The Vineyard is here in Minnesota.
I'll be embarrassed if my friend reads this because I am such a rookie!
My friend just opened this year. A couple years ago, I helped pick one day. Last year, I picked a couple times, and helped with the crush. This winter we were out in the snow tightening the wires the vines hang on (I got sunburn in February!) I helped bottle, and helped pour on opening weekend. This fall, I have picked in the rain, crushed and pressed from early morning until late at night. I am exhausted with the little bit I have helped with, but I have probably been there for little more than half of the work this harvest. I can feel proud to have been a part of it all this season. I have touched the vines all year long from the last harvest until now. I have tasted the grapes every week since they were tiny green sour balls.
Now it's time for confession. I like his wine, I really like the whites he has put out (all Minnesota grown). The reds are about 50/50, but today we popped open a bottle of St Croix from 2004... wow. Smooth and tasty. Not exactly a fine California Pinot, but better than many CA wines I have had.
This is the fun part. The reds, when young, live up to the reputation of "non-Nappa" wine. Thin, and a little off. The whites however stand up to the rest of the world if you ask me. I would challenge the average wine drinker to distinguish the La Cressent ( a MN grape) from a Reisling. Most probably couldn't.
The most exciting part is what the future holds. This year, tons (and I mean TONS) of Frontenac Gris. I haven't yet tasted an FG I haven't liked, and the juice we were crushing in the picture is awesome! Im my mind, the Front Gris is a lot like a gewusteminer grape, but with a more intense flavor.
Next year Brianna, Now this is an incredible grape. The wine gives off some tropical fruit flavors like pineapple, bannana, etc. It make a unique and TASTY wine. Check out Cut Hills winery in NE, and order a bottle of the 2006 Brianna. You will be amazed!
As we have gone along, I have begged off some fruit. I have 5 gal of La Cressent in the secondary. I will be making a dry/ off dry white from that. I have 5 gal if Front Gris that I just inoculated. It is at 26 brix. I'll ferment that down to about 2 brix and then stop the fermentation for a sweeter white. I have another 5 gal of front gris that I stabilized and I will wait for a good freeze to pull some of the water out and make a desert wine. I have 1 gal of Brianna, and 1 bottle(!) of a grape called Shannon settling out. Coming up will be 2 5 gal batches of frontenac that I will do in a rose style. I'm going to try 2 different yeasts and see which is better. My friend made a killer 2006 frontenac rose, and he is trying to repeat for 2007, so my batches will be sort of tests to see if we can improve on an already awesome wine.
I make my first wine just a couple months ago. I have gone from 0 to 45 gallons over the summer, but I really started some wines this year just to learn and be ready for this harvest. I am so excited, but I have no clue where I am going to keep all this as I live in a small townhome!
To answer the other questions...
Yes I have crushed most of my grapes there, but I also did a batch by hand with a potato masher just for the experience... skip that experience if you can... what a mess!
No, the frogs were not blended into the wine! We tried to remove frogs as well as lady bugs. This little devil however must be a grape lover. He just kept coming back!
Yes, I could get a barrel, but where would I put it, and what would I fill it with? I'm already way beyond the reasonable space I should be using for making wine at home.
I honestly don't know how much we have pressed. Hundreds, (thousands?) of gallons. It has been fun, but after a full day when you strain to lift a 30lb tray of grapes into the crusher for the 200th time, some of the romance of the whole wine making experience is lost. My back hurts, my scalp is sunburned, my arm burns from 2 wasp stings, I feel so sticky I wonder if I will ever be clean again, and I am SO sick of crushing and pressing.... And in a month, I will be eager for the 2008 harvest because wine makes you forget the work, and remember only the joys!
