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How is everyone’s grapes looking? I dropped lagging clusters today. Mainly clipped off lagging wings. I am trying to harvest a little early not pushing ripeness to the absolute limit. The wine is enjoyed by my hooch hound friends, but I would like to make a wine that is more balanced and does...

Ha! There is definitely a burr way up under your saddle. This LHBS business was mostly run by the owner, with some temporary help, occassionally. So, after my initial romantic idea of owning a business wore off I began to sense that this business was actually someone making a job for himself...

The shop appeared to have high and low seasons, especially around grape harvest and he was innundated with customers September through October, and then very quiet periods. Such lumpy cash flow is very hard to manage for a business. Beer making kept the business running the other 10 months of...

I seriously entertained the idea. I talked to the owner about his business and he was trying to sell the business, but there was finally no buyer. Talking to other LHBS owners, it is not an easy business.

The owner decided to retire and now my favorite source of yeast and winemaking chemicals is closed! 😥 He had all the yeasts available by the gram. And also, our local MoreWine retail store closed. What are members’ favorite source of yeast via mail order? I could buy from MoreWine but I tend...

You do not say how much wine you are planning to make. If it is 10 gallons or less, frozen grapes work fine for making wine and there are many options

I use 1Password as my password manager. It is not free but it works across devices. Some phone apps will confuse its automatic form fill in, occasionally you have to cut and paste passwords from the manager. You generate and hold the main, emergency, last resort, encryption key offline printed...

It is difficult to tell for certain, but these look like table grapes. At least it is more common to grow table grapes on an arbor like this. The canopy looks dense and over grown, but I have little experience with this style of grape growing.

Sorry! Where are you located? (Maybe add it to your avatar)

Welcome @AJI, Do you have any idea what type of grape you have? How about the style of pruning and trellis?

@Ventisei I hope this helps. I visited the Merlot vines today. The merlot is just starting to turn color on a few end row clusters.

I wish that i were so lucky. Starlings around her have a taste for my grapes.

@Ventisei I am located in San Jose, Calif. zone 9b. just about sea level I do not recommend using this year's vine behavior as a normal indicator. These vines are 1.5 years old, so they are establishing roots and trunks. I should have dropped the clusters but the growth has been so aggressive I...

I have veraison on the Zin, it came on fast. This happened in 3 days. Thats what heat will do.

Hello Neb Farmer I am curious about the orientation of your vines and your trellis style. Are your rows east-west or north-south?

Timely thread for me. I have also wondered sometimes am I drinking too much. Sharing a bottle of wine sometimes turns into two bottles divided over two people in our house if we are having a good time. And I have noticed my body not recovering as fast anymore. I won’t say I am an alcoholic, but...

Wow. That sounds like a terrible case of PM. Sulfur spray is good for preventing powdery mildew, but a full blown case will not be stopped with sulfur. Stronger measures are needed to stop active PM. I spray down all the surfaces when I pass through the vineyard, trunk, cordons, endposts. That...

Hi Brandon, Welcome to WMT. “From Vines to Wines” is an excellent general purpose book for a winemaker. It has a slight East-coast emphasis, which is great for a lot of people on this forum. California growing information is easy to find on the internet. I bet you can find an apprenticeship if...

My Zin is holding up quite well in this heat. It has been in the high 90F low 100F range for 2 weeks, but it does cool off at night which might help the vines. I have not watered at all and the tendrils are still green and long, but are beginning to pull back a little. I noticed some powdery...

The grafted vines are growing better than I hoped for. This is the easiest plant I have ever grafted. The vines are holding up in this heat. I was concerned. The grafting has 75% success. I think I can do even better. I learned a few things during the process. One graft did not take but...