Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[grapeman]

I got more grapes yesterday, but haven't taken pictures. I got the following:


Petite Amie- white grape- enough for about 3+ gallons brix 22 pH 3.2 TA 8


Cayuga- white grape- 90#-6 gallons brix 20 ph 3.1 TA 10


GR-7- a Cornell Red - 45 #- brix 24 ph 3.2 TA 11


St. Croix- Red - lower brix-20 pH 3.15 TA 10


I spent part of the day crushing and pressing the whites and destemming and crushing the reds.


Both the GR-7 and St. Crois have extraordinary color. The GR-7 is a PITA to pick. The bunches have wings and tend to wrap around everything. I'm interested in how they turn out since I am growing the red varieties. I may see about adding the Cayuga to the lineup this next year if I can make a decent wine from it.Edited by: appleman

 

[Wade E]

Down here in Ct., Cayuga is one of the most made wines at all the wineries along with Cab Franc. Not to crazy about any of the red wines locally as I feel that they all come out weak.

 

[grapeman]

The Cayuga is really perking along continually and has been for 6 days now. I did rack it to secondary yesterday.


The PetiteAmie has pretty well finished and is in the secondary.


From the post on the auto-siphon:

Today I pressed out 12 gallons of the darkest purple, best tasting red wine I have ever had the pleasure of making. I had crushed last weekend and left on the skins all week fermenting with Red Star. The color extraction was phenominal. I had combined 45 pounds of GR-7 and 80 pounds of St. Croix- both nice dark extracters. During ferment I had added 8 ounces of Dark Toast Oak Chips to the primary. Naturally I had to try the pressed juice and it is going to have great body, taste and mouthfeel. Anyway I racked to 2 carboys and really had to bring them up too far, but hey, it had fermented for a week so shouldn't foam much. I had decided since I lost the oak chips at pressing I would add 4 ounces to each carboy. All done and airlocks on. End of story.


Well not quite. 2 Hours later I went to check on them and the purple foam was streaming out the airlocks. How to get some juice out and into a small jug so It would stop. I know, the auto-siphon. So I got it out, sanitized and set to work. Drew out about a quart from the first carboy, all set. Now onto the second. Well it must have drawn in a small wood chip or something, cause no matter how hard I pushed nothing came out. OK, one, two, three, push harder. Well the hose blew off the cane and I sent the whole blast into my face where the purple juice bounced off all over the walls and floor and ran down my glasses and shirt. What a mess. An hour later I got it all cleaned up and finished. Seperate load of wash and I'm glad I had on old clothes. At least they all match now- nice and purple!


Purple disaster stageII:
I checked in on the carboys a couple hours later. Foam coming out the airlocks worse than ever with little puddles around each one! Back out comes the siphon and a primary bucket this time. I went to take the second airlock and pulled on the stopper......pppppffffffff. More wine blew allover in my face. This time the oak chips had plugged the airlock hole and pressure buit up. When I removed it it was like an air cannon loaded with wine! I drew off enough for about 1/3 empty in each and am hoping it stays within its confines. All together I probably only lost about a pint of wine, but it is the messiest pint you would ever want to see. My hands are still purple. The stains just won't wash out! Guess it is time for the mudroom floor to become purple!

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Wow, is this a true story? It makes me cringe to hear of it. I don't want to picture what a similar occurence would look like here in my wine room, aka my wife's kitchen. What was your SG at the time you pressed? I would guess around 1.0 if it was fermenting for a week, unless you kept things cool. Great news regarding your wine quality, and a great lesson for the rest of us to keep in mind!

What else is fermenting or settling?

 

[NorthernWinos]

Look on the bright side...someday you'll have matching purple teeth and tounge....

And it will be so good!






* How about some photos of all those carboys.Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[grapeman]

Wow, is this a true story? Absolutely True- I have blue/purple hands and a stained floor to prove it.

What else is fermenting or settling?

Wine in various stages from my grapes or from the test plot.
Cayuga -6 gallon
Chardonel -1 gallon
LaCrosse -4 gallons
ES 6-16-30-3 gallons
St Pepin -3 gallons
Petite Amie -3 gallons


Frontenac-3 gallons
Leon Millot -2 gallons
Marquette -9 gallons
Sabrevois-6 gallons
GR-7/St. Croix mix -12 gallons


I was going to do a few gallons of Catawba, but the coons and deer ate 99% of them on me. I am going to pick Niagara in a few days and may do a few gallons of that. I might do some Concord, but will likely just make jelly out of those with all these better wines going.

Edited by: appleman

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Do you anticipate needing to adjust chemistry on a lot of your listed wines? I remember the starting numbers on many were low on Brix and high on acid.

Do you have some Noiret coming next spring?

 

[grapeman]

I'm working on the acid on the worst reds right now. They all have malo added to them to help bring it down. Any additional adjustments will wait until I see how they turn out. The whites are not too acidic and if I need I will probably sweeten them a little.


No I don't have Noiret coming next spring. I put in 25 this year and they did great.

They are right next to Corot Noir, St. Croix, Savrevois and GR-7. I know I posted a picture of them somewhere. I'll check tomorrow and see if I can fing a picture of them.

 

[swillologist]

Sounds like it might be better to oak when it is bulk aging. Do you think that would work as good?

 

[grapeman]

Do you have some Noiret coming next spring?

Bill I thought you might be interested in part of this newsletter. Scroll down and there is some info on Noiret canopy management.


http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/grapesandwine/pdf/Veraison%20to%20Harvest5.pdf

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Good article, thanks Richard. I guess I knew you had some Noiret in the ground. What training system have you started them on? Also, did you see any disease tendencies? I checked with Andy Farmer today but he is not handling them - he commented that he feels they are pushing the boundaries of cold hardiness where he is. If you care to send me maybe a dozen when you prune, let me know! Thanks again for citing the article.
Bill

 

[grapeman]

Andy seems to favor Elmer Swensen and the University of Minnesota varieties over Cornell varieties. I know he has seen them because we looked at them together this summer. They aren't super hardy - about 50% primary bud survival at -17F I believe. No problems at all with them this last winter and the vines needed a fair amount of pruning this spring when I helped. I can send you some after a while this fall if you have a way to overwinter them until starting time. Being first year vines , what I prune off pobably won't be hard enough for winter survival. As a last resort I could probably find you some harder wood in the spring from an alternate source

.


I only put up the lower fruiting wire this year and let them grow up the bamboo stakes and trail onto that wire. I will probably cut back a lot in the spring-depends on diameter and # of buds alive in the spring. I am leaning towards 4 arm kniffen with them. If they trail too much with that, I could go totop wire cordon in the future. At Willsboro they were trained up over the top wire and allowed to trail down. Even with no canopy thinning, they did very well. I'll let you know more later after the leaves die and fall- sometime in November.

 

[BonnieJoy]

Appleman - did you taste the Marquette grapes? I planted a few this year and am interested in what you think of the 9 gallons you have in carboys.

 

[grapeman]

Well of course I had to taste them! Naturally they aren't a table grape, but are actually quite tasty. Sugar is acceptably high for wine, but under my own conditions I would have let ripen a little more to about 24 brix or so. Acidity was moderate and pH good for a red. The grapes have a definite cherry aroma and taste to them with a hint of spiciness. I will give you more details as the wine develops.

 

[grapeman]

Well we got a freeze last night- the exact night I had predicted a month ago. It was 28deg and everything was totally covered with frost. The ground that had been recently worked was frozen a quarter inch deep. The vines don't even look like it was that cold. The most tender ends have withered and turned brown in the rain this afternoon, but only the las foot of the vines and only here and there. I guess autumn is about here!


On another note, I have to do up some more wine tomorrow. I went down to help harvest grapes again from the trial. I brought home 175 pounds of Corot Noir(probably about 12-15 gallons), and 155 pounds(10-12 gallons)of LaCrosse. I also got some more Mars seedless grapes- about 15 pounds. I also brough home and delivered about 150-200 pounds of Baco Noir for another guy that normally helps a lot who couldn't make it today.


I don't have the juice results yet or any pictures. I will follow up with them tomorrow as I process them. I'm not worried about leaving them overnight in the bags, it's 45 degrees out. I think I will have to be bottling more to free up some more carboys. I hadn't figured on getting these, but nobody else showed up to help today(except for the project manager and his wife) so I had to bring them home.

 

[Wade E]

Poor guy, I feel for you having to bottle up some of your batches to make room for all those new batches!

Dont worry, some of us will come up there and help you drink it next year!

 

[grapeman]

Poor guy, I feel for you having to bottle up some of your batches to make room for all those new batches!

Dont worry, some of us will come up there and help you drink it next year!

I'm running out of bottles to put it in. I may need to just attach myself to a sipon hose or IV and empty to 6 gallon carboys. One a day should do it!


It would be great if a bunch of you could come up next year!

 

[NorthernWinos]

WOW....sounds like fun. You are really living a winemaker's dream.


Photos of all of your carboys, wines etc....will be fun to see.


*Edit...still no frost here...get's to about 33*F...have had snow and frost on the roofs, but the vegetation is still green and flowering...Sun finally came out for a whole day...

Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[Wade E]

Good idea NW we want to see "your wine making area" and all of its contents!

 

[grapeman]

Patience there Wade. I am going to get some pictures, but don't get too excited about my room. I start things in the garage for the bigger containers and the others are in a spare room that doubles as a mudroom/storage space. I have plans for better in the works, but that will have to wait until next year before I get it up to speed. It takes time to convert an old barn to an acceptable working environment. Once done it will be much roomier.


If I had another few gallons of the Corot Noir, I could try using one of the blue primaries for a secondary. It has a locking seal to the lid. They hold 20 gallons. I'll see how much there is after I get it pressed. I will probably just try 3 different carboys with different treatments. May try3 differnet yeasts and variations of cold soak along with oak. Or I may just make one big batch and keep it simple. I already have about 15 different gallon to 6 gallon carboys going!