Central Pa. winery plans to add more sparkling to what it already sells

Nissley Vineyards has been making sparkling wines for around five years now.

The Lancaster County producer, one of the oldest still operating in Pennsylvania, produces four sweet sparklings in a can — Strawberry Kiss, Apple Kiss, Blueberry Kiss and Peach Kiss — that in volume (375 mL) offer half of what you would get in a traditional wine bottle. They sell for $6/can.

That success has prompted Jonas Nissley to dabble some more in sparkling and enrich a portfolio that has significantly evolved over the past few years.

For one, he told PennLive on Wednesday, the winery has purchased 60 cases of a Pinot Noir-Chardonnay sparkling blend from Delaware County's Penns Woods Winery that they will begin selling (with the Nissley label) on Nov. 1 and should be available for purchase through the holidays. Penns Woods has built a solid reputation as a grape grower and dry wine producer, including several sparklings of its own.

Nissley also said that because the yields were so high in their Lancaster County vineyards this year that they have some excess juice and are contemplating using that for two new sparklings next year: a semisweet blend of the French hybrid reds and perhaps also another sparkling that's more on the dry side of the spectrum, like maybe a Vidal/Seyval blend.

National trends show that sparkling wines continue to buck some of the downward sales trends and are finding more loyal followers, and regional wineries have responded to that appeal by increasing the number of fizzy and bubbly wines they are making. Not only are they helping in sales but also winning awards: Port of Leonardtown Winery won the Maryland Comptroller's Cup earlier this year with a wine it calls Bubbly Blonde, a brut sparkling white wine made from 90% Cayuga and 10% Chardonel grapes.

As mentioned, Nissley's portfolio has expanded significantly under Jonas, the third generation to oversee the winery. Joining some of the popular wines it has been making for years — such as Grapeful Red and Grapeful White (sweet), Holiday Red and Holiday White (semi-sweet), Masquerade (semi-sweet), Naughty Marietta (semi-dry) and the iconic Rhapsody in Blue (semi-dry) — is a line of dry reserve vinifera wines and a Heritage Series of dry vinifera wines.

Those are expected to be enhanced by another solid growing season, one that Nissley said would have been an "A-plus-plus-plus" until the effects of Helene turned a long stretch of sunny and warm weather into two weeks of overcast skies and occasional showers.

"[That] kind of derailed what was going to be, you know, maybe a top year ... into a pretty good year is how I would put it, in terms of quality," he said. "Certainly all the early season stuff was really good, kind of before we got that rain. So if we hadn't got it, or if it had been a little shorter, the later-season stuff would have been just absolutely superb. But as it is, it'll be good, definitely good quality. But yields were really high this year. And I think I've heard from other growers, like the most we've seen in probably 10 years.

Nissley Vineyards, which opened in 1978, will celebrate the way a lot of regional wineries will, with a harvest festival called Fall Fest scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 19, from noon to 6 p.m. on thr winery grounds in Bainbridge. Admission is free, and the event will feature vendors and several food trucks/stands.

Corina Rose will perform from noon to 3 and Fierce from 3 to 6.

"It's just a great time of year because it's right after harvest and I think people are looking for things to do," he said. "So we highlight the sluishies, our warm Spicy Red and warm Spiced Apple ... it's just a fun opportunity for people to come out and experience what we do."