Hi from CT and help!

[toddphilip]

My wife and I bought a home last fall with a few vines tucked into the back corner of the property. I'm not sure what variety of grape is growing, but my preliminary guess is Seyval blanc or Sauvignon blanc. I hope to have them properly identified so I can develop a strategy to produce a wine from them.

There are also pears, gooseberries, honeysuckle, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, and dandelions growing here that I would like to learn how to incorporate into different recipes.

I'm looking forward to learning as much as possible, but I figured I would start with hello.

I'll add a pic if I can figure it out from my phone.

 

[toddphilip]

Couldn't edit it in.

 

[Julie]

Hi toddphillip,

Welcome to winemakingtalk. I can't help you to identify the grapevines but there are others on here who can.

 

[Wade E]

You should have help soon, the guys that can help you are a little busy trying to get theirs ready now but will sneak on here and there. Welcome fron another Cter and what a wonderful yard to have moved into without that fruit growing. Most of us have to work in some a little here and a little there. Im in Middlebury but moving to Naugatuck in a few weeks, whereabouts you at?

 

[toddphilip]

Thanks for the warm welcome. I tried posting some photos earlier, but couldn't from the phone. The photo above is from last summer/fall. I'm going to try to add a couple from this year.

 

[grapeman]

It is extremely hard to identify grapes just by a few pictures, especially the first few. The reddish new growth is usually indicative of an American or hybrid variety. To me the pictures look like Catawba. That makes a red grape when fully ripe, but creates a light pink to straw colored wine. Keep them as healthy as you can and you will find out what the grapes are when you get some, unless you already have last fall.

I see dead leaves in the first picture. Did you get a freeze a couple weeks ago?

 

[Runningwolf]

Welcome aboard!

 

[toddphilip]

Thanks again for the welcome! Thanks, too, grapeman for your input. The first picture is from late August last year, when we walked the property before making an offer. See the photo below for a close-up of the grapes from then. Is it possible the majority of the vine was past ripe and rotting? Perhaps it was a rough winter or late frost the spring before that? I'm just not sure. I'm pretty sure based on the photo below that they will ripen green. But I really have no idea what I'm doing. Thanks again for giving me another word to google. Catawba.

Wade, I'm in North Haven - formerly the home of several brickyards, orchards, and vineyards and presently the keeper of four exits on I-91.

Editing again - Based on my research I'm pretty sure the vines are roughly 60 years old. Perhaps older.

 

[grapeman]

If it was from then, it is probably one of the mildews causing the brown leaves. The leaves still look like Catawba to me.

 

[toddphilip]

Yeah, I couldn't agree more about the leaves. Looking like Catawba, but will they get purple? I didn't see a single purple grape last year, but we didn't move in until October or so.

 

[grapeman]

Catawba takes a good long growing season with good helthy vines to ripen where you are. Keep them healthy and sprayed and if they ripen green or golden, then they are not Catawba. They ripen very late and won't turn red until mid October.

 

[DirtyDawg10]

Welcome to WMT!

 

[toddphilip]

Thanks again. Waiting sucks, but I'm looking forward to getting these bad boys identified. I've loved researching Catawba and other frost and fox grapes and my wife has her fingers crossed for a sweeter blush now. I'm still rooting for a dry white. Squee.

I took another picture today. Don't mind me putting it here.