Casual winemaker

[PossumPie]

I mostly make wine from my parents excess grapes. Unfortunately they just have Concords which aren't the best grape. I'm hoping to start a small arbor with some Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir grapes. I've also made dandelion wine. I do it casually for fun, but have all the equipment to make bottle, etc. my batches.

 

[Ohio Bob]

Welcome to WMT!

If your lucky enough to live near wood lines, wild blackberries are free and make a decent wine/port, as well as being something you can blend into red grape wines. I’ve never tried blending into whites to make a nice summer cold sipper.

 

[PossumPie]

Welcome to WMT!

If your lucky enough to live near wood lines, wild blackberries are free and make a decent wine/port, as well as being something you can blend into red grape wines. I’ve never tried blending into whites to make a nice summer cold sipper.

I have tons of Blackberries/mulberries on my property, but usually give them as a treat to my chickens who will kill each other fighting over them. My wife likes me to make her some blackberry jam occasionally, but I may set some aside next year to ferment...basically, if it has carbohydrates and/or sugar, I can ferment it. I've done beer from grains, wine from flowers/grapes, and If it were legal I'd love to try to distill some potatoes. But that is another forum...

 

[sour_grapes]

Welcome to WMT!

 

[winemaker81]

Welcome to WMT!

The list of things we cannot ferment is shorter than the list of things we can ...

Go to the grape growers forum and read anything of interest on the first page. You'll find many things of interest and use, and the more you know before you start, the better.

 

[Rice_Guy]

welcome to WMT

Concord has nice aromatics therefore makes a good base for wine. However concord is lacking on tannins. My favorite concord is put together with elderberry which is a good tannin source. I could see doing the same by buying skin packs to mix in the wine.

 

[Rocky]

I mostly make wine from my parents excess grapes. Unfortunately they just have Concords which aren't the best grape. I'm hoping to start a small arbor with some Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir grapes. I've also made dandelion wine. I do it casually for fun, but have all the equipment to make bottle, etc. my batches.

Welcome to the forum!

I am assuming you are in Gettysburg, PA so my comments will be based on that assumption. It is my view that Cabernet Sauvignon would be a very ambitious variety to grow in PA, particularly for a beginner, if your intent is to make wine. This is also true with Pinot Noir. The growing season in PA is just not long enough for those varieties to mature adequately for wine making. Secondly, both of those varieties rank low in "cold hardiness" and a cold Winter could wipe out your vines. I suggest that you contact Penn State Extension service or visit their website (https://extension.psu.edu) before you get too deeply into this. They would be able to guide you to varieties which would increase you chances of success. They are a wealth of excellent information on agricultural subjects.

Good luck.

 

[PossumPie]

Welcome to the forum!

I am assuming you are in Gettysburg, PA so my comments will be based on that assumption. It is my view that Cabernet Sauvignon would be a very ambitious variety to grow in PA, particularly for a beginner, if your intent is to make wine. This is also true with Pinot Noir. The growing season in PA is just not long enough for those varieties to mature adequately for wine making. Secondly, both of those varieties rank low in "cold hardiness" and a cold Winter could wipe out your vines. I suggest that you contact Penn State Extension service or visit their website (https://extension.psu.edu) before you get too deeply into this. They would be able to guide you to varieties which would increase you chances of success. They are a wealth of excellent information on agricultural subjects.

Good luck.

My wife is a Penn State Master Gardener...You would have been right 20 years ago, but global warming has increased the first frost date into November, we see high 80 degree temps into October, and our last frost date was recently pushed ahead from May 13 into late April. Today is Oct. 2nd and we just pulled 3 ripe sweet watermellons from our garden over the weekend, along with enough ripe tomatoes that I canned 3 quarts of sauce. Yeah, the limiting factor these days is amount of sunlight/day not really temps. We pick kale, spinach, and lettuce into late Nov. We have rocky soil and local wineries grow both of those varieties successfully...I guess global warming has some upsides.

 

[Rocky]

I guess global warming has some upsides.

In every challenge there is a gift!

 

[David Violante]

Welcome to WMT!

 

[Electrojim]

I mostly make wine from my parents excess grapes. Unfortunately they just have Concords which aren't the best grape. I'm hoping to start a small arbor with some Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir grapes. I've also made dandelion wine. I do it casually for fun, but have all the equipment to make bottle, etc. my batches.

 

[Electrojim]

I've tried Concords in the past too and wonder if your experience is anything like my own. Don't know why, but I never got much color in the wine. Good alcohol content and a very grapey flavor, but looked more like White Zin than the deep purple skins of the Concords promised. I also had a Zinfandel vine, but the clusters turned moldy before they fully ripened, even after applying a fungicide religiously. So I have given up on making wine for now, but the Concord vine won't leave me alone. Although I cut it off at the ground, it continues to put out canes like there's no tomorrow. I still have one bottle of Concord wine that I 'put down' (physically and verbally); I guess I'll give it a final taste.

 

[Snafflebit]

My wife is a Penn State Master Gardener...You would have been right 20 years ago, but global warming has increased the first frost date into November, we see high 80 degree temps into October, and our last frost date was recently pushed ahead from May 13 into late April. Today is Oct. 2nd and we just pulled 3 ripe sweet watermellons from our garden over the weekend, along with enough ripe tomatoes that I canned 3 quarts of sauce. Yeah, the limiting factor these days is amount of sunlight/day not really temps. We pick kale, spinach, and lettuce into late Nov. We have rocky soil and local wineries grow both of those varieties successfully...I guess global warming has some upsides.

Soon you will be growing Cab Sauv and I will have to switch to growing mangoes!

 

[Obbnw]

My wife is a Penn State Master Gardener...You would have been right 20 years ago, but global warming has increased the first frost date into November, we see high 80 degree temps into October, and our last frost date was recently pushed ahead from May 13 into late April. Today is Oct. 2nd and we just pulled 3 ripe sweet watermellons from our garden over the weekend, along with enough ripe tomatoes that I canned 3 quarts of sauce. Yeah, the limiting factor these days is amount of sunlight/day not really temps. We pick kale, spinach, and lettuce into late Nov. We have rocky soil and local wineries grow both of those varieties successfully...I guess global warming has some upsides.

Similar climate story here. Forecast for tomorrow is 90! Our zone has changed and we have gained 4 weeks in growing season over the historical norms. As you stated the reduced sun time combined with lower angle sun (more shading) really slows down my garden.

During my initial planning I thought it would be too cold here for vinifera but the more I looked into it the more I thought I'd be fine most years. So far, over 7 harvest years I only had one season where I picked early due to a freeze and still had decent numbers.

 

[Jovimaple]

Welcome to WMT!

 

[PossumPie]

When I was a kid in the 70s I helped my father plant his garden. He would have never considered planting his tomato plants before mid-May as we usually had a frost the 1st-2nd week of May. Now, I moved 40 miles north of them, into a colder zone and we always plant our tomatoes in late April. I'll look at the 10 day forecast, and if nothing looks too ominous, my wife plants them. Only once in the last 20 years did we have to cover them after we already planted b/c a night was forecasted to go down near mid-30s. We through some old bedsheets over them and didn't end up getting the frost anyway.

 

[Christopher Anderson]

Welcome to WMT!