Frequently Asked Questions
Learning Center
HYPER LINKS FOR VALUABLE INFORMATION
Can you provide information about your gift certificates and where I can purchase one?
Nashoba offers gift cards in any denomination.
Our Gift Cards may be used towards any purchases at the Winery, orchard, at our
restaurant or a combination of locations. However, gift cards can only be purchased on-line or at the wine shoppe.
We do not sell Gift Cards at the restaurant as our staff is dedicated to providing
great service to our guests during our hours of operations.
If you need the card
immeidately but cannot get to the wine shoppe before it closes, place the order
on-line. The on-line store provides an area during check out for "Comments" on
your order. Simply note that you intend to pick up your Gift Card at the
restaurant. Please note the time and date of pick up. The order must be
received before 4 pm if you intend to pick up your Gift Card the same evening.
You will then be able to pick up your purchase from the host at the restaurant
any time that we are also open for reservations.
Cards do not have an expiration date but are not redeemable for
cash. Cards are similar to cash and are payable to the bearer.
Therefore, it is important that you not lose or misplace your gift card as we are required to honor the card
when presented and there is no way that we can deny honoring a card to the
person in possession.
Finally, we cannot process any charges
over the telephone as the terms of our credit card
processor requires us to have signed card athorization or web store based
authorization.
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Do you have picnic areas and tables and can we bring our own food?
Yes, we have about 30 picnic
tables that we allow people to use without charge and welcome people to enjoy
our scenery and wines with the following guidelines:
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While we invite you to bring your own food and soft drinks, we do not allow
any sort of grill or cooking equipment on the premises or any other equipment which we deem
would pose a risk to other customers.
We
do not allow tents, pop up tables, signs, flags or banners.
If
you would prefer, we offer the great picnic lunches that we can prepare for you which will be ready at the time you specify.
For information about our picnic lunch menu please
Click Here
. By
using our services you help preserve our farm!
Our license for onsite consumption of Alcoholic
Beverages only allows for the consumption of alcoholic beverages that are
produced by Nashoba Valley Spirits under our Farmer's Winery and Farmer's Brewery
permits. Additionally, our farm is sustained through the
sale of our wines and beers so it is important to our survival that we generate
some revenue from the use of our property. While we invite you to use our
property, picnic tables, scenery, parking, rubbish disposal and facilities
without any charge, we must insist that only our alcoholic beverages are consumed
on the property. Your understanding and cooperation will help to make sure
that we are here for you in the future.
We do not allow games that might impose a risk to others including the
throwing or tossing of balls in the picnic area. We hope that everyone will
appreciate that there are many small children and elderly people enjoying our farm also who might be inadvertently injured by
a missed ball or Frisbee.
Our grounds are intended to be used
by customers visiting our
farm and
winery and for a peaceful day in the country. It is important for us to
preserve the ambiance and quality of our farm for all of our guests by limiting
the number of tables that we allow to be grouped together to two tables. This
will usually accommodate approximately 16 people.
Additionally, since we often host weddings it is important for us to make
sure that the hosted wedding is the only function on site and will restrict
large groups from gathering or undertaking any activity which might detract from
the wedding. We do not allow people to move the tables without requesting
permission as our wedding customers often ask us to restrict tables to a certain
location. We reserve the absolute right to restrict the use of our tables and
to determine the appropriate location of our tables to make the day enjoyable
for everyone. Our goal is to preserve the experience of our farm for all of our
visitors and therefore we do not consider our grounds to be a proper venue for
family outings, re-unions or gatherings of more than 15 people. While I appreciate
that this might disappoint some customers, we hope that those customers will
understand how they would feel if they came to our farm for a wedding or for a
quiet day in the country.
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We were thinking of having our family
outing at your winery and we would like to use your picnic grounds. Is
this something that we can do?
We would be happy to host your
outing/function and information on outings and functions can be found at
http://www.nashobawinery.com/functions.aspx.
We do not allow our grounds to used our picnic grounds for family outings or
large gatherings except when they are booked with our function and wedding
coordinator in accordance with the pricing policy that can be seen on the above
link.
As noted under our picnic section, our grounds are intended to be used
by customers visiting our
farm and
winery and for a peaceful day in the country. It is important for us to
preserve the ambiance and quality of our farm for all of our guests by limiting
the number of tables that we allow to be grouped together to two tables. This
will usually accommodate approximately 16 people.
Additionally, since we often host weddings it is important for us to make
sure that the hosted wedding is the only function on site and will restrict
large groups from gather or undertaking any activity which might detract from
the wedding. We do not allow people to move the tables without requesting
permission as our wedding customers often ask us to restrict tables to a certain
location. We reserve the absolute right to restrict the use of our tables and
to determine the appropriate location of our tables to make the day enjoyable
for everyone. Our goal is to preserve the experience of a farm for all of our
visitors and therefore we do not consider our grounds to be a proper venue for
family outings, re-unions or gathers of more than 16 people. While I appreciate
that this might disappoint some customers, we hope that those customers will
understand how they would feel if they came to our farm for a wedding or for a
quiet day in the country.
Farms needs revenue to survive and pay our bills and we subsidize our farm with
fees and revenue generated from hosting events. From a business approach,
it is simply not practical to charge some people for an outing or event and then
allow others to simply use the property without paying a fee or having us cater
their event. While this might be disappointing to some of our customers, we
hope that they will understand that a great deal of time and money is required
to keep our property maintained, clean and beautiful and we do this with the
revenue that we generate from all aspects of our business. Thank you for
your understanding and cooperation with our rules.
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Do you use pesticides and if so what pesticides are used at the winery?
Yes, but the exact pesticide or fungicide varries since we take
a very environmentally sensitive approach to farming. Integrated Pest
Management (IPM) is an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest
management that relies on a combination of common-sense practices. IPM programs
use current, comprehensive information on the life cycles of pests, the number
of pests in the orchard and their
interaction with the environment. We scout for problems and then
only address a problem with the best
available pest control methods to manage pest damage by the most
economical means with the least possible hazard to people, property, and
the environment.
Organic food production applies many of the same
concepts as IPM but limits the use of pesticides and fungicides to those that are from
natural sources, as opposed to synthetic chemicals. IPM is not a single pest
control method but, rather, a series of pest management evaluations, decisions
and controls often using organic material. In practicing IPM, growers who are aware of the potential for pest
infestation follow a four-tiered approach. The four steps include:
-
Set Action Thresholds. Before taking any pest control action,
IPM first sets an action threshold, a point at which pest populations or
environmental conditions indicate that pest control action must be taken.
Sighting a single pest does not always mean control is needed. The level at
which pests will either become an economic threat is critical to guide future
pest control decisions.
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Monitor and Identify Pests. Not all insects, weeds, and other living organisms require
control. Many organisms are innocuous, and some are even beneficial. IPM
programs work to monitor for pests and identify them accurately, so that
appropriate control decisions can be made in conjunction with action thresholds.
This monitoring and identification removes the possibility that pesticides will
be used when they are not really needed or that the wrong kind of pesticide will
be used.
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Prevention. As a first line of pest control, IPM programs work to manage
the crop, lawn, or indoor space to prevent pests from becoming a threat. In an
agricultural crop, this may mean using cultural methods, such as rotating
between different crops, selecting pest-resistant varieties, and planting
pest-free rootstock. These control methods can be very effective and
cost-efficient and present little to no risk to people or the environment.
-
Control. Once monitoring, identification, and action thresholds indicate that
pest control is required, and preventive methods are no longer effective or
available, IPM programs then evaluate the proper control method both for
effectiveness and risk. Effective, less risky pest controls are chosen first,
including highly targeted chemicals, such as pheromones to disrupt pest mating,
or mechanical control, such as trapping or weeding. If further monitoring,
identifications and action thresholds indicate that less risky controls are not
working, then additional pest control methods would be employed, such as
targeted spraying of pesticides. Broadcast spraying of non-specific pesticides
is a last resort.
My personal belief is that IPM is a better approach to farming
than a strict reliance on only organic material since synthetic materials have
been developed which are target specific, more efficient and often requiring
fewer applications.
So the short answer to the question is that every year is different
depending on the weather and depending on pest but you can be assured that we are
farming for the future and for our sustainability.
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I am looking for used wine barrels. Do you sell the barrels once you are finished with them?
Unfortunately, we do not ever have used wine barrels for sale as we use them in our distillation operation or for decorations around the winery, restaurant and brewery. By the time we retire them they are usually sawdust
or we use them to make decorative caps for our Whiskey. While I cannot recommend any other winery, a goggle search of used wine barrels for sale will answer your question. Below is a site that I found that seems to be fairly reasonably priced.
Not a recommendation but simply an avenue to pursue.
http://www.usedwinebarrels.com
For small barrels such as 2, 3 and 5 liter - visit
http://www.crosby-baker.com/
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While Nashoba Valley would be thrilled to host your Wedding Reception or Wedding Ceremony and Reception, we do not allow our site to be used for just a Weddings Ceremony or wedding pictures.
Unfortuantely, we are limited by our permits to a certain number of weddings
per year and it is financially practical for us to reserve these opportunities
for weddings that are having their reception hosted by us. Like all of our guest you are invited to enjoy the premises but we will not participate in reserving any space or for preventing other guests from enjoying the property.
When we are hosting another wedding, function or event we will restrict the premises to
activities solely related to the hosted event or wedding.
Remember, the winery grounds and
orchard grounds are closed to the public 15 minutes after the retail shoppe
closes.
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While Nashoba Valley would be thrilled to host your Wedding Reception or Wedding Ceremony and Reception, we do participate in nor will we authorize our facility to be used for Wedding or Engagement Photos. Since we are always booking events, sometimes days before they occur, it is simply not practical for us to authorize people to use our property at a certain time and thereby forfeit the opportunity to book an event or family outing that might occur at the same time thereby creating a conflict.
Over the last 15 years, we have come to realize that during harvest we simply cannot accommodate every request and still manage and maintain our farm to our expectations. While we do not want to appear to be unreasonable, the fall is simply not a good time to take on additional responsibilities so we have come to recognize our limitations.
Like all of our customers, you are invited to come onto the property and take pictures but if the taking of pictures is a disturbance to another person holding a function or to the general public, we will ask you to discontinue. Additionally, it is important to remember that the premises close 15 minutes after the close of the wine shop so you will be expected to leave the property at such time as our insurance company has put us on notice that we are not allowed to permit people to remain on the premises once our staff has left or is no longer monitoring the property.
We open everyday at 10 am and do not allow people on the premises until 15
minutes before we open as we often have task to accomplish and prefer not to
have cars or people around especially when we are using our tractors to collect
apples and accumulate rubbish from the prior day. Your chances of using the property without conflict are much better if you plan to have your photo's taken during the week, especially Mondays and Tuesdays when we are less likely to be hosting an event.
Finally, please understand that we cannot get involved with communicating information about when we might or might not have a function or wedding. If you come to our property to take pictures we hope that it will work out for you but we cannot get involve with the process or be held responsible your plans. Again, we apologize for our position but hope that you will appreciate our position especially during harvest.
Remember, when we are hosting another wedding, function or event we will restrict the premises to activities solely related to the hosted event or wedding.
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Car or Bike
Rally
While Nashoba Valley is thrilled to have groups of people visit and join our
tours, we do not have staff available to organize or participate in directing
cars or bike gatherings or to provide designated reserved areas for the parking
of cars or bikes during the months of September or October. At all other
times of the year, there is plenty of parking areas to accomodate your visit and
allow you to park your cars and bikes together but during harvest and pick your
own operations this is simply not practical.
Additionally, all of our parking areas are either grass or dirt with no paved
areas available. It is important to remember that you are visiting a farm
and that our roads and parking areas may not be up to the standards that you
feel are suitable for a vintage vehicle. All customers, whether in a
group or by themselves, will be given the same curtsey, professionalism and
parking
privileges given to all customers. While we encourage you to visit and
hope that you will support our farm and winery, parking, picnic tables and tours
of the winery are all offered on a first come basis and none are reserved for
specific activites, groups or vehicles.
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Hay Rides
Unfortunately we do not offer Hay Rides or Tractor Rides.
If you wish to have a hay ride or wander you way through a corn maze, we
would strongly recommend a visit to Schartner Farms, just 1 mile and one turn
past the winery where they offer APPLES, HAYRIDES, PUMPKINS, AND THERE NEW
AMAZING CORN MAIZE!
http://www.schartnerfarm.com/
Is my wine still good
I recently found some bottles of your wine while cleaning out my parents' home. I believe the wines are 5-9 years old. They are a cranberry-apple wine, raspberry wine and an after dinner peach wine. Are they still okay to drink?
In truth, most wineries are
producing wines that are made to be consumed within a short period of sale. They will not improve with age and will not
increase in value with age. Not that they will not last a number
of years as alcohol is a preservative,
but simply that they will not improve much with aging. How the wine is
stored and at what temperature it was stored at will improve or reduce the
period of time when the wine will remain consumable. This is especially true of wines that
are produced with some residual sweetness.
So, to all those people who believe you have to hold on to a wine for an
indefinite length of time before you drink it, take note: Those days are over
for the most part. The only real way
to tell if wine is still good is to smell and taste it. Visually, you can probably tell if it
has a brown tinge or a sediment by holding it up to a bright light or by shining
the sun through it. If it has any junk floating around in it at all, or looks at
all dark or brown, it is probably gone but all sediment is not necessarily a
sign of spoilage as wine often precipitates proteins and acids which may not
negatively impact the flavor. In
this situation, simply decant the wine to another vessel and enjoy. Nice fruity wine, including grape wines
described as fruity, really should be consumed now if you want to enjoy it while
it still resembles what you had at the winery.
In the brilliant words of actor-comedian Steve Martin, "Bring us some fresh
wine. No more of that old stuff!"
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Trees, Vines, Grapes or Winemaking Materials
Nashoba Valley does not sell trees, vines, grapes, juice or winemaking
materials. Our recommendations for sourcing such items is as follows:
Adams County Nursery
Online you will find a wide variety of fruit trees, orchard supplies and orchard
related literature.
Click Here
Double A Vineyards is a
family owned operation that is dedicated to supplying you with quality
grapevines.Click Here
The Boston Winery
offer people the unique opportunity to enjoy making their own wine with family
and friends.
Click Here
Presque Isle Wine Cellars
is a family-owned
winery and winemaking
supplies business providing the widest selection of
quality supplies and equipment to amateur and commercial winemakers.
Click Here
Homebrew Emporium
is a local supplier of beer and wine making supplies- 45 Sterling Street (Route
12)West Boylston, MA 01583 . Click Here
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