Florida, yes, Florida.

[Fox Squirrel Vin]

Hello Everyone. I'm currently developing a new vineyard and winery based on the new Andy Walker PD resistant releases including a few small plantings of Black Spanish, Lomanto, and Champenel for blending and production of Southern Heritage wines for the future tourists. I believe these new Walker releases will add a whole new dimension to wine production along the gulf coast. Black Spanish, Lomanto, and Champenel went in this spring. Still setting up trellises for the Walker releases. First bottle hopefully in 2024. Now's the time to learn everything I can before the first grapes are crushed.

 

[sour_grapes]

Welcome to WMT!

 

[my wine]

Welcome to WMT! Do you have grape eating lizards there or do the squirrels chase them away?

 

[ChuckD]

Welcome to WMT. We have members from all over the world including some from our subtropical climates

 

[BigDaveK]

Welcome to WMT!
And, yes, this is defintely the place to learn.

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

Welcome.
for those of you who don’t know what a Fox squirrel is look them up on the interworld web. They are neat. Aggressive sometimes but neat.
i know florida can grow grapes even way down this far. I saw a vine loaded with fruit in someone’s yard once.
i had some vines in NY but not here. Too much yummy tropical fruit to grow.
I’ll have to check into those varieties though.

 

[Fox Squirrel Vin]

Welcome to WMT! Do you have grape eating lizards there or do the squirrels chase them away?

We call them baby dinosaurs. The wild Iguanas live around Miami and in the Florida keys. There is a population of wild monkeys moving south, not sure how to deal with them yet.

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

We call them baby dinosaurs. The wild Iguanas live around Miami and in the Florida keys. There is a population of wild monkeys moving south, not sure how to deal with them yet.

Ive gotta tell Iggy he belongs down in the Keys. They are here in large numbers too. In the winter when it gets real cold (39° - that’s balmy for Wisconsinites) theyissue falling iguana warnings, since they fall from the trees when cold. You can keep the monkeys up there.

Iggy is OK until he starts eating mangos, then the cats get let loose.

 

[Fox Squirrel Vin]

Welcome.
for those of you who don’t know what a Fox squirrel is look them up on the interworld web. They are neat. Aggressive sometimes but neat.
i know florida can grow grapes even way down this far. I saw a vine loaded with fruit in someone’s yard once.
i had some vines in NY but not here. Too much yummy tropical fruit to grow.
I’ll have to check into those varieties though.

My place has 6 Fox Squirrels that get along. They are very territorial. They are interesting because no two are alike in coloration and have a lot of intelligence compared to most wild animals. Their memory's are impressive. They also have very distinct personalities like dogs or cats. They are a lot of fun to have around.

 

[Fox Squirrel Vin]

 

[Fox Squirrel Vin]

Ive gotta tell Iggy he belongs down in the Keys. They are here in large numbers too. In the winter when it gets real cold (39° - that’s balmy for Wisconsinites) theyissue falling iguana warnings, since they fall from the trees when cold. You can keep the monkeys up there.
View attachment 86397
Iggy is OK until he starts eating mangos, then the cats get let loose.

Are you in the Naples area?

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

Are you in the Naples area?

Cape Coral. Not rich enough to live in Naples

 

[winemaker81]

@Fox Squirrel Vin, welcome to WMT! What are you making until your vineyard is ready to produce?

 

[ChuckD]

What are you making until your vineyard is ready to produce?

Exactly. You can study all you want but doing is priceless. They make plenty of kits, or you can purchase grapes if you want to jump into traditional grape wine. Otherwise you Florida folks seem to have an abundance of tropical fruits.

 

[David Violante]

Welcome aboard!

 

[Fox Squirrel Vin]

@Fox Squirrel Vin, welcome to WMT! What are you making until your vineyard is ready to produce?

Making lots of trellises, moving dirt around, building fence... reading as much as possible... I've really been waiting for the Andy Walker releases before making the leap into something commercial and spending the money to develop the property. His releases really are a big deal (in my opinion) for quality Vinifera wine production in the southeast. Without them, you are not going to have any luck with anything that isn't PD resistant and can tolerate some heat. There is a winery not far from me that has about 10 acres of Muskadines planted, looks the part but imports a lot of wine grapes in and blends Vinifera with Muskadines to be compliant with Florida licensing and the whole process seems so goofy to me... it's a tourist wine and not something you'd really want with a good steak or something you would buy on a regular basis so I wasn't going that route. They struggle, it's been sold a couple of times.. it's just not quite cutting it.

I did plant a 100' of mixed Americans 2 years ago to get a grasp on what to expect disease and insect wise to come up with a starter spray plan, how the heat and humidity will affect the vines, collecting data... I realize I will be dealing with vines that are 94%+ Vinifera compared to our "concord" types but I wanted something to practice on and collect data with.

Last year was the first year for grapes, primarily Catawba but there was not enough to hassle with to make wine as it was the vines first production year but went through the motions up to the point of harvest. They were turned into some really amazing jelly. This year I'll turn them into wine to test the fermentation setup since I'm bound to have a higher yield and then those vines will be removed. I'm at the top of the list for the UCD releases from AA, bought and paid for, just waiting till this time next year to start planting.

This spring I did plant some Black Spanish, Lamonto, and Champenel that will most likely be used for blending, adding characteristics that may be absent from my main vintages. I am also curious how a batch of Black Spanish wine tastes fermented off the skins with it's red flesh. It could be blended with some whites to make a rather interesting Rose' I think but unless it's something that would market well, I'm just doing it for curiosities sake.

So that's the game plan. Everything I have read about those Walker releases really could be a game changer for southeastern wine production.

 

[winemaker81]

@Fox Squirrel Vin, I meant what wine are you making now for personal use?

 

[mikewatkins727]

Welcome aboard, @Fox Squirrel Vin.

Do Fox Squirrel taste anything like gray or red squirrel?

 

[ceeaton]

There is a population of wild monkeys moving south, not sure how to deal with them yet.

Crockpot, lol.

Welcome to WMT!

 

[Fox Squirrel Vin]

Crockpot, lol.

Welcome to WMT!

Thanks!

Not kidding about the monkeys, they estimate there are about 600 of them now and they all have herpes. You can't make this up, this is Florida!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2020/02/25/rhesus-macaques-herpes-florida/