Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[NorthernWinos]

My vines are all picked clean now...so nothing to show but leaves....no frost yet so they still look nice, tho the leaves are loosing their gloss.


How do you think your wine from the Elmer Swenson 6-16-30 will be??? That is a vine that I was interested in as is is very hardy, it seems impossible to track down any, so Ifilled myrow with Louise Swenson, Prairie Star and Baltic Amber to try out for hardiness....the other Elmer Swenson vine Edelweiss isn't hardy here, so those vines I lay down in the winter....I think the grapes from the Edelweiss are great table grapes.

 

[grapeman]

NW, check out Northeast Vine Supply. Andy lists the vines at his site, but it says to call for availability. I'm not sure yet how the wine will be, but it sure has a lot of floral qualities in it, with a lot of fruitiness similar to St. Pepin. I'm fermenting with Cote des Blancs hoping to retain that fruitiness and keeping ambient temps in the low 60's(must about 70). If I had a lot of them I would try to ferment even lower and slower.
https://www.nevinesupply.com/whitewinevines.php

 

[grapeman]

I know you guys won't let me rest if I don't post a couple pics of the pressed reds, so here they are. Didn't get any in the carboys yet though. The Sabrevois was 80 pounds and yielded 6.75 gallons, so I got a gallon for a little less than 12 pounds- good yield. The Marquette was a little less than 10 gallons for 120 pounds so a little more than 12 pounds per gallon- also good yield. The color is great for both. I have some work to do with the acid. About ready to start malo-lactic on it to help that.

Sabrevois

Marquette

 

[OilnH2O]

All I can say is ... WOW!

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

Have you ever seen a deeper red than that Sabrevois, looking good AppleGrapeman.

 

[grapeman]

Have you ever seen a deeper red than that Sabrevois, looking good AppleGrapeman.

The Marquette is almost as dark. It just had a lot of foam on it when I took the picture. I had poured a bunch of must in and hadn't started pressing so the free run juice ran in fast and foamed up. It's hard to see a difference in color in the carboys. I will try for a few pictures in a few days of the carboys. The St. Pepin is already dropping the lees and the bottle of extra is about 3/4 cleared already!


It's real early, but I'm looking forward to next year in hopes of a good harvest from some of the first planted vines! That's the farmer/vineyardist in me. Always looking at next year.

 

[Waldo]

Man that looks good appleman!!!!!!

 

[Wade E]

Ill have some fermented and some to drink now to hold me over there buddy! Man that looks good. Going to barrel it?

 

[grapeman]

Don't have any barrels Wade. I should have more oak to add to it tomorrow though from George. I got a variety of toasts coming! I think some dark will be in order for it to help offset the acids. I wish they had been my own grapes. They would have hung another two weeks to bring up the brix and lower the TA, but hey, they only cost a couple days labor for 400 pound of them! I also get to experiment with grape varieties I have planted before mine begin to bear!

 

[Wade E]

Whats the total in gallons you got fermenting orcold soaking all together there bro?

 

[NorthernWinos]

Appleman....next year or so you will be measuring your grapes in tons....Hope you will still have time to post here and show us your progress.

 

[grapeman]

We'll see how many grapes I will get some day. For now I have to get the process down for smaller amounts before I worry about tons! Tonight I play mad scientist and check the batches to see how they are doing so far. I want to start MLF, but need to check to make sure the must is within range for it to get going.

 

[Waldo]

What malolactic culture are you using appleman? Did you make a starter?

 

[grapeman]

Nope Waldo- not that adventurous yet. I got a few of the liquid tubes from George -White Labs Yeast - Malolactic culture ML675. Just put a tube in 5 gallons and let er rip.... after bringing to room temps for 3-6 hours. Next year I will need to make some up since I will need a lot more.


I tried doing pH and TA test this evening, but need to get new kits for the TA. The Sodium Hydroxide has gone bad. I opened up a bottle that I got last year. After putting in the whole bottle and the pH only moving upt to almost 5.0, I decided it wasn't going to work!

I got out the little bit I had left in another bottle and that one gave me a reading of 1.1% or 11TA. This is one of the ones I am doing a MLF on. The pH was 3.44 for a red, not bad. I'll have to do more test when I get some fresh chems.

 

[Wade E]

Did you try the accuvin tests Rich?

 

[grapeman]

Wade, I did try comparing the Accuvin test also. It compared as close as it could- the scale for the Accuvin only goes so high. It is more for finished wines, or lower acid wines. These acid beast that we grow in the north need a good high scale until we get the acid down into the moderate range. I was really worried about the pH more than the TA. The malo bacteria only can take pH above 3.0 and the initial juice sample taken on date of harvest was about 2.78. Those little test papers are VERY hard to read on the darker reds. When I checked it yesterday with the calibrated pH meter, it was 3.44. That should work well with the MLF.

 

[grapeman]

I tell some of you guys that with those first year vines if they are small in diameter or get chewed back not to worry about trimming back to a few buds. I figured a picture or two would better demonstate this. Here area fewshots of the same vines. Once this spring from 5/29 and one from today about 4 months later. They demonstrate what I'm talking about. They had been pruned back to just a few buds since they were just rooted cuttings last year. Some of these vines I let have a very small crop on this season. In thethird picture, the smallest vines on the left were started this spring and weren't in the picture yet. We're starting to get a little fall foliage.

Later season-same vines

Edited by: appleman

 

[swillologist]

They look good appleman. Those should keep up busy for a day or sonext spring.

 

[NorthernWinos]

They really grew good for you....very well done.


How close together are your vines????

 

[grapeman]

They really grew good for you....very well done.


How close together are your vines????

My vines are spaces 6-8 feet apart in rows 9 feet apart- depending on variety. Most of the ones in the picture are 7 feet apart.