Fulchino Vineyard

[AlFulchino]

brief info:


This is a second year vineyard...


1100 vines were planted in 2007
and 350 in 2008...


there are somewhere around 14 varieties in all.




Location is in Southern NH....




here are some pictures:


a Vine that I am allowing some clusters to remain on....I have removed most others

A vine...loose type clusters

a


earlier in the season enjoying the wonderful activity of weed control

a week ago ago

Vinesa couple of weeksago just a beautiful vine....not the most vigorous of vines but quick enough

 

[Wade E]

Great pics Al. Some of us are very jealous!!!!!!!!!

 

[grapeman]

Al your vines are doing great. You are indeed doing a great job with the training and babying them and it shows. You should like the Sabrevois and make sure you keep tending them. I had a couple guests yesterday I met a couple years ago at the Willsboro project. He is from the Cornell Fruit Program and they both judge wine competitions in the Finger Lakes. We sampled about 8 wines from the trial I made last autumn. Thier favorite red was made from Sabrevois. It has really come around very nicely. Earlier It had a hint of bacon like the typical Sabrevois can sometimes get, but it is gone now with just a hint of smokieness now. It blends in very nicely with the flavors. The body is good and the color is great. They also liked the Petite Amie and LaCrescent(both whites). They tend to agree with me on the Marquette - it is nice but mine turned out a bit thin. The body just isn't quite there. Good flavors though. It's always good to get others opinions on your wines to help you know if you are making a good style or not.

 

[Waldo]

Great looking vineyard Al....I gotta ask though..How long does it take to do weed control with that sprayer you are using ?
Visited your web page......"You ain't just playing around are ya "
Very nice and look forward to your contribution to the forum.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Very impressive....Your doing a great job there.
Please keep posting photos.

 

[Bert]

Very nice pictures Al.....And I agree with Wade...Some of us are very jealous...Very nice job...

...

 

[AlFulchino]

thanks Wade and Bert....but seriouslyno need to be jealous ( esp when my back gets a bit tired).... ...i sometimes set before myself projects a bit bigger than i am and then i realize how small i am so i just walk each day one step towards it


Rich....thanks for the comments on the wines you had..i am soooo looking forward to making wine..of the varieties that you have mentioned I have the marquette, sabrevois and la crescent.....are you saying the marquette wine is thin as a general rule but has nice flavors? or are you saying that the particular wine that you made is a bit thin? and implying vinological practices can be used to beef this up?




NW, thank you, i will add some from time to time...i still have some advances to make vis-a-vis sprating program, pruning/training techniques ANDand i have to put better end posts in ( i was pressed for time last year) and hopefully nets will come next year...but i am wondering aloud here to anyone w thoughts on teh subject.......will I ***realyy*** need bird netting?


Waldo.....i have learned this over time....i used to go thru and prune everything...then do the weed control for the rows and the weeds would get WAY ahead of me if i followed that process because the pruning if done properly in each cycle could take 10-14 days...and if i had rain then longer...so what i do now is make sure i prune 4 rows each day and immediately spray glyphosphate....so one two gallon finished mix nowadays will do 4+ rows (each row is either 200 or 250 feet long, but w this procedure i am doing more of a maintenance weed control than a full fledge killing war on the b*st*rds, so i can do it in about a half hour or so....when i was *behind* it could take all day.....so i had enough of that! as you can imagine..maybe some day i will get some Surfan, i hear that is good for pre-emergent when the vines are at least 3 yrs old


And the website is a no rush project...if i comehome and have an idea i plunk it on the site...my daughter tinkers w it from time to time as well...i look at it as let a year or two or ten go by and maybe something will come of it! ok maybe twenty years Edited by: Al Fulchino

 

[AlFulchino]

b

 

[grapeman]

Al, about the Marquette wine- we all thought mine was a bit thin-lacking a good backbone. I can't say why it is like that because the experts say it makes a good wine. I think it is something that can be corrected with a small mixture. I have another wine from a mis-named variety that has plenty of structure and tannins, so I'm going to try a bit of a blend with them.


You have a good variety of vines. Here this year we saw extreme shoot brittleness with the Prairie Star and a fe of those vines won't have a crop they lost so many shoots- so watch out for that. In general we aren't real happy with the Landot Noir vine- real late breaking and poor growth habit. At the other vineyard the Frontenac Gris and Cayuga White seem to be exhibiting poor cluster fill again and strange growth. We are thinking that the 2-4d used on that site in other fields may be affecting them. Last year a lot of the berries would drop while picking even though they were disease free and weren't over-ripe. I think you have a nice mix of varieties and should be able to make some excellent wine from them.


As for bird netting- yes I think it will be mandatory for you- unless you only want to get a few gallons NEXT year. Between small birds, turkeys deer and racoons- they will strip the vines in no time. They are a good barometer to tell you when they are ripe though!

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

Looking good indeed! You've done a fabulous job there Al!

 

[AlFulchino]

thank you JW




question for the group..did anyone notice the unhealthy looking old leaf near the clusters? i can take a better pic if it helps...any thoughts on what that is..older leaves on several vines have this....

 

[grapeman]

Al more leaves will show it as the season progresses. It is nothing to worry about. It's sort of like people gtting older- they show their age a bit. If the whole vine was affected then I would say there was something wrong. Don't believe it is a deficiency because the end of the vine would be affected also. Sometimes nutrients are pulled out of the older leaves if growth is really vigorous to sustain the new growth if the roots can't keep up. I have noticed it happens more often in young vines. Don't expect everything to be perfect all the time. You will drive yourself nuts with worry.

 

[AlFulchino]

you may not realize it but you really put me at ease w this...i am learning very very slowly that i dont have to be 100% perfect w these vines....i worry about deficiencies, disease, weeds and on and on if i see the slightest things.....but as i have learned thru people such as yourself...there WILL be disease pressures and effects...i dont have to have a sterile vineyard, just one under control


as for these leaves yes it is all on the older ones, not any of the new ones...so i am assuming by this that each year my fruiting wire area will have the lowest and oldest leaves...so near and at the end of each year i will see *not perfect* leaves surrounding the fruit! correct?


if you could later in the year show a picture of your older leaves i would appreciate that very much so i can benchmark thank you

 

[grapeman]

Different varieties exhibit different mature leaf patterns. You will notice that red varieties exhibit redder leaves sooner as autumn and vine maturity arrives. White varieties just start having yellow leaves. I will try to show you mature leaves after a bit as autumn approaches. In the meanwhile enjoy what heat we get for summer!

 

[OilnH2O]

If you'd like, I can show you how the little Bambi's will keep your leaves from getting too old!

 

[AlFulchino]

i suppose you have feathered friends that will harvest my grapes for me as well?


thanks for the offer , but you keep them

 

[OilnH2O]

Ok -- in all seriousness, what I DO use is mylar reflective tape -- blows in the wind and scatters light/reflections. I use it to give a visual reference to the deer netting (very similar to bird netting, just sized differently) so the deer don't blow through it at night. Don't know how effective it is with birds, because my vines are so young -- and I pinch off all the baby grapes!

I have seen it in many vinyards, however....

 

[AlFulchino]

i have been advised to get the bird netting that nothing else will work...so that is on my agenda for next season along w someposts to handle them....i like seeing the cardinals and the yellow finches and other birds...but every time i see them in the vineyard i cant help but wonder if they are finding my grapes today.....i had better not turn into Capt Queage(sp?) from Caine Mutiny or whatever that movie title is

 

[AlFulchino]

I am thinking of adding a few vines next year...Coret Noir and Noiret...has anyone here had any experience w these vines?


i.e.: Vigor, pruning, trellissing systems, spraying, harveting, and most importantly eating and winemaking and overwintering

 

[grapeman]

Al there is 12 vines of Noiret growing at Willsboro- 4 years old. I have both at home, second year. Last year at Willboro the Noiret wer beautiful grapes with very handsome clusters. They were a victim to quite a bit of poor set with shatter with all the rain this year. The clusters are looking better but won't be as handsome as last year. The vines have also lost some of their vigor and in general are less thrifty. Double A offers grafted vines with this variety and I think one would benefit from them for just this reason above.


We have a misnamed variety in the trial that some of us believe could be Corot Noir, but after growing them here for 2 years and seeing the leaves, growth etc, I don't think so now. I have left a few clusters on the Corot Noir to compare with those and try myself.


I am training them both for VSP and have the cordons laid down now.


If you make it over this autumn or even sooner, we can check them out at both sites(25 miles apart).