Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[NorthernWinos]

We lived in an old house when we first got together....The bats use to tumble out of holes in the eves about dark...freak out your guest. The house smelled horrible in the summer....

During the night sometimes you would hear...woo-wooo-wooo.....[sound of the bats wings]..Then...thump thump thump...[sound of cat running across the floor]...Then...thud....[sound pf cat catching bat]...then...crunch...crunch...crunch....[sound of...you know]

Once a bat was flying through the house....my BIG strong man was in the bathroom screaming like a girl....I went out to the garage and got a tennis racket and knocked it down for said cat.

We had a bulldozer come and push that house into a pile to burn it....when he demolished the house there were bats laying on the lawn...I can live without bats!!!

 

[grapeman]

I'm glad it cooled off to slow things down a bit, but it can slow down slowing down. It was down to a hair under 32 deg this AM and is expected to be even lower tomorrow morning. I was checking things out this evening and some of the grape buds are opening up slighly, the apple blossom clusters are early pink and the Black Currant flower clusters are showing. We don't want things to freeze too badly here at this stage. I got my 50 Marquette vines yesterday from Double A Vineyards and have their home all laid out but will wait until at least tomorrow evening to start planting them.

 

[grapeman]

Our temperatures got down to a bit under 30 last night and the town nearby set a daily record low at 28. I hope it didn't adversely affect things. I know it warmet up to about 55 today and things really grew especially the grass. Tonight is supposed to be a bit warmer- we will see. I planted just a few of the Marquette this evening. I still don't trust the cold tonight. I will plant the rest this weekend if nothing come up.

 

[Joanie]

The fruit farmers around here weren't worried about the temps we had last night... about 29. They get worried when it gets down to 25 and lasts an hour or more.

 

[grapeman]

I guess all the heat we had the last couple weeks really brought things on a lot. I had a visit today from a gentleman from southern Vermont. He came to see my sprayer and we were looking at the grapes. He noted that even though where he lives is the warmest spot in Vermont, my vines were a good week ahead of his(he has about an acre of vines). It's going to be a rainy weekend- perfect to plant the Marquette.

 

[Joanie]

The peaches were in full bloom when we had the freeze and as tender as peaches are, they came through it okay.

 

[grapeman]

We certainly don't want to lose those wonderful New York State Peaches! Let us hope that was the last real cold spell for those peaches!

 

[Joanie]

Speaking of peaches...I have enough for 5 more gallons in the freezer. I guess I should start that!
Edited by: Joan

 

[NorthernWinos]

Appleman...nice map...glad you said to enlarge it to see the varieties.

You could use a little color out there...even red and green to show the color of the fruit would be nice.

Well done.

 

[grapeman]

The color will have to wait until I have more time. I can make the circles filled with a solid transparent color so that the text will still show.

 

[grapeman]

The vineyard is waking up and showing signs of regrowth after a long and protracted winter. It is always nice to see those signs of growth and rebirth. Here are just a few pictures of some vines sheading the cloak of winter and a few apple blossoms to boot.

Bloom Time

And "Currantly" the currants are blossoming quite prolificly.

Edited by: appleman

 

[swillologist]

Things look good appleman. It looks like you have caught up with us here. Things are in about the same stage. We can't seem to get warm and stay warm. We are in the low 40's just about every night and 50's or 60's during the day. Things just don't move along very fast that way. I think the apricots made it through the freeze. It looks like they are starting to develop. A week or so more and we will know for sure.
I do have a batch of sweet corn coming through though.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Appleman....everything looks beautiful...bet the air is just humming with bees pollinating all those blossoms.....

We are having another beautiful sunny day....got to get out and enjoy it.

 

[grapeman]

iI expected you to comment on the bee in the Wine Garden post. I was trying to show the bumble bee activity in the blossoms, so was clicking random shots and captured that one in mid-flight. I thought I got pretty lucky. The apple trees are pretty. I drove by the orchards in Peru NY yesterday but hadn't brought the camera with me. I met with the Northeast Fruit Specialist from Cornell at Willsboro. He stopped on his way up to Peru to photograph the orchards in Peru. There are thousands of acres of apple orchards there and are really quite a sight in full bloom when the sun shines.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Hope you have some honey bees too....It must be really pretty to see so many acres of trees in bloom.

 

[grapeman]

I haven't seen a ton of the honey bees this year, but there are hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of colonies of bees around the Champlain Valley. I never have a problem with pollination except in extreme weather. We have a lot of native bees around.

 

[grapeman]

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I sampled 10 varieties of wine this evening from the grapes from Willsboro last fall- 6 whites and5 reds- oops that is 11. I guess I samples too many. The whites are ready to bottle and I will need to sweeten a few of them because they were picked a bit too soon last fall. The LaCrescent, ES 6-16-30, Petite Amie, and St. Pepin all need a bit of sugar to bring the fruit back out more and take a bit of bite out. They are all good and fruity though. The Cayuga and LaCrosse were picked later and as such I believe stand out as is. They all have their own flavors-all good. All the reds have their own attributes and are quite good for non-Vinifera. I think in the future I will back off just a bit on the Oak, but in a year in the bottle, I think they will be super. The Corot Noir has black cherry overtones and a nice pronounced hit of vanilla- and the color is unbelievable-almost inky. The Sabrevois has some vanilla with just hints of native grapes as well as the normal delicious flavors. The Marquette will be very nice with some age. A bit milder than the others and again hints of cherry and vanilla. I combined GR-7 and St. Croix- a nice blend. Just a hint of natives and a wonderful complex feel and taste on the tongue. Lastly I had some Frontenac from my own grapes. I used less oak on this one and I think it is excellent. It does have more acid than the others and the cherry flavors stand out.


It is supposed to rain this weekend so I will try to bottle some of them. We are having a grape growing Session on June 4 at Willsboro and they are ahving tastings of wine from grape varieties at the trial. I will try to supply a number of them to try and get some better analysis from some experts. There are several grape and wine experts from Cornell attending and speaking in the day long session. I am just the Site Technician for the trial at Willsboro. If I can get some feedback from the tasting, I will report it back here.

 

[NorthernWinos]

After sampling 10 or 11 wines how can you remember all of that????

They all sound good enough to drink.....

 

[K&GB]

Appleman,


Your posts are very educational to me because I've never heard or read about most of the varieties you mentioned. Thanks for sparking my interest. Looking forward to your feedback from Willsboro.
Ken

 

[rodman]

Thanks for the updates on the wine. It is very informativefor me because I stated my small vineyard last year with Cayuga, Corot Noir and Sabrevois.Any information you have on Noiret and Traminette would also be helpful. Thiswhole topic has been agreat help!Edited by: rodman