Hello From Indiana.

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Hi John,


I may have been in you neck of the woods recently...My dad lives in Tyler.


So now I know more about what I can & cannot grow here (or at least grow with great results). I contacted a Purdue University professor who is a Viticulture and Small Fruit Specialist, Bruce Bordelon. His suggestions are as follows:


"In my opinion, you should consider growing Chambourcin and Noiret for dry red wine production. Chambourcin will be somewhat cold tender, but you can make up for bud loss by leaving more buds at pruning. Noiret is plenty hardy. You don’t need the extreme hardiness of Marquette. It will grow just fine, but ripens early compared to the others and that can lead to problems some years. Blending Noiret (low acid) with Marquette or Chambourcin (high acid) would be a good strategy.

I do not have any experience with Zweigelt in Indiana. I’ve seen it in Canada and tasted the wines and I think they are good. I believe it is earlier ripening than Cab sauv, etc. and maybe a bit more cold hardy. It won’t hurt for you to try a few vines but I doubt that it is hardy enough for consistent production in central Indiana."<BR style="mso-special-character: line-break">
<BR style="mso-special-character: line-break">The best winery in Indiana, IMHO, is Oliver Winery in Bloomington. They have estate grown viniferas, but are having some issues, and they are in a wamer part of the state than I am:


"Visit Oliver’s Creekbend vineyard and have a look at their Cab Sauv, Cab Franc and Merlot planting. Even with winter protection, performance has been marginal and many vines are dead from crown gall"


So, not what I wanted to hear, but what I needed to find out.


Purdue has a great grape vine website: http://www.hort.purdue.edu/fruitveg/fruit/grapes.shtml
With lots of good info.
 
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It's pretty hard to argue with Appleman when it comes to vineyards!!!!!!!!
 
Welcome Allen,
This is a great place to learn about the Sport of Wine Making. Did you know it will be an event in the next Olympics. The first even starts in 2010 and it ends in 2014. Long race but what a party afterwards!
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Welcome
 
I agree with his recommendations for you. Around here Noiret is pretty acidic, but there it will ripen a lot of the acids out leaving it less acidic like he says. It is a very tasty grape and make a very nice wine- probably the best non-Vinifera I have made to date. It abounds with wild black cherry aromas and flavors, compounted with nice tannins and an abundance of black pepper spiciness finished ff with good body and a lingering aftertaste.
 
Welcome Allan, your in for the ride of your life. A friend of mine is plantinga block ofZweigelt. They ordered 2000 plants to be delivered last spring, only 20 showed up. The invoice said, ( the other 1980 will be shipped April 2010. ) He was a bit miffed. Zweigelt seems to be in short supply.


Jeff
 

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