Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[grapeman]

At the risk of finding mistakes in it, here is a link to my Online Store. Look around. You can use PayPal if you want to order. Include your phone number in special instructions in case of an error. After using PayPal to pay it will take you back to the cart and be sure to submit it from that page to complete the transaction.


http://hipvineyard.mybigcommerce.com/
Let me know how it works for you. I know there will be a lot of room to improve.

 

[Wade E]

Post whore!!!! Bwaaa haaaa haaaaa

 

[grapeman]

Some days, I just love my job as resident Winemaker at Hid-In-Pines Vineyard. Yesterday I tasted the Marquette to see how it is progressing. I have two batches going, one from 3 year old vines and one from some a bit older. The 3 year Marquette has an almost identical taste to the 2008 Lincoln Peak Marquette I had for New Years dinner. That one won the 2009 International COld Climate Wine Competition in Minnesota. The older Marquette is even better! I am really quite excited by this as this years grapes were not spectacular!


Today I just got done pulling a thief of Petite Amie- a cold hardy white wine grape from David MacGregor where he made the cross in Minn. WOW, I'm blown away by this at this time. It has the best aromatics I have gotten from the grape so far. A nice rose floral fragrance leaning towards muscat, but not really. It is nice and full bodied, flavorful, moderate alcohol and leaves a nice bit of tannin on the finish. Unusual in an aromatic white.


I may just have to go pull another sample......................................

 

[ibglowin]

You shipping out of state yet?

 

[grapeman]

I am shipping out of state now. If you try to buy from a state not allowed (we can ship to 38 states), you will get an error message.

 

[Waldo]

Can you ship "Marinades"anywhere

 

[grapeman]

The "Winery" cannot ship marinades everywhere. Just can't risk it.....

 

[grapeman]

Well after a winter of record warmth and lack of snow, winter has arrived the last couple days. Thursday and Friday brought a touch of snow and we got about 5 inches to coat things up a bit. Then the colder weather came back. Yesterday it was about -5F and right now at almost 8AM it sits at -17F. That oughta freeze a few buds of the tender varieties! Who the heck was complaining about not having winter!

 

[Wade E]

Rich, it sure wasnt me! I was loving this new winter style and hope this continues to happen!

 

[FL Steve]

Ok, I 'fess up. That is exactly what the Finger Lakes was concerned about. Sorry about that, we wanted teens at night for a few weeks to get things in a deep slumber, not the Siberian express. Are you planning to do a test Rich or are you just going to let it ride knowing you have some damage?

We got about a foot, covered the grafts and supposed to be +15 today. Guess what? 45 and rain by Tuesday. Make up my mind!

 

[grapeman]

Steve I always cut buds up here to evaluate damage before pruning. This is the reason we delay pruning here until March. It is normal weather here. It had cooled down and never really got hot so I am sure the vines were still in as good of shape as we can expect. It just reinforces why we need cold climate grapes here!

 

[Runningwolf]

Holy smokes Rich, I thought I was cold at -8*. Last week I was outside racking and cleaning tanks without a coat. What a quick switch in temps we got.
Not complaining though. The real winter is just beginning this year compared to years past where it would begin shortly after Thankgiving.

 

[FL Steve]

Rich you certainly live in some nice country but you can have those midwinter drops in temperature. Aren't you the warm spot along the east side of the mountains? I've been up along the St Lawrence in the winter, it is so cold there I am surprised they can even grow grass, let alone grapes.

 

[grapeman]

Yea, we are the warm side of the state (upstate anyways). That is about the coldest it gets here. Saranac Lake gets to about 38-40 below and Massena and surrounding areas by the St Lawrence get to about -40.

 

[OilnH2O]

Rich, I'm afraid all our thoughts of how nice global warming has been to us this winter are nearing an end, too! Wx folks say our warm (above freezing) days and cool (occasional high teens, mostlymid-20's) nights with mountain snows and valley flurries are changing to a major system later this week. I've had to "blow" the driveway only once this winter, and that was only a couple inches. Worst part is no snow cover on the ground to help insulate it -- so we have green grass. But, supposed to have three days of snow this week so winter may be coming! It's a 'la nina' year!

 

[Wade E]

The way it was looking for awhile I think Rich was contemplating planting some Cab Sauv!!!! LOL

 

[grapeman]

Well it was much warmer this AM - only -11F and it is supposed to rise to 28 overnight along with a couple inches of snow. It was -27F this AM in Saranac Lake 50 miles away. They can keep it over there!

 

[OilnH2O]

"Don't forget your sweater!"

 

[grapeman]

I just got a bit of good news for those of you who follow my exploits. I just got notice that my application for a Northeast SARE Grant (Sustainable Agricultural Research and Education) has been approved for the upcoming year. This means I will have means to continue the training system research trial at my vineyard. It will help pay me for time spent along with an assistant to help with data collection and sample collection in the trial. This information can prove to be quite valuable to any growers of cold climate grapes and lead to higher production of higher quality fruit along with using less chemicals in the environment. I am really excited to be able to continue with this work.

 

[ibglowin]

Very good news indeed! Looking forward to another years worth of data!