Hi From Nova Scotia

[dswatson]

Hello from the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. We will soon be harvesting our first grapes from our little backyard vineyard, and are looking forward to making our first vintage of wine and learning lots about wine making through this forum.

We planted a small vineyard (9 rows, 180 vines) in our backyard in 2017. Most of the plants were propogated from wood we sourced from local vineyards. I did source some from Viticulture A&M Inc. and Mori Vines Inc. All vines are growing on their own roots. Our soil is very sandy and we did not install any tile drainage. Our plant hardiness zone is 6A.

Our Vineyard is set next to the Habitant River, near the village of Canning (we're at the 45th parallel). The Habitant River is a tidal estuary of the Bay of Fundy (home to the world's highest tides). I've attached a photo below to show the difference between high tide and low tide.

We are growing the following:

White Grapes: L'Acadie Blanc, Louise Swenson, Frontenac Blanc, Osceola Muscat, New York Muscat
Red Grapes: Petite Pearl, Marquette, Léon Millot, Castel, Triomphe d'Alsace, Lucie Kuhlmann

 

[Johnd]

Welcome to WMT @dswatson !!

 

[robert81650]

Welcome.................

 

[DPCellars]

Man, what a view! Welcome to the forums!

 

[sour_grapes]

Welcome to WMT! Beautiful introduction.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Welcome to the forum

 

[AaronSC]

Welcome, very cool vineyard! I thought I had seen (or at read about) it all but I've never heard of either Castel or Triomphe d'Alsace. I had a Verrmont-grown wine made from Petit Pearls the other day and It was fantastic. It's amazing what is being done today to make cold-hardy reds that taste great. I'm a fan of Leon Millot too -that and Aurore were the first grapes of the season back in the Finger Lakes.

Best of luck,

-Aaron

 

[dswatson]

Welcome, very cool vineyard! I thought I had seen (or at read about) it all but I've never heard of either Castel or Triomphe d'Alsace. I had a Verrmont-grown wine made from Petit Pearls the other day and It was fantastic. It's amazing what is being done today to make cold-hardy reds that taste great. I'm a fan of Leon Millot too -that and Aurore were the first grapes of the season back in the Finger Lakes.

Best of luck,

-Aaron

Thanks Aaron. Both Castel and Triomphe are grown commercially here in Nova Scotia.

Castel is a cross between Cinsault and V. rupestris. Castel is a cold hardy variety, capable of achieving high Brix levels and above average cropping levels. Resistance to powdery mildew and downy mildew make it a relatively easy variety to grow. Castel ripens about 85-90 days after flowering. Castel is a grape with robust flavours. Typically made into a single varietal Red, it can resemble a South African Pinotage (relative of cinsault) in the best wines.

Triomphe d'Alsace is another of the Kuhlman family created in France around 1911 to be disease and cold resistant. Triomphe is instead a cross if Knipperl with Millardet de Grasset 101-14. They ripen early like Foch and Millot but with lower acid so its great for blending.

 

[Jesper Rye]

Thanks Aaron. Both Castel and Triomphe are grown commercially here in Nova Scotia.

Castel is a cross between Cinsault and V. rupestris. Castel is a cold hardy variety, capable of achieving high Brix levels and above average cropping levels. Resistance to powdery mildew and downy mildew make it a relatively easy variety to grow. Castel ripens about 85-90 days after flowering. Castel is a grape with robust flavours. Typically made into a single varietal Red, it can resemble a South African Pinotage (relative of cinsault) in the best wines.

Triomphe d'Alsace is another of the Kuhlman family created in France around 1911 to be disease and cold resistant. Triomphe is instead a cross if Knipperl with Millardet de Grasset 101-14. They ripen early like Foch and Millot but with lower acid so its great for blending.

Hello Watson, Great to hear you have succes with Castel, as we have here in Denmark. We have now 2300 wines of that variety. We have just finished harvesting this with a total of 630 kg. The sugar rate was 105 Ø = 14,5% Alc. so not bad for our standard. May I ask which yeast you have most succes with ? Do you know any farms in France which use this grape ?. Are you going to the fair in Montepellier later this year ? (Sitevi fair) regards Jesper

 

[my wine]

Welcome to WMT and good luck with your vineyard!

 

[jgmann67]

Looks incredible. Welcome.

 

[Katiejwine]

That looks amazing! The Annapolis Valley is on my hit list to visit. We grow cold climate varietals here in Ontario as well...northern Ontario. On our farm we also have L'Acadie (met the woman who named it the other month), Marquette and Petite Pearl. I am currently making a L'Acadie Blanc myself right now. I just received a bottle of L'Acadie from Luckett's and am super excited to try it!

 

[TurkeyHollow]

Beautiful place! Is there a large span of time between those pictures or is that just the difference between high and low tide?