Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[grapeman]

pH raises quickly and TA drops as ripeness approaches.


I tried to post more data but gave up after 8 tries. I guess it just overloads the system.

 

[grapeman]

Here is last year's data from the trial. I will try it as an uploaded file and see if it works that way.
/images/uploads/20100904_085014_2009SAREData.xls

 

[ibglowin]

That worked!

 

[grapeman]

Hey guys and gals. I need a favor of you all. Anybody who prays, please say a prayer for me tonight. I was just out getting brix readings in the grapes to plan my harvest statedgy. It started raining so I went up inside the winery. All of a sudden there was pinging on the tin roof. I opened up the door and sure enough, it was hailing pea sdized hail. It lasted for about 5 minutes and some wa a bit bigger almost marble sized. I may have gone from a bumper crop to a manure spreader crop in five minutes. I don't see split fruit, but who knows what it will look like in a couple days. That's where I need some prayers if you could.

This is what it looked like five minutes later- almost gone but still some big enough to photograph.

 

[Runningwolf]

WOW sorry to hear that buddy. Hears to praying and hoping for the best for you!

 

[ibglowin]

Yikes!

Thinking positive thoughts that the vineyard will be spared from any serious damage.......

Keep us posted when you can.

 

[AlFulchino]

yes, keep us posted....only five minutes should mean that IF there is damage that it would affect things like the top of the cluster...so a quick harvest in the next day or so would and should mean little effect even if the crop had some damage...easy for me to say from here...not being in your shoes.....what is your expected harvest in pounds?

 

[grapeman]

There is no way I can get the whole crop in in a day or two. I can't pick that fast alone, and I don't have enough picking lugs to do more than a ton at a time. I also need to process them and have enough primaries.


Yesterday I would have said I expect 10-15,000 pounds of grapes this year, but now I'm not sure what there will be. Even the Catawba were starting to get closer. They were at 17 brix today and they never got higher than that two years ago when I got them off mid-October.

 

[AlFulchino]

ok..i lost track of your tonnage....yep you cant do that alone...get the word out and gibe some grapes away for jam and juice to thank them....you need some help my friend...we are at 13,000 or so pounds and i figure we will do another1500 lbs or so..glad its mostly done, we just started our big mum season as of today....i, too need more aging tanks by end of this week...one company keeps telling me shipping takes 2-3 week...i told the guy the rest of the world ships faster...last weeks heat pushed primary times way up

 

[Wade E]

Fingers crossed for you there buddy!

 

[BonnieJoy]

OMG - What awful luck.


Muchu prayers coming your way!!!!


I'd be there myself to help pick if it weren't for the daggon distance.


Keep us posted.

 

[fivebk]

I wish I lived alot closer I would be there in a heartbeat to help. Stay positive We're praying for you.

Last night we had 75 mile an hour winds come through here also . In a way I'm kinda glad my vines had no grapes on them this year.

BOB

 

[Wade E]

If I were closer Id work for grapes! Hehehe

 

[grapeman]

I picked about 500 pounds of Sabrevois and Marquette today. I figured the Sabrevois was a good indicator because they are so ripe and juicy. I really didn't see hardly any split grapes and most of the ones I did I think I made by taking the netting off from that row. I'm keeping my fingers and eyes crossed! The Marquette is a small planting that I had netted but the birds learned if they sit on the net, they can reach the grapes. I did get some pictures today and will try to post some in the next day or two.

 

[Dean]

Prayers for you Rich! Sending all the good Karma I can your way! FWIW, none, and I mean NONE of my grapes are ready yet...hard as rocks, high in acid, and taste like...well...you know.

 

[grapeman]

Here are some pictures I have been promising but have been too busy to post.

 

[grapeman]

And here are some more. The two bins in this one are off the same vine of Leon Millot 41.4 pounds on the one vine! The cluster on the vines and most of the ones in the bins are also Leon Millot- a small clustered variety.

 

[grapeman]

And more - Here is my Little Deere - much smaller than Al's, but hey, I mow with mine.

 

[Runningwolf]

Wow awesome pictures Rich. What a pain in the a$$ it must be to have to use the netting. Clusters look great. I like the look of your finished floor in th winery also. Thanks for sharing.

 

[grapeman]

Today I didn't have a lot of time to pick, so I just did 10 Leon Millot vines to get a feeling for how they were doing. AWESOME- THAT"S HOW!

Like I said above, the one vine had 41.4 pound on it. I am beginning to think that there has been too much emphasis on cutting yields to impreove quality. The vine above is in an extra control panel next to my SARE research trial - handled identical to the rest of the control for that variety. I initially pruned to 5 shoots per foot split between the top wire and the lower wire using a 4 arm-kniffen system. Being the control, they received no additional shoot thinning or cluster thinning like the shoot thinned section or cluster thinned section. The vine had 279 clusters on it! Holy crap batman! So you don't think it was unusual, the other vines in that section averaged 35.2 pounds per vine!


You might say- yeah but what about the quality? They taste great- a very few green shot berries, but I ran the labs on them and what do you think?
Brix 22.0, pH 3.14 and TA 6.8g/L or .68 depending on your scale you are used to.


The two sections I picked were in different areas of the vineyard. They both tested very similar, but the western one yielded more. The eastern one is on pure sand. The sandy one averaged 25.4 pounds per vine or 8.6 tons per acre. the western one averaged 35.2 pounds per vine or 12 tons per acre. I ask myself why we insist on thinning to 3-5 tons per acre when you can get great numbers at twice the yield using the right varieties and training system. This is the basic premise I am working with in my NE SARE grant work.


So Al - believe me when I say- you ain't seen anything yet for yield- wait until next year when the vines are a bit more mature.