Meet Ken Hadley

After making wine for more than 30 years as a hobby, Ken entered in an international wine competition. His Sauvignon Blanc won a gold medal. His wife, Sue, challenged him to take his hobby to a professional level. He did! And now he is the owner/vintner at Tuscarora Mountain Winery. The winery has been open now for nearly 2 1/2 years. It has been very successful and continues to grow tremendously. He and Sue opened a second store in Greencastle this past November. Since opening many of his wines have earned awards- including, Sauvignon Blanc, 1864, Rifle Man Red, Blackberry, Peach Cobbler and Granny Smith Apple. He has big dreams for Tuscarora Mountain Winery and it is exciting to be a part of it.

Ken is a self-proclaimed horticulture nut. He is constantly innovating and trying new growing techniques. Currently he grows a large variety of berries and grapes. Not to mention, he is always experimenting in the winery. Constantly coming up with new recipes for outstanding and unique wines. And tweaking the wines he already makes. There is always something delicious brewing in the back:)

Ken truly enjoys talking with and getting to know his customers. He works very hard, but whenever he has a chance he enjoys chatting about wine making and growing to all who are interested.
Ken was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pa. He has lived all over the country since then taking on new and diverse professions and owning other businesses. During the past 3 decades he has been married to Sue and they have raised 3 children. Eric is the oldest, then Nick and Tina is the baby. They are all grown and now they have 4 grandchildren. He settled here in Franklin County with his wife, about 10 years ago. They LOVE Chambersburg and Franklin County and are huge supporters of the area. It is such a beautiful place to live and filled with friendly faces.

I encourage all of you to become a part of the Tuscarora Mt. Winery family. Come along and enjoy the journey we are embarking- it is sure to be filled with triumphs and fun times!

Ice Fest 2011

Chambersburg Ice Fest 2011 was a huge success! Tons of people came downtown to enjoy the ice sculptures and events. And we met a ton of new customers too... We had a wonderful time during the weekend and were very tired upon its completion!

Above is a picture of our Ice Sculpture sponsored by Tuscarora Mt. Winery and Tflo photography. Tina and Ken are posing here together, but both were so busy during Ice Fest they really didn't see much of each other during the event.

Here is the wine- all stocked up- before the festivities. I don't think it looked like this again from the go point on Thursday! We sold a lot of wine and did many many tastings! Including selling out of our "An Ice Break", Ice Wine. What a fabulous way to celebrate Chambersburg during the winter!

DiMartino Ice out of Jeanette, PA came in to town to do the fabulous sculptures. Many were carved ahead of time, but they also did quite a bit of on-site carving too. We loved our sculpture and in it we featured a few display bottles of our favorite wines!

On Saturday afternoon Tuscarora Mt. Winery featured a chilli made with our Cabernet Sauvignon, in the Chilli Cook-off. It was fabulous! Tina did the cooking and Sue was there representing us and handing out the tastings during the event.

Here is picture from outside the store at night. The tree is all lit up and that is Tina waving from inside the store- what fun!
Yes, and this picture sums it up! We all had a blast and were exhausted at the end to prove it! Here is Tina at the end of the evening, taking a rest and warming up before clean up on the streets. Thanks Downtown Business Council for planning this amazing event! We think it was the best one yet- and we are already looking forward to next years Ice Fest!

"An Ice Break" -2011

Introducing our new Ice Wine, affectionately named, "An Ice Break". Ken had fun making this one! It starts with waiting for the first freeze.... Then taking the equipment right out into the vineyard and pressing the frozen grapes right off the vine. When the grape freezes, the water freezes and separates from the syrup. The syrup does not freeze, therefore when the grapes are pressed you get pure syrup. This makes for a wonderfully sweet dessert wine. Our Ice Wine is made with riesling ice grapes. The ending sugar content is 17 brix.

Once again, we had to wait for label approval from the PA liquor control board. Tina did a wonderful job designing the label. After submission and waiting and perfecting and waiting..... It has finally been approved! Just in time for Ice Fest- we couldn't be more excited to share this with downtown Chambersburg! We received the labels from our printer the very next day. Ken and Jim worked all day and got all the bottles labeled with capsules on. This is a pretty bottle. It is 375ml, and is long and slender. The pretty blue label pops against the white wine!

This wine will be featured every winter starting near the beginning of the Chambersburg Ice Fest. However, it is a popular one- and once it's gone for the season it won't be back until next winter. So come in and enjoy "An Ice Break" -make sure you get it soon- trust me- you don't want to miss this one!

Pennsylvania Farm Show 2011

We are excited to announce our recent achievements from the Pennsylvania Farm Show. Tuscarora Mountain Winery earned 3 medals at this years wine competition. Congratulations Ken! Your love for wine making really shows through- thanks for sharing your delicious wines with all of us. Eric and I had a wonderful time at the Farm Show in Harrisburg. He received the medals and I took the video:) This is the first year that we entered the Farm Show Wine Competition. We entered 6 wines and 4 of them won medals. Our Blackberry, Peach Cobbler and Rifle Man Red each took away Silver honors and our Granny Smith Apple earned a bronze.

After accepting the awards we had the opportunity to see all the winners displayed. Pennsylvania offers some fabulous wineries. We were happy to meet some of the other winery owners and taste wines from a few. I must say, we have beautiful labels that stand out and give us a unique look. Thank you Tina for your hard work and for sharing your talent with us. Stop in and see us soon, and sample our winners!