Pennsylvania winery specializes in native American wines

Wines & Vines, Oct, 1995 by Lisa Kaminsky

Scott Schraff, manager of OakSpring Winery in Altoona, Pa., prepares a shipment of fifty bottles of Concord semi-sweet to be delivered to a private affair later today. He is hurriedly wrapping and packing, but without a worry. "The wine will be on time," he says in an easygoing tone.

OakSpring is located off rural route 220, just 45 minutes west of Penn State University. It's a small town winery that produces 10,000 gallons of wine from a three-acre vineyard each year. Schraff manages the business alone, although his parents, Sylvia and John, own it. Most of their business comes from Penn State commuters and tourists. Local residents bring in about half of the profits. This winery offers a "Home Brew Shoppe," "how to make beer and wine" classes that Schraff teaches, and custom labels.

Schraff brushes hair from his sweaty brow, and picks up a case of Niagara, a semi-sweet white grape wine. "I have to have this ready today for a wedding," he says. "The customer is expecting labels to be put on non-alcoholic wine that she's buying elsewhere. I told her I'd do it." OakSpring doesn't make non-alcoholic wine. Schraff is in work mode right now; he usually doesn't agonize much about deadlines. Today's deadline has been met and now he must check the filters for leaks.

As he strolls into the 35 [degrees] tankroom, he wonders what the coming months will bring to the business at OakSpring. Already his schedule is three days behind because some filters are leaking. He is responsible for all of the equipment's maintenance. "This won't make the owners happy, but equipment failure is part of the business and it's my job. Who else would come in here and fix the pumps?" He tears apart the filter and peers into a dark, reddened, vast pipe. Bending over and tilting his Penguins' baseball cap, Schraff stuffs a tom white rag into the hole to temporarily stop the leak.

He zips up his ski vest, rubs his gloved hands together, and explains "pumping." Ten huge, white fiberglass tanks sprawl across the room, each holds 500 gallons of wine and stores it for about two months. The entire wine-making process takes three to four months. Since the busiest time of the year occurs in the fall during harvesting, the business has time to catch up on production in the winter.

The cold storage room is 27 [degrees]; Schraff eats lunch in here every day in the summertime. This room is where the wines are placed for cold-stabilization. "Some people get angry if they see something in their wine," he says. "The other day a woman who was very upset called and stated that you shouldn't put sugar in fine wine. But it's only tartaric acid and it doesn't affect the taste or quality of the wine."

Basic production at OakSpring requires one stemmer-crusher. A ton of grapes fits in the machine, and it takes 45 minutes to complete a load. After the grapes are crushed, they're pumped straight into the press or the red fermenters. After the grapes are pressed, Schraff adds rice palms to prevent grape slippage. "If you want to get the maximum amount of juice out of them, you have to stop them from sliding against each other," Schraff says. Sometimes the pressed layers get so thick that he has to use canoe paddles to break them up. He lowers the temperature ten degrees on a tank filled with Chambourcin, a grape more commonly known by OakSpring tasters as White 'Cin'; it is a semi-dry blush wine of the French Chambourcin hybrid. He decides that it will be ready for bottling next week.

OakSpring offer 16 different wines: two semi-dry, two dry, four sweet and fruity, and eight semi-sweet. Most of the wines at OakSpring are from native American grapes. Pennsylvania wineries can't import vines from outside the United States. "We're regulated by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) to buy from Pennsylvania. It's the strong arm of the law and sticklers with their rules - a lot of bureaucratic red tape to cross over," Scott explains.

Making things personal is what Oak-Spring attempts to do with the coordination of themes, decorations, and gift baskets. "Lucy does the decorations around here," Schraff says with a grin, referring to one of OakSpring's part-time salespeople. (Schraff says he likes to take the weekends off, so he tries to hire people who are able to work weekends). "I can't do it all," he adds.

OakSpring has colorful baskets appropriate for any upcoming holiday. The bottles line up in cases along the walls, decorated with awards and letters from OakSpring fans. The Oak-Spring logo is printed on T-shirts, sweat-shirts, and other paraphernalia. "We're an attraction. People would miss us if we weren't here," Schraff confidently says. Themes of Valentine's Day, Easter, and Christmas are the marketing techniques of the wine. "People find the labels and gift baskets so unique, especially around holiday season," he notes. One open cabinet displays a variety of wine with custom labels OakSpring created for special occasions. Weddings, birthdays, local high school reunions, corporate banquets, retirement parties, and real estate conventions buy Oak Spring's signature wines with custom labels. The labels are printed using either colored or black text for the logo or specific message of the customer. All labels are made with a gold and white back-ground. Food & Wine magazine rated one marriage celebration in March 1994 "Altoona's best party ever," partly because of the choice of local custom-labeled wine.