Marquette Grape?

wfournier · Sep 23, 2019

tbayav8er said:
Ah okay. I am pretty sure a few of the seeds got crushed. We'll see how it turns out! This is my first time ever trying to make wine from grapes, so I'm sure there will be a lot of lessons to be learned. PH was about 3.5 when I checked, and SG 1.090...So those numbers look alright, but we'll see how the colour, aroma, tannin etc. turns out. None of the grapes were really dark purple. They were all sort of light purple in colour. It's going to be getting close to the freezing mark here very soon, so I figured I should harvest now if I'm going to get anything at all. Based on the sugar/acidity levels, they are fairly close to proper ripeness anyway I think.

Yeah those numbers look good, the SG might be a touch low but with the PH at 3.5 I'd think they are ripe (I'm in the first year of picking marquette as well so not an expert). I'm surprised they were not darker, this is what our looked like with a SG of 1.094 and a PH of 3.00 (I probably should have waited but the wasps were doing damage).

tbayav8er · Sep 23, 2019

Nice! Those are a fair bit darker than mine. I think next year, I will fertilize my vine. Maybe fertilize once in the Spring next year, and once mid summer. Hopefully get the grapes growing a little sooner. Our winter went a little longer than normal this year in Winnipeg.

tbayav8er · Sep 23, 2019

Added pectic enzyme and pitched the yeast about 5 hours ago, and it's already turning red thankfully.

BigH · Sep 24, 2019

tbayav8er said:
Nice! Those are a fair bit darker than mine. I think next year, I will fertilize my vine. Maybe fertilize once in the Spring next year, and once mid summer. Hopefully get the grapes growing a little sooner. Our winter went a little longer than normal this year in Winnipeg.

Looking back at the cluster pics you posted in August, I question whether your vines are really Marquette. Marquette clusters are small to medium in size, and are somewhat tight. Your clusters were bigger and loose, and the grapes never turned the deep blue/purple that Marquette does. Your clusters and leaves have a Frontenac look to me. If they turned a pinkish color, you may have Frontenac Gris instead of Marquette. Post pics after veraison if you have any.

My Marquette is the first to change color in the summer. It never has a problem attaining good color, but getting the pH above 3.1 is often a struggle.

H

tbayav8er · Sep 25, 2019

BigH said:
Looking back at the cluster pics you posted in August, I question whether your vines are really Marquette. Marquette clusters are small to medium in size, and are somewhat tight. Your clusters were bigger and loose, and the grapes never turned the deep blue/purple that Marquette does. Your clusters and leaves have a Frontenac look to me. If they turned a pinkish color, you may have Frontenac Gris instead of Marquette. Post pics after veraison if you have any.

My Marquette is the first to change color in the summer. It never has a problem attaining good color, but getting the pH above 3.1 is often a struggle.

H

That's an interesting observation! The vine was labeled as Marquette when I bought it, however they were also selling Frontenac, so it is possible that they mixed them up. The grapes became more of a light purple colour, with some being darker than others. I didn't get a picture right before harvesting, unfortunately. If it turns out to be Frontenac, and it tastes good, that's fine by me. If I end up with an alcoholic beverage that loosely resembles a decent wine, I will be ecstatic for my first attempt at making wine from grapes. Right now, it's fermenting away, and turning more of a red colour. Initially, when I crushed the grapes, the juice was very green in colour. Now it's sort of a dark pink/light red. Looks like Rose.