Chateau Michaelena Vineyard

[Flem]

Everything looks great, Mike. The "vineyard" is awesome. Keep up the posts. We love to follow them.

 

[ibglowin]

Anyone ever seen anything like this? Seeing them on the vines. Some type of a small worm. Very colorful as you can see. I can't see any damage to the vines and have seen them on the vines off and on most of the Summer. Seems like there are more now due to all the rains we have been having as of late.

 

[Mike89T]

Anyone ever seen anything like this? Seeing them on the vines. Some type of a small worm. Very colorful as you can see. I can't see any damage to the vines and have seen them on the vines off and on most of the Summer. Seems like there are more now due to all the rains we have been having as of late.

I would guess it's a caterpillar. Western Grapeleaf Skeletonizer? Which are not friendly to grape vines.

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r302301011.html

By the way, I love your Vineyard! Hope to have something similar in a year or two.

 

[ibglowin]

Holy cow, that's it for sure. Thanks for the quick id and link!

 

[Runningwolf]

Maybe it came across the pond on the boat when you ordered rice hulls.

 

[ibglowin]

You must have me confuzed with someone else!

Only found them on one vine, about 10 altogether today and have squished their gutz but good!

 

[Mike89T]

Since you don't have too many vines, it shouldn't be hard to periodically inspect them for these guys. You might be able to manually control them.

Are there any other vineyards near your place? They might have migrated over from next door.

 

[ibglowin]

Closest as far as I know is 20-30 miles away. We are just too high in altitude and I suspect my cold hardy hybrids are the only ones in this area for sure. The rains we have had for the last week or two have really increased the presence of "critters" to say the least!

 

[ditchbanker]

Quite a different part of the country, but really wanted to say thanks for the overview. My wife and I are seriously considering planting a vineyard about this size next spring. It's great to see your efforts and the (gorgeous) payouts you're already getting.

Thanks for taking the time to let us follow along.

 

[ibglowin]

Although not "officially" part of the vineyard I thought I would post up some pics from my dahlia patch before they freeze this weekend........

They started off very slow out of the gate even on a drip system. Once the monsoons came in July, August time frame they grew like weeds. They seem to thrive on humidity in the air not just in their root system. Enjoy!

 

[Runningwolf]

Mike thanks for sharing. Dahlia's are one of my favorate flowers but I refuse to go through the effort of digging up the rizomes every fall and wintering them over. Already cold stabilizing wine I'm not going to do my flowers also.

 

[jtstar]

Dan maybe he is making wine out of them ?

 

[ibglowin]

I tried an "experiment" last Winter. Decided not to dig them up. I bought a big plastic tarp and cut it to fit the dahlia plot. I have a very large Ponderosa pine in the front yard that drops a truckload of needles every Fall. I coved the tarp and dahlias with about 9" of piine needles for the Winter.

So what happened? We had the coldest temps on record. 3 days of -20 degrees at the house. The next Spring only 2 of about 40 of the tubers survived.

I think if it had been a normal Winter it would have worked pretty well. I may just try it again this Winter..... or not.

 

[vinividivici]

Very nice, Mike! Professional and the pics are gorgeous, too.

A few questions for you: I noticed one of your wines is a Sangiovese and the bucket looks just like the one I picked up yesterday from a local supplier. It's from Quebec, and mentions the grapes are from California. It came in a 6 gallon bucket that looks like the Mosti Mondiale.

1) What do you bulk age your wine in? Carboys?

2) The bucket had laughable instructions on it, such as remove the lid, and replace it lightly, ferment for two weeks, rack once, etc. Nothing else.

So I added 4 tsp of yeast nutrient and did a 2 oz yeast slurry of Lalvin RC-212 yeast. I also transferred the juice into one of my 6 gallon buckets with a spigot and added an airlock.

This is the first time I've used a pure juice bucket and wondered what else I should have done.

Thanks,

Bob

 

[ibglowin]

I made a Mosti Mondiale All Juice Sangiovese. It was not fresh like yours but in a bag in the bucket. I always use my 7.9G plastic primary to ferment my kits in and then transfer to glass carboy for long term storage. I have 2 of the 23L Vadai barrels that I ahave been using for the last year. I run each kit through the Vadai for 3-4 months to concentrate and give it some micro oxidation then back to the glass carboy for another 3-4 months until I get around to bottle at around 8 months out.

Sounds like you did all the right things. I usually ferment to dry in the bucket then transfer to glass. I just lay the lid on top for the first 5 days or so until fermentation has slowed way down and then snap the lid and add the airlock at that time. Keep us posted on how this turns out!

 

[vinividivici]

I guess I better remove the airlock and loosen the lid!

Thanks!

Bob

 

[ibglowin]

So, I got tired of everyone else having grapes to tend to and me not having any!

I placed a small order (and I do mean small) yesterday with Double-A Vineyards for 3 Noiret and 3 Corot Noir vines. These are listed as hardy in zone 4 and I think I am more like zone 5 so hopefully they will thive. I don't have much room. I am on 0.34 acre lot in a subdivision but have a huge backyard, most of it is Bluegrass in the middle with the perimeter completely landscaped with perennials and shrubs as well . The area I am looking to plant them in is in my larger side perennial garden that has a drip running through it (this is the desert southwest after all). Where should/could they go in this pic?

This photo was taken back in 2001 so things have grown up and more stuff has been added but thats the nice thing about perennials, they can be easily moved or taken out with a shovel! The garden runs North to South as luck would have it so a straight line either in the upper or lower area should work? I was thinking no Trellis or either Head Training or Vertical Cordon Training? Our soil is volcanic. Not alot of organic, lots of volcanic rock/boulders under it all and very well drained. Usually a little on the sour side (basic). What adjustments should I make off the bat?

If these do well I plan on sneaking in more vines while the SWMBO isn't looking next Spring.Hopefully get maybe 15-20 vines going down the road all total. Not enough to do much with but enough to perhaps play with someday down the road. Maybe make some nice Grape Packs at least!

I have a copy of Vines to Wines so that is my current Bible but all comments or suggestions will be much appreciated!

 

[xanxer82]

Good luck!

 

[Scott]

When she notices more and more vines just say,


my goodness will ya look at how these things spread

Happy growing

 

[ibglowin]

I think they have an amazing underground root system!