trolley Winery Tour. Visit Fence Stile and other wineries on a 2020 trolley tour!

Harvest is done. This year's harvest season took place on Sundays and a few weekday harvests throughout September. White grapes, such as Vidal Blanc, Seyval, and Vignoles, were harvested first and de-stemmed, crushed, and pressed. White grapes are generally processed on the same day of harvest to capture the freshness of flavor, aroma, and ripeness. Fresh juice settled into the tanks to stabilize at a cool temperature.

Red grapes take longer to mature, develop skin color, and reach an optimal balance of sugar and acid levels. As a result, red grapes are always harvested later in the season. Once ready, red grapes including Chambourcin and Concord were picked and crushed. In the case of Chambourcin, the must (crushed skins, pulp, seeds, and juice) isn't pressed for juice on the same day as harvest and crush. Instead, the must is pumped into tanks. Red wine gains its color from the juice's extended contact with grape skins. Exposure to the seeds, skins, and even stems increases tannins that will give red wine more structure and depth. Pressing the Chambourcin must takes place a few weeks after harvest and crush. Post-harvest, the winemaker's work begins on the next crucial step once juice from white grapes and must from red grapes is in the tanks.

Fence Stile owner and winemaker Shriti Plimpton adds yeast to begin the fermentation process. Depending on the grape, different yeast is used to interact with the juice (or must) to shape the flavor, aroma, and body of the wine-to-be in development. Yeast feeds on the natural sugar in the grapes. High levels of sugar are desirable. Sugar levels are measured by brix, a unit of measurement. Brix measurements in the twenties are desirable. More available sugar gives the yeast more sustenance to feed and produce alcohol as a byproduct, and, in turn, transform grape juice into wine. 

Seyval, Vignoles, and Vidal Blanc underwent fermentation and the early-stage transformation into wine under Shriti's watchful eye. The wines will develop and age in stainless steel tanks and perhaps a few select oak barrels for many months until bottling in late winter or early spring the following year. Currently, Fence Stile hosts Fermentation Tours in September and October that take place in the winery. Visit the website's home page or our Facebook events for available dates/times. Call the winery at 816-500-6465 to RSVP. Occurring only during harvest and post-harvest, the tour offers a rare, limited-time opportunity to taste the 2019 wines at an early stage as they develop from week to week. The tour enables guests to taste these wines next to finished wines from past vintages for comparison. As the winemaker, Shriti also provides an easy-to-follow explanation of her work and provides a peek behind the curtain to demystify the winemaking process. 

Red wine grapes, such as Chambourcin, requires additional work on the must. The skins of the crushed grape must float to the top of the tank containing the wine in development. That floating must forms a "cap." Once yeast is added and fermentation begins, the "cap" needs to be punched twice a day, daily, for up to two weeks or so. Punching the cap with a long-handled punch (kind of like a plunger) enables the yeast and early-stage wine to have greater circulation with the must. In some cases, hoses are also connected to the upper and lower parts of the tank so that the wine may circulate atop the must via a sprinkler or pump-over (See photos). With each tank of red wine, Shriti climbs atop the tank with a metal punch and/or paddle. She physically moves the cap to facilitate better circulation and skin contact.

This year, Shriti has segregated Chambourcin must into three separate tanks. One tank filled with crushed grape must receives additional mixing via a pump-over of wine and twice-daily punch downs. A second tank of crushed must is punched down twice a day. The third tank includes both crushed grape must and a percentage of whole grape clusters that is punched down twice a day. She's separated the Chambourcin into separate tanks and processed them with various approaches to determine how the tannins, flavor, and body of each batch will develop. These batches may result in separate wines or may be used to create a more layered blend of wine, depending on the results. Regardless, the post-harvest fermentation and physical management of the wines in the tanks requires forethought, planning, patience, and work. Shriti's willingness to experiment and adapt to each year's harvest underscores her winemaking philosophy and practice at Fence Stile. She works with what nature provides to fully express the grape's character with each vintage of wine. This work also underscores a commitment to produce small-batch craft wine with a focus on quality vs. quantity. 

We're excited to see how the Chambourcin and our other wines from the 2019 harvest evolve. Visit the Tasting Room to learn more about the Fermentation Tour, Winery and Wine Cave Tour, and to taste our current vintages of wine. 

On a side note, our thanks goes out to the many volunteers who helped us with this year's harvest. We couldn't have completed harvest without them! 

Rick Lally - Fence Stile Wine Cave 2019 Acoustic Music Series

Fan favorite Rick Lally kicks off our 2019 Acoustic Music Series in Fence Stile's Wine Cave on Sunday, May 12, 1-3 PM. The two-hour performance with intermission includes a glass of wine. Tickets: $15. Additional wine available for purchase with private bar service in the Cellar 57 club room. Seating limited to 22 guests. RSVP by calling 816-500-6465 or email events@fencestile.com.
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Lally's new album, It's High Time, is a reference to the span of time it took to write, record, and release his work. The album is a retrospective of songs he wrote from 1989 to 2017.  "I've been writing and playing music since I was a teen," Lally said. "I've always done it as a way to make sense of my thoughts or feelings."

Read the full profile of Rick Lally on our blog. 

The series continues with a slate of familiar names and new artists performing at Fence Stile including Joy Zimmerman, Bob Morrison, newcomer Taylor Cullen, and Laura Lisbeth. Watch the Wine and Stile blog for additional profiles of these artists throughout the year.

You cannot touch smoke. Smoke touches you. The scent of smoke from wild plum, oak, grapevine, and lavender clings to my skin, my hair, and my clothes. Smoke hangs on with persistence, a wild spirit that lingers, an intangible presence that is most certainly there.
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As the chef and brand/event manager at Fence Stile Vineyard and Winery, I spent the afternoon preparing ingredients for a farm and market-themed wine and small plates dinner. The dinner takes place in the Tasting Room on Sunday, November 18th (Call 816-500-6465 to RSVP). Farmers will attend the dinner and bring goods for a pop-up market so guests may meet them and buy items for the holiday. The Tasting Room will remain open to the public during the dinner so everyone is encouraged to visit, sip on wine, and shop.

Near a pond with a slushy iced surface, I built a small fire to grill radishes and smoke leeks sourced from farmers Tom Ruggieri and Rebecca Graff at Fair Share Farm, based in Kearney, Missouri. I used wild plum wood obtained from farmer Linda Hezel at Prairie Birthday Farm, also based in Kearney, and oak and grapevine from the winery estate. A single piece of oak formed the foundation of the fire. Smaller pieces of wood tilted at angles on both sides of the oak like church rafters. Brisk November wind blew across the pond and fanned the flame. Kindling shriveled into glowing orange threads and ash. Soon the fire roared as wood crackled and hissed. 

​The wine and food dinner highlights ingredients and products from Fair Share Farm and Prairie Birthday Farm. Also, Dr. Janet Smith of Borgman's Dairy Farm, based in Holden, Missouri, supplied milk, cheese, yogurt and other products made from goat milk.

​Several varieties of French-American hybrid grapes grow along ten hilly acres that surround the tasting room at Fence Stile. Owner-winemaker Shriti Plimpton launched the winery and vineyards nearly ten years ago. The winery is known for its dry and semi-dry wines, but has a wide range for those with sweeter palates. The upcoming dinner offers a showcase for how three wines produced onsite – Vignoles, Backpack Red, and Vidal Blanc – pair with seasonal farm ingredients prepared to their utmost flavor.

Vineyard manager Shawna Mull tends to the vines year-round. Sometimes, a section of vine runs its course. Cut into small segments, this particular piece of dry, dead grapevine that smolders in the heart of the fire had no more life to give as a lifeline for grape clusters. Smoke from burning vine and wood enveloped the bulbs of radishes with leafy greens still attached and a cluster of leeks thick as metal pipes.
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You cannot touch smoke. Smoke touches you.

The wind shifted and smoke blew past my face, prompting my eyes to water. The smoke sent a signal, a reminder. Smoke and fire heeds its own whims and acts as its own master. I coaxed the smoke to lend its scent to vegetables on the grill. I tried to tame orange licks of flame to do by bidding. I poked and prodded and fed the fire's appetite. Flames subsided into coals and smoke wafted at a steady pace, dancing around the radishes and leeks.

Slowly, the bright magenta skin of the radishes dulled and charred with black flakes. Most of the greens had burned away. Removed from the grill, the radishes more closely resembled baby red potatoes cooked directly in a fire. Grilling the radishes mellows its sharp peppery bite and introduces a soft sweetness. The subtle taste and aroma of smoke will interplay with the sweetness, a tart dash of lemon juice, creamy butter, and a dash of salt to unite the flavors.

The leeks grilled until they softened and charred at the edges. Once the coals were ready, I added stalks of dried lavender from Fence Stile's flower bed to further perfume the smoke dancing around the leeks. After sufficient smoking, I plucked the leeks from the grill, doused the coals, and headed to the kitchen. ​ ​