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What a difference a year makes. Last year I had beautiful clusters, and a bunch of crows kept the birds away. And no insect invasion. This year lots of birds and the clusters are numerous but the berries are small with plenty of raisining even though I am only at 15 brix. Plus the asian...

I only sprayed sulphur once and this late in the season they look pretty good considering what they looked like earlier!! I will go ahead and harvest per usual. Seems like I am only at 15 brix. Looks like another 2 weeks or so. Probably 2x last year's crop.

I was out of the country until Jul 1. I planned on accepting that there'd be no harvest this year, would prune the vines back and get on it next year. But I returned to a messy, but heavy crop on my 35 Marquette vines. Unfortunately, with no spraying and a humid June, I have anthracnose...

Done!

Just took a look and....you're right!!

I've made quite a lot of wine, but I have never before experienced this kind of sludge in my secondary. I was ready to use my new pump to rack off my second wine (2 kits plus all my Marquette skins) and the racking cane immediately blocked. Then it was my pump, full of old skins and oak chips...

Yeah, for me the scariest time is May. I get bud break in early May but a risk of frost through to the end of the month. I spend a lot of time staring at forecasts. I have not yet awakened at 3AM to hose the vines until 6AM but never say never.

30 buckets from 50 vines!! Awesome. Nice, clean clusters. Seems like 50 vines is a good number for a hobby vineyard without it becoming too much of a job. What crusher/destemmer do you have? That's my next step. I'm thinking inoItalia manual crank.....

I am in my secondary. Got 23 liters out of 85 lbs with a full press. Will rack in 2 weeks then put it to sleep with an oak stave. Gotta say that it does not taste thin at all. I am doing a second wine with a Argentia Cab kit x 2 (Costco) plus the skins.

Well, I made every mistake in the book last year when harvesting/fermenting. We were renovating another property at that time so I picked it too late, did not correct acid, left it too late in the primary, did not MLF, etc. Paying attention this year so it should be better. I will add tannin...

Just reflecting on the trip so far as I enjoy serial number 001. Thanks to many on this site for the information gleaned. I am drinking a Marquette that I made from grapes that I grew. I think that is awesome. Is it good? Not great to be sure, but memorable...absolutely! Rob

Yup...lots of variables over which I have no control. At this point I cannot see a Brix of 25 on the vine, but every year is different. I started to see some raisining and the earwigs started moving in, so it was time, even with a brix of 21. Luckily the Asian Beetles (ladybugs) were still in...

Picked 85 lbs of Marquette on Wednesday. They came in at a ph of 3.1 so I reduced it to 3.5 (overshot my target of 3.4). Bubbling along happily with the Avanti. looks like 50 liters of must. Had to add a lb of sugar to get the sg closer to 1.09. Quite certain I got most of the earwigs out...

PH still at 3.1....gotta be patient...

Marquettes any day now. Refractometer shows close to 20 brix and my hydrometer usually reads higher. A week of hot sunny weather ahead. Watching carefully for wasps/birds/ladybugs/earwigs, but so far so good. Oddly except for 1 vine that ripened 2 weeks ago. I picked 6 lbs and put them in...

Wood 1954...very generous of you. Thanks. I will follow your lead. Rob

Late response! No damage yet. They spray carefully, but it is a concern. Biggest issues so far are late season frost, and ladybugs/Asian beetles, earwigs moving into the clusters just as it is time to harvest. 10 Marquette at 4 years old are doing great. Addl 25 at 3 years old got hammered...

Here's my small (35 Marquette) vineyard surrounded by corn.

There's another thread here that mentions Oxiclean. I use a milk carton that fits 16 bottles perfectly. Bottles get filled with water then the whole carton goes in a slightly larger container filled with water plus oxiclean. They stay there for 24 hours minimum or until I feel like doing a...

My Marquette started veraison around August 4 and they are already at 15 brix. They look sooooo good. Nets are up but no bird pressure yet. Going to set a racoon trap tonight. I am between Montreal and Ottawa.