Archive for the ‘Main Street’ Category

Each year, the day after Thanksgiving, marks the  return of Christmas Traditions to South Main Street.   There’s no better place than Main Street St. Charles for an old-fashioned Christmas filled with storybook characters, Victorian Carolers and Santas from around the world!  It’s a perfect holiday experience for everyone!     New this year is the Holiday Skating Rink located in Frontier Park.  It will be open all days the Christmas Traditions Festival is active.  For those with children, be sure to come out on Saturday mornings when Santa arrives on Main Street in a horse-drawn carriage.  While your here, be sure to visit our Wine Shop for some new gift ideas then relax after a day of shopping at the Winery with a glass of your favorite wine!

For more information on St. Charles Christmas Traditions, click here.

It’s been since 2006 when the Harley Owner’s Group (H.O.G.) MO State Rally has embarked on St. Charles, but we’re happy to welcome them back!

September 9-12th, 2009 you’ll find Main Street and the surrounding area full of Harley Davidson Motorcycles and general Harley enthusiasts.  Harley Davidson Dealerships sponsor Rider Groups/Chapters across the nation.  Every year, each state has a State Rally where all the Chapters in the State are invited to get together.  In the State of Missouri, there are 14 Chapters.  There are 7 Chapters within the St. Louis/Illinois metro area alone.  When speaking with their Rally Coordinator, Brad Sabol, he said they’re expecting over 800 riders and their families to visit the St. Charles area between the Convention Center and Main Street during the three day event.

We hope that they get a chance to visit our restaurant, and if so, please take a moment to comment on our blog about what your visit!

For more information, visit:  www.mostatehogrally.com

It’s that time of year again! 

The Annual Festival of the Little Hills returns to Frontier Park and Main Street on August 21-23, 2009!  

As much as we’d like to claim that this is a particular celebration focusing on our wine and the history of our winery, we have to admit it has nothing to do with wine at all!  Instead, it is a colossal craft fair that comes to our town every year!  This event attracts craft vendors from over 30 states displaying their talents and selling their goods.  There is also live entertainment scheduled on the Main Stage in Frontier Park throughout the weekend and lots of food!

If  you’re planning on joining in on the fun, you might want to check out the Parking Map link on the Restaurant page of our website for assistance.  Also, be aware that  the South end of Main Street (from Boone’s Slick to Monroe Street) will be closed to general traffic starting at 5 am on Friday, August 21st until 7 pm Sunday, August 23rd.

For the complete schedule for this event visit:  www.festivalofthelittlehills.com .   We hope to see you on Main Street.   It really is a good time!

Little Hills has not limited its wine making to Missouri grapes.  Instead, we have expanded our wine making to include other fruits such as locally grown strawberries, blueberries and pumpkins.  Currently, the ever popular blue-black Blueberry Wine is in process at our St. Charles Caverns! Last week, we crushed and processed 3000 pounds of blueberries which are fermenting right now!  Phil the Wine Maker, David (the Winery owner) and his Daughter(Kaity) were the lead processors with these little blue gems of joy!

 

Blueberries come in Boxes

Since we process both grapes and berries in our winery, we thought people may wonder if there are any differences in crushing, fermenting or processing berries and grapes, so we thought we would share what we know.  First things first – crush it……….with grapes, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries, modification requires the crush. Next, sugar is added for sweetness at different levels.  With sugar, comes alcohol when a little yeast is added. It’s a beautiful thing, a little chemical reaction occurs to create the alcohol. (Don’t try this at home, come see us! LOL)  Many grapes already contain a small amount of yeast and this may be the way wine was discovered, from total natural occurring fermentation.  By adding a lot of sugar the alcohol level will kill off the yeast before all the sugar is converted giving you a very sweet wine (leaving what is called residual sugar), while if less sugar is added when the yeast is killed off a dry wine(without residual sugar) will result.

 A very popular question for the health conscious and sugar challenged is “how much residual sugar does this wine have?” That is very closely related to the sweetness level.  Since most fruits already have natural sugar in them they can be turned into wine of about 4 to 6% volume alcohol without adding any sugar at all. However, with this low of alcohol content they will not keep for long, most enologists (winemakers) prefer to produce wines with volume alcohol of 12 to 17%. Greater alcohol levels benefit things inside the bottle and the lucky owner of the wine.

The fermenting time can also be manipulated by temperature. When wine is fermenting, foam forms and bubbles can be seen rising to the top; because it’s hot on the bottom, this heat is produced as a natural part of the fermentation process, when the bubbling stops, the fermentation is complete. Along with the amount of sugar used, temperature also plays an important factor in the wine fermentation. Fermentation can actually be stopped by “chilling the must”. Must is freshly pressed fruit juice that still contains the skins, seeds, and stems of the fruit. Before bottling or aging the must is filtered to get rid of the solid. This filtering process is also referred to as “chilling the must.” After fermentation the wine is then aged or matured. Red wines are matured in oak barrels or cask for a year or more, while white wines usually mature in stainless-steel tanks and are bottled earlier than reds.  When the winemaker has determined that the wine is done, it is then bottled. The next step we all know, “Cheers!”

So, what is the difference in the process of grapes versus other fruited wine?  All grapes are subject to “the same routine”, however less sugar, more time, more sugar, less time and since fruit wines are sweeter than most grape wines, less time due to more sugar. One final intersting fact; 13 pounds of berries plus 11 pounds of sugar make 5 gallons of blueberry wine, 40 pounds of concord grapes plus 6.5 pounds of sugar generates 5 gallons of sweet concord wine.

We are super excited about the blueberries in process for our “Little Hills Blue and Black Wine.”  It will be available for sampling and purchase in a few months!