Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[Wade E]

( Not sure what has found them.</font>) Sorry Appleman but I was in the area and they looked so good and got hungry!I did cover my tracks pretty good though. Ah, the grape ninja!




Edited by: wade

 

[grapeman]

We haven't had much rain lately so I'm not sure it was possible for the thief to "Wade" in.

They are starting to taste REALLY GOOD! The Frontenac are actually getting thick and viscous and the flavor is really taking on black cherry flavors. The Leon Millot are very tasty, not sure how to describe and the St. Pepin are just plain very fruity and overflowing with citrus flavors. LaCrosse is still very green since they are later.Lot's of other varieties in lesser quantities still very unripe.

 

[Wade E]

+

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[grapeman]

Well I was sizing up what there is for grapes out in the vineyard this evening. They continue to ripen and I am still amazed byt what is ripening when. Around here Concord has been the standard to measure agaisnt for ripening. Niagara is a little earlier but isn't quite as hardy. BUT, all of the other grapes I have in are quite a bit earlier than the Concord and Noagara, except for maybe the Catawba which are a real late grape.


All told I have twelve varieties this year with at least a sampling of grapes on them. I even found a bunch of Alden which I didn't think had any grapes at all on it. They are mostly purple and taste very good already. The Chardonel are riper than the LaCrosse which are supposed to definitely make it around here, but the Chardonel are said to need a longer growing season. They are still a bit acidic, but not as bad as the Lacrosse and definitely are better colored and softer.


Let's see, I have


Alden
Buffalo
Catawba
Concord
Chardonel
Frontenac
Glenora
Lacrosse
Marquis
Leon Millot
St. Pepin
Niagara


Some table grapes and some wine grapes.

 

[Wade E]

That looks like a good wine tasting list to me!

 

[NorthernWinos]

Appleman....what is the Brix of the various grapes???? Have you tested all of them yet???


So far, what is your favorite one for flavor???

 

[grapeman]

NW I haven't tested all of them yet because some haven't even changed yet. I also have no idea yet on a few what they will taste like yet. I'll give a few here and more info on them as they ripen.


Alden- Blue non-slipskin. Tasty so far with a slight muscat flavor
Buffalo- Brix 15 Very sweet for brix level, tough skin table grape
Catawba- unripe but from memory floral and fruity
Concord- brix 10 - need I describe
Chardonel- brix 14 tangy fruit flavors
Frontenac- brix up to 22- berry flavors with high acid still
Glenora - brix 15 seedless -spicy
Lacrosse- brix 14 hasn't developed much flavors yet
Marquis- huge clusters just turning
Leon Millot- brix 18 -lots of berry and cherry flavors
St. Pepin- brix 16-17 very flavorful with lots of fruit and citrus tones
Niagara- brix 11 too unripe to describe

 

[NorthernWinos]

Good notes on these varieties. How fast does the Brix change??? I imagine a lot depends on the weather.


The days are sure getting shorter and the nights cooler, wonder if thatencourages the ripening.

 

[grapeman]

I went to check on my buddy who has about a thousand vines growing about 15 miles northeast of me right off of Lake Champlain. His grapes are doing wonderfully/ strike that were doing wonderfully. Recently we had a thunderstorm blow through that literally came within hundreds of feet of my place. A mile away they had baseball size hail and wind. His place took it very hard from the storm. He had a couple tons or so of grapes hanging, not too far from harvest. He now has a couple tons of raisins and shredded vines. The winds uprooted or broke off hundreds of trees some three feet across. It blew off the wholeside and roof of his barn and dropped it on part of the vineyard. The whole sight was heartbreaking.
The cornfields up that way have no leaves left on them and a lot are flat.


I sure am glad it stayed just north of us here- Ive had my share of storm related damages in the past.I'm counting my blessings this time! You never know when mother nature will bring you to your knees!

 

[Waldo]

What a tragedy for your friend appleman. Hey, I saw a new grape offered at Wally World early this morning. It is siad on the package to be a cross between a Thompson seedless and a Muscat. I bought a pack and they are very tasty. Wondering if they might make a decent wine? Edited by: Waldo

 

[NorthernWinos]

Sorry to hear about the storm.....Storms are so spotty, seems some are hit and others are spared...Makes you wonder...Why??? But that is not ours to know...it just happens.


Crops can be insured and replanted the following year...... Vines may regrowor be replaced......Trees and take centuries to grow, buildings can be replaced but loose their aesthetic value....storms come and go...as long as no lives were lost we can be thankful.

 

[grapeman]

What a tragedy for your friend appleman. Hey, I saw a new grape offered at Wally World early this morning. It is siad on the package to be a cross between a Thompson seedless and a Muscat. I bought a pack and they are very tasty. Wondering if they might make a decent wine?

I don't think I have ever seen a crop so decimated before. What wasn't hit directly will surely rot from the others. He said the hail was for to six inches deep on the ground. And I have had a few crops destroyed before. There was one year when I had 60 acres of vegetables that it rained so much for so long that the tomatoes were floating in ponds of water hundreds of yards across. The corn rotted in the fields mostly since it stayed under water for days. It even floated pumkins to other fields. I think it was a year or two later that I decided I had had enough and gave the farm to my brother.


On the grapes, only one way to find out Waldo. Buy up a bunch of them and make up a gallon or so. Some of them can make a fairly decent wine.

 

[Wade E]

Man, what a bummer!

 

[rrawhide]

man oh man - sure sorry to hear of the devastation. Hope you come
out of it ok and you had insurance. I trust no one was hurt -
that's the main thing.

take care

rrawhide

 

[grapeman]

rrawhide, everything is fine at my place. The storm stayed literally just to the north of my place, like a couple hundred yards and traveled parallel. We barely got any rain and hardly any winds. Just the other side of the fenceline and north was where all the damage was. Other than the natives(wildlife) eating their share of the grapes, everything looks good- just pretty dry.


In the past when I was farming vegetables, there was no insurance available at all. If you lost a crop- you were SOL. That's one reason why my brother runs the farm now. He has had his turn at pretty good luck this year so far. All crops have done pretty well. They had news coverage the other day at his place showing how just a couple miles can mean all the difference. His place was spared the storm since it is on the same farm as I am only a mile east of me. Others in the area were in the direct line of the storm and their crops were literally wiped off the earth.

 

[rrawhide]

hey hey hey and hi



glad the worst missed you. I have seen how nature works when we
were on an extended rv trip 3 years ago and went into West Virginia
where the remants of a hurricance came thru. We volunteered with
the Salvation Army for a couple of days feeding displaced people.
Amazing - one side of a road was perfectly ok and the other side -
gone. People were just amazed and in shock. By volunteering
we received a bigger blessing , by helping, than I think that they
did. It will remain with us forever. All I can say is WOW!!.



Glad you are OK. Stay safe.

rrawhide

 

[grapeman]

I needed to pick the Frontenac grapes this evening. The birds, coons and skunks were eating them clean. The low hanging clusters were mostly stripped clean. I decided that it was beter to get some early harvested grapes than no good ripe ones. There was about half of them left from what there was 3 days ago. I hadn't intended a big harvest and there wasn't a lot, but there was about 40 pounds total on about 30 vines I left some on.


Numbers aren't impressive, but should be workable.
Brix- 23, TA 10 and pH 3.0
I will be using some malolactic fermentation innoculated at about day 6 of fermentation- a day or 2 ahead of press. I plan on regular yeast Lalvin RC 212.
More info as it progresses. No pictures of the grapes, I had to tend to a pruning shear accident(they are very sharp when new and can prune the skin off fingers too). I was making a red wine, but I didn't want to make it too red.

Other grape numbers- leaving on the vines for now pending animal harvest
Leon Millot- brix- 18-20
Chardonel- 16 brix
St. Pepin- 18-19 brix
LaCrosse- 16 brix

 

[Wade E]

Have you ever done a malo-ferm. before appleman? Hopefully in the next few years I will buy some equipment over time then buy some grapes from a local wine supply distributer that gets all the grapes around this time of year. It gets nuts in that place as its a small place and they get 3 or 4 refrigerated trailers and theres no where to park and barely standing room only. Im very interested in this but its just not within my reach for this year or maybe even next but after that I should be able to start sneaking in some stuff!

Its hard to get stuff like this in without her noticing!

Just kidding!

Edited by: wade

 

[NorthernWinos]

Appleman...glad you salvage some of your grapes and will get to make a batch of wine with them.....Will be interested in how your venture turns out....Good luck with your first run.


Hope your injury heals quickly.

 

[grapeman]

Well I had to harvest the few remaining bunches of Marquis seedless grapes this evening. The clusters had been about a pound to a pound and a half and a good foot long. The coons or skunks thought they should test them out and cleaned out a good share of them. They are a very tasty seedless grape with melting flesh and a wonderful aroma. I see more of them growing here soon. I only have two plants of them. The Glenora seedless are loaded, and getting bright blue and soon will turn almost a black color. I better throw some net over the one vine of it Ihave and hope for the best. The other seedless vines(2 each) of Reliance and Canadice didn't have any bunches this year being slower to establish. I will have to wait until next year to sample them.


The Buffalo are beginning to get very juicy and sweet. They have a wonderful flavor to them I remember from when my uncle grew them in the early 70's. Concords and Niagaras are still lagging behind everything, but are finally about to veraison so should proceed quickly now.


I'll post some brix data from the Willsboro Cold Hardy trial tomorrow. I don't have Excel on this machine. It's kind of interesting. They see their site as being too perfect of a site, unlike a lot of the land around here, being right on the lake, southern exposure, well drained loamy soil. Their numbers are consistently about 2 brix lower than mine here for the same days tested(within a day or two). I had figured my land being so sandy, well drained and protected would get a greenhouse effect . It seems to be doing so. Time will prove me right or wrong.