Each year ..... Hagley Golden Pheasants sponsors a Harvest Party. The party celebrates the beauty of the fall season with music, hay rides, demonstrations of pumpkin carving, winemaking and samples, children's games and a delicious barbecue.

The event was wonderful, as we setup under the big tent, the tables were decorated with a traditional fall harvest theme. Plenty of activities and fun for all ages. The food was catered by the Wilmington Club, and the homemade wine was supplies by your truly "SomethingWine"

This year we brought 1 - lug (36 lbs) of California Chardonnay Grapes to use during the demonstration. Fresh from CA and sweet with just the right balance we hope to make some of this wine for next years festival.

Chardonnay is by far the most widely planted grape crop in California, comprising over 40% of all white varieties crushed in the state in 2000.

We listened to a bluegrass band while the guests were treated to buffet style banquette, with hotdog's - hamburgers - BBQ chicken - and all the fixings you could imagine. The only thing beter than all the food was the deserts and I mean deserts. Ice cream cons apple pie's with condiments and syrups, I think I was in heaven. As I droped the grapes into the fruit crusher, we then pressed them out to produce about 2.5 gallons must.

The most popular region for growing Chardonnay Grapes is Burgundy in France and it is thought that this is where Chardonnay wine originated. Most people believe that Chardonnay grapes were first cultivated by ancient vineyards when they began cross-pollinating between Pinot grapevines and Gouais Blanc grapevines.