making wine from Marquette grapes

[wood1954]

Too bad about the Marquette, nice that you have two backups. How much tannin did you get from the barrel? My Marquette this year has no tannin

 

[VillaVino]

Wood, I guess I don’t know the answer to that or know how to measure the tanin level. Kinda new to the finer elements of wine making. Just started measuring pH and TA last year. Anyway, the barrel aging has been interesting.

 

[wood1954]

Villa, you can measur the tannins by seeing how dry your mouth feels when you swish wine in your mouth. Swish a little wine and then drag your tongue across the roof of your mouth you should feel the tannins

 

[VillaVino]

Oh, that way. I thought I was missing out on some new piece of lab equipment that came out recently.
Three big days coming up. Will be harvesting ~500 Sabrevois tomorrow, 350 Brianna and Louise Swensons on Friday and 300 Prairie Stars on Saturday. Winery threw me for a loop and asked to get all reds one day and all whites the next. The Saturday harvest is for the home cellar where we have a nice group to help and process the grapes through the destemmer and bladder press. What little Marquette’s I got are fermenting Very nicely. I’ll press them on Saturday as well.

 

[Rob Kneeland]

So I planted some Marquette having never tasted a Marquette wine. Thought it might be prudent to taste some before tripling the size of my vineyard. Turns out there's a small vineyard 10 kms from me and they sell a 2017 Marquette. And WOW!! not what I expected. Bold and full bodied. I love Cabs and this stands up to them. They barrel for 2 years, not sure that's the magic but I am IN. If I can come close to that I will be a happy camper. I am in Ontario well out of wine country. Excited!

 

[JWT_Can]

Anyone try an EM in Marquette to increase tannin levels? I just pitched yeast on a baco noir and am considering doing this. Will also add oak during ML fermentation to try and get more structure.

 

[wood1954]

I don’t think there’s much tannin in Marquette. My grapes were exposed to the sun all summer due to defoliation and still very little tannin. However I use Avante yeast which might have something to do with it. I added 50 grams of tannin at crush and there’s none left now.

 

[justsipn]

@wood1954 I’m very interested in your experience with these grapes. I have a vineyard by me that is willing to sell me the grapes, crush them and provide the juice and skins.

I really would like to make a local wine. However, I’m fairly new to wine making. I’ve made a batch of rhubarb and now am aging a Malbec kit.

Could a novice make a good wine from these grapes?

thanks.

 

[wood1954]

Yes you can. Get some cheap tannin and add a lot at crush as the protein in the juice will bond with all the natural tannin. After fermentation add more tannin to taste. Doing MLF will help deacidify the wine. If the grapes are ripe you can make a good light red that needs a couple years of aging, it’s a fairly neutral wine so I think it needs oak. I also use Avante yeast as it ferments so clean and doesn’t add any off odors or flavors.

 

[JustJoe]

Yes you can. Get some cheap tannin and add a lot at crush as the protein in the juice will bond with all the natural tannin. After fermentation add more tannin to taste. Doing MLF will help deacidify the wine. If the grapes are ripe you can make a good light red that needs a couple years of aging, it’s a fairly neutral wine so I think it needs oak. I also use Avante yeast as it ferments so clean and doesn’t add any off odors or flavors.

I have read a lot of good comments about Avante yeast but I have not been able buy any unless I buy a 500g pack. Is it available to the home winemaker in amounts that make sense when we are making 20 or 30 gallons per year.

 

[wood1954]

Yes lodiwinelabs.com sells carboy sizes

 

[JustJoe]

Yes lodiwinelabs.com sells carboy sizes

Thanks!

 

[wood1954]

This years wine is thinner and less flavor than last years. I think it has something to do with the fact I defoliated most of the crop when I overdosed the vines with phostrol. I was thinking about the nature of Marquette how it might respond to being made as a white wine or rose as it is high in acid low in tannin. It might make a nice cold crisp wine. Next years crop will guide me I guess. I did cut down a large tree that shaded the vineyard all afternoon and will cut down some scrubby oaks that shade the vines till about 9 am, should help ripen the grapes quite a bit. Can’t wait till next spring so I can start again.

 

[JWT_Can]

@wood1954 I’m new to hybrids (I like baco noir), but I wanted to try to drain some of the juice to make a rose and have a more substantial red as well. Have you tried that before?

 

[wood1954]

@wood1954 I’m new to hybrids (I like baco noir), but I wanted to try to drain some of the juice to make a rose and have a more substantial red as well. Have you tried that before?

Not yet if I get a good crop n 2021 I’ll try it

 

[wood1954]

Update, I’ve been cleared by the doc to drink again. I was disappointed in my 2020 vintage of Marquette and was down on the variety generally but now that I’m allowed wine again, I’ve been drinking my 2017-2019 vintages and they are pretty good. Makes me glad I planted Marquette. 2020 was a bad year I almost killed my vines, then I overcropped and picked to early. So I had a large crop but poor quality. 2021 will be better, smaller crop no overdoing it with fungicide and waiting for ripeness or staggered harvest. Tonight I’m drinking a 2018, my 2017 I blended with a merlot kit and it is really good. Hope everyone is planning for a good vintage this year.

 

[countygrapeguy]

I'm growing Marquette, but am still a year or two away from harvest. I drank a couple of local commercially produced Marquettes this week, and really wasn't super impressed.

Both didn't have a whole lot of aroma, tannins were very low and had a short finish. One was ~13% alcohol, the other only 11.5%. Both were very dark in colour indicating extended skin contact. All that said, the wines had decent fruit with plenty of cherry flavours and some red fruits.

I'm thinking this variety is better suited as a rose rather than a red wine, or perhaps to blend with a Ploucher grape. Anyone have experience with Marquette roses, or with blending it?

 

[Vern]

I'm growing Marquette, but am still a year or two away from harvest. I drank a couple of local commercially produced Marquettes this week, and really wasn't super impressed.

Both didn't have a whole lot of aroma, tannins were very low and had a short finish. One was ~13% alcohol, the other only 11.5%. Both were very dark in colour indicating extended skin contact. All that said, the wines had decent fruit with plenty of cherry flavours and some red fruits.

I'm thinking this variety is better suited as a rose rather than a red wine, or perhaps to blend with a Ploucher grape. Anyone have experience with Marquette roses, or with blending it?

I blend mine as follows. Marquette 20% Petite pearl 45% and Verona35%. I'm no expert but all who try it rave how much they like this wine. I'm also happy.

 

[wood1954]

I'm growing Marquette, but am still a year or two away from harvest. I drank a couple of local commercially produced Marquettes this week, and really wasn't super impressed.

Both didn't have a whole lot of aroma, tannins were very low and had a short finish. One was ~13% alcohol, the other only 11.5%. Both were very dark in colour indicating extended skin contact. All that said, the wines had decent fruit with plenty of cherry flavours and some red fruits.

I'm thinking this variety is better suited as a rose rather than a red wine, or perhaps to blend with a Ploucher grape. Anyone have experience with Marquette roses, or with blending it?

My 2018 vintage is very good, better than any commercial marq I’ve tried, but I wish I had added more tannin, I use Avanti yeast which is very clean and neutral. Rose is on my list for part of this years harvest.

 

[RonObvious]

I love Marquette and drink it regularly (both ours and what I can occasionally find from other wineries). It definitely has a pronounced nose to it when young, but I don't think of it as "foxy." To me, it is more exotic than that - I always think of men's cologne, maybe vaguely Drakkar Noir-ish. That exotic aroma seems to fade as it gets a few years' age on it, and it becomes much more like a pinot noir. So to me, 1-2 year Marquette is very different than, say, 3-5 year old Marquette. Both lovely, but in different ways.

For the past 2 years we have blended it with Petite Pearl. In 2019 it was roughly a 50/50 field blend of the two. It was the first year we got a meaningful harvest off them, but it still wasn't much. Plus, they both seemed to ripen at about the same time. Which is why they were fermented together from day 1. It turned out absolutely lovely. I am thoroughly delighted, as this was the first red wine we made with grapes from our own vineyard. The PP seems to lend flavors of both cherry candy and a touch of evergreen, in addition to boosting the tannins. We only got about 2 cases, so we kept it all for ourselves and try a bottle every month or so to see how it is aging.

2020 we harvested a lot more of both varieties, but it was a difficult year, so it's hard to know how it's going to turn out. Marquette ripened a week or so ahead of PP, so we had to ferment them separately, then combine them in barrels a few weeks later.