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Stay Modern With Murray
Welcome to the Stay Modern with Murray Podcast, your go-to source for the latest trends and insider tips in the homebuilding industry. Each episode, we delve into the dynamic realms of design and construction, providing valuable insights that can elevate your understanding and approach to building and renovating homes.
But we don’t stop there! We go beyond mere construction topics to engage with influential figures such as business owners, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and community leaders. These conversations highlight the experiences and expertise of those who are making significant impacts in their respective fields. Here, you will discover not only innovative ideas and practices within homebuilding but also inspirational stories that showcase leadership and creativity in action.
Whether you're a homeowner, a potential builder, or simply interested in the housing industry, our podcast will offer a wealth of knowledge and inspiration. Join us as we explore the intersection of home construction and the vibrant discussions that can help shape the future of your projects. Tune in to enrich your understanding and spark new ideas in homebuilding, design, and business leadership!
Please tune in to hear from industry experts, non-profits, and local business leaders shaping our world. Visit our website at www.murraycustomhomes.com/podcast for more information and to catch the latest episodes. Subscribe today and stay modern with Murray!
Stay Modern With Murray
Uncorking the Spirit of Glacial Till: On location at Glacial Till.
Step into the world of Glacial Till Vineyards where the art of winemaking takes center stage. Tim Merman, the General Manager, along with our friend Josh Harrah of Harrah’s Electric, joins us for a conversation that uncorks the secrets of thriving in Nebraska's unexpected wine country. Discover how a family pastime transformed into an award-winning winery and cidery, navigating financial hurdles and Nebraska's frosty challenges to pour out a legacy of exceptional beverages.
Crack open the complexities of managing a family business where job titles are as fluid as the wine in their glasses, and decisions—like bringing on Chef Allison Hill—are crafted with as much care as their finest vintage. Learn how a surprise frost spurred innovation, leading to the creation of an eclectic array of ciders that now stand alongside the vineyard's robust wine offerings. Our chat meanders through the orchards of practical know-how and the fertile ground of family dynamics, sharing laughs and insights into the everyday life of a vineyard's heartbeat.
Finally, raise your glass to the future as we discuss plans for growth and community favorites like 'Fermented Fridays'. This episode is more than a tasting; it's a full-bodied experience of passion, perseverance, and poetry that bottles the spirit of one family's dream. Join us and sip on the rich tales of Glacial Till Vineyards.
Welcome to another episode of Stay Modern with Murray, brought to you by Murray Custom Ponds, where we build your dream home together. Now sit back, buckle up and enjoy the ride with your host, matt Murray.
Speaker 2:Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining us on the Fun Friday edition. Today we're on location at Glacial Till Vineyards in Ashland talking with General Manager and a friend, tim Merman. Tim, thank you so much for taking time out of your day.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we actually got a very good friend of yours who introduced us to you, so we thought it'd be appropriate to bring him on. You've been on before Josh here with Hair is Electric.
Speaker 4:I'm back, I'm back.
Speaker 2:I'm back. It's your third one.
Speaker 4:This is my third one. I didn't even want to do the first one.
Speaker 2:I remember that.
Speaker 3:And I said well, josh, I didn't want to do any of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but no, thank you guys for taking time out of your day. We're all the way out Ashland. We just came from Palmyra, right, Yep, been at Palmyra area when you call that the.
Speaker 3:Well, it's the Vineyard and Winery, and so we've got our production facility there and then our event center. So a lot of weddings and events in the summertime, Right, I'm sure a lot of.
Speaker 2:Lincolnites and Ashland people who listen to this know what's to talk about. Like I said, I'm not from around here, so I'm still. My wife drives everywhere and I just work, and so I still just don't know all the little communities and where they're at.
Speaker 4:You're not watching where you're?
Speaker 2:going.
Speaker 3:So it's like, yeah, I just don't get it. I was wondering about that. She chauffeurs you everywhere.
Speaker 2:She thinks I'm so I'm always doing everything other than driving, working on my phone, talking, calling, so she's just it's probably better than yeah. But anyways, we started the day out taking a tour of your facility and first off, it was amazing. I was saying before this that I find myself, I like to think I'm an intellectual guy, but there's just so many things you don't think about that in the day-to-day operations of life how the food's made that you get and the production that goes into it and everything. And I got an invite at like 9.30, 10 o'clock last night from Josh to come there and do that and I'm glad he talked me into it. I had a crazy busy day but I was glad I fitted in. But just walking into there I never just thought about all the intricacies of what go into this place and wine and everything. But step us through a little bit of what we saw today because it was awesome.
Speaker 3:Well, I guess everything starts out in the field. So first and foremost we're farmers and we're growing a specialty crop and corn and soybean. So that right there poses our first difficulty of growing grapes in Nebraska, where typically it's corn and soybean. So just growing the fruit is a difficult task in itself. And then making wine after that is also difficult. And you got to see the process of how we do that at the winery, and even if every growing season is different, so it's not always the same, so the fruit's different quality every year, and so we take what we can get and then we do our best to make the best quality wines from that.
Speaker 2:And I'll get into the details of everything about how many acres of wine. I found all that very interesting.
Speaker 3:I saw that question on there. He did show me the quick one. Yes, and I hated that one question.
Speaker 2:There's so many questions that I have because I'm a nerd. I'm such a nerd Get into that and being a business owner, knowing the nuances and the ins and the outs of why you do this and why you don't grow more and why you buy other people's grapes I want to get into all that, but I think I skipped over the foundation of this. I thought it was very interesting because up until even knowing Josh, I knew of you and your family's history with this. But I was actually at a business lunch on Monday and he wanted to do another closing today or a discussion about a closing today, and I said I had a podcast and he's like where are you going? I told him I was coming out here and he's like he knew your dad and knew about the history of the company and stuff and I found it very interesting. So you were kind of hitting on it today. But go back to the foundation of this and how we ended up in this building and how you got that and all that good stuff.
Speaker 3:I guess we got to give all the thanks to my dad and props to him. He got it all started. He was a businessman in Lincoln so he had a successful computer software business called Penlink and so when he retired from there he still is working with us and he does all kinds of things. But it would have been back in 2003 is when he kind of started the hobby of trying to grow grapes here in Nebraska as a hobby winemaker. So that's kind of where it all got started.
Speaker 3:We purchased the land out there by Bennett Palmyra area, started with maybe about an acre worth of grapes and just over the course of the years we planted them. I was probably a high school age kid so it was a good time to go out there. We planted the vines, put up all the trellising so great learning experience for my brothers and I and then it's just kind of grown from there. So started out very small hobby. It kind of continued to grow. And then once my older brother, john, finished college, my dad had a building out there. He's still working full time and John was like what are you going to do with that? And that was John kind of took that over and really started the process of getting the liquor licenses and all that stuff to do in the research, buying the tanks and going full fledged and starting the winery.
Speaker 2:And you said he went back to UC Davis and got his master.
Speaker 3:Yep. So my brother and I both went to University of South Dakota and then, once John started the business and we were probably maybe about a year or two into operating the business and he'd been making wine for a handful of years, but he went back to school and went to UC Davis to get his masters in winemaking, just to really understand the processes. Wow, that's crazy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's awesome. I didn't know that that's awesome.
Speaker 3:He's one of the smartest guys I know, but if you're to school wise, he's not the best at books, but I mean he can.
Speaker 2:That was one sitting up top today, right.
Speaker 3:Yep, that's John. So John manages a lot of the production side of things. So all the winemaking, cider making, packaging, a lot of the field work too. Anything that breaks he's usually just fixing stuff. So John kind of takes care of that building. And then my brother, Craig, that we met over at the event center. He does a lot of our marketing labels, so anything that you see visually that's Craig.
Speaker 2:So you guys, we'll get into that too. I think you're asking for another round.
Speaker 4:Sorry, I'm sampling all their stuff today. I'm trying to get a cider.
Speaker 2:Whatever I'm drinking, the hibiscus is amazing. Oh, thank you. It's like a rosé on steroids or something I don't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you like ginger. It's got a lot of that. Ginger is very prevalent there. It's good.
Speaker 2:So not to go too far down this because I have so many questions today. But how'd you go to this? You said South Dakota.
Speaker 3:Yeah, my brother and I both, we both swam, so not many programs after Title IX and stuff like that. Nebraska used to have a program, so a lot of people that were swimming at Nebraska. Ultimately there's some people that went up to South Dakota to swim in college and my brother had went there, and some other guys from Nebraska and so that's kind of what led? Us to South Dakota so both of you and I swam up there for four years and ended up back in Lincoln. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:And so you buy the building out there. Your brother comes back and you start the operation there. When do you become heavily involved? What was your involvement Did? You always know at that point you were just going to do the family business.
Speaker 3:I kind of felt like I might do that, just because it was there in an auction. And so, yeah, john was doing a lot of the wine making and stuff like that, but he wasn't you know the book, were taking care of the finances, selling you know he's making wine, but we didn't even have a place to sell it. So it's like, well, we got to do something and so that's about when I came on board, you know it would have been well, is that 2008 or so you know, kind of financial crash? You know kind of had some, you know, job applications out there, but at the same time I was always working at the winery regardless. So it was just, you know, that's what we're going to do Perfect fit Family business Yep.
Speaker 2:So where did it go from there? So it sounds like 2008,. You're kind of a company.
Speaker 3:So 2008 would have been the first year we started and I don't think we really did anything until probably the summer of 2009. So that area that I had you up in that tower, we used to do like a Topos tasting. So we used to do a wine and food pairing up there, so we had eight wines at that point in time. We do like an eight course pairing and we charged $25 for this eight course pairing.
Speaker 1:Oh wow.
Speaker 3:That's cheap, it was ridiculous.
Speaker 1:It was not good.
Speaker 3:So you know, and we had to walk food up those stairs and basically losing money to get people's attention?
Speaker 3:Yep, pretty much. So in the course of the years, you know you learn things at work. What don't work, you know what wine sell, what don't sell, you know. So I mean, still we're still learning. You know, 15 years into it and you know still still don't know what to do. Yeah, but we've learned what you know, some things that do work, some things that don't work, or what we can do better. Yep, you know, and so probably after you know, that first year of doing those tastings is like, wow, that's a lot of work for not much money and people are like, man, this is a great deal. Yeah, and so you know.
Speaker 3:And after that, you know, we started doing larger events with music and stuff like that, and then I think it was probably 2011,. We were talking about this building that we're in now. And so, going back to my dad and his other business, he was using this space to train people on his computer software. So his business being in Lincoln and a lot of people flying in, whether it be Lincoln or Omaha again, ashland makes for a really good place to meet in the middle, and so they did their training programs out here Over the years. You know, he expanded in Lincoln and didn't need the space anymore.
Speaker 3:And then about that time, when we're working out at the winery and you know, kind of running into some issues, you know, as far as you know our space and what we can do with it, we were allowed one offsite location with the liquor commission for our liquor license, and so it's like we got that building there. It's in between Lincoln and Omaha. That would be a perfect fit. Really, don't have to do much to the space, and you know, and that's when we opened up our tasting room, and so that was probably 2011. And then in 2018 is when we closed temporarily and expanded into these next two bays that we've got. How long do you have to close for, geez? I mean, I'd want to say it's probably close to a year, really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was gonna say they did it in about a year, I mean, and yeah, it was wild to see the construction. I mean I'm sure some of the neighbors probably weren't too happy, you know, while it's going on, oh for sure, and we lucked out. The Chamber of Commerce here in Ashland really helped us out and they had a building here so we didn't want to, we didn't actually have to just close completely. Oh, that's awesome. So we stayed open across the street and did a like, just like a pop-up. You know people could buy like bottles to go and stuff like that, but we didn't serve anything Like you know, there wasn't enough space to have, you know, customers come in and sample and stuff like that. So we at least still had a presence downtown here. But you know, it was about a year. That was awesome. The Chamber is working with you. Yeah yeah, the community's been great to work with.
Speaker 2:So the building where you hold the events at the other location in Palmyra, bennett, was that building always there?
Speaker 3:Nope, so that would have been probably 2016. 2015, 16 is when we built that. We'd been doing a lot of events outside at the other building, the winery building. But again, weather is always an issue. You know we'd had weddings and things like that. But usually when you know people are wanting to book it, they love the space but like, how are you going to do this? How are we going to do that? What happens if this happens? And you know it's like we need a better space out here that we can operate in, because you know the production building, you know strictly, is mostly set up to produce wine inside.
Speaker 2:So so you guys correct me if I'm wrong, but you have 80 acres out there and five acres are dedicated towards growing Yep, right, and so what's fascinating to me is so I don't know what you will get. We'll get to where you are on production and how many bottles you produce and everything, but so you guys do five acres and my question was so five acres provides you everything you need for your wine?
Speaker 3:And Not necessarily Right. So yeah, and that's hard, and that's the question that I was talking about earlier, that I hate.
Speaker 4:How many grapes go into a?
Speaker 3:bottle of wine. You know, I mean if we were there in the summer and I'd love to have you back out and show you the vines and everything else like that. But you know, 80-wise cluster compared to front net cluster, you know one's about the size of a football and the one's about the size of your fist. So you know, I mean you have very small berries, you have large berries. So you know, like that's a very common question, but you know it just depends, you know I mean depends on the varietal and things like that. But you know it's hard to say what.
Speaker 3:You know there is metrics that you could use to say how many grapes go into a bottle. You know, and I know our numbers, but you know, so for us, like in wine, in this previous year we did around five, six thousand gallons of wine and then we did like 180,000 gallons of cider. Okay, and the cider we get from out of state where the wine, like we were talking about, will harvest once a year. So we really have one opportunity to make wine where, with the cider, we're making that, you know, monthly.
Speaker 4:And that's what you guys were bottling in the back, right you can bring the fruit in from other places.
Speaker 3:The cider we bring in, you know, juice from out of state and that's what makes you know, helps us keep it going Right.
Speaker 2:So you guys do the five acres yourself, yep, and then and then. So about how many acres, so to speak, like just as a comparison? I know you don't buy a lot, so we had we had a.
Speaker 3:This year we did, I want to say is a little over 40 tons of grapes that we processed. Out of the 40 tons, I think we purchased 32 of those.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:So you know we we had about. We had about eight to 10 tons ourselves. We had a really good year out at the winery for ourselves, and then the rest of it we bought from other growers in the state.
Speaker 2:And so I would have to assume you know there's a lot of input that goes into growing your own grapes. If you're already buying 32, is it worth the inputs to do your own five acres? Is it because the, the, the, uh, yes, yes and no there could be? The net is much better when you're growing your own.
Speaker 3:The net is, it can be. I mean, you know it's the quality, you know. So with us buying them, you know we don't have control of you know what goes on, you know what spray programs, uh, you know, whatever it may be.
Speaker 3:So, and then we've got great growers. So I'm not saying that our grapes are better than theirs by any means, right, but yeah, I mean we could expand where we're at, but we're we would prefer to purchase them from other growers if we can. So you, you're just because it's a lot of work. You know farming.
Speaker 2:Right and I asked you the question. I said who? I didn't know. You harvest once a year, so I said who does it? And you said friends, family whoever we can get.
Speaker 3:So whoever listens to this podcast, come on out. Uh, you know, starting in August, our first grape that we usually harvest is Adelweiss, so pretty much starting first second week of August, you know we'll. We've got eight different varieties, so we'll we'll harvest, um you know, eight different times between August through. Probably the latest we've ever taken anything out would be like the first week of October.
Speaker 4:Well, and it's a great way for like sports and kids to dance, like to raise money for that. They come out and you guys pay them a certain amount per bucket or pound, whatever. I mean, that's how you get it. Like we have, we're going to have Terran come out there. She danced for the Polyneers and they would pay her and her team to come out and pick grapes. What do you guys charge for? Like if, if my daughter came out with her dance team, like, how do you cheat? Have to do it for free. Yes, terran would do it because it's Terran.
Speaker 3:No, I don't, I don't really know what we. I mean, it's always kind of been different.
Speaker 4:You know it just kind of depends.
Speaker 3:You know some days I mean there's been days, you know, where we've picked for three days straight, you know, because we don't have enough people you know being my dad and I and John, and I mean the people that work there full time, you know. And then there's other days where we've had, you know, 40, 50 people and it gets done like that. So I mean that's what we'd prefer.
Speaker 2:I'd prefer those days. Yeah, it's really fun.
Speaker 3:It's really fun when you're doing it, but you know if you have to do it all day, every day, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah Well, and then some days nobody shows up and it's just you and your brothers and your dad.
Speaker 3:So I mean we've done pretty good on getting them out. You know over the years, whether it be friends, family, you know hired help, whatever it may be, but I'm not going to do it. Yeah, you've never shown up. You get one last drink. I don't even ask.
Speaker 4:I wasn't invited like.
Speaker 3:Tommy. Last time I quit inviting him to the lake too. He doesn't go out there.
Speaker 2:I second that because every weekend I saw him out there of Tom on Snapchat. Oh, I don't think so when? At your lake? No, he never came he only came once.
Speaker 3:No, I've been out there. He didn't come out.
Speaker 4:Well, tom this isn't about me. This is about Glacial Tilt and Murray Customs.
Speaker 3:It's always about you.
Speaker 2:Well, tell us about the family atmosphere. I thought it was really cool, you know, when you hear that you know a family works together, I didn't know it would be so close and intimate, as it was Like we walked into the production, we walked upstairs and it was your brother, and then we walked into the front event center and it was your other brother, and then your dad walked in and started shooting basketball and so tell me about that. Tell me about your brothers and how they fit in and your day to day.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I know that you said I mean, you know I love working with my family. You know everybody's kind of got their role but you know everybody pitches in where they can. And you know, unlike the TV shows and things like that where people are screaming and yelling at each other, we don't have that. I get along with my brothers really well and work well together.
Speaker 3:I mean, they might say differently, but I don't think we continue to go on family trips and do a ton of things as a family. So it's great. You know, at the first minute Fridays my dad will be out there handing out the raffle tickets. You know he's out there pruning, he's out there picking grapes and I mean, again, you know it's being an owner of something. You know it falls on your shoulders. So I mean, everybody picks up where they can and you know it's awesome. Shannon asked me what my title was and I always just say general manager. But you know I don't, I don't like him.
Speaker 2:Your other brother told me he was a general manager.
Speaker 4:Yeah, fighting over the position You're the assistant oh really no, I was going to say which one.
Speaker 3:He used to have just made it. We all had manager on our card. We only manage ourselves.
Speaker 2:But, it seems like you guys have done a very good job of having your each segments and fitting in. Like you said, your one brother does marketing and you're kind of the people person, so to speak, and managing this.
Speaker 3:Sometimes yeah.
Speaker 2:And then your other brother sounds like the Production.
Speaker 3:Wizard Right right.
Speaker 4:They're all super in.
Speaker 3:And you know it's not just us three. You know we've got great people that work with us. You gotta meet Adam Anderson there, adam Frederick, brian Huggins, jack in the production building and then out at the winery, some of our full time staff Lisa, mallory and Aubrey that do all the kind of wedding events and public facing events as well, and then here in Ashland, sandy and Rhonda are two managers and then our chef, allison Hill. That's something that we did. I see you guys got some food over here but we did small, you know, kind of meat cheese trays and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:And when we did expand here we wanted to have some larger food offerings and that's when we, you know, got introduced to Allison. I believe that Lisa made that connection for us, somebody that worked for us, and that's been great. You know, talking about our people, you know a lot of our great people have came from within or been recommended, you know, by Lisa. It's like, hey, I know this gal, allison Hill, and you know I mean she's a phenomenal chef and it's we never intended on doing food like we're doing now and you know she just elevated it for us.
Speaker 4:So I will say you guys always speak very, very highly of your employees. Like you, guys are very proud of who's with you.
Speaker 2:That's good. She had a great. My wife had a good question. She's sitting right over here. We got a room full of people here listening His are awful quiet. Yeah, geez.
Speaker 3:How come you didn't get me a drink? We're trying to. What do you want?
Speaker 4:I want what Tom was drinking. Tommy wouldn't get me one because he's still mad at me.
Speaker 2:Tom's probably drinking that one with Brandy in it.
Speaker 4:That was really good.
Speaker 2:Bourbon.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll do bourbon barrel.
Speaker 2:So this I don't know if you know, but I was on a, I told him what do you call him?
Speaker 3:Sober kick?
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, sober kick, but it's been 11 months, so is he? Yeah, 11 months, I'm in, that's good. So this is probably like my fifth to 10th drink in the last 10, 11 months Between five and 10.
Speaker 3:Don't blame me. Don't blame me.
Speaker 4:Nah, he's. Blame him, blame me. Oh, this is good, though. Whenever Matt hangs out with me, he likes to drink more, because he can't handle me with so many sober.
Speaker 3:That is true.
Speaker 2:It's true for everybody. It's a little unique going out with the group now and not drinking.
Speaker 3:That would be tough. It is tough, it is a little tough. Look, I might try it.
Speaker 4:No, don't do it. Remember bowling night, when I didn't drink and everybody was drunk? Yeah, I could have to leave right away.
Speaker 2:But no, my wife had a great question on the way here about I know you have a lot of different employees that fit into a lot of different categories, but the ones that we saw in the production in the back, she's like I wonder what qualifications they have to have. I'm like well, I'm sure there's not a lot of people around Lincoln, nebraska, that have experience in production and wine facilities, so I would have to assume that means you train these people a little bit, so to speak.
Speaker 3:A lot of it's on the job training. Yeah, I'm trying to think, if anybody has any I know Jack, he's got a chemistry degree so he's very good with and that's what a lot of the wine and cider making is a lot of chemistry. So outside of that it's been a lot of on the job training and kind of similar to Chef or somebody. It's like a recipe. I mean there is kind of a playbook, but I mean they're kind of unique in that way that they kind of create what they want to do. Sometimes it might work, sometimes it doesn't. But yeah, again, it's a lot of on the job training. But yeah, like seeing the centrifuge or cross flow filter and some of the equipment it's not common equipment- they're like oh wow, you just take a couple tri-clamp fittings.
Speaker 3:Hook this hose up to this, hook this up to that and press a button.
Speaker 2:It looked like a science room.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a whole lot of science that's going on and I know what it does, but can I operate it? No, so, and you saw that Adam called me out for that I showed you the can, that's pretty cool, he tells you. I know how most of it works and I know what it does and why we have it, but I don't operate any of it.
Speaker 2:He put a can in the canning machine, it just blew it right off the tracks. But no, yeah, it was super cool Just seeing everything. Take us through, kind of you know the terminology you're using with the different wines and the offerings. I think it was pretty cool when you said that you guys had a freeze right when you lost your harvest that one year and that's what led you to the ciders Kind of go through that. So you first started doing wines and only wines.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we started out, you know, just doing wine and then it would have been 2015. We had a really bad frost in May, so once the vines bud out, you know, and they're coming out, so we had a frost and we lost all of our fruit that year. So we had I don't know how much fruit we had, but not enough to really make any wine. And Kimmel Orchard's being down in Nebraska City, we ended up buying a bunch of apple juice from them and at that time we were doing events at the winery and we called them fermented Fridays and we were featuring the local craft beers. And so we had a good relationship with one of our distributors in Lincoln, k&z, and we were making the cider and we were serving it at our events and he's like man, this is great stuff, you know, like you should let us distribute it, and so you know that's kind of how it got started. You know, the year that we couldn't make wine, we started making cider and then it just kind of took off from there.
Speaker 2:So it was in disguise.
Speaker 4:Didn't you guys win some awards for your ciders?
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, we've won quite a few awards, you know, in different competitions and stuff and I don't know. Just a couple of years ago we got like national cidery of the Really yeah, top cidery and stuff. So yeah, I mean we've won quite a few awards. Yeah, that's awesome. I couldn't name what they are. I should have done more research on ourselves to give us some accolades.
Speaker 2:But so what is the Take us through? You know, when you were at the very beginning, you offered, you said, eight different wines. Yep, If that's the proper term, Is that? Yeah, I mean no. When you say eight different wines, is that so somebody novice like me, tom, would know more, because he drinks a bottle at night.
Speaker 3:No, I mean you could, and you could do different wines in different styles. So you know, take a Cabernet, you could press it right away and you could make a Rosé. You know, that way it's not that full body, dark red.
Speaker 2:So no clue you're talking about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you could take a same grape and you could make it different ways, you know. So it could be completely dry where there's no residual sugar left, or you could stop the fermentation where there is a little bit of sugar left, like the Adelweiss that they're drinking. You know it's a sweeter wine, okay, so you could use the same grape and make a different wine, you know. So when I say that we had eight offerings, it might not be. You know eight different kinds of grapes. You know it might have been.
Speaker 2:You know, two Frontenacs in a different style, or you know so Okay, and if I've learned anything today, the Frontenac is the grape.
Speaker 3:Yeah, frontenac is a name of one of our grapes so we grow here in Nebraska. They're called French American hybrids. Okay, so a lot of the grapes that you'd know, or like the noble grapes you know, cabernet, or you know, you look at, I got a poster up here somewhere but you know the grapes that you see in the store Merlot, cabernet. You know, those are the ones that people know, but there's thousands of different grape variety that was grown all over the world that people are making wines with. It's just not as common or to see it and know what it is.
Speaker 2:And so you had eight wines, different selections at the beginning, in the beginning, yeah, so where are we at now Shoot, I don't know we'd have to go back.
Speaker 3:Somebody go grab a menu. We got a lot now. I mean we've got a. You know usually at least eight to 12 different ciders on tap out here, you know. And the wines, you know at least 10 different wines you know, and just kind of depends on you know the vintage, how much we do of something, you know. Just you know how things go out the door.
Speaker 2:So you have eight to 10 wines total Yep generally yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean sometimes more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so go through the selection of grapes, like what you have and then what you buy. And I thought that was pretty cool and you were explaining to me if I was going to go out and get a high end grape like a Napa Valley you know it might be name brand versus your guys' grapes and what you're a locally, I guess I don't understand the question.
Speaker 3:So, you guys, what would you call your guys, grapes? Oh, they're French American hybrids. So, right, it's like a cross between the vanilla variety, which, like would be, you know, cabernet, and the things that are growing that you know you'd see in the grocery store, crossed with a native grape. That way it can withstand, you know, our climate, right? So a lot of like the atyl ice and some of these grapes, you know, can withstand these temperatures that you know get down to negative 20 degrees Fahrenheit and, you know, survive. So the vanilla varieties, you know, would not survive our climate, that's true. So the cross between them is, you know, they're disease resistant, pest resistant, climate resistant, yet have the fruit quality of, you know the name, grapes like the Cabernet and whatnot, right, but can withstand our climates.
Speaker 2:So probably completely different grape than they're growing in Napa Valley, and so you were saying that in order to with all the different rules and regulations, in order to bottle your wine. A certain thing asked me would you say 75% your grape or?
Speaker 3:what was that? Yeah, there's a whole lot of laws. You know we're in a very highly regulated industry and, yeah, when it comes to wines, it's a lot of marketing. You know different wine regions, american viticulture areas, you know, get labeled to Napa Valley, sonoma Valley, and then, yeah, again, there's a whole lot of labeling requirements. You know. You see the government warnings on there. All of our labels are approved by, you know, the federal government and you can only say certain things. You can't say this, can't say that, and you know that's where the labeling requirements come in. But for any wine, like to say at Cabernet, or say this you know a Merlot or a Frontenac, it's got to be 75% or more of that grape. Got you labeled with that? So there's a lot of regulations to you know, hopefully, steer the consumer in the right direction and not false advertise with that. But it's a, it's a task, you know, getting into the weeds with the government.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we heard the same thing when they were at the distillery that we did in Lincoln.
Speaker 4:Oh, what was that?
Speaker 2:Sideshow. They're explaining how there has to be a certain percentage to be called.
Speaker 3:Yeah, whether it's like a Rye whiskey or bourbon. Bourbon's got to be two years and yeah, there's a lot of that kind of stuff in the alcohol industry that you know. You might not know about that it's just like whoa, yeah, it gets a little crazy. And then again you know all the reporting and you know everything like that with the taxes. I bet Just very got to stay on top of that stuff.
Speaker 2:And it sounds like the chief fire marshal, let's not talk about that.
Speaker 3:What's up Gabe? What's up guys?
Speaker 2:That's a more Murray employees walking in here, yeah, but the reason that we've always wanted to do a podcast for you actually shit. We reached out to you maybe six months ago, a year ago, to get something lined up. But I know you're busy, we're busy, but one of the reasons that spurred this and got it on the books was, you know, murray does a lot of gifting. So when you know, when we sign a contract, we try to give him a gift when they close on their house, to try to get my housewarming gift and you know, inevitably the way the world is, it's usually a lot of wine. And actually when I first started getting into the high end market, I was pretty young I'm not now, but back when I was a high end home builder in Lincoln, I was a new builder. Not only was I new, but I was doing in a high end market where it was a lot of experienced older generation builders the Bob Schultz's and those guys and I was here, this 20-some year old kid, trying to compete with them, and so I had to do something to make myself stand out.
Speaker 2:I learned very early on that a lot of the wives of the families that I was entertaining to sign with us were winos, and I didn't even know that term at the time Right, and so I was entertaining these and I was getting a lot of spurring along by the people in my group by make sure that the wife's happy, take her a bottle of wine. You know, take Merlot, take Cab, and so I had to start to understand wine. But it is very much a thing I think I don't know if it's in the high end world. You know you have a bar in the basement so you have to stock the bar. Or you know the husband and wife like sit and drink. You know there's a lot of different reasons to drink wine, but it seems like the clientele that we are catering to always wanted wine, and so we started gifting wine a lot and we give gosh, I would say, hundreds of bottles.
Speaker 2:And now that we're now that I'm a realtor and we have our home inspection business there's just a lot more personal touch that goes into advertising rather than just throwing a commercial out and hoping that it sticks. There's a lot of interaction, social networking. We call it brand ambassador, and so we have three brand ambassadors that just meet with people on a daily basis and, you know, at the end of the day, it's kind of schmoozing, you know. I know people gift them what they want. But so when we were thinking about it in a meeting the other day, it was you know, if we're going to be giving out hundreds of bottles every year, if not more, why don't we have a Murray label on it? I mean shit, we have Chapstick with our label on it, we have pens, you know, everything, everything these days, has a label on it.
Speaker 2:Right, you've just got four of those Chapsticks.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, everything has a label on it. So we're like let's pair with somebody in the community that we can represent their brand and we just put our label on it and it's a win-win situation. So well, we'd love to do it for you.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and that's that. And you know you were asking me questions all day, shit. Let's wait for Shannon to be here, because he's the one that's going to take these notes and probably pull the executive decision. But talk about that a little bit. I know that we had just talked about it in there a little bit. There's the different ways that we can label the bottles and the different varieties that we can get. You know whether we want to go with an exotic, so to speak, or a local. Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's a lot of ways you can do it, but yeah, I mean it comes down to you. What do you want, what do you like, what do you want to give to your customers? So you know we've done a lot of bottles for weddings and stuff like that. You know bridal showers and things like that, customized bottles in the bank you know they do the same sort of thing like you're going to do. So I mean We'll do it better. Yeah, I hope so. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think the answer would be I didn't want to get into the weeds earlier because I wanted to save for the podcast but you know we'll have the. We'll have this, so to speak, everyday wine that we just hand out, just a general good flavor, good bodied wine. That is just our hand out wine. That's what you want to call it, but you let us know before we walk out of here today. Let these guys taste the different wines and land on a couple of selections while you guys are here, so that way we can get pricing and get that solidified and start getting some wine out to people Would love to do that. How many bottles are in a case?
Speaker 3:There's 12 bottles to a case.
Speaker 2:So Tom drinks like 10 cases a month.
Speaker 3:I know I drink one case with him one night.
Speaker 2:So 12 bottles in a case I haven't been back to his house since. So 12 bottles in a case, what is a? I know this is tough, but if you had somebody like us coming in and say, hey, we want to buy some wine, what is medium volume? I mean, what if I said I wanted this many cases? That would be like shit. Man, we can do that. That's a good volume. Is it five cases?
Speaker 4:I don't understand the question either.
Speaker 3:I mean, I'd love if you came in and wanted to buy a hundred cases. That's not a lot of cases, I don't think, but five cases in a lot of cases. So we're just average. Tom buys that at Costco every week Right.
Speaker 4:So just average Joe to walking and buying.
Speaker 3:I don't know.
Speaker 2:I mean, you're not an average Joe, Absolutely not, so we need to be at 20, 30 cases maybe. We'll see, we'll see, we'll see, we'll talk about it, we'll talk about it. Drink another glass and then we'll deal pricing.
Speaker 3:I got no pricing for you, I want to know how many you want, and then I'll give you a price.
Speaker 2:Man. That's see that I think, and the reason I'm asking is it's kind of like I need you to say something before you say something vice versa, like shit, I don't. We've never done this before, right, so I, when you ask me how many I need, I don't really know. I could take a shot in the dark, but I think it would largely depend on we want to make this easy on you. We want to partner with you guys long term. So I don't want you to do something that is going to be at a loss for you guys, but I also don't want to overshoot it and just have wine stuck in my back forever. So yeah, so whatever you, you know, if there was incentives for us to do this amount versus this amount, maybe if you could lead us down a path of that.
Speaker 3:I'll lead you down the path, just not on the podcast, because I don't know.
Speaker 4:I got none of those numbers. I wasn't prepared to give you a price.
Speaker 1:That's trying to get on recording.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:You're trying to get the price.
Speaker 2:How price Friday? Right, yeah, that's awesome. Josh, what else you got? Anybody else in here? Feel free to jump on.
Speaker 4:You know, the cider thing is one of my favorite things. Like just how, how all that happened and you guys had to force yourself to do the ciders and I love the ciders, the ciders are delicious. Yeah, go go. No, go ahead, no no, go ahead.
Speaker 2:No, the cider. No, you go ahead, no, you go ahead.
Speaker 4:I do love the ciders. The ciders are delicious and I like that. They make new ones. Every season there's there's seasonal ciders, so hibiscus is definitely one of my favorites and that was like one of the first ones that you guys did. Is that correct? Yeah, one of the originals. I love them and I push them every time I can. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And talking about the ciders too, you see all of our stacks of cider out here. We do a cider club, so that's something that last week I know I canceled. You know, with the snow and stuff I had it go into the winery but tractor broke. You know the truck. Yeah, it's been a rough couple of weeks with snow and you saw what our location is like. So you saw the semi trucks that are there and it can be difficult to operating. You know a manufacturing facility in the country.
Speaker 2:When I say that we know that, I want to make sure that you know that I'm not saying I know that, but you have a couple of people staring at me over there that scooped eight foot snow drifts out of the basement of the house.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, oh my God yeah.
Speaker 3:So and so what I was going back to, last week we also had our cider club release. So every quarter we've we do a cider club that we do four new ciders that we'll send out. We ship them all across the country through a third party and then we also have people pick them up here on site.
Speaker 2:So, as a novice, real fast, while we're talking about ciders, explain to me what a cider is.
Speaker 3:Cider technically is a wine, so anything that is fermented from fruit technically would be a wine, so an apple wine, honey wine, and so cider is a low alcohol carbonated beverage. Okay, it does have silver.
Speaker 2:And you guys were making this at your facility, yep. And so you say you just buy the or you did hasn't got to be a bar to apple.
Speaker 3:So we started, you know, talking going back to the frost they actually had changed the laws around that time too and so they classified cider as a beer because a lot of the beer distributors were distributing you know stellar art or angry orchard or some of these different ciders and they kind of are more in the beer category. You know 5% alcohol and you know the beer distributors are distributing them. And so they changed the kind of classification at the state level that if it is below I think it's 8.5% it had to be sold like by a distributor. And so us, working with our distributor and linking Lincoln, you know, had that relationship, buying beer from them and when they wanted to start selling it, that's kind of when things started taking off.
Speaker 3:So the original cider making, you know, was just kegs only. So you know the expansion where the canning line and stuff like that, none of that was there and so we were just filling kegs out of you know, a really small tank. So that's kind of where that got started. And then I believe it was the following year that we expanded in that building and added the canning line and you know kind of went full fledged with it and we're the first, first cidery in the state to really do it.
Speaker 2:So I'm just drinking an apple wine instead of grape wine.
Speaker 3:Is that? Well, it's a cider technically, but yeah but okay, Tommy, raise your hand.
Speaker 2:What do you got? Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, so yeah, we've talked about that. The Blue Bee is a mead wine that we made, so it's some local honey that we had, there's fermented and then blueberry, so it's a nice sweet dessert wine and that's new, right, you guys? Just the Blue Bee. We just did that a couple months ago. And then what I thought was really cool maybe nobody else does, but the ice cider is something that I really was excited about and we did that last year and we plan to do it every year with these big cold snaps that we get.
Speaker 3:So a couple of weeks ago, when it's negative 10 degrees, when we get a tanker truck of cider and we pull off, we took, I think, about 2,000 gallons off of this truck and then we just put them in our totes and we left them outside to freeze. So the totes freeze completely solid, we bring them back inside and then we've been siphoning off just to really concentrated apple cider liquid. So generally when we get a tanker truck, it's about 14 degrees bricks and that's the measurement of the sugar content. And I can't remember what Adam said 40.
Speaker 4:40.
Speaker 3:40 degrees bricks, yeah. So it's very highly concentrated and if anybody got to try the wine, it's very viscous and sweet.
Speaker 4:I want to try that. It's really nice. We sampled. We sampled a little bit of it, yeah it tastes like honey, it's good.
Speaker 3:And I really like you know I mean it's with the way the weather is. You know, the last couple of weeks after a while you get tired of it. But you know, doing something like that, it's always kind of cool to see them out there and you're like what is that out there? You know, bring them inside. And so that's kind of a cool project that we did last year and are doing this year again. That, you know, the weather helped us out with that.
Speaker 2:Right, so no question. And might not know the answer to this, but figured I'd ask what? What? Do you have any fun things coming up one year, three year, five year plans, goals, anything like that? You want to speak about Tim's going heli skiing?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, I might not be here.
Speaker 2:When you say heli skiing, what?
Speaker 4:He's getting lifted up on a helicopter to the top of a mountain and going snowboarding down the mountain.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's, that sounds a little fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm pumped.
Speaker 2:We're at though.
Speaker 3:Washington, washington right, washington, north, cascades.
Speaker 2:So they obviously have seen YouTube videos and stuff on it. But so they take you up there, you ski down. They take you back up, you ski down.
Speaker 3:Oh, that'd be fun. So it'll be my first time. So, yeah, I have. No, I don't know.
Speaker 2:So it's just a rich version of not having to wait for a lift.
Speaker 3:I'm not hiking up that mountain.
Speaker 4:We hope you make it back. We hope you make it back, if that came in.
Speaker 2:you're going to come get in line for the lift Now. My heli's sitting right over here, yeah so I got that coming up.
Speaker 3:So if you don't hear from me after next week, you know where I'm at.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for the company. You guys have any cool things coming up. Any more buildings you plan to take over or knock down or remodel or you know nothing, nothing in the works right now.
Speaker 3:You know.
Speaker 2:I mean Any more wines or any cool.
Speaker 3:You know there's always new wines, new ciders coming out. You know nothing that I can really speak of right now, it's a secret. But yeah, yeah, you know there's always fun things going on at the winery. But you know, especially after the last few years, just kind of focusing on what we're doing. You know, right now we're distributing in all the state of Nebraska and we're just into Iowa, so we'd really like to see some of our brands move out of state. But at the same time, you know we want to take care of our distributors Right Our in state. And right now I mean we're you've seen our facility and I mean we're cranking out about as much as we can out of there and keeping our partners happy with what they're getting, and so we don't want to go too far without making sure everybody's got what they need.
Speaker 4:So do you think you guys will ever like expand more?
Speaker 3:Or I mean we potentially. I mean it's not in the works right now, but you know your dad needs to have more babies and have more son.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I don't think Mike was. Yeah, and Johnny and Craig can take care of that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3:The next thing, yeah, I guess would be yeah, there's nothing in the works or no plans necessarily, but yeah, maybe if we were to expanded, probably to have a better facility for production. That's not in the country, Right? So that's a, that's a big issue for us, you know, getting trucks in and out of there and product and so, but as of right now, not necessarily that you know that's good, though I mean maintain maintain what you guys created.
Speaker 3:Yeah, focus on what we're doing here and grow. You know some of the events you know that we're doing here in Ashland and and at the winery as well, before really trying to. You know, if we want to link in our Omaha location, let's see. You know, get spread thin the way it is and it's, you know, but that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, we're holding off on any expansion. Yeah, it seems like you guys have done great, you're at a good spot. So fermented Fridays with our asking when you guys do it.
Speaker 3:Fermented Fridays. We usually start those in June. Was that Memorial weekend? Is that the first weekend, or is it labor?
Speaker 2:Memorial.
Speaker 3:We start after Memorial weekend and so usually do 12 to 14 Fridays, so it's every Friday. In the summer we get live local music, have some food trucks come out, usually feature, you know, local craft brew, and so it's a family friendly event. You know people come out, sit on the lawn, bring chairs, blankets and picnic, and so what time does it start?
Speaker 3:Usually we open the gates at 430. Okay, they're always open, but you know the people usually start coming at four. So you know, that's one of those things. It's mostly weather dependent. So last year we had a great, great fermented Friday series, but you know the weather is perfect too, so we had great bands and they did a real good job with that what was that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you guys website address or any location Go to glacialtiltvignorcom Awesome, and so I'm probably have to spell that out. I hate giving people my email over. You want me to spell that for you Glacial tilt. I can't spell it.
Speaker 2:Another quick question. I found this interesting. I was reading an article doing my little prep on this, but explain where glacial tilt your name comes from.
Speaker 3:That comes from the soil, so it's not a. So we've got a lot of glacial tilt, not I don't know which way you guys drove, but you'll see like a lot of places where they got those big quartzite, you know, pinkish colored rocks, so that the glaciers, you know, I don't know how many thousands of years ago, but it you know, crossed through here and so there's a lot of those rocks in our area and so a lot of times you'll find like that ground that we're on was just pasture land. They either had cows on it and when we had it, you know a bunch of cedar trees and whatnot. But farmers generally don't like that type of ground just because it tears up their equipment. If you're disking and stuff and right up older like that, you're going to have some problems. So that's a. That's where the name comes from from the soil. Yeah, it's called glacial tilt.
Speaker 2:Yep, that's the soil. Yep, that's pretty cool. No-transcript. Oh Fridays, do you guys? I know that fermented Fridays opens at 430. Are you guys open before that?
Speaker 3:We are not out there and so the winery is a little different, just for the sake of you know we do a lot of weddings out there, so we don't have open hours. And then, you know, in the wintertime, you know we had an event that was scheduled last weekend but, you know, tractor broke and couldn't clear roads and it's like all right. You know it's difficult to do things out there. You know, december right through March, you know, just due to the conditions, but you know the fermented Fridays we do ticket those events. So we sell tickets ahead of time, got you and previous before 2020, and COVID and whatnot. You know it's just kind of a free for all, which was nice and as fun. You know we could have, you know, 400 people or you might have a thousand, but it made it really hard to plan.
Speaker 3:And so it's, of course you love to see that many people come, but then parking and you know you don't want to see people waiting in line, and so we ended up starting charging for tickets for those events, just so we can provide a better, better experience for people and not have it be overly crowded.
Speaker 2:So Well, I know a lot of people that have been there and I went there actually way back in the day, but I'd love to go. That's why I asked what time you guys were open, because we usually every other Friday, or at least once a month, try to go out as a team on a Friday or Thursday and well, I mean, if you guys ever want to come out there, you got my number and we don't.
Speaker 3:we were not necessarily open, but I could open for this group, Well, and it's kid.
Speaker 4:It's kid friendly too, like you can bring kids out, like it gets dark out and you see all these kids run around with glow sticks on there, you know, around their nicks, so the parents can see where they're at. Yeah, yeah, it's it's. It's family friendly, so it's great yeah.
Speaker 2:I can't believe how close it. I mean, I know I was working on my phone but she, she knew, you know the general vicinity of it, but I put it into my phone and from our house is only 13 miles and I answered one email and we were there. So I can.
Speaker 4:I can believe how close it was. He lied to me when I asked how far away it was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't realize how not close we were. You're like, have you been to Bennett? I'm like, yeah, we're just passing through there and we were like a block from.
Speaker 4:I know I'm like oh, I hear a plus.
Speaker 2:What else you guys got Anybody?
Speaker 1:Nope.
Speaker 2:I don't think we need to take up too much more of your time, but thank you so much. Perfect, yeah, I know we've been trying to plan this for a while and it was great. Thank you all, the Murray team for coming too. I know you're, I know you.
Speaker 4:Thanks to Tom, yeah.
Speaker 2:Thanks for Josh. I know everybody else is getting paid just to sit here and drink wine, but let's, I like to do so.
Speaker 3:I appreciate you pushing me out of my brass boundaries. I don't like this kind of stuff.
Speaker 4:I had to coach him. I'm like it'll be fine, Don't worry about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you like these now. I just don't smoke too much.
Speaker 3:Yeah. He called me last night. I was like shit, I don't know man. It's like I'm trying to behave. This isn't on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Definitely live.
Speaker 3:We are live, oh, it's live, oh yeah, oh, I'm joking.
Speaker 4:I'm joking, it's not. He'll cut that part out. He'll cut that part out. Yeah, he'll cut that part out.
Speaker 3:I got, I got to do a life insurance test before I go on that heli skiing thing.
Speaker 2:So do you really have to you better?
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, I do. I filled out like the life insurance thing, and then I was like shit, like I like do I tell him I'm getting on a helicopter and getting it jumped out of it?
Speaker 4:Yeah, they didn't.
Speaker 2:I'm going through all that shit right now. Yeah, that's why I asked.
Speaker 3:I'm afraid of needles too.
Speaker 2:They came to my house and did all the blood work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, See, I'm not. I can't do that. That's the only thing I'm afraid of. I don't care what they find. I don't want you to stick a needle in my arm. I don't like that.
Speaker 2:She's the same way.
Speaker 3:Oh, I'll be on the ground. No joke, I will be on the ground dying. You're like our buddy Dustin, oh, like whenever you guys did the IVs at Harrods or what, after that one thing, and they're like we're going to do this after this event and I'm like absolutely not Like that, like it's like the worst thing I could do, like I was like I feel terrible, but I'm going to take feeling terrible.
Speaker 2:Then you good, josh, thank you so much for being here and thank you for letting us come in and I'm excited to seriously, I'm really excited to partner with you guys and find a couple of wines that we can private label and let our guys start giving that to our clients. But thank you guys, everybody, for tuning in this episode of Stay Modern with Marie here at the Glacial Till in Ashland and we'll look forward to seeing you on the next episode.
Speaker 1:If you have questions or topics you'd like us to discuss, you can email them to infoatmurraycustomhomescom. If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe to Stay Modern with Marie on Avalanche Spotify, or check back on our website and social media regularly for the latest episodes.
