Chateau Michaelena Vineyard

[ibglowin]

My one nice cluster. And no I have not gotten a Brix level on it!

So far the cotton tails and the birds have ignored it.....

 

[AlFulchino]

to protect you could place a paint strainer type bag on it if you like...note the missing berry area...in the future you will want to note this because there are essentially two reasons...non pollination or disease issue...i guess you could say there is a third...birds, but you will have seen the berries for most of the yr...wait, there is a fourth you ate them!

 

[Waldo]

Im betting my money on the fourth Al..And he thought we wold not notice..HA !!

 

[Bert]

Oh he wouldn't do that...

 

[ibglowin]

I honestly have no idea what happened to the bottom missing grapes in that pic! This cluster is very close to the ground so a cotton tail may have munched it.

I have eaten a few off a couple of other small clusters and they are sweet and the skins have a bit of a tannin bite to them but not over powering by any means I wish I had enough to do a TA on them, very interested to see what kind of chemistry numbers develop but I guess that will have to wait for next season!

20 more of those and I would have the making for a decent grape pack!

 

[AlFulchino]

well we have all heard of Peter CottonTail...now it is Mike CottonTail...eating his own grapes on the sly ....i have two bugs bunny visiting my vineyard.....looks like future chicken cacciatore.....after u process all our broilers, turkeys and pheasants...

Mike i have had several New Mexico folks in lately..when can i tell them that you will be licensed?

 

[ibglowin]

Ha!

Still trying to work on saving up $2,000,000 so I can make $1,000,000 in a winery!

 

[Brent2489]

HmmmmmI thought it was $5M.

 

[ibglowin]

Anyone ever seen anything like this? Seeing them on the vines. Some type of a small worm. Very colorful as you can see. I can't see any damage to the vines and have seen them on the vines off and on most of the Summer. Seems like there are more now due to all the rains we have been having as of late.

 

[Runningwolf]

Cute little buggers aren't they?

 

[TomK-B]

Looks like they might be young caterpillars of the Monarch Butterfly.

 

[ibglowin]

Yikes!

Western Grapeleaf Skeletonizer......

Western Grapeleaf Skeletonizer


Checked all the vines this afternoon. Only on one vine. Killed about 10 of the little suckers. You could see the damage easily on some of the leafs.

B**tards!

 

[TomK-B]

YUCK!!!

 

[OilnH2O]

Wow, Mike.

Where do you think they came from? From that UC Davis stuff it sounds like only California -- obviously they are in New Mexico, and at your altitude too... Keep us all posted!

 

[ibglowin]

Lots of Kalifornians have Santa fe as a second home in the Summer.....

 

[robie]

I'll bet UC Davis would be interested in knowing they have made it to New Mexico, since according to the article, they apparently haven't even yet covered all areas of California.

I'd drop them an email and a photo.

 

[ibglowin]

I just sent an email with that pic to the New Mexico state viticulturist down in Las Cruces. Well see if I get a reply.

 

[rhoffart]

Chateau update? and new vineyard pic's?

 

[ibglowin]

Everybody is happy and green still. Vines have grown a bit more on the trellis. Growth has slowed way down the last month or so. We are forecast to potentially hit 33 on Saturday morning with this front that is moving through as i type this. Winds are gusting 25-35 mph right now with sprinkles that should turn into snow in the high mountains tonight.

This weekend will more than likely be it for the vines as well as my Dahlias!

 

[grapeman]

The temp hit 33 here this AM, better than the 28 predicted. I will probably get down there tonight since they say 34 here. There was frost on the truck windshield this AM, but no damage yet.