Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[ibglowin]

Pretty wonderful feel good story. The guy has an amazing voice. I hope he can keep it together and stay clean and sober. Looks like he has people offering him VO work left and right.

check out this voice on this guyhttp://www.rtdna.org/pages/posts/ohio-homeless-man-earns-second-chance-with-golden-radio-voice1193.php

 

[grapeman]

I have finished my final report for my NE SARE grant FNE10-691. I would like to express my gratitude to NE SARE for providing funding for conducting this field trial.


Here is a link to my website page with the report.


I hope a few of you find this information useful.
http://www.hipvineyard.com/hipvineyard/research/fne10.691.html


This page hasthe previous one as well . I have the videos on my website also on the same page.
http://www.hipvineyard.com/hipvineyard/research/research.html

 

[AlFulchino]

looking good Rich

 

[DBell]

Great Job and study. The videos are great. I like seeing whatI'm reading about.
I noticed the time spent working on the 4AK was approx. 0.5 hours for the Lion Millot and Frontenac, but for the LaCrosseit was approx. 1 hour. Just curious about this?

 

[grapeman]

You are very observant. Yes that was right. The LaCrosse really loved the weather we had this year. Along with that, it tends to grow long shoots, so it needed a lot of combing and skirting during the growing season to try to keep it fairly open. It did give a slightly higher yield than the Top Wire Cordon, but came at the price of increased labor.

 

[DBell]

Really interesting. In your video, the LaCrosse on TWC did not appear overly aggressive. However, the LaCrosse on the 4AK didlook like a jungle.
Shows IMO, that you are spot on that varieties should be matched to training systems to maximize fruit quality and yeild, while also considering the labor involved. Really cool stuff.

 

[grapeman]

That's the idea I had. All we need to do is figure out the inner working of each variety. The LaCrosse is indeed that way. I have LaCrosse at the Willsboro site on TWC and it behaves the same way there. St Pepin on the other hand does better on 4 AK. That balances the vine better than TWC and it is too trailing for VSP. It gets too vigorous as TWC, the shoots are too far apart, the crop too low and the shoots become rank (growing 15 feet long). When grown of 4AK, the shoots stay closer together, giving a much better crop and only grow an average 4 feet, keeping the overall vine more open with less shading problems.

 

[grapeman]

As I came on here to make this post, I saw that Al had posted. Upon checking it out, I see he is expecting -14 degrees tonight and worrying about that.


For a few days now they have been predicting -14 to -19 degrees here. I have been hoping that it would not get that low. As late as 5 this afternoon -19 was predicted. I just checked three stations a few minutes ago and our low here is being predicted at minus thirty one degrees, yes -31 deg F! Golly, if it gets that cold, I will lose about 1/2 to 3/4 of this coming year's crop and certainly lose some of the more tender varieties only good to -15!


I may have TOAST and eggs in the AM!


By the way, at 7 PM, it is sitting at -8 now.

 

[AlFulchino]

wow...and just so you know after i checked mine i got your zip code and saw what you are in zone 4 and i said crap you are gonna get cooked...i feel for you Rich....and i will answer Mike here as i saw he asked what i was rated for...well i have some that already may be toast and i may be worried about a few more tonite as we hit 10-15 for sure and my being in a low spot may go to 20 below...we are sitting at 11 right now

 

[farmer]

You are getting what we had last week,they forcasted -15 for last Friday and we had -27 Friday morning. I hope they get your forcast wrong.

 

[ibglowin]

I feel for the both of you.

Its got to be tough to be a farmer for sure. Hope the lows are not as bad as forecasted!

 

[Wade E]

Yowsa, thats freaking cold my friends! Heres a prayer for your plants man!

 

[Dean]

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! And I thought it got cold in Canada

But seriously, deep cold like that is not wanted in a vineyard. Here's hoping you don't get that deep of a freeze!

 

[grapeman]

Time will tell how bad the damage is. This is why I have tried to select hardy varieties for our area. We are historically a warm zone 4 area and 14 out of the last 15 years have been closer to a warm zone 5. Two years ago it hit -22 two days in a row and that was bad enough.


The thermometer on the upper deck says -20 F outside at 6:30 AM. The digital one in the vineyard rarely reads as low. I will get a reading on that one in about an hour.


Vine and site selection is crucial in our region because of these periodic extreme cold temps. I am dialing in on the more hardy varieties since I can do little about my site. This cold will help me weed out a couple more of the more tender ones I had planted. Let's see now, what do I want to replace the Chardonel with............................. The Buffalo are gone, maybe the Steuben....oh well they weren't all that great of wines.


Hmmmmmmmm.... no sense in trying to keep either the Corot Noir or Noiret...... 2 out of the last 3 years freezing back, not good. A couple others will be interesting to see how they fare.............

 

[grapeman]

The temperature on the digital seems to have bottomed out at -21.5 degrees F. I was afraid the water in the office would be frozen this AM, but it didn't freeze. Good.


The water in the winery is partially fozen. A couple lines seem to have frozen where it goes through the wall. I will need to check the insulation in that spot so it doesn't freeze again in the future. I have a little heater extra in that area now to thaw it. I may need to shut that section off if it doesn't thaw soon. I guess I should have left the faucets running a trickle.............

 

[AlFulchino]

i hear you Rich on the water...i had shut mine off....we will see if it drained well enough....without the wind we hit nine below, better than they predicted ..just the same i am looking at a minimum of 50 vines that will be toast to t he snow line, but maybe as many as 250 of the fourteen hundred...not sure about the test vineyard that i have but then again that is why it is a *test vineyard*

good news though my friend...it gets warmer form here on out....nine degrees tonite for us anyways and then into the 20's and 30's going forward for day time temps

 

[grapeman]

The water thawed out after I turned on a 110,000 BTU space heater. It warmed up enough to even work in the tasting room on construction. It got up to about -5 outside today and is supposed to warm up during the night.


There was one casualty from freezing. Obviously one of the faucets gasket broke since when turned off the water still runs a bit. I just turned off the hot water since that was the side leaking on that faucet. I will take it apart and get a replacement for it soon. Hopefully this was the coldest of the year, but we still have a month to go of frigid weather.

 

[Randoneur]

I'm wondering how you deal with this for pruning, do you wait now for bud swell to see what you have?

 

[ibglowin]

I was wondering the same thing, plus if you freeze back to the ground do you have to wait 3 years again to harvest fruit or you just have smaller yields until you get back to mature canes once again.....

 

[AlFulchino]

Rich, nest time you are worried about the water, just leave it running at a slow steady pace and it shouldnt freeze


on the waiting till after a freze to the ground...usually the root system is so good that the first rebound yr you can build a trunk and canes/cordons, at least that is what i did....so i had a healthy amount of fruit in the 2nd yr after freeze