2 FOOLS VINEYARD/WINERY

[NorthernWinos]

In far Northwest Minnesota our local Senator LeRoy Stumpf and his wife Carol started growing grapes a few years ago, just for fun...2 years ago they opened a small family winery...and are doing great.
Today the Garden Club I belong to got a personal tour. Being as many of his neighbors are in the club and were his fund raisers, we got very special treatment..
Here are a few photos...

The Demonstration vineyard...trial of 12 varieties...

Checking the Brix of some Frontenac grapes...

Extreme Viticulture...

Around these parts we have to deal with wildlife...like deer, moose, black bears and other little creatures that love sweet grapes...

The main vineyard...

The Winery....

The Primary Fermentor...

Anyone who has ever been on a dairy farm has seen one of these....a milk bulk tank is the primary....it works great.Valiant grapes were warm and bubbly...

A bladder press...

Only 12 of our club showed up today...

If anyone cares I am 3rd from the left...the little lady in red...

The wine flowed freely....about 1/3 of the wines are from fruits, the rest are from grapes. About half the grape wines are made with juices from New York and California, the rest are locally grown.
And a good time was had by all.....

Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[grapeman]

NW,
Only the last picture of the club shows up, the rest have the dreaded little red x. Sounds like a fun time for all.

 

[Wade E]

I love going to wine tastings. Last year we hit everyone in CT. One day
aklone my wife and I went to 6 of them and my wife was starting to get
ripped. We had to keep stopping for food so that we wouldn't get to
buzzed. It took all day of driving through the country roads. The kids
went with us but they were watching movies on the prteable dvd player I
bought them. Very good time.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Hummmm.will try to fix the photos....that's odd they were there once????

 

[NorthernWinos]

Maybe I posted too many photos....saw someplace we are only suppose to Post 5 photos per Post...it that so????

 

[PolishWineP]

NW,
Only the last picture of the club shows up, the rest have the dreaded little red x. Sounds like a fun time for all.

Try pressing your ctl button right before you click on the heading of the thread. That may bring the pictures through.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Hope the photos come through for everyone, I tried to post them again...maybe they just show up for me because the photos are on my hard drive...go figure...

 

[PolishWineP]

They showed up just fine when I looked. Hope it gets to everyone...

 

[NorthernWinos]

They showed up just fine when I looked.  Hope it gets to everyone...

Think you looked about the time I reposted them, I saw the little RED X's</font> too...glad they showed up for you...

We'll have to meet there someday

 

[MedPretzel]

It looks like you had a beautiful day, with beautiful weather and a beautiful view.


And you are certainly a beautiful lady!


M.

 

[Waldo]

Looks like everyone was having a good time. Great photos too NW. Thanks for sharing them withusEdited by: Waldo

 

[grapeman]

The pictures are great.

He's putting together a nice operation. I like his primary idea. I was thinking along the same lines for future use. Those tanks come in a variety of sizes. I even thought they could probably be used for a secondary by using the rounded ones that seal. They are used around here(probably there also) for storing maple sap during collection. The tubing is run from the trees to the tanks. I have even seen some guys storing apple cider in them- they even cool the cider for temporary storage before bottlong.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Thanks everyone....Glad you enjoyed the Post....
I thought some of you who are getting into this viticulture in a big way would like seeing the milk bulk tank being used as a primary...sure is a good way to recycle those bulk tanks...see them advertised in farm newspapers and at feed stores.
Also, I had never seen a bladder press, only those old fashioned crank units....this one had like a big heavy duty rubber balloon down the middle of the press...you line the slats with wire screen, fill it with fermented juice and electricity will blow up the big rubber balloon, forcing the juice out of the screen and into the catch try around the bottom...he said the screen would have about 1/2" of pulp pressed onto it...was all new to me...guess you learn something everyday

Edited by: Northern Winos