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Cleft or omega graft for that one. My hands don't like doing chip grafts that small, but the cleft or omega graft will still work fine.

Only if they are infected before the injury, AND the injury is higher on the vine than the infection. The crown gall bacteria actually re-writes the DNA of the vine, so any vine growth that occurs after initial infection will carry the risk of gall formation.

Southern KY here. Chambourcin, Villard Blanc, Villard Noir, Vidal Blanc. Reisling, Cabernet franc, and Blaufrankish for vinifera, if you can stay on top of the spray program. In my part of the state, vinifera isn't a problem-as long as you spray religiously. Northern KY, you will want the...

Did some reading, made a decision. Dropped in 1.5oz of medium French oak cubes in the 5 gallon carboy of chambourcin. I'll let it go till Christmas, then see how it is. According to Stavin, that should be about 75% of a new barrel over the same period. By that time, either it'll be ready to...

So the red-it's better (IMO) than the rose, more fruit and more tannin, same alcohol. Very harsh though, and almost no yeasty smell. I put about 4oz in the fridge for 20 minutes and had tartaric acid crystals dropping out, though. Is this a sign that I should cold stabilize later?

Second racking today. Lots of sediment came off both the rose and the red, the white not so much. The rose at current (34 days) isn't bad. Fruity-cranberryish, a little bitter, a little astringent on the finish, but the bitter is what gets me-I'm sensitive to bitterness. Nose is mostly just...

Need to read closer guys. Boiled water is not the same as boiling water.

I could have waited. The winery didn't show yesterday, so it is very likely I could have waited a week or two weeks longer to pick. Oh well, it's purple drink now! I am building carboy crates this weekend to protect the glass and help keep out light.

Well, it didn't make it to Thursday. I don't have a great method for pressing but I got it done. This winter, I'll build the equipment to make it much easier next year. The red got pressed as it was at 1.015 SG, and it filled a 6 gallon carboy to the shoulder. Tomorrow I have to wash and dry...

Leave them in water till you have half inch rootlets, then put them in potting mix, but keep soaked another week or so. Then taper off the water, this will help keep foliage from dying off. Normally I stop trying to root green cuttings mid July, because of the limited time for root and shoot...

Shouldn't have worried about the Rose too much. It's fine now. I set the A/C a little warmer-upped the temp to 75F, and off it went. Checked on the others, the Red has been fermenting 48 hours now and it's gone from 1.087 to 1.038 SG, and it's a nice purpley red: The Vidal is chugging...

South-cental Kentucky, Zone 6A. If I had the option I would have waited two more weeks, but it was a cut-today-or-get-nothing situation. The gentleman in charge of the vines says they won't get much higher brix numbers around here anyway, that for some reason we only see 20-21 brix, vs the 24-25...

Here's the results of pitching the yeast, 24 hours after pitching the Clos in the Red, and 8 hours after pitching the EC-1118 in the white, and RC-212 in the Rose. The red is bubbling away, the cap has been punched down 3 times today. Smells pretty good. Lots of bubbling, awesome color going...

This weekend, I was fortunate enough to get 100lbs of Chambourcin and 25lbs box of Vidal Blanc grapes. All day Saturday was spent cutting grapes in the morning, and destemming and crushing in the afternoon. After crushing, the musts were either dosed with K-meta, or pressed (by hand...more on...

Those don't have enough time to root to stay outside. Wait until after the vine goes dormant. Take cuttings the size of a pencil, from this year's growth, that are well lignified and brown-barked. Take 3 bud cuttings and make sure the shoot ends all point the same way and mark the shoot end with...

Grape stems still don't have growth nodes. You need a cane section with a bud eye.

I've seen recommendations from immediately to three hours, so I figure I'll crush in batches since I'm doing it by hand. Crush through a mesh bag straight into the bucket, then I can soak the skins in it until it's the color I want. We will see how I get on with it, should be another week or two.

I am pretty sure the three hits is three hours.

I don't plan to add *extra* tannins, just crush all the grapes, then bleed off some of the juice. The fact that there will then be more skins than the amount of juice would normally dictate, will naturally increase the amount of tannins in the resulting red wine, as well as anthocyanins and...

I'm looking into this technique this year with some Chambourcin grapes. Depending on how many I have, and how the acidity and sugar stacks up, I am considering the following: Crush all the grapes, and allow an hour or so maceration Bleed off 20 to 40% of the juice, to make a saignee rose Reduce...