đŸ„¶ Apollo's Praise - The Finger Lakes Hottest New Winery! WE DID IT the BD15 Exclusive 'LoveJoy' Exists!

BerserkerDay 15 (January 26, 2024)
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Thanks everyone for a wonderful BD15 - we are so honored to be a part of this wonderful community! We’ve shut down the ordering on our website below, but don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions directly!

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Some of you know me and need to read no more, feel free to scroll on down for our BD15 deals and links to order.

For those of you who aren’t quite sure
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Reintroduce Myself

“Who Are You
 and Are You Crazy?”
Great Question. You have to be a little bit crazy to to decide to start a winery, right? But opportunities only exist if you take them!

We’re Apollo’s Praise, a winery started with the 2023 harvest after my spouse, Julia Hoyle, and I purchased the stunning, sandstone, Lahoma Vineyards site on Seneca Lake from founder - and all around amazing mensch - Ken Fulkerson. We make scintillating Rieslings, juicy Cab Francs, a textured GrĂŒner, elegant Chardonnay, and a few sneaky surprises
 including a Berserker only exclusive!

Lahoma Vineyard Title Card
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“Why Should I Bite?”
We make one of the most exciting sets of cool climate wines in North America, or god help us that is what we are trying for full speed ahead. Wines that make you happy you have more in the cellar to age. Wines that you can’t wait to share with friends.

Lofty goals, but thankfully we get affirmations we’re on the right path from time to time. Like this article about us in Decanter, or Vinepair’s “Top Wineries to Watch For in 2024” feature, or Skurnik picking us up as the first winery they’ve ever taken on without even trying a wine yet, or Kelby being asked by Jancis Robinson to speak on a Riesling Panel at the 2023 Master of Wine Symposium. When you belong, you belong.

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Schall, Trimbach, Egon MĂŒller, Jancis, Kelby, Erni Loosen, and Emmerich Knoll

“So how do I get in on it? And is BD15 actually your launch?”
Yes! This is the first time the wines have ever been available for purchase, BD15 is where it is all beginning! We’ve loved the Wine Berserker’s Community and can think of no better group to introduce the wines to.

Thanks to all the interest in our wines, THE ONLY WAY TO PURCHASE FROM US WILL BE ON BD15 OR BY JOINING OUR WINE AND GLEE CLUB!

  • Note that these one time deals are all futures - everything offered is still in tank or barrel - that will ship at the specified dates throughout the year.
  • As a thank you for helping us get our start - truly, that is what this community is allowing us to do as we gear up to buy glass, labels, etc. - you get the best discounts we’ll ever offer.
  • As an extra special thank you, one reserve wine offered below we are only going to make if we have enough sales of it to this Berserker Community. :cheers:

The Offers!

Click here - or peruse the below and click any wine name - to order :champagne:

For Shipping, note the expected timeline mentioned in each package.
We ship to all states EXCEPT: AR, DE, MS, RI, SD, UT.
AK and HI shipping orders may require a small charge pending UPS - shoot us a message!

1. Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ :notes: :musical_note: - Six Classics for $150!

Wanna be in on the start, the first ever shipment from Apollo’s Praise? Want 6 great wines spanning the breadth of our styles? Want it to be ‘no strings attached?’ You’ve come to the right place! We’re offering a one-off 6 pack of our May 2024 Wine Club Shipment with no further commitment required - although we certainly hope you’ll decide to stay onboard :swoon:

  • 2023 Dry Riesling - Our classic. Grapefruit, smoke, a new benchmark.
  • 2023 Riesling - An honest to goodness Kabinett style in the US. Ripping acid and a ripping good time.
  • 2023 Scheurebe - “Wait, you have what?!” Yup. Inaugural vintage, first ever from the region, and a rarity anywhere stateside. Bone dry and driven by guava and flint aromatics.
  • 2x 2023 Dry RosĂ© - 100% Cabernet Franc, 100% Delicious. For those of you who remember the much beloved ‘Kelby James Russell Rosé’ from years past, here you have it!
  • 2023 Cabernet Franc - The quintessential summer red, stainless steel fermented and bursting with bramble fruit over crunchy tannins. The closest you can come to Cru Beaujolais this side of Lyon.

Six Classics for $150 total and $0 Shipping - a 20% discount to thank you!

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2. Fly Me To The Moon :full_moon_with_face: :dizzy: - The Full Year for $300!

Play among the stars with the full moon of our first year of wines! You’ll get both our Wine and Glee Club shipments - the 6 bottles for May in the above shipment as well as our September ‘Reserve’ Shipment!

  • 2023 ‘The Knoll’ Riesling - Our most prestigious site and bottling, and a cult wine already. Dry, structured, and powerful.
  • 2023 GrĂŒner Veltliner - Classic white pepper aromatics, rich texture from spontaneous fermentation in neutral barrels and long lees aging, this wine is perfect year round.
  • 2023 Chardonnay - Beautiful fruit fermented in large format French oak, this is the cool climate style you’ve been looking for.
  • 2023 Reserve Cabernet Franc - The quintessential summer red, stainless steel fermented and bursting with bramble fruit over crunchy tannins. The closest you can come to Cru Beaujolais this side of Lyon.
  • One more bottle each of the 2023 Dry Riesling and 2023 Riesling mentioned above. By the autumn we expect you’ll want a refill. :grimacing:

$300 for the year’s subscription, shipping included, a 25% savings!

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3. We Built This City on Rock and Knoll :metal:

Can’t get enough of your fix of ‘The Knoll’ Dry Riesling? We don’t blame you! It is our world famous standout for a reason! So we’ve decided to specially create this pre-release offering for BD15 only. Normally set at $75 per bottle, for BD15 only we’re doing the following package that will ship out after bottling in September:

“Buy 2 Get 1 Opportunity” - 3x bottles of the 2023 ‘The Knoll’ Riesling for $150!

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4. Love(joy) Shack Baby! A Wine EXCLUSIVE for Berserkers! :berserker:

And here it is - perhaps our craziest idea! We wanted to do something extra special for our inaugural BD launch, and have decided we want to make a reserve wine just for you. A wine that has never been made before: a full expression of The Knoll!

What do we mean? While The Knoll is synonymous with Riesling, this small hill also has our GrĂŒner Veltliner and Chardonnay on it. And as different as those grapes are, they all share a roasted grapefruit character and power on the palate. We’ve decided it is high time to carefully blend a reserve lot of them together - and, fellow Berserkers, if you can make it happen it is all for you.

We need to sell 25 of this 3-pack to justify making the wine, and we think you all are just the way to do it. So throw one of these onto your order, tag your fellow BD15 friends, and let’s see if we can get there! (If we don’t, we will of course refund applicable orders.) Orders will ship after bottling in September.

Countdown: WE MADE IT - THANK YOU WB COMMUNITY FOR MAKING THIS HAPPEN!

“Berserkers Only” - 3x bottles of the 2023 ‘Lovejoy’ The Knoll for $120!

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Thank you so much for your time and giving us a shot!

Fan of ours? Purchasing one of our specials? Have questions? Let us know below, we love to hear from you!

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I grabbed 1 of offer 4. Curious to see the countdown tomorrow

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Great luck on the new venture, Kelby

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That Jay-Z gif is just :kissing_smiling_eyes: :pinched_fingers:

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Thank you, David. Scary times, but exciting times, and we’ll see how we do the next two days! Curious how people will respond to a totally new winery.

:pray: We’re really intrigued as well, given it is a totally new wine idea for us. Cautiously optimistic it will work out, though!

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If the Knoll Reserve gets made, do you know approx. %s of the 3 varieties yet?

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Great question. My hunch is that it will be something like 45% GrĂŒner, 30% Riesling, 25% Chardonnay, just as an off the cuff supposition. We’ll do a lot of blending trials to hone in on the best combination of the three, but my thought is that I’ll want to lean on a blend that dials up the mineral component in the wine (The Knoll Riesling often gets noted for being ‘salty’) with a bit of roundness and depth from the Chard.

Hope that helps!

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If we joined the glee club, is there a difference in ordering the wines now vs later (other than the Knoll Reserve)? Very excited for these, just wondering if I can wait and soothe my wallet a bit!

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Aha! The rare person who is in the venn diagram overlap of Wine Berserkers and those who have followed me since launching Apollo’s Praise! I’ll shoot you a message with the differences :cheers:

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Yes, I am wondering as well
or at least if I order now, how this would affect joining the club later?

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Hi Kelby, would you mind sending me a copy of that note as well? I’m a proud notebook-holder too (who also just bought a ticket to the moon). Thanks!

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Wow! I need to take a moment to point out how impressed I am that there are a notable number of people who presumably found me via Wine Berserkers and have followed along well enough to have pre-joined the Wine and Glee Club. That is just
 super cool. Kudos to @ToddFrench and the whole team, wow.

Alright, in your instance @Ben_Bader or @AmandaH - having purchased the notebook already gave you access to the Club and we were going to discount your first shipment by $25. The total for the year in that instance would then hit the $300 of “Fly Me To The Moon”, which is functionally the first year’s club shipment. But you’d still be paying for shipping, whereas ordering it via BD15 and prepaying the full amount gets you the discounted rate + free shipping (as a thank you for helping seed our funding ahead of time).

So! If you want to purchase the BD offer and already purchased the notebook, we can give you the $25 off ‘notebook coupon’ to use on any future purchase so you don’t lose it. Or, in your instance Ben, we can refund the BD purchase if you’d prefer to wait - we’re here to make Club members happy :slight_smile:

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And here is the real secret - if you purchase either “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” or “Fly Me To The Moon” that is functionally the same as joining our Wine and Glee Club outright. We just won’t have a card on file with a BD15 order, so we will of course reach back out to confirm people want to continue past the first or second shipment.

Why is that a secret? Well
 we haven’t said it publicly yet, but we’ve had so many pre-sign-ups for the Club we think we’re going to be cutting off accepting any one else soon. So this BD15 offer is a bit of a secret entrance that we wanted to reserve for you all :slight_smile:

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Thanks Kelby! I’m fine to keep the order as-is; appreciate the explainer, and am definitely looking forward to the wines!

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For those keeping score at home, already 20% of the way there to making the LoveJoy Knoll Reserve, just off the first flush of BD15 Pre-Sales :sunglasses:

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Order in! Very excited to see the FLX represented today.

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Is there a way for you to convert my Lovejoy $ into a “wanna be starting something” if the 25 purchases isn’t met? I’d rather that than a refund.

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Red Newt from Lahoma has been our favorite Finger Lakes Riesling, so we’re in for a case and then some.

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Absolutely, although it looks like Lovejoy is trending well! (For better or worse, pending your thoughts on the 6-pack starter :cheers: )