Chateau Michaelena Vineyard

[grapeman]

Good luck with the crop this year!

 

[ibglowin]

Well the 2014 Harvest is in the…… well refrigerator bins……..

Right around 50lbs which when crushed made about 4.25 gallons of must so should get 3 gallons of finished wine at least. The Clusters on the Corot Noir and Noiret and getting bigger with each year. Marquette are getting larger but berries are much smaller. Brix on the Marquette were around 24. The Corot Noir and Noiret around 18-20. Final Blend was around 21 and I bumped it up with some simple sugar to around 23.5 pH was 3.35 and TA around 8.7 g/L Will see where it all settles to after the 71B yeast does it magic on the acid.

Here is a link to the newly automated crusher in action. This is a repurposed treadmill motor and electronic control module. A serpentine flywheel and belt turn the wheel. The speed can be adjusted up or down easily with a turn of the knob. Was nice to try it out this week before the 900lbs from California hits next weekend!

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT34ZZOGBVo[/ame]

 

[grapeman]

Hey Mike, just dump that little bin in all at once! The crusher will take it as long as it doesn't bog the motor down. We dump 30 pound or so lugs in and they are through the destemmer and crusher in about 15 seconds or so each. If the stems are long and wrap around the shaft a bit it may take a little longer but not much. But then again you probably were just feeding them so slowly for dramatic effect!

The grapes look great and the numbers are good overall.

 

[GreginND]

OMG - 6 minutes to crush those grapes? Just dump them in - should take about 20 seconds!

 

[rhoffart]

Very nice Mike ... looks good.

 

[ibglowin]

LOL yes, I will next weekend for sure. I wanted to see how this guy would do before next week so was taking it easy to see how the motor performed. It never slowed down. You can remove the whole assembly by pulling two cotter keys. Makes for easy clean up. I used this crusher for the first time with my 2012's and they turned out fantastic. It's nice to work with the same fruit year after year.

You know what to expect and you know how to tweak it with minimal effort and worry.

 

[oregondabbler]

I just finished going through the life and times of Chateau Michaelena. The bug to grow your own wine grapes has gotten into you but good.

Makes no difference if its 2 vines or 2000, they become an obsession. Each year is a roller coaster isn't it? Enjoy the wine from your own grapes. They look mighty fine.

I'm not the first to say it but you have a beautiful garden and the grape arbor sets it off nicely.

Enjoy

 

[ibglowin]

Thanks much it has been a journey. I have just enough to play with and learn. Perhaps some day they will mature enough to make all I need for a year. Time and Mother Nature will tell!

 

[OilnH2O]

Looks great, Mike! As we watched your video, my wife Jeri said "why doesn't he just dump them in?" And then we read Rich's and everyone elses posts and just laughed. We harvested and crushed today - wonderfully warm weather the last few days including 90* and then, front came in today and it's 57* - not going to get any better.

Fun, ain't it

 

[ibglowin]

Next year I hope for no late Spring freeze and 12 gallons worth!

 

[OilnH2O]

Just curious -
How many "growing days" did you get? (days between frosts?)

 

[tonyt]

Looks like fun Mike. I wonder how much I could grow in my 1 acre back yard if I didn't live on the golf coast.

 

[ibglowin]

Looks like fun Mike. I wonder how much I could grow in my 1 acre back yard if I didn't live on the golf coast.

Plant Muscadine's Tony

 

[ibglowin]

Just curious -
How many "growing days" did you get? (days between frosts?)

We had a nice Spring going until May the 9th when it got down to like 23 degrees so..... I guess you start the clock over at that point.

We still have not had a frost although this AM it got down to 38 degrees but will be fine for the rest of the week as well after this.

So I calculate 143 days from May 9th till yesterday. I have plenty of GDD's to ripen fruit. it's the darn late (KILLING) frost that have gotten me the last two seasons. We have had killing frost in Mid May the last two years. Our average last freeze is May 7th so these have been 2 weeks later than usual and very hard frost on top of that.

 

[OilnH2O]

That's actually pretty good, considering your latitude and altitude, compared to here in Missoula at 3000'msl. I had about 104. Like you, here, there always seems to be a hard frost in the first week of May which sometimes gets the newly burst buds. Then, something like that mid-September hard freeze we had a few weeks ago, two nights in a row that required me to use the sprinklers, but the ice protected the leaves and while a few yellowed early (on one of my PN vines) everything else came through great. The commercial guy in the valley (Ten Spoons - I had a link on my thread) said he lost 15-20 percent of his vines and linked that to production loss, so he must have had a harder, longer frost... and he was using a helicopter to blow air!.

I think I lost 50% of my crop last year to birds - even with the netting. This year, I caught at least two flickers in the nets - they got in through small gaps - and blasted them with three firecrackers and they didn't come back. I hope they remember it next year because I think they were the ones that were here LAST year!

All in all, about half the vines had good production. Maybe 10 percent so-so. And, a few had NO clusters at all... could have been pollination or something, but no baby grapes ever appeared - just leafy and leggy canes.

But... it keeps me thinking, and... out of the bars at night!

 

[ibglowin]

It was a very weird Summer bird wise around here. Had plenty of Robin's in the Spring and early Summer (that got their fill of grapes last year that were only half ripe) so I had already figured on netting early this Summer. When verasion started I started looking around for Robin's. Not a darn one to be seen ANYWHERE. We had a good Monsoon season so not sure where they went to, perhaps happier hunting grounds either higher or lower in elevation. Anyway, each year is a whole new challenge in one way or another with this little "hobby"!

 

[ibglowin]

Our contribution to "Spring" in the Southern tip of the Rockies arrived this AM. An inch or two here at the house and about 6 inches up in town. Low was 25 again. Hopefully this will keep the vines (in the far background) buttoned up a while longer and protected still.

 

[grapeman]

Been in the 60's here all week after the snow Sunday/Monday. Keep it there Mike.

 

[GreginND]

70 degrees here. Buds haven't started to swell yet. It is very dry. No snow this year and not a lick of rain this spring so far. Hoping for rain tomorrow. It's becoming a dustbowl.

 

[ibglowin]

Look out Rich that front is moving East now!