WeimarWine
Junior
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2013
- Messages
- 28
- Reaction score
- 14
Hello WMT winemakers and grape growers,
I am from Texas. I live near Magnolia, TX, and work in downtown Houston. We planted our vineyard in 2007 on 1/4 acre at my Dad's 18 acre place about 5 miles south of Weimar, Texas (Weimar is about half way between Houston and San Antonio TX along IH 10), so I am a weekend-warrior grape grower. Because of Pierce's Disease being prevalent along the Gulf Coast, we planted grape varieties that are resistant - Blanc Du Bois, Lenoir (aka Black Spanish) and Champanel (a T. V. Munson hybrid). The terrain is rolling hills with very old and large scattered Live Oak Trees. The soil is a mixture of clay and sandy loam and because the vineyard is located on a slope, it drains well.
The trellis is a Smart Dyson VSP with our fruiting wire at about 54" and our top catch wires just shy of 8'. We have 3 sets of catch wires above the fruiting wire and one set of catch wires below the fruiting wire so that we may direct some of the shoots down. We do have drip irrigation. We have 8 rows of 13 vines per row. Vines are spaced 8' apart and the rows are 12' apart.
I have been making wine since about the second year after planting the vineyard. We have made from our Blanc Du Bois grapes dry white wine, off-dry white wine and are experimenting with some white port. We might also try turning some of the white port into a madeira style wine. I have the 2012 white port aging in a 30 gallon American Oak barrel and have some 2013 white port in glass containers which will soon be ready to put into another oak barrel for aging. Blanc Du Bois makes a very nice crisp white wine with aromas and flavors ranging from citrus to tropical fruits to peach or apricot depending on the pH or acidity and/or sweetness. From our Lenoir grapes we make a very nice rose', although the color is a deep red because the Lenoir grapes press a deep red juice even with no skin time. Flavors are red fruit with cherry notes. We also make a Lenoir blush by blending the Lenoir rose' with our Blanc Du Bois. We usually sweeten both the rose' and blush just a little. Still trying to make a good red table wine from the Lenoir, but so far I am not pleased with the results.
From the Champanel grapes we have made a pretty good off-dry red table wine. Champanel makes a very acidic wine and so far the best solution I have come up with for dealing with the acidity is to ferment it dry, stablize and sweeten enough to counter the tartness.
We also make wine from figs, pears and dandelion flowers and most recently added to some fermenting Chenin Blanc juice a couple of cups of chopped Chile Petins for making a Chile Wine. A little too hot for drininking, but it is intended to be a seafood marinade.
The Winery, located at my house near Magnolia, is a converted one car garage bay with a bump out for a work bench area. We had the garage insulated and airconditioned and added an insulated walk-in door and an insulated garage door. We are able to keep the temps down to low 50's (F) overnight and at 63 (F) and below during the hotter days (which here in Texas can be pretty damn hot). My wine racks are repurposed book shelf units from Ikea. The wine bottles stack nicely into the book shelves. For stacking my empty carboys, I am using some very sturdy wooden shelves which were once stage props as 3 tiered bunk beds used in a stage production of Annie. I leave the full carboys sitting on the floor. We use 1 gallon, 3 gallon, 5 gallon, 6 gallon and 15 gallon demijohn glass containers.
Grape harvest for us usually arrives around July 4, give or take a week or two either way for the Blanc Du Bois grapes, then the Champanel grapes usually within one to two weeks after the Bland Du Bois. The Lenoir grapes are usually ripe in mid to late August. Our Keiffer pears (if we have any) are picked in September. Figs are harvested all season and whatever doesn't get eaten fresh or shared with neighbors gets thrown into the freezer. We currently have about 90 lbs of frozen figs ready to process and ferment once I can free up a few more carboys.
Grape Harvest is a grand time with 4 generations of family participating. Family, friends and friends of friends are invited and we will have a lot of cold beverages, good food, and a big batch of Sangria to get us through the day. The grapes are picked, put through the crusher-destemmer, and for whites and rose's, pressed immediatedly and the juice is then placed in 6 gallon fermenting pails with lids, iced down and made ready for transporting back to our Winery in Magnolia. Red grapes are taken from the crusher-destemmer and placed in 6 gallon fermenting pails and iced down. We fit two 6 gallon pails per ice chest and then add crushed ice to the ice chest. The ice chests are loaded into the back of a pickup truck and onto a trailer.
Having a lot of homemade wine to share with all of our friends and family has been more enjoyable than I had ever imagined. What a great hobby.
WeimarWine
Mike
I am from Texas. I live near Magnolia, TX, and work in downtown Houston. We planted our vineyard in 2007 on 1/4 acre at my Dad's 18 acre place about 5 miles south of Weimar, Texas (Weimar is about half way between Houston and San Antonio TX along IH 10), so I am a weekend-warrior grape grower. Because of Pierce's Disease being prevalent along the Gulf Coast, we planted grape varieties that are resistant - Blanc Du Bois, Lenoir (aka Black Spanish) and Champanel (a T. V. Munson hybrid). The terrain is rolling hills with very old and large scattered Live Oak Trees. The soil is a mixture of clay and sandy loam and because the vineyard is located on a slope, it drains well.
The trellis is a Smart Dyson VSP with our fruiting wire at about 54" and our top catch wires just shy of 8'. We have 3 sets of catch wires above the fruiting wire and one set of catch wires below the fruiting wire so that we may direct some of the shoots down. We do have drip irrigation. We have 8 rows of 13 vines per row. Vines are spaced 8' apart and the rows are 12' apart.
I have been making wine since about the second year after planting the vineyard. We have made from our Blanc Du Bois grapes dry white wine, off-dry white wine and are experimenting with some white port. We might also try turning some of the white port into a madeira style wine. I have the 2012 white port aging in a 30 gallon American Oak barrel and have some 2013 white port in glass containers which will soon be ready to put into another oak barrel for aging. Blanc Du Bois makes a very nice crisp white wine with aromas and flavors ranging from citrus to tropical fruits to peach or apricot depending on the pH or acidity and/or sweetness. From our Lenoir grapes we make a very nice rose', although the color is a deep red because the Lenoir grapes press a deep red juice even with no skin time. Flavors are red fruit with cherry notes. We also make a Lenoir blush by blending the Lenoir rose' with our Blanc Du Bois. We usually sweeten both the rose' and blush just a little. Still trying to make a good red table wine from the Lenoir, but so far I am not pleased with the results.
From the Champanel grapes we have made a pretty good off-dry red table wine. Champanel makes a very acidic wine and so far the best solution I have come up with for dealing with the acidity is to ferment it dry, stablize and sweeten enough to counter the tartness.
We also make wine from figs, pears and dandelion flowers and most recently added to some fermenting Chenin Blanc juice a couple of cups of chopped Chile Petins for making a Chile Wine. A little too hot for drininking, but it is intended to be a seafood marinade.
The Winery, located at my house near Magnolia, is a converted one car garage bay with a bump out for a work bench area. We had the garage insulated and airconditioned and added an insulated walk-in door and an insulated garage door. We are able to keep the temps down to low 50's (F) overnight and at 63 (F) and below during the hotter days (which here in Texas can be pretty damn hot). My wine racks are repurposed book shelf units from Ikea. The wine bottles stack nicely into the book shelves. For stacking my empty carboys, I am using some very sturdy wooden shelves which were once stage props as 3 tiered bunk beds used in a stage production of Annie. I leave the full carboys sitting on the floor. We use 1 gallon, 3 gallon, 5 gallon, 6 gallon and 15 gallon demijohn glass containers.
Grape harvest for us usually arrives around July 4, give or take a week or two either way for the Blanc Du Bois grapes, then the Champanel grapes usually within one to two weeks after the Bland Du Bois. The Lenoir grapes are usually ripe in mid to late August. Our Keiffer pears (if we have any) are picked in September. Figs are harvested all season and whatever doesn't get eaten fresh or shared with neighbors gets thrown into the freezer. We currently have about 90 lbs of frozen figs ready to process and ferment once I can free up a few more carboys.
Grape Harvest is a grand time with 4 generations of family participating. Family, friends and friends of friends are invited and we will have a lot of cold beverages, good food, and a big batch of Sangria to get us through the day. The grapes are picked, put through the crusher-destemmer, and for whites and rose's, pressed immediatedly and the juice is then placed in 6 gallon fermenting pails with lids, iced down and made ready for transporting back to our Winery in Magnolia. Red grapes are taken from the crusher-destemmer and placed in 6 gallon fermenting pails and iced down. We fit two 6 gallon pails per ice chest and then add crushed ice to the ice chest. The ice chests are loaded into the back of a pickup truck and onto a trailer.
Having a lot of homemade wine to share with all of our friends and family has been more enjoyable than I had ever imagined. What a great hobby.
WeimarWine
Mike
Welcome to the forum.
