Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery
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I was thinking maybe asymmetrical - first a red... then a white... then two reds... uh... maybe I'd better stop now...
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Geeze guys, all I did was line them up and take a darned picture for all of you so you could see them since folks had asked for a picture earlier. When you all get a bunch of medals, arrange them however you want! Next time I guess I better hire a publicist and wine bottle decorator...........or what the heck ever you would call it!
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OK, here is a picture I didn't take so the composition might be better, but it only shows one wine. This was included in the local paper for a story.
I finished up with the harvest at Willsboro yesterday. Today I need to process the other 5 wines from there (or at least the grapes for the wine). Then tomorrow I need to press the whites from these and last weeks one remaining unpressed red.
After that, it's on to my own harvest. Yee Ha!
I finished up with the harvest at Willsboro yesterday. Today I need to process the other 5 wines from there (or at least the grapes for the wine). Then tomorrow I need to press the whites from these and last weeks one remaining unpressed red.
After that, it's on to my own harvest. Yee Ha!
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I have begun my grape harvest for 2009 in earnest now. Today I had a helper and after the weather got above freezing, we picked for a few hours and ended up with about a half ton- mostly Frontenac. This came off 2 rows of year old vines or an average of about 17 pounds per vine. I also picked the remainder of the Steuben - a couple hundred pounds. They averaged about 12 pounds apiece in their third year. I will get a few pictures tomorrow before I crush them. I figure I will crush in the morning before it thaws again. It has been just below freezing mornings lately- just enough to frost the leaves. I got some pictures of the grapes after unnetting a few today to pick. The leaves look so sick because they have frozen a bit by now.
Steuben on the vine
On to Fronetnac
Dan helping out
More to follow
Steuben on the vine
On to Fronetnac
Dan helping out
More to follow
AlFulchino
Winemaker of 30+ years
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awesome
dragonmaster42
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Those are some pretty looking clusters of grapes.
AlFulchino
Winemaker of 30+ years
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i did note that you got your nets up.....i never was able to get mine up
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No snow yet Wade and I hope you keep it there. It's cold enough picking with flurries flying!
I got all the nets up Al and I am glad I did. Yesterday I scared a huge flock of blackbirds away a couple times. They would turn the sky black and I could hear them over the radio blasting away.
The Frontenac we picked yesterday that I gave Dan were 1.090 or 23 brix when Dan crushed them and tested - not bad for 3 year old vines producing over 5 tons to the acre.
I will have some interesting pictures and data when I get time to complile the data from my SARE Grant research with canopy management and training systems. I picked the Frontenac part of the trial today. I counted the clusters and weighed each vine. I also took a sample of each panel block so this makes 4 for the fall to compare. I will be picking the Leon Millot and LaCrosse and compiling those also. The Frontenac is most striking, but man what a difference it is. One treatment gives greater brix, less acid and a 60 % greater yield with much less work during the growing season! Some vines yielded more than 30 pounds with greater brix and less acid than ones yielding 17 pounds. How's that for a difference - and requireing less work to boot. The clusters were well spread out, a dark black color with bright red juice compared to tangled skinny clusters with many pink to light red grapes and a bit of botrytis here and there where they were touching bad.
I'm excited by the preliminary results!
I got all the nets up Al and I am glad I did. Yesterday I scared a huge flock of blackbirds away a couple times. They would turn the sky black and I could hear them over the radio blasting away.
The Frontenac we picked yesterday that I gave Dan were 1.090 or 23 brix when Dan crushed them and tested - not bad for 3 year old vines producing over 5 tons to the acre.
I will have some interesting pictures and data when I get time to complile the data from my SARE Grant research with canopy management and training systems. I picked the Frontenac part of the trial today. I counted the clusters and weighed each vine. I also took a sample of each panel block so this makes 4 for the fall to compare. I will be picking the Leon Millot and LaCrosse and compiling those also. The Frontenac is most striking, but man what a difference it is. One treatment gives greater brix, less acid and a 60 % greater yield with much less work during the growing season! Some vines yielded more than 30 pounds with greater brix and less acid than ones yielding 17 pounds. How's that for a difference - and requireing less work to boot. The clusters were well spread out, a dark black color with bright red juice compared to tangled skinny clusters with many pink to light red grapes and a bit of botrytis here and there where they were touching bad.
I'm excited by the preliminary results!
