January 2025 Newsletter

Hidden Lake Vineyard

2025 Newsletter

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Recap of 2024 What's coming up in 2025 Vineyard & property progress Brix & Finn update Wine Club launch

Recap of 2024

Hidden Lake Vineyard officially joined the ranks of the wine making industry. We are first and foremost farmers, growing grapes to sell to our wonderful winery partners, but with the help of our vineyard manager Joe Ramazzotti & his son and winemaker Travis - we bottled the first Hidden Lake Vineyard wine in April. Our favorite is of course the ‘Furrowed Brow’ Mourvédre Rose’ with the likeness of Brix and her precious furrowed brow. In October we received our license to sell our wines on the HLV website: www.hiddenlakevineyard.com.

Even though we are limited to selling and shipping wines to Minnesota, Florida, Washington DC, and California - you can go online to order wine and pick it up at HLV if you happen to be in the area. We will pursue applying for a license to sell in other states if enough requests are received.

 

What's coming up in 2025

Happy New Year Cheer from Hidden Lake Vineyard! Your support of our crazy wine endeavor is what drives the growth of HLV. That said, our goal is to stay small and personal - with very limited production, so we can keep our wine options fresh and exciting. We will take the excess harvest from each year and create new varietals for our customers to enjoy!

In April we plan to bottle the first Hidden Lake Vineyard varietal GSM (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvédre) Perpetual Motion; and a straight Mourvédre showcasing the likeness of Finn, as the Sentinel, our favorite pose of this handsome dude! (Label design is still in the creative stages for both.)

 

 

Vineyard & Property Progress

We experienced the first full production harvest in 2024 from the new varietals planted in the summer of 2021. The response from wineries has been great, and we were lucky to have sold most of our grapes, when many around the region struggled to sell any of their grapes. So please support our partner wineries listed on our website.

By the end of the 2025 we will have filled in all remaining ‘misses’ in the vineyard - where vines have died out - and we should experience full production harvests on our 21-acres of Grenache, Barbera, Zinfandel, Petite Syrah, Mourvédre, and Vermentino by 2027.

The property survived the deluge of the 2023-24 winter rains totaling 55”, and has so far successfully survived the early deluge of the 2024-2025 rainy season — where we experienced 15” of rain in 3 days in November — with 28" and still counting. To continue protecting the property from these heavy rainy seasons, the vineyard crew is landscaping the hillside below the new house to offset any concerns of future erosion. Working hard to finish before the return of the rainy season we hope is still coming!

 

 

Brix & Finn

Brix and Finn continue to be the true stewards of Hidden Lake Vineyard. They take this responsibility very seriously, taking a property walk every morning or lauding over their property from the back patio to make sure all creatures, big and small, are abiding the by the laws of the land - naturally nurturing all aspects of HLV. Brix continues to battle her health issues - kidney failure and low thyroid - while smiling through it all with her happy disposition. And as long as Finn has a ball in his mouth or in his sights, life is good. He is the epitome of a pure lab…loves water, loves playing fetch, loves sharing his favorite toys with you, loves to love on you!