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Cover them if practical.

Vintners in my travels pertains to the wine grape growing, however looking up the word in every major dictionary, it means “a person who makes wine”. The term “wine maker” is generally know to mean the folks involved in turning the grape into wine. We in this hobby of ours are in fact...

Hi All, There certainly is a lot to learn from this hobby! I’m in the middle of my 4th year growing grapes and my 3rd year attempting to make wine. I really shouldn’t count the first 2 years as I really didn’t have all the equipment nor grape production to amount to anything more than a...

Thanks Bob, Dave! 👍

Hi All, A friend brought us a bottle of wine from Eastern Washington from a winery and it had no top on the bottle, just corked. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen this (closest is a screw top). Is there a downside to not shrink wrapping? Dave

No herbicides. What would herbicides have to do with new growth?

Good Day Everyone, We're getting 3 days of cloudy and rain here in Western Washington. I went out this morning to visit the vines and this is what I found. Have you ever seen this... throwing new baby clusters 3/4 the way through the growing season? Dave

No Guys, not giving up... this is my first large production year (7 vines... LOL). Three years in a row of having somewhere between 2 and 19 total clusters... eh, not much thought, the baby vineyard is still maturing. All of a sudden in the 4rth year, I have 50+ huge green clusters. My red table...

Hi All, This post might be intended for all the growers in western Washington. I have a ton of Merlot grapes this year from my back yard vines (see below), but as I review my journal, in 2021 from bud burst to harvest was 159 days, harvested on August 26th. Last year was 135 days and harvest...

NO it is NOT! Thanks for trying though. 😆

They are real cork, it’s definitely something in their process. I know what a regular cork feels like coming out of the bottle. The synthetic plugs… that’s easy to see and feel the smoothness.

Hi All, This has perplexed me for some time now. I have removed corks from one of my favorite winemakers (initials RM) and have noticed the outside of the removed cork is "slippery" to the touch. Reminds me of a silicone type feel. Why is this? What am I feeling? Dave

Should I interpret this as a hydrometer will not give me the real data I need to make decisions on additions and subtractions?

Hi All, Pretty basic question. I have a hydrometer and know how to read it. This year I will have my first year of a good harvest that will (could) give me 3-5 gallons of wine. Those of you who have been here... did you use the hydrometer for all your lab work or did you use a PH meter? Why or...

Cynewulf said: “wanted to wait another week but noticed that a good portion of my clusters were overripe or had some kind of rot so I was again forced to adapt and pick last Friday.” WOW… Are our growing seasons ever different! I won’t be harvesting for another month! I have at least 30 of...

Hi All, After 3 years… the vineyard with my humble store bought Merlot vines is giving me what I’ve only visioned in my head. The past 2 years, I was able to attempt a batch that was so small, I only got 1 bottle out of it. Looking not so this year! Im pretty sure I finally have all the...

Hi Everyone, This was a new leaf for the backyard vinyard this year. Opinions, comments?

Hi Everyone, Update on the vines... the leaves have started to turn on the 6 year old vine and she only gave 7 clusters this year and they are are not even close to finished. I figure we have another 3 weeks left before rain becomes an every other day even here (north of Seattle). Has anyone...

Hi Everyone, After a slow start things are looking ok except... Walked out to the vines after a couple days away and one of my 3 year old merlot vines has this going on... pointy curling leaves.

Hi All, On top of being late this year, I have this going on. Several of the clusters have also gone bad with tiny black spots. Any ideas what's going on? First the leaves go all wilty and then the black around the edges start. Merlot Vines