Harvest 2025 Begins

This past weekend we celebrated the beginning of the harvest season with a dinner in the vineyard. We walked through the vines, tasting different varieties of grapes at different stages of ripeness. We discussed what we look for in the fruit to know when to pick, and how the flavor and texture of the berries at harvest impacts every winemaking decision we make from then on. We drank some pretty cool wines paired with four delicious courses from the geniuses at Haymaker Bun Co. It was a magical evening, one that has left us feeling energized and inspired to start harvest this week.

And start harvest we did! On Thursday we picked the first fruit of the 2025 season - our single row of Adalmiina.

This is an early variety with lower sugar and acidity, and citrusy flavors that become more tropical as it ripens. We love Adalmiina as a component in our methode champenoise sparkling wine, adding a punch of fruit and a complex, savory character. At just 582 pounds, it’s our smallest pick of the year and the perfect way to ease into the madness of harvest.

Soon the picks will be much larger, and we would love your help in getting these beautiful grapes off the vines and into the winery. Last year our community helped us pick 35,000 lbs of fruit from this little vineyard and we’re excited to do it all again!

We will be picking regularly throughout September and October, dependent on ripeness and weather. We start picking at 8am and plan to finish around noon. We provide gloves, pruners, sunscreen, and bug spray, as well as lunch and wine. All you need is sturdy footwear and positive vibes.

Interested in joining us?

Click here to learn more and sign up for our list and
we’ll let you know when we’re picking.
We can’t wait to have you!

Winemaker Dinner Recap

Oh. What a Night.

This past Saturday we hosted 40 special guests for our very first Winemaker Dinner. We started in the tasting room with a grazing board loaded with local provisions before heading into the winery for a wonderful meal among the tanks and barrels. With the help of our friends at Dino Bones, it was a magical evening filled with delicious food, intriguing wine pairings, laughter, and thoughtful conversation.

Homegrown and handmade wines like ours have so many stories to tell, and these dinners are the perfect opportunity for us to explore each wine in detail and share its stories from the soil to our glass.

We’re already looking forward to the next one!

Austrian Wine Culture in Vermont

We lived in Austria for six months in 2019, working vintage at a couple wineries about 60 miles up the Danube from Vienna. Nichole spent most of her time in the cellar at Weingut Bründlmayer in the Kamptal region and Kevin was out in the vineyards at Weingut Jamek in the Wachau. Winegrowing has been the main business in this part of the world for 2,000 years and they’ve certainly figured some things out along the way. The growing season is somewhat similar to ours here in Vermont, and a lot of the philosophies and techniques that we practice at Lincoln Peak we learned during our time in Austria.

We also left Austria astounded and inspired by how this long history of growing grapes and making wine has affected the entire culture of the region, how proud the locals are of their wines, and how passionately they support the farmers that have been tending these impossibly steep vineyards by hand for generations.

The region is made up of small villages each with a handful of wineries, most of which are just big enough to support the family that runs it. Throughout the year, but especially in the fall, each winery in the village takes a turn opening their doors for a month at a time, offering the wines from their vineyard paired with local specialties like cured meats, cheeses, and fresh veggies.

This tradition is known as Heuriger, and has been an integral part of Austrian wine culture since the 18th century when Emperor Josef II passed a law allowing wineries to sell their own products, instead of just the noblemen. Just like the wines, every family’s Heuriger is a little different, but they all offer a cozy, humble atmosphere and the whole village seems to come out to drink the new wines, eat some hearty food, and chop it up with their neighbors.

After long days of picking fruit in the vineyard and fermenting wines in the cellar, we loved walking to the local Heuriger, nourishing our tired bodies, and tasting some amazing wines. We’re excited to bring this tradition to our community in Vermont and will be offering a Heuriger in the tasting room for the entire month of October. We’ll have new Austrian-inspired charcuterie boards paired with your favorite Lincoln Peak wines, as well as some sneak peeks at the new 2024 wines fermenting in the winery.