Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[Wade E]

Well you know your supposed to put it on the walls not roll in it! Sorry to hear about that buddy! I dont want to know what happens after the Doc says turn your head and cough then!!!!!!

 

[grapeman]

I just make sure they use non-latex gloves. I check to see which box they get them out of because 9 out of 10 times they go straight for the latex ones. I can always tell when somebody uses them - especially the dentist.

 

[Wade E]

Or the proctologist!

 

[Waldo]

Well you know your supposed to put it on the walls not roll in it! Sorry to hear about that buddy! I dont want to know what happens after the Doc says turn your head and cough then!!!!!!

Lasttime I had to do thatwade I told ole Doc it felt like he was using two fingers. He assured me that he was soI asked him why and he said, Well, its just in case your insurance company wants a second opinion....

Winery is looking great appleman !!!

 

[grapeman]

Changing subject here,


Early grape ripening is proceeding way too quickly for me. This year I have so much going on, I was hoping for a late September, early October harvest so I can get prepared.


The grapes don't want to wait............ The couple clusters of early Reliance and Canadice seedless grapes left from the birds were 18 brix when I checked yesterday. The white grapes are in the 15-16 brix range. Marquette is up to 18 brix, the Frontenac are as high as 19.4 brix- about where I was forced to pick most of them last year when they froze in mid-October. Others I haven't checked, but all but the American varieties have turned quite a bit. The Niagara and Concord continue to grow and are still hard as little rocks. I have NEVER seen my own Concords or Niagara grapes this size being 5/8- 3/4 inch each berry!


Today and tomorrow our local grape group is haveing a Winery and Vineyard Tour event. It is due to be from 12 PM to 6 PM both days, so I will need to hang out close by. I think I will try to get a bunch of the Side Netting on the vines that have turned so much.


I'm heading out now to grab the netting out of the loft. When I moved a bag a few weeks ago with netting inside I got stung by a yellow jacket (and I am allergic to them also).

 

[Wade E]

Becareful my friend and use a stick (long) to move those nets to make sure there are no nests in there. We need you here and we need your new buisness to thrive to help greater mankind!

 

[Runningwolf]

Be carefull and have enjoy yourself with your group this weekend.

 

[grapeman]

Dan, I wasn't very clear about it. The group of us is all vineyard and winery owners. The tour is open and advertised to the general public. Each of us acts as our own host to promote what we have. I'm layed back about it because I can't sell anything, but the wineries can. For $10 the public buys a ticket, which includes a map, brochure and wine glass. They take the glass around to any participating winery and can get four samples at each. The wineries don't get any money, it goes to Lake Champlain Wines - our local group. Nothing prevents them from selling wine to anyone legal to buy it. They should all do very well. I'm sure I will get them also arriving with their glasses held out. Even though I could sample, I don't think I will because of the perception I was doing so without a license.


I'm this close to opening now- I don't want to mess anything up. The rest of my papers went out yesterday to the "Great" State of NY.

 

[Runningwolf]

Rich, that is awesome they are coming to your place anyways. It sounds like the same thing the Chautauqua-Lake Erie Wine Trail do fairly often and you can find them on Facebook also talking about the upcoming events. Big thing today is trying to make the worlds largest toast in PA.


The cool thing about you participating anyways is just getting people to know you are here and will be ready soon. Awesome way to sell yourself and vineyard. I am sure you'll be letting them know about your grant project also which really makes you creditable in their minds. Sure wish I could be there to spend the day with you. Whoops I got my own wine party going on today with some folks from the forum. WE WILL BE POURING and eating!

 

[grapeman]

I had quite a few visitors today at the vineyard. Everyone had so many questions.... I hope everyone had an enjoyable even if brief visit.


Our group seriously underestimated attendance though and many of them are just startups so have limited stock. We only had something like 300 tickets printed and 288 wineglasses made. This is a two day event and all tickets were sold today and all glasses taken. One of the poor guys just about had a nervous breakdown when the tourbus stopped at his place! He sold his complete stock of wines he currently had bottled!


We still have tomorrow. I guess they are all just going to use their own wine tasting glasses. Hopefully we will be even bigger and better next year when I can participate more fully.

 

[AlFulchino]

my apologies if this was not already posted
http://www.growingmagazine.com/article.php?id=5446



NORTH FEATURES


</span>

Cold-Hardy Grapes</span>




by Kara Lynn Dunn</span>

Variety-system matchmaking yields first-year results</span>

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<td ="artnotes"> Lamoy’s first-year
research showed that Frontenac grapes grown on the four-arm Kniffen
system with shoot thinning produced an average yield of 28.3 pounds per
vine, a 67 percent increase over the VSP shoot-thinned system (seen
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Photos courtesy of Richard Lamoy, unless otherwise noted.</td>
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As a volunteer at the 300-vine Willsboro Cold-Hardy Wine
Grape Trial at the Cornell University E.V. Baker Agricultural Research
Farm in Willsboro, N.Y., Richard Lamoy worked, watched and learned.
As he helped tend the 25 grape cultivars established
there with Northern New York Agricultural Development Program funding
assistance in 2005, Lamoy developed insights regarding the likely
advantages of matching varieties to specific training and canopy
management systems to improve the quality of the wine grapes grown in
the colder northern New York region.
In 2009, the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research
and Education program provided funding for him to test his expectations,
and Lamoy established research trials at his young Hid-in-Pines
Vineyard in Morrisonville, N.Y., southwest of Plattsburgh.
Lamoy’s first-year results showed a range of 40 to 67
percent improvement in yield and quality in a year that was about 200
degree days short of the region’s normal of 2,400.
With fastidious recordkeeping, Lamoy determined that
specific variety-system matching could bring yield gains of 3.91 tons
per acre.
His economic calculations showed certain combinations
could result in $830 to more than $5,000 in added net value of the crop
per acre.
He says, “With just one year of results, I can generally
say it certainly is possible, but not yet conclusive, that the value of
wine grapes may be increased both through increased yields and improved
quality, and that farm income could be increased by getting higher crop
returns in combination with diminished labor requirement during the
growing season and at harvest.”
Testing an idea
In the spring of 2009, Lamoy set out to evaluate the
comparative yields and berry quality using vertical shoot positioning
(VSP) and four-arm Kniffen vine training systems with the Frontenac,
Chardonel and Leon Millot grape varieties.
Within the systems, he compared shoot thinning and cluster thinning methods against a control.
Damage caused by an unusually cold winter eliminated the
Chardonel grape from the trial. Two instances of temperatures of minus
22 degrees Fahrenheit (normal lows range between minus 10 to minus 12
degrees) caused dieback to the snow line about 15 inches aboveground.
In Chardonel’s place, and because of LaCrosse’s trailing
tendencies, Lamoy substituted LaCrosse grapes trained to Top Wire Cordon
and four-arm Kniffen systems.
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<td ="artnotes"> A cluster of Frontenac grapes harvested from the research trials at Hid-in-Pines Vineyard.</td>
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Starting in September, he collected fruit samples to
monitor ripening and quality development. The berries were crushed for
juice evaluation, and Brix was measured with a hand-held refractometer.
The pH was measured with a portable electronic pH meter, and titrable
acidity (TA) was measured with a Hanna Instruments 8410 Mini Titrator.
In October, each variety was harvested the same day to
assure consistent results. The Frontenac was harvested on October 15,
LaCrosse on October 17 and Leon Millot on October 21.
Each vine of each treatment was picked into its own grape
lug, individual weights were taken and harvest clusters were counted.
Average vine and cluster weights were determined for each treatment.
“Data collection was designed to make it possible to give acre-equivalent yields based on vine and row spacing,” Lamoy says.
Combo comparisons show opportunity
The highest-quality Frontenac grapes were obtained using the four-arm Kniffen with shoot thinning combination.
“The four-arm Kniffen system stayed visibly more open
with the fruit more exposed for ripening, thereby also reducing the need
for pruning and leaf pulling,” Lamoy says.
“The four-arm Kniffen with shoot thinning produced an
average yield of 28.3 pounds per vine average. This represents a 67
percent increase over the VSP shoot-thinned system, and the result was
two-thirds more yield of a higher-quality product,” he adds.
The Leon Millot grapes grown with the combination of the
four-arm Kniffen system plus shoot thinning produced significant yield,
though not as stellar as the Frontenac. That combination extrapolated to
a 40 percent increase in value per acre over using VSP.
That combo also required less summer pruning and training
time, and the less-dense canopy in a normal year would be expected to
reduce spraying time and cost by at least one application.
Lamoy says the LaCrosse vines were not all well-formed
and shade from trees bordering the trial area may have lowered sugar
levels and impacted acid levels, so yield gains of 2.71 to 11.4 should
be verified with another a year of testing.
Lamoy plans to cut the trees back and advises caution
before drawing conclusions about which system works best for producing
LaCrosse grapes. With that caveat, however, he says the LaCrosse grapes
generally demonstrated a yield increase when grown with four cordons.
In addition to yield and quality data, Lamoy tracked the
labor/time invested in each system and each treatment. “For example,
using the four-arm Kniffen system with Frontenac equates to a savings of
123 hours of labor per acre over the VSP system. That is a considerable
savings,” he says.
He adds, “July and August were very wet months, which
dictated an extra spraying for disease, thus impacting cost calculations
over what might be expected in a drier year.”
Added value: award-winning wine
“By combining variety with system to achieve increased
yield and reduced labor, and then making the grapes into wine instead of
selling them as grapes, there is potential for even greater return to
net farm profit,” Lamoy says.
Lamoy currently grows grapes on 3 of his 90 acres, and he
is transitioning the fresh vegetable and fruit farm and former small
dairy to a vineyard and winery business.
In 2009, he won medals for six of eight entries submitted
to WineMaker Magazine’s wine competition, reputedly the world’s largest
amateur winemaker contest.
Five of the award-winning wines were made with North
Country-grown, cold-hardy grapes harvested from his vineyard and from
the Willsboro trial.
Kevin Iungerman, of the Cornell Cooperative Extension
Northeast New York Fruit Program and Willsboro project leader,
encourages volunteers who help harvest at Willsboro to make use of the
unneeded, surplus grapes.
One of Lamoy’s gold medal wines was made with locally
grown French Hybrid White grapes (the LaCrescent variety), and he earned
three silver medals for varietal wines made with French Hybrid White
grapes (St. Pepin, Adalmiina (ES6-16-30), Petite Amie) and one bronze
medal for a wine made with Leon Millot French Hybrid Red grapes.
Lamoy plans to enter the 2010 WineMaker contest. Once
licensed, he wants to enter the commercial category of wine competitions
and open his on-farm winery.
Lamoy says, “The success of the Willsboro trial and
private plantings shows the colder regions can indeed produce cold-hardy
grapes as a valuable crop for northern New York. I am pleased to
contribute to research that adds to our ability to grow them. Plus, it’s
fun to enter the wine competitions, hold vineyard tours and talk with
other growers and winemakers.”
E.V. Baker Agricultural Research Farm Manager Michael
Davis says, “Richard has been invaluable as a volunteer, and now as
staff here, with both the grapes trial and high-tunnel season extension
research. He is a fine example of how growers can make practical
application of the northern New York regional research to grow their own
farm-based income.”
Iungerman says, “Richard stood out among our volunteer
Willsboro crew as an innovator with a keen interest in research. I was
contemplating a more rigorous vine phenology notation and pest
management-monitoring regimen at Willsboro to support increased
year-to-year review, mature cropping levels and the first finished wine
production and needed a colleague locally to assist with the work.
Happily, Richard agreed to become a part-time seasonal assistant and the
Northern New York Agricultural Development Program approved funding for
the research in 2008,” Iungerman continues. “Both the trial, and now
Richard’s SARE-funded research, are contributing to the database that
will strengthen the cold-hardy grape industry for all of our northern
New York growers.”
Lamoy has requested new funding to continue his research
trials. “I see this first-year project as validating the concept.
Additional testing would give reliability to the findings, as well as
allow expansion of the number of training systems and varieties
evaluated,” he says.
“I believe it is possible to predict the best combination
of variety, training system and canopy management type to increase net
farm income and the sustainability of the farmers interested in adopting
cold-hardy grape production,” Lamoy adds.
Data compiled by Iungerman on variety-specific bud break,
cane growth, bloom, capfall, berry set, veraison and projected yields
from the Willsboro Wine Grape Trial and the first-year results of
Lamoy’s varietysystem matching research are online at www.nnyagdev.org.

 

[Wade E]

Ive seen that hand before as a gesture of friendship reaching out and digging with me in his yard. Id shake it again!

 

[grapeman]

Now how did you find that article Al? I thought it was hidden.............

 

[AlFulchino]

hidden? by whom and how?

 

[grapeman]

I just didn't think anyone would ever see that article. I don't like to post about all of them, seems like I'm tooting my own horn. I had to just approve another one for an undisclosed magazine......................

How did you find enough time to post that with harvest looming or beginning?

 

[AlFulchino]

i dont harvest at 8:54 pm....going back out in a few minutes..just getting some food.....post the articles...whats wrong w tooting a good horn? horns were made to toot...not to sit on

 

[grapeman]

NEWS FLASH






I just got off the phone with the New York State Liquor Authority-
and they have issued me as of 8/25/2010 a Temporary Permit to operate as a Farm Winery. I should have the hard copy in the mail in a day or two. What that means is that I can begin making wine legally as of now as I harvest this year!

 

[Runningwolf]

CONGRATULATION!!!






[ame="http://youtu.be/Aip619LJMDo"]http://youtu.be/Aip619LJMDo[/ame]

 

[fivebk]

That's GREAT news Rich!!!!!!!

BOB

 

[AlFulchino]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!