Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[NorthernWinos]

Thanks for all the photos...
The Wine looks great and the photos of the grapes are outstanding.....

Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[Wade E]

Just drill a 1" hole preferably with a Forstner bit and use a #6 rubber bung. Thats what I did with almost all my primaries as those stupid little grommets all leaked for me. Or do you need bigger airlocks for something that size?

 

[grapeman]

I plan on using a forstner bit and use a regular airlock with bung. I don't ever get a good seal with the little ones. By the way, the containers held citric acid before. I used them last year for the bigger batches, now they are little batches. Next year the 32 gallon Brutes will be little batches.


As a side note, my estimates of harvest were actually pretty close overall to actual harvest. I am tracking each vines harvest weight. It is a bit more work, but it will help in the future for pruning decisions and cluster thinning. The one that I was way off on was the St. Pepin. The actual yield was much higher than estimates. Frontenac is running just a tad on the lower side, but that is because of incpmplete cordon development this year. There were a few missing arms here and there. As a result, the newly formed cordon had two clusters on it as opposed to 24-30 clusters(dropping overall yield). I didn't expect a huge yield- these were third yearvines. A lot of growers don't even take a crop in the third year.

 

[hannabarn]

WOW! That is just beautiful. I thought I would like to take a trip to help you pick grapes but I can't spend the winter there !! I would be overwhelmed.

 

[grapeman]

Thanks Barney. I am closing in on finishing up harvest. I have the Chardonel to harvest. There is only a few hundred pounds of those. They can be picked whenever I get to them. I could try to get another brix or two out of them. It is warm here now again for a week or so. I may pick them tomorrow just to get them done since I won't need to work my regular job. I also have Catawbas left to pick. They read 18 brix yesterday so they are approaching readiness in a week or so.Then there are a few young vines of late varieties to pick but that won't take long. It is a good thing I am almost done. Things are filling up fast and I will have plenty to top up with to get to my wine limit.

 

[Wade E]

Better save up your money Rich as you are going to be needing lots of holding tanks next year!

Edited by: wade

 

[Jack on Rainy]

Great picts Appleman,
Thanks for sharing.
J

 

[grapeman]

I decided to pick the Chardonel today. I had the day to myself and it is going to cool down later this weeks so I figured I would pick them today. Brix was at 22 and pH at 3.02. TA is a touch high at 12, but very workable for a white. I had them trained two ways- VSP on 16 of them and cane pruned to establish a fan. This was the training year for that method so only averaged 2.5 pounds per vine on the fan. The VSP was about a 12 pound average of beautiful grapes. Here are pictures.

Now I need to go out and crush and de-stem them. I will soak for 24 hours with pectic enzyme and press tomorrow. Should yield about 15 gallons.

 

[Scott]

Very nice Appleman,
Makes me want to quite the day job to make wine, but I guess then it wouldn't be just a hobby. Nice arrangement with the leaves, have you had photo training?

 

[NorthernWinos]

Beautiful photos with the </font>purple leaves.... </font> Perhaps a label?????

 

[Wade E]

Looks awesome as usual! Wouldnt we all like to quit our day job and do that!

 

[grapeman]

Including me Wade and all you others that think it is my Day Job!

 

[OilnH2O]

I'll just chime in to add my two cents on how great these pic's look!

We had our first big "killing" frost (to 27*) on Friday the 10th -- then snow flurries on Sunday the 12th, although in the low 30's -- and today all the leaves are mostly gone (and not just to the deer, bless their little hearts!) or shriveled!

Next year should be "money" if I can defeat the 4-legged's !!

 

[Waldo]

Every home winemakers dream appleman !! Thanks for sharing with the rest of us...just awesome !!!

 

[Bert]

Great pictures Appleman...Thank You for sharing....It gives me some good things to dream about...

 

[grapeman]

Tomorrow I need to rack a bit of wine to secondary. I could have done it today, but had other things to do. There is about 28 gallons of LaCrosse and about 18 gallons of NY 76.844.24. They are close to 1.000 so it needs to be done. The vigorous bubbling and fizzing you could hear from 15 feet away subsided so I checed the SG- lower than I anticipated. I put in a temporary shelf 14 feet long by two feet wide to hold a few carboys. I will get to try out my vacumn racking system. If all goes well I will post a few pictures.


I may also need to press my batch of Noiret grapes and make a couple mini-batches of two year old grapes. I should have enough grapes for a gallon each of my own Corot Noir and GR-7 grapes.

 

[Wade E]

What do you set the pump for Rich?

 

[grapeman]

I will let you know Wade when I get it all set up. I have had all the components for close to a year now, but have yet to use it for transfer.

 

[BonnieJoy]

Appleman - Those are some FANTASTIC looking grapes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[grapeman]

Thanks Bonnie. Did you see the Frontenac and Leon Millot also or just see the Chardonel? There are picuteres on previous pages from this harvest also.