Anna Marie's Winery and Café makes time for its wine
Peach, with its “soft” flavor, is tricky, said Jodie Stock.
As head wine maker at Anna Marie's Winery and Café in East Butler, Stock is tasked daily with transforming regional produce into tasty beverages.
Because of the extended turnaround time for grapes, Stock plans the menu a year in advance.
That process, she said, is the best part of her job.
“You take a juice and you make a wine. We all start with the same ingredients and we all make something different,” said Stock, who has been with the winery since it opened in 2014.
“We make over 30 different varieties … sweet, semi-dry and dry. They all have unique challenges. Dries go through a second fermentation. With sweets, you must make sure it's on target with sweetness … Peach is challenging because it's not a pronounced flavor.”
Stock said she loves to chat up local winemakers who visit with questions, suggestions and usually a wine of their own in-hand.
“I have the same challenges and the opportunity to make the same mistakes they do … but if they mess up, it's five gallons. If I mess up, it's 275 gallons.”
Anna Marie's buys grapes from northeast Pennsylvania vineyards and contracts another winery to crush and press them.
Fruit juice is purchased from Walker's Fruit Farm in New York. Anna Marie's buys apple, blueberry, blackberry, cranberry, plum, pear and pomegranate. The peach and cherry are new this year.Juices arrive at Anna Marie's in 265 gallon totes, and right off, Stock takes readings to see how sweet they are.“'Brix' is the percent of sugar,” said Stock, who then adds yeast, and allows the fruit to ferment for about two weeks.“You should see it here in the fall when grapes are coming off the vines. It's crazy. We start up to 15 vats at a time,” Stock said. “October is the hectic time for wineries.”
Anna Marie's “tries to turn the tanks” twice a year with grapes in the fall, fruit is generally early in the year.Some of Anna Marie's wines, like “Niagara” are straight, one-grape juices. Niagara is made from Niagara grapes.Others like “Solitude” are blends, in this case Niagara and Catawba grapes.“Trilogy,” a blend of concord, Niagara and Catawba grapes, is the top seller at Anna Marie's.“Once the wine is completely dry, we back sweeten ... we add sugar,” Stock said.Anna Marie's doesn't have oak barrels for aging. Stainless steel tanks hold 1,100 liters, equivalent to 275 gallons.When the wine is done fermenting, staff adds a stabilizer and begins “racking” or cleaning the wine of old yeast, skins, pectin and particulates. After racked two or three times, the wine goes through a series of filters.“You do not want to over-filter because it takes color out each time,” Stock said.The pH and sulfur trioxide are checked before sulfites are added for stabilization.“All wine naturally has sulfites, but the little we add keeps it from turning into vinegar,” Stock said. “We use minimal sulfites.”The wine is then profiled to determine if it's sweet or dry, making sure it's on target with local pallets.It's then blended and bottled.
A handful of people help bottle, Stock said. They generally do two tanks a day, getting 1,200 to 1,300 bottles out of each tank.“It's a big process, and you can't stop once you start,” Stock said.Because it takes about 90 minutes to set everything up, and afterward you have to clean everything, the winery streamlines when it can.Once corked, capped and labeled, the wines continue aging in the bottle until they're table ready. For some wines, that's a couple months. For some of the reds, it's a year.“That's why we're always looking a year ahead,” said Stock.Lately, that's been a bit of a challenge as Anna Marie's products are gaining popularity.Bottles are moving quickly, but they can't be forced to age faster.“It's a good problem to have. It means we're doing well,” said Stock, who estimated cafe customers buy about two cases of Trilogy alone each day.
Anna Marie's is owned by the McKivigan family, who has been active in the local business scene since 1957, when David L. McKivigan opened Tire Center, USA (now known locally as Butler Tires for Less).In addition to the 10 locations of that business, Dave and his wife, Anna Marie, also now own five restaurants, including Anna Marie's.The businesses are supported by a second- and third-generation family members.Kristen Kane, cafe manager and part of the family, said the cafe at Anna Marie's sells only its own wine and local craft beer.Stock said she prefers the drier wines, “but sweet wine is delicious.”And if the wine doesn't turn out as planned?“We repurpose it into salad dressing. We make vinegar or cook with it,” Stock said. “We had a white wine that was supposed to be dry once that we accidentally added sugar to. We just embraced it, added more sugar and made it a winter wine. We try not to throw any wine away.”
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