Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[NorthernWinos]

Appleman......Thats a lot of good looking wine. Which one is your favorite????


Hope your temperatures hold....Our frigid air is moving on out...not sure which way it is headed. Keep an eye on your babies

 

[jobe05]

They look great appleman.

How much "below 32" will you garage ever get, and how much of that will the carboys take?

We are in a warm spell right now down here, 74 degrees out right now and I spent the day out tilling up the garden. Suppose to be that way till toward the end of the week, then we get a cool down, low 30's at night and mid to upper 50's during the day. I'm thinking of putting the carboy covers on and throwing them outside for a few days to help clear and throw off some wine diamonds.

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

Awesome Grapeman! What a shine those have!They look....HAPPY!

 

[BonnieJoy]

Appleman - I agree with Northern Winos. What a great looking batch of white wines.


Do you have any photos of your reds yet? How's the Marquette tasting now? Anything like its grandparent, the noble pinot noir?


My vineyard, "Blossom Ridge", is finally getting planted next Spring on a 2 acre tract I bought this fall. Will have mostly Marquette, Noiret, Vidal, Traminette.


I have 15 vines still in the 5 gal. buckets they grew in this season whileI tried to find suitable land. I left theblue-x grow tubes around them and filled both the top of the bucket and tubes with enough mulch to cover the grafts. I'm concerned aboutroot damage as the buckets are above grade and only protected from the north winds. The garage never freezes, so I did not move themto itfor fear the vine's dormancy period would get messed up. Would you have any advice on winter protection?I'm in Fort Wayne, IN. where winter temps are not as consistant as up state NY.

 

[grapeman]

They all taste great already. I can only imagine what they will be like after just a touch of sweetness. They all are very fruity, but I think it's a toss up between the St. Pepin and the ES 6-16-30 for my favorite. The St Pepin's main flavor is a strong apricot where the ES 6-16-30 is a definite Pineapple. The temps stay pretty stable Jobe because it is insulated behind the pegboard. I have both sidewalls done full length with pegboard and those heavy duty shelves. The temps are supposed to be stable for the next week to 10 days so it should be just about perfect. They won't freeze until it gets in the low 20's. The carboys don't care about temps as long as the wine doesn't freeze and expand.




I look forward to you starting a thread Bonnie. How many vines do you have planned for this coming year? I racked off the rest of the Reds today- 6 -6 gallon ones and 3 -3 gallon ones. I did rack the Marquette today Bonnie and the tast is good. Now that you mention the Pinot, I can definitely say it has some of that in it. I was wondering about the earthiness. It has a good flavor, but so far I think the Corot Noir will be the winner for tastes.


The Corot Noiralready shows cherry, vanilla and chocolate overtones. What a delightful taste treat. This one so far blows away any of the Amarone wines even.


The Frontenac is OK, shows lots of promise if the acid is controlled. You get a definite nose of fruit with it- a grapieness I guess you would describe it.


The Leon Millot is also tasty, but lacks the intense colors of most of the other reds I have this year.


The Sabrevois is going to make a really nice dark red/purple wine. I can see that I will want a light toast with this one- it really sucked up the dark toast oak and tastes like it came straight off the grill.


The GR-7/St Croix combination wine I did is one of the more tasty wines. It seems to complement each other with lots of cherry coming through, just a hint of foxiness for smell and vanilla rounding it out.


Most of these are looking like MLF is about done on them. I can say that it definitely was worth it, bringing down the acid on these wines and adding a touch of butteriness to them all. The Corot Noir seems to have taken on the most dramatic flavor intensification with the aid of the MLF. I'm looking forward to the next tastings of all these. I must say though after testing them all, that I had a bit of a buzz going.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Apleman...those wines all sound really nice.


The Elmer Swenson's ES 6-16-30 is one that might survive up here.


Thanks for sharing your notes.

 

[grapeman]

I guess we will be having at least some snow cover this year in the vineyard. The temperatures are running closer to normal too this year-different than the last two years. I am actually glad becauseof this. It will give us a truer indication of the survivability of the vines I have planted. I would rather have the less hardy ones die off in the first couple years than have them go 5 years and then die off. That way I can make better decisions as to which vines I should be growing here. I took some pictures this morning of the vineyard, but they didn't come out great because it was snowing again. Here are a couple though.

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Rich - That's JUST the way mine looked today. The snow was pounding down, sticky snow that has covered every non-vertical surface as it circled in off the Gulf of Maine. Very slow going around here today. The ground is well blanketed by now, and the frost is almost non-existent which is great!

 

[swillologist]

Appleman are those the tracks you made so the deer could help you prune.

 

[Waldo]

Mighty fine looking batch of wines appleman.

 

[jobe05]

If I were there, I would complain about the snow, but the one thing I couldn't complain about was that view! Very pretty setting with the pines in the background. I like snow covered pines in the winter....

 

[grapeman]

The weather has been very cooperative for cold stabilizing the white wines. It has warmed back up nicely with highs in the 30's and lows not much lower. After 3 weeks, I took the time today to rack the 6 gallon carboys of whites off the tartaric crystals. After racking and cleaning the carbooys of the crystals, there was about a half cup of crystals from each6 gallon carboy. The pH is running right at 3.4. I haven't rechecked the TA yet, but with that many crystals it is bound to be lower. I think after these are sweetened lightly, they will be good. There is 6 gallons of Cayuga and 12 gallons of LaCrosse. I will do the 3 gallon carboys soon and check all the TA's and pH and adjust if needed before degassing and stabilizing. Here are some pictures.

Crystals in the bottoms of 3 gallon carboys-differing amounts.

Racking off Cayuga

Cayuga after racking off crystals.

Crystals on the bottom of the carboy.

Crystal from the side.

1/2 cup of crystals per 6 gallon carboy.






Hope this has been educational.

Edited by: appleman

 

[Wade E]

Very, thank you!

 

[BonnieJoy]

Appleman I'm only planting 80 vines at "Blossom Ridge" this Spring. There will be three rows of reds, 1 of whites. I've had some successful veggie gardens, butgrapes will be a new challenge. Thanks to those who have been posting their experiences out on this site. You've given me the confidence to planta small vineyard. I can't think of anything much more rewarding than participating in the entire life cycle of grapes from earth through its evolution as a wine.

 

[grapeman]

That's great Bonnie! 80 vines is no small undertaking in itself. It will give you a good deal of wine when they get bearing well in a few years.


What varieties are you considering planting? I don't remember where you are from. Give us a rough idea and we could help you choose some. Start yourself a thread and share this information with us all so others can benefit from your experiences as you gain them. As we build this area of the site, it gives others confidence to follow.

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Thanks for posting Rich. Please do check the TA and let us know how it moved. The pH is close to right where you want it! And now for the reds...

 

[NorthernWinos]

Appleman.....Great looking wines you have there, brilliantly clear. How are your reds coming????


Bonny Joy....Good luck with your future venture...hope you are living in a hospitable climate and can grow some real wine grapes.

 

[grapeman]

Happy New Year All.


Here is a little slideshow from the Vineyard. It is a condensation of 2 years growing, from vines to wines. Sorry about the music looping.


http://abcdraftingservices.com/images/PhotoStory3.wmv


It will take a while to open. If it doesn't open with Windows Media Player, you will need to open it with whatever video player you have. Hope it works OK. It tests out OK on my end.

PS This is the same video as the one in the General Chit Chat.

Edited by: appleman

 

[swillologist]

Have you tried the Cayuga yet? How doesit taste? I planted a sampling of those here. How many vines do you think it will take to make a six gallon batch? I have three vines right now. I have two vines of Fredonia. I made a batch with those last year(2006). That was a good year for grapes herethough. I can start some new ones if I need to. Edited by: swillologist

 

[grapeman]

The Cayuga tastes very good for a hybrid. It makes a good wine for coolish climates. You want to harvest at a brix of 17-20-no higher. Above that the pH goes way up and it can develop funky tastes. It makes a very popular semi-sweet wine. Mine is very dry right now and tastes fairly good. It's very popular with a lot of women semi-sweet/off-dry. 3-6 vines should easily make a 6 gallon batch for you.