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I've made hard cider and apple wine numerous times with apples from our orchard. I usually use a mix of Empire, Honey Crisp, MacFree and Liberty. I start just like I do when I make cider. Grind the apples into a pomace and then press it to yield juice. The last batch I made in 2021 I used 60lbs...

Yes, I did a sample test on a quart until I liked it as I didn‘t what it too sweet. I ended up using 2 cans for 3g gallons. All depends on your taste as it does sweeten it up. Like everyone says, you have to taste it often!

I’ve got a small orchard and have made a few batches of apple wine. I think the group provided all the advice you need, but I have one thing to add. I found that the finished product while high in alcohol content lacked flavor and robustness. Our wine maker at the winery I work at suggested...

Just wondering what trellis system you are using? Have fun!

I usually put mine on a week or so after veraison begins which for my Marquette’s in central NY is around mid August. Once the sugar contents starts to rise they get more attractive to the birds and ultimately the yellow jackets. A few years ago I was going out of town and decided to wait...

I’ve been asked to help a friend apply Fungicide, in this case PrIstine to a small 2 acre vineyard using a Stihl SR450 backpack fogger/sprayer. I’ve always sprayed my vineyard with a diaphragm pump sprayer in liquid form whereby the rate was specified in oz of fungicide/gal water which is easy...

Good good point. Thanks for the input!

Due to labor shortages I've been helping a small 3.5 acre local vineyard on an Island on the St. Lawrence River in Northern NYS manage their vineyard. It's an absolutely beautiful spot only accessible by boat and they actually have some very good tasting wines. They have around 3,000 vines...

My vineyard fence consists of 4 feet of cattle fencing topped with 2 wires 1 foot apart for a total of 6 feet. I have not had any issues and we have deer roaming all over our property.

I'm in upstate NY, zone 4b around 20 miles East of the Finger Lakes, a major wine growing region. My site isn't ideal for grapes from both location and soil perspectives, so over the years I've experimented with a number of cold hardy wine grape varieties, trellis systems, and vineyard...

Thanks for all of the input! I did recheck the LD Carlson Potassium Metabisulphite dosage and it says "To kill wild least add 1/4 tsp per 5 gallons of must". I crushed and de-stemmed 78 lbs of grapes which yielded about 8 gallons of must which should give me lose to 5 gallons of juice...

I make small batches (5-10 gallons) of pretty decent wine wine from my home grown Marquette grapes. As usual, after the crush I added Potassium Metabisulfite according to the dosage on the container of 1/4 tsp per 5 pounds. My grapes were pretty clean this year. However, we had a very wet and...

I grow Marquette in upstate NY and currently based on samples from various locations my brix readings range from 15 - 21. I’d like to keep them on the vine for another week or maybe 2. However, I need to go away for 2 weeks and will run into processing timeline conflicts. Any issue in picking...

My Marquette hasn‘t started to turn yet. Probably about 2 weeks out and then I will net them. Looks like a good crop. Last year I was on vacation and the birds had a feast before I netted. We started out with a dry spring, but we’re having a wet humid summer. Japanese beetles are active, but...

I ramped down to 48 hours a month at 65 and retired completely last October. I have so many hobbies and items on my to do list that I wonder how I ever got things done when I worked. Plus we now have 3 grandchildren under 3 that we love to spend time with. Between my house with 5 acres that...

I had been using the same composition notebook leftover from one of my kids when they were in school. I like y spreadsheet, but I find I still write things in my notebook and then transfer the data to the spreadsheet.

Just wondering how everyone tracks their yearly wine making activities. Are there apps out there? I started making wine from my own grapes around 10 years ago. I decided I should keep a log book so I could take advantage of lessons learned from previous years as well as track each batch through...

When I first started making wine I back sweetened it without first adding stabilizer. I opened a bottle, the cork popped off and it shot all over the kitchen and the ceiling. Our yellow lab ran into another room. When she returned she was a purple spotted lab! After that, I’m opened the...

I grow my own grapes, plums and apples and our dog Maisey loved to follow me as tended to the crops. She passed away 2 years ago, but is memorialized in my wine labels that includes a drawing my daughter painted of her from a picture with an apple in her mouth.

I grow my own grapes in my micro-vineyard and my growing conditions such as weather, soil, and location are far from ideal. I record each years harvest to include weight, time of harvest, spraying regime, pH and Brix. I’m amazed at how the grapes change from year to year and have learned how to...