Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[jobe05]

It's not the "Wine Room" thats most important.....

It's most important however to have room for your wine!

 

[grapeman]

I got a fewpictures for you, but didn't have time to get pictures of all the carboys lined up. I know I don't have room to line them all up in single file anyways. I will get some soon. The stomach bug was going around here the last couple days and Cindy ended up with it after just being in to remove the one kidney stone that was about 3/4 of an inch.


The LaCrosse grapes are about 22 brix and very juicy- haven't tested pH or TA yet, but are down nicely. The Corot Noir grapes are a late season grape here and even though they are starting to drop some berries, the brix is pretty low at 18. They may not be well suited for here. The pH and TA I feel are very workable. They have nice tannins and a lot of cherry taste.




LaCrosse

Corot Noir- four bunches- average a bit over 1/2 pound per cluster

Corot Noir in Primary- I got 2 of these 1/2 full or so.

Edited by: appleman

 

[Wade E]

Wow that looks good man!

 

[NorthernWinos]

Looks like a barrel of jam.....bet your fermentaion area smells great with all those batches going....?

 

[grapeman]

I just did the analysis on the LaCrosse and Corot Noir. As expected both are very workable.
LaCrosse
Brix - 21.8
pH- 3.2
TA- 8.8 or .86%
Today I pitched Cotes des Blancs yeast.


Corot Noir
Brix- 17.8 (will need adjusting up to ~23 brix)
pH- 3.3
TA - 8.25 or.825 %


I see that at Cornell during development they used EC-1118 yeast and fermented ont the skins. I'm cold soaking for four days and then will use either Pasteur Red or EC-1118, maybe one of each. They used MLF on most of the tests with similar beginning acid and pH.

 

[OilnH2O]

Rich, when you say "cold soaking" just how are you doing that? In the regular white buckets (that show in the pic's?) or something else?

Dave

 

[grapeman]

Yup, just the buckets they are in. Highs have been 45 lows in the low 30's since last Saturday. No need for special treatment. I had to bring them in the house this AM to warm up so I can add yeast tonight or tomorrow morning.

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Ah, you're sure having some fun this autumn (but is there time for anything else?)

 

[grapeman]

I am sure having fun this fall bilbo. I have quite a selection of grape wines going. I better get used to working with many varieties, since I have 20 or so varieties growing now. As I see which ones do better than others I will probably replace the less desireable ones with ones I like better and do better. I'm getting more hands on experience with growing the vines and making the wines!
I have 13 different grape wines going right now, although only 12 actually since I combined the St. Croix and GR-7. Almost time for some pictures if I can find time to line them up neatly and get some photos. Most of the whites are getting pretty clear already and will need racking again soon. I can't wait so I can taste them again.


After being down to below 30 again this morning, the leaves are starting to yellow a lot and some are brown and brittle. Soon they will be dropping. Which is probably good to get the deer out of them. It's starting to look like a barnyard with tracks between the vines. Almost time for another harvest

That's another thing I find time for.

 

[grapeman]

There was a definite killing frost last night. The vines had been hit a few times the last 2 weeks, but it was down to 25 last night/this morning. The vines now have that dead look to them and the leaves are falling rapidly today. I was noting yesterday how much better the vines look this year vs last year for hardening off before the frost. They have much more brown wood this year, with only that last foot of the vines remaining green in color. That will all be pruned off anyway, so hopefully they are in good shape going into winter.


How is everybody else doing for frosts and freezes. I saw the first snow flurries of the season yesterday. I'm already looking forward to next year!

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Similar here - 28 degrees this morning, lots of leaves down on the ground making for a big cleanup job. YES! we are looking forward to next year. I'm getting ready to take on the fungi head on. I have my Stylet Oil on the shelf, hoping that I won't need the Elite, and Sevin at the ready. The Lime Sulfur dormant oil is next to them for a dormant spray in late March. PM got kind of bad here at the end of summer. Even the new vigorous Marquette vines got it. But the level of trouble seems to vary year by year. Maybe next summer will be kinder.

 

[grapeman]

One word of caution Bill. Any sulfur and the stylet oil don't get along well. It would be best to apply with two different sprayers if at all possible. If there is any sulfur residue when you spray the Stylet, you can burn the vines bad.



The vines got so hit by the freeze today that even my wife noticed the leaves were dead and falling off today- and she hardly ever notices much out there. Here's wishing you a great season and harvest next year.


How is the Frontenac bulk aging

?

 

[NorthernWinos]

Was 24*F here yesterday morning...that was the first hard freeze we've had....It had froze all night, there was 1/4 inch of ice on the horse water and the bird baths were froze for part of the day...Beautiful today, in the 60's, sunny and calm.


Most of the leaves are off the vines now, tho the Frontenac are hanging on the best. We have had a lot of wind this fall...took it's toll on all the leaves, some before their time.


Looking at those vine this evening...days like this I wish I could trim them now so they'd look better.

 

[grapeman]

I finally got aroung to burying up the 25 Cab Franc vines today. It is supposed to be 40 today(not there yet) so I grabbed the shovel and went to hand bury them. The ground was too frozen to use a plow of any kind. After lots of effort I was able to more or less get them buried. I had been waiting for the leaves to drop before buring but by the time they had the ground was frozen. Next year I will bury sooner whether or not they have lost their leaves.


I racked the Sabrevois and St Croix/GR-7 Mixture carboys today to get them off the oak and most of the lees. I think they have plenty of oak tannins now so I wanted them racked, but they are just now going good with MLF so I tried to leave a few lees in them. They are tasting very good for young fresh grape wines. I used heavy toasted oak this year and think next time I make these I will use medium oak on them. I will rack the rest of them next weekend when I get more time and ambition.


The white wines are all doing well and I have racked them all and they are just about spotlessly clear. I will set some of them in the garage this coming week to see if any of them want to drop crystals since they were fairly high in acid.


Sorry no pictures- just not much to see at this point.

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Rich - Is this the first season for your Cab Franc vines? You have so many varieties that there's no way to remember how old each variety is. I imagine you are burying them since they are pushing it in your locale. I'm curious because I have thought about adding them here. I concluded that I'm too cold in winter and the ripening season is too short. Burying the vines is the solution to the cold obviously. Lengthening the season is a wild card.

Great to get the updates on your wines! My interest comes from the harvest numbers being a little out of whack on so many of your grapes since you didn't have much control of when they were picked. I really want to hear about acid reduction results if you'd care to report them. Keep up the good work.
Bill

 

[grapeman]

Bill this was the first year for the Cab Franc. I also believe I am pushing it, but then I know somebody growing them a few miles away and they haven't died yet. With the heat we have here in the summer, they will ripen- how well is to be determined.


I will fill you in as I get more numbers on the acid.

 

[OilnH2O]

Interesting too, is the local vinyard here (Ten Spoons) who has the Foch, St Pepin, Millot, and others (but I don't recall Cab Franc) doesnt bury his vines at all. Another vinyard to our north (on Flathead Lake) doesn't bury his acre of Pinot Noir and commercially harvests them every year. We've got about 8" snow on the ground (from a week ago) and more coming, according to the WX folks.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Did you remove them from the trellis and put them in a trench??? Did you mound up around the trunk???


The tender vines that I am growing I have on a heavy wire panel and lay the whole panel down and cover with straw....It's been working so far.


I am wondering about the Frontenac vines....they say they are good to -30*F...we can have harder winters than that.


Going to get cold here the next few nights, like 10 to 15*....maybe 2 inches of snow tonight.....Ho -Humm...winter hascome.

 

[grapeman]

I'm going with the tough love method. The vines are on thier own. I'm only concerned with the rootstock, graft and first few buds this year. I only mound the earth above the graft union. They do it this way up to the north in Quebec and have grown vinifera for 30 years or so. I will trim back to the first few buds anyway next year, so I don't care if the main vines survive or not this year. I am hoping for some good growth next year and will train low shoots which I can lay down on the ground next fall and bury. The fruiting growth will develop off that the following year. I need to see if they will mature here well or not also. I give them about a 1 in 4 chance of still being in my vineyard in a few years.


I wouldn't worry too much about the Frontenac. If they don't make it there, not much will and you have been growing grapes there for a number of years now.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Ihave an olderlarge Frontenac vine, the first year I laid it down, last year I let it hang and didn't get many grapes off of it this past summer...Was kind of disappointed in the yeild...Now I have about 8 vines...So time will tell if they winter over and produce.