Chateau Michaelena Vineyard

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Your vines "be glowin"! Picture perfect. Is this early in the season or normal for your location and altitude?

Cheers!
Bob
 
This is my first harvest with these vines so no real clue. I suspect its a few weeks earlier than normal (like many parts of the country) but then who knows, nobody else to my knowledge is growing these specific types of cold hardy grapes in Northern NM. All the vineyard/wineries at my altitude are growing old school cold hardy stuff or vinifera noble.
 
Thanks Rich,

That PDF on Noiret and Corot Noir was very helpful. Nice to see 20 Brix is as high as they go for these 2 varieties.
 
Well harvest for 2012 is in the bag! errr the refrigerator!

Shutting off the drip was the trick. Brix shot up from 17-18 to 20-21 in 3 days with a big burst of late Summer heat that started on Sunday. We have been full Sun, very dry humidity and ~88 degrees for the highs this week.

Total first harvest is 12 gallons whole grapes/stems for the 30 vines. I would say I really only had fruit on about 50% or 15 vines as the others are just still to immature. Next year look out!

Break down is:

2 gallons Marquette
5 gallons Noiret
5 gallons Corot Noir

I will crush/destem on Friday! should take about 30 seconds...... :)
 
We crushed and destemmed the grapes this morning while it was cool. Ended up with about 4 gallons of crushed/de-stemmed must that is sitting in the winery for a bit settling before looking at the chemistry this afternoon. Definitely takes longer to clean up than it does to set up and crush/destem! :)

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Mike, you have such nice hands for working a vineyard - i never woulda guessed! :)

Nice lookin grapes though, share the Chem when ya can
 
Well call it dumb luck or rookie luck but somehow this 3 varietal blend is looking pretty darn amazing for a cold hardy grape!

Brix =22.0 (SG=1.090)
pH =3.38 (pure juice)
TA = 7.5 G/L

Must temp is 60F at the moment so still letting it warm up a bit more before pitching the yeast.
 
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Mike, I have a pair of nail clippers you can norrow, jeesh! LOL. LOOKING good there buddy!!!
 
Well we finally got all the pics rounded up from the wedding and thought I would post a few. Notice we have some small future paparazzi in pic #5....

Really was quite an event in the end. All the hard prep work was worth it!

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Very nice, Mike. Your daughter is lovely! Looks like a wonderful time for all. I am wondering, since you are one of the "gourmet-est" on the forum, what you served for the meal. Also, what varieties are in "Ryan's Red" and "Kate's Tuscan?"
 
Ryans Red was a Merlot/Cab blend. Katies Tuscan Blend was a Super Tuscan. All 2010 wines that went through the barrel and had extra tannin added. The Bride and Groom opted for "gourmet pizza". We booked a place out of ABQ that does catering and is getting rave reviews.

Firenzie Wood Fired Pizza. They bring a mobile wood fired oven on a trailer and backed it up in the driveway. We pre-selected 6 different pizza's for the evening and they just kept bringing them out all night long basically. They started off with some appetizers right after the champagne toast, then they had 2 different green salads (one with gorgonzola, one with shaved asiago and parm) along with insalata caprese as well. I had the two red blends on the tables along with an assortment of whites. We ended up going through 1.5 cases of red and about a case of mixed whites. All seemed to be very well received.
 
Great job and super photos. Now all you have left to do is wait for the grand kids to show up.
 
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