Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[grapeman]

keep up the good deed Richard (what are you, on vacation?)

LOL, no, not quite on vacation.

I just had the boss(me) give me the day off to go help. I don't get many days off. The location is a vacation destination though. You get to go spend the day by the lakeside while in a vineyard surrounded by the Green Mountains to the eas and the Adirondack Mountains to the west. It was dark when we got done last night and the guys from Cornell offered me to spend the night in the camp on the lakeshore. Sounds sort of like a vacation huh?


I had to get home so I could process the grapes I got.

 

[NorthernWinos]

So...do you weigh the grapes with the stems on????


Everyday is Saturday when you are your own boss.....Sometimes you have to over work to please yourself.

 

[Waldo]

Mighty fine looking bunch of grapes appleman. Can't wait to see the pictures of the pressing.

 

[grapeman]

Here are some pictures I took while processing my grapes I got at Willsboro yesterday.


First -what I brought home.


Left to right LaCrescent(68 pounds-4 gallons) brix-21.5
ES 6-16-30(64 pounds-4 gallons) brix- 19.5
Sabrvois(80 pounds-in fermenter crushed)brix-17.5
St Pepin(50 pounds-~3.75 gallons) brix 20.4
Marquette(120 pounds(in fermenter-crushed) brix 22.2

Edited by: appleman

 

[grapeman]

Here's how I set up to crush the grapes.

After crushing

Run it through the apple press- not great for grapes but works OK.

Here's a red

In the primary

Edited by: appleman

 

[grapeman]

Onto the juice in their respective primary buckets




ES 6-16-30

LaCrescent

St. Pepin

Sabrevois

Marquette

Edited by: appleman

 

[NorthernWinos]

That looks great...I bet you are really excited about this....I am just looking at the pix.


Will be anxious to see how the wines turn out.

 

[Dean]

Wow, look at the color extraction you already have on the Sabrevois!

 

[rgecaprock]

Apple,


I love your life !!!!! You must be so happy to be doing what you love on a daily basis. The grapes look beautiful. Keep up the pictures!!


Ramona

 

[grapeman]

I have the sample results taken before we harvested grapes last week. These were from 1000 berry samples, crushed and juice plced in sample bottles and sent to Cornell Enology lab for analysis. We only harvested a relatively few of these and seeing the results, I think some could have hung on the vines a couple weeks more. The pH is generally still low. The TA is high in almost all of these varieties, but remember none of them are vinifera so they have the inherited higher acidity of their North American heritage. I have of few of the grapes above to work with, and now it gives me a better idea of what I have to work with, since I didn't test them all I have for pH and TA. Hopefully a pH meter will help with both tests.


Please do not read too much into these numbers as a true representation of what the varieties normally produce. Remember that it varies from every site and climate as well as time of harvest. I can see that I want to set my test lab up better than I have it now, since I have over 20 varieties to work with myself at some point in the future.



SampleVariety pH Brix TA g/L<?amespace prefix = o ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />

1. Lousie Swenson 3.01 16.9 8.13

2. Prarie Star 3.05 18.5 12.2

3. St. Pepin 2.92 20.2 12.9 *

4. NY 76.844.24 2.67 17.1 12.5

5. LaCrescent 2.93 21.9 15.8 *

6. Petite amie 2.95 18.1 9.9

7. ES 6-16-30 3.00 18.4 8.8 *

8. <?amespace prefix = st1 ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficearttags" /><st1:City wt="on"><st1lace wt="on">La Crosse</st1lace></st1:City> 2.79 16.8 12.1

9. Edelweiss 3.10 14.9 6.5

10. Cayuga White 2.77 16.4 11.9

11. Vignoles 2.76 17.3 17.3

12. Baco 2.84 18.7 19.0

13. Landot 3.05 17.9 10.9

14. Noiret 3.05 16.2 14.2

15. Sabrevois 2.78 17.1 13.5 *

16. <st1lace wt="on">St. Croix</st1lace> 3.03 16.7 11.4

17. GR7 2.99 17.8 14.6

18. <st1:City wt="on"><st1lace wt="on">Marquette</st1lace></st1:City> 2.97 20.8 14.1 *

19. Frontenac 2.99 19.7 17.5

20. Foch 2.97 20.3 13.6

* The varieties with * are ones I got grapes from last week. All are actively fermenting at this point.

 

[masta]

All I can say is WOW!!!!

I thinking you might have to change your forum name to grapeman.


Are the stems not being removed going to cause an issue?

 

[grapeman]

Masta, ideally I would have a destemmer/crusher to destem before crushing, but they are a lot of money I don't have right now. I don't worry about the white grapes. I just crushed with the stems and pressed immediately so they don't sit on the stems anyway. The reds I crushed on the stems and tthen removed the stems from the must. It probably isn't ideal, but then it was done that way for thousands of years before destemmers were invented. It was a very messy job. I don't know how many times I rinsed my arms off Sunday afternoon after reaching into the blue tubs to grab stems out. I know I didn't get them all out, but try to remove them from the cap before punching down.

 

[NorthernWinos]

How are those wines coming along???? More pix would be nice.


Looking back at the photos of the juice in the buckets the Sabrevois makes my mouth water. The vineyard North of here that I visited last fall had some of those vines growing, wonder how they were this year....? I never made it up there this year, the owner is the local State Senator and he had a heart attack this summer....so don't know how he is doing with the winery...their sign is out on the Hiway so they must be open....

 

[grapeman]

OK NW here are a few pictures like you asked- nothing spectacular. A couple of the cap before punching down and one of the Leon Millot after punching down. Also just one of the whites, since they all look about the same. They are just rolling along- but you can't see the action in the picture- looks cool. Must temps are running about 8-10 degrees higher than my fermentation area - musts about 76- room 68 degrees.


Marquette

Sabrevois

Leon Millot

ES 6-16-30

I'll post some more pics after racking.Edited by: appleman

 

[OilnH2O]

Looks great! Just want to add that we're all enjoying this vicariously!

 

[Waldo]

AWESOME appleman or er uh..Mr Grapeman

As a rule of thumb, what is the desirable brix for a grape to obtain maximum color/flavor/nose etc.

 

[grapeman]

I just wish I had Emeril's smellivision here so you all could smell the house and aromas coming from all those primaries! Unbelievable. I was going to keep them in the garage or barn, but it was down in the 50's over the weekend and I was afraid they would start hard. I showed the Leon Millot after pushing the cap down so you can get an idea of the color. The other two reds are a lot darker even than that. I snuck that one in on you guys. I finished picking mine Sunday and started them as well. I also had to pick the LaCross and Chardonel and mixed them this year to make a couple gallon batch. I will get a picture in a few days of the Catawba's. They are starting to look really tasty. The brix was up to 16 today when I checked a few berries.


How about a few of you guys updating your vines? I love seeing everyodies vineyards no matter what size. Doesn't matter if it's 1 vine in a pot or 100 acres. They are all different and unique!

 

[grapeman]

I don't know Waldo what is perfect! I guess that is part of the art, science and mystery of grapes and wine. I guess in general you want the grape as high in brix(up to about 26) as you can get it and still keep the pH about 3.2-3.8 and TA of whites about .6 to .8 and the reds about .7-.9. Given harsh environments like mine, we can't get that close especially with hybrids, so we make do with the best we can get. Some varieties are just more naturally aromatic than others. How are yours doing there in Arkansas?

 

[Wade E]

Very cool grapleman.

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Richard - Will the Cornell experimental vines be tested again soon? Those numbers showed values that were not very close to optimal yet. You will have to offer your subjective impressions of the character and quality of those varieties you brought home and fermented when you have sippable wines. By the way, what is the capacity of your fermenting containers, and where did you get them? I should try to post several shots of my vines soon per your request, although there is little to see since my last posting. Leaves just look more tired on the second summer vines. The Marquette's, being first year, are looking great and heading to the top wire and beyond! I've been flagging more trees to take down during the winter which are shading my growing area. Thanks for your postings.