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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 9/2/2016 6:30:21 PM

khmark7

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My red wine this year will be 90% Frontenac, but the rest are blends. This is a learning experiment, seeing what varieties grow well and how to manage them. If i purchase a larger property then i can really have space to explore large production.

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 9/4/2016 4:20:36 AM

khmark7

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Yesterday picked my Frontenac red. Have a good 5 gallons fermenting now, and the grapes looked really good with solid uniform ripeness all around (brix easily over 20) Some slight rot damage & bird damage for sure, but the must is already dark dark red. End product will be around 3-4 gallons. Picked the Frontenac on the same day this year, as in 2015, only in 2016 my vines were on average about 6 days earlier with veraison, so actually a week longer hang time this year. Have one last vine covered in netting, my St. Vincent, which will either blend with my Marquette for a super small batch, or go into some jelly (provided the raccoons don't get it).

Need to lightly oak my Blanc & Rose wines here in the next few days. 3 gallon carboys don't need much, maybe a week. It's all part of the experimentation.

*note to anyone - Don't run 20 miles and then pick 80 lbs of grapes - NOT recommended.....

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 9/4/2016 10:16:38 PM

champagneinhand

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My few clusters of chardonnay are through version but haven't been as sugary and because it has stayed hot in the evenings up until this week the acids are not as strong. Glad I wasn't harvesting a whole crop of these. The few clusters will just be snacked on. The tiny Riesling cluster, tempted me. It wasn't as sweet as the chardonnay, but had serious acid. I know these are late harvest compared to the faster ripening Chardonnay.

Still my vines are alive, and while looking like small houseplants they have made it to the season where the leaves will begin the withering and the sap will run back down the little vines. I guess this is good considering what I began with this Spring. I will add 2-3 more Riesling vines next year and rip out that FG that has been acting as a decoy for the deer and such.

Most likely all the posts will need wiring set up next year, but I have had the supplies sitting in the garage since last season. I do se an area where i could fit another vine up top and thinking I will plant another Chardonnay up in the top row. I think Chardonnay makes a good blending grape for the Riesling, and don't want to complicate things by planting one Gewurtraiminer or something like that. Having one Pinot gris should make the blend a bit like Alsace, with the steepness. I have good limestone on blue/red clay, so I should see some decent mineral, when that year arrives where I can vinify a whole batch, just from my little micro vineyard. Until then I will keep the Backyard Blanc them alive, just not this year.

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 9/5/2016 4:41:56 PM

khmark7

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Sounds good Dave, and very much better than when the season began for you.

Today i made the decision to rip out several established vines and remove one 40' trellis. LOTS of work, but this will allow me to enlarge my garden. When the vines go dormant i will move maybe 2 vines and continue to simplify my yard.

My newly planted Petit Verdot LOVES our recent weather. Warm & rainy....the vine is almost 6 feet tall. Now all i have to do is keep it alive during our winter.

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 9/5/2016 9:02:48 PM

champagneinhand

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quote:

ORIGINAL: khmark7

Sounds good Dave, and very much better than when the season began for you.

Today i made the decision to rip out several established vines and remove one 40' trellis. LOTS of work, but this will allow me to enlarge my garden. When the vines go dormant i will move maybe 2 vines and continue to simplify my yard.

My newly planted Petit Verdot LOVES our recent weather. Warm & rainy....the vine is almost 6 feet tall. Now all i have to do is keep it alive during our winter.

Wow, who would have thunk? PV in Chicagoland!

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 9/20/2016 7:52:26 AM

Vino Me

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Harvested my Pinot Noir last weekend. Smaller crop than expected because the birds started on them a little. 48 pounds. The Wadenswil clone did much better than the Dijon clones. However, since this is only the 2nd year for most of the vines I really didn't think I would have any fruit before the season started but the weather was pretty good.

Picked at 20.4 brix which is a little lower than I would like but the acidity started dropping in the grapes (.585 at harvest) and I was more interested in balance than ripeness. Put the must through a 36 hour cold soak and it is currently macerating before I press (likely next weekend).

If anyone is interested in pictures. The Vineyard has a facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/HavenPointeVineyard/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

VM

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 9/20/2016 4:17:15 PM

khmark7

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Congrats VM. Next year with a larger crop the vines will likely ripen later, possibly in October so you can keep those acids. Our warm & dry September (at least around here) is shaping up for a really nice harvest for the wineries in the area. Curious how the Leelanau Peninsula is doing.

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 9/21/2016 8:17:22 AM

Vino Me

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quote:

ORIGINAL: khmark7
My newly planted Petit Verdot LOVES our recent weather. Warm & rainy....the vine is almost 6 feet tall. Now all i have to do is keep it alive during our winter.

Dablon Winery in SW Michigan makes a Petit Verdot from estate fruit. Very pretty winery to visit as well if you are ever in the area.

http://www.dablon.com/

VM

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 9/21/2016 5:48:11 PM

champagneinhand

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Vino Me

Harvested my Pinot Noir last weekend. Smaller crop than expected because the birds started on them a little. 48 pounds. The Wadenswil clone did much better than the Dijon clones. However, since this is only the 2nd year for most of the vines I really didn't think I would have any fruit before the season started but the weather was pretty good.

Picked at 20.4 brix which is a little lower than I would like but the acidity started dropping in the grapes (.585 at harvest) and I was more interested in balance than ripeness. Put the must through a 36 hour cold soak and it is currently macerating before I press (likely next weekend).

If anyone is interested in pictures. The Vineyard has a facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/HavenPointeVineyard/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

VM

Between the squirrels, chipmunks and bird all my grapes were snatched, but considering that I only had 3 decent sized clusters.

Hopefully next year the vines might actually gain some decent height. This year was all about saving most of my vines. The weather is starting to cool off, and I will hope tat the leaves will start the process of withering and having the sap run deep into the roots, which I hope have been working their way deeper into the clay and limestone.

I will be ordering 4-5 new vines in the near future for spring planting. I id notice the weak acids in the fruit this year, but our nights were rarely cool, as per usual. Tomorrow starts a 15 day period where the temperatures will only hit 70F at the high point. so an early fall.

I wonder if the FL had better acids, but I wouldn't expect so. I'm sure the winemakers will be challenged but doubt this vintage will be a long lasting one.

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 9/21/2016 6:06:39 PM

khmark7

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Vines in my yard are already dropping their leaves. They appear ready for winter and judging my the pacific weather patterns we are in for the same conditions as 2013-15 with those polar vortexes and cold winter snaps.

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 9/22/2016 9:17:26 AM

Vino Me

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quote:

ORIGINAL: khmark7
Next year with a larger crop the vines will likely ripen later, possibly in October so you can keep those acids.

It would have to be a very unusual year to harvest SW Michigan Pinot in October. All of the winemakers I know in the area have already harvested their Pinot with it being an early ripening varietal. As my vines get older I do expect to get better sugar levels earlier though.

VM

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 9/22/2016 5:42:13 PM

khmark7

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Vino Me

quote:

ORIGINAL: khmark7
Next year with a larger crop the vines will likely ripen later, possibly in October so you can keep those acids.

It would have to be a very unusual year to harvest SW Michigan Pinot in October. All of the winemakers I know in the area have already harvested their Pinot with it being an early ripening varietal. As my vines get older I do expect to get better sugar levels earlier though.

VM

Curious if this was just this summer, or typical. Around here it's been very warm and ahead of schedule. You live in an exciting area for growing grapes because you have such a wide range of possibilities.

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 9/23/2016 10:55:01 AM

Vino Me

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quote:

ORIGINAL: khmark7
Curious if this was just this summer, or typical. Around here it's been very warm and ahead of schedule. You live in an exciting area for growing grapes because you have such a wide range of possibilities.

I'll see a couple winemakers this weekend when I press so I'll ask.

VM

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 9/26/2016 2:09:41 PM

Vino Me

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As I thought, harvesting of Pinot In SW Michigan almost always occurs in September. The winemakers I spoke to said they only remember a couple vintages where they picked during the first week of October.

VM

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 10/5/2016 12:25:26 PM

Vino Me

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Started malolactic fermentation today.

VM

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 10/5/2016 6:54:46 PM

khmark7

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2 Lads (Old Mission Peninsula) was tweeting that they were harvesting Pinot Noir this last weekend. They also tweeted me that they had a solid & large crop. Very good news!!

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 10/6/2016 11:57:14 AM

Vino Me

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Sounds about right. The Leelanau Peninsula is about 1-2 weeks behind SW Michigan in ripening grapes.

VM

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 10/12/2016 5:37:05 PM

khmark7

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Vines almost completely hardened off for the winter....except a few of my newly planted vinifera vines. My Petit Verdot in particular appears totally unaware of the upcoming winter. Ironically my Petite Sirah is the opposite.
If we can avoid a hard frost these next few nights then we might be good until November.

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 10/21/2016 5:30:28 PM

khmark7

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Possible hard frost tonight....will be close. This is typically about the time it happens. Although many of my vines have dropped their leaves, I still have several that clearly could use another few weeks to prepare for winter.

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 11/22/2016 5:05:01 AM

khmark7

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1st hard frost was mid November around here, one of the latest on record. Had a few vines tucked in by the house last until this weekend, but spent these last few pleasant days outside pruning down my vinifera vines and covering them with my grow tubes wrapped in burlap & lawn fabric to protect them from our winter. Rabbits are also destructive this time of year, so you have to take precautions from that as well.

Really at this point all i have to do is prune back my standard cold tolerant vines prior to April. I've already reset some wires and fixed some trellis sections. Most of the vines look good and now i wait until warmer weather and plan for next summer. With all my different vines i feel as if each year brings about a myriad of learning opportunities and this year was no different....fun stuff.

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 11/22/2016 12:05:00 PM

Vino Me

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I didn't do any Fall pruning. I'll wait until the Spring to prune. Was not happy with the acidity at the time of harvest this year (it was within tolerance but on the low side) so I put down some pelletized lime in the vineyard last week.

VM

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 11/22/2016 1:48:53 PM

khmark7

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Vino Me

I didn't do any Fall pruning. I'll wait until the Spring to prune. Was not happy with the acidity at the time of harvest this year (it was within tolerance but on the low side) so I put down some pelletized lime in the vineyard last week.

VM

What kind of brix did you have when you picked?

I rarely lack acidity in my yard because i pick on the earlier side of the ripeness range.

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 11/28/2016 7:25:29 AM

Vino Me

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quote:

ORIGINAL: khmark7
What kind of brix did you have when you picked?

I rarely lack acidity in my yard because i pick on the earlier side of the ripeness range.

20.4 when I picked on September 17th.

VM

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 2/19/2017 3:35:28 PM

khmark7

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Now for a post that i wasn't expecting.

Chicago in February - took advantage of our amazing sunny & warm weather to finish my pruning and cleaning up of the yard. Our winter has been very mild. How mild you ask?? The ground isn't frozen, and we haven't had any measurable snow since Christmas. Oh, and today i noticed that some of my grapes are bleeding from their pruning cuts! Nothing about this is normal.

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 2/19/2017 5:47:03 PM

peeks13

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quote:

ORIGINAL: khmark7

Now for a post that i wasn't expecting.

Chicago in February - took advantage of our amazing sunny & warm weather to finish my pruning and cleaning up of the yard. Our winter has been very mild. How mild you ask?? The ground isn't frozen, and we haven't had any measurable snow since Christmas. Oh, and today i noticed that some of my grapes are bleeding from their pruning cuts! Nothing about this is normal.

I was going to do my pruning with this weather but I wondered if too many consecutive warm days, coupled with pruning, might trigger growth. Then a subsequent frost could be detrimental. But maybe the cool nights will keep bud activity dormant. Prune anyway?

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 2/20/2017 5:01:59 PM

khmark7

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quote:

ORIGINAL: peeks13

quote:

ORIGINAL: khmark7

Now for a post that i wasn't expecting.

Chicago in February - took advantage of our amazing sunny & warm weather to finish my pruning and cleaning up of the yard. Our winter has been very mild. How mild you ask?? The ground isn't frozen, and we haven't had any measurable snow since Christmas. Oh, and today i noticed that some of my grapes are bleeding from their pruning cuts! Nothing about this is normal.

I was going to do my pruning with this weather but I wondered if too many consecutive warm days, coupled with pruning, might trigger growth. Then a subsequent frost could be detrimental. But maybe the cool nights will keep bud activity dormant. Prune anyway?

Pruning won't trigger growth, it actually prohibits growth in the short term if you do so right at bud break. With all my vines i needed around 8 hours to prune everything so this warm weather helped significantly.

The warm weather coupled with massive above average overnight temps will REALLY accelerate growth....i'm very curious to monitor the progress.

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 3/8/2017 4:50:18 PM

khmark7

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Today's observation. Bud swell on most varieties, bleeding on many vines continues. We have a cold 5-6 days ahead of us, but after that it's anybodies guess. 2012 had bud break around March 17th, the earliest i've ever recorded. Currently i would expect bud break around the end of March, possibly ahead of Chris in Washington.....wow!

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 3/9/2017 7:52:28 AM

ChrisinCowiche

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quote:

ORIGINAL: khmark7

Today's observation. Bud swell on most varieties, bleeding on many vines continues. We have a cold 5-6 days ahead of us, but after that it's anybodies guess. 2012 had bud break around March 17th, the earliest i've ever recorded. Currently i would expect bud break around the end of March, possibly ahead of Chris in Washington.....wow!

We've still got 6-8" of snow cover. Nobody has pruned yet and even tree fruit is expected to be 2-3 weeks behind this spring. Plenty of moisture and snowpack in the mountains though.

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 3/9/2017 4:45:38 PM

khmark7

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quote:

ORIGINAL: ChrisinSunnyside

quote:

ORIGINAL: khmark7

Today's observation. Bud swell on most varieties, bleeding on many vines continues. We have a cold 5-6 days ahead of us, but after that it's anybodies guess. 2012 had bud break around March 17th, the earliest i've ever recorded. Currently i would expect bud break around the end of March, possibly ahead of Chris in Washington.....wow!

We've still got 6-8" of snow cover. Nobody has pruned yet and even tree fruit is expected to be 2-3 weeks behind this spring. Plenty of moisture and snowpack in the mountains though.

Who does your pruning Chris?? The crew or yours truly?? Pruning can be fun, and also time consuming, but it's VERY important.

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RE: Growing Your Own Grapes - 3/11/2017 12:01:52 PM

ChrisinCowiche

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quote:

ORIGINAL: khmark7

quote:

ORIGINAL: ChrisinSunnyside

quote:

ORIGINAL: khmark7

Today's observation. Bud swell on most varieties, bleeding on many vines continues. We have a cold 5-6 days ahead of us, but after that it's anybodies guess. 2012 had bud break around March 17th, the earliest i've ever recorded. Currently i would expect bud break around the end of March, possibly ahead of Chris in Washington.....wow!

We've still got 6-8" of snow cover. Nobody has pruned yet and even tree fruit is expected to be 2-3 weeks behind this spring. Plenty of moisture and snowpack in the mountains though.

Who does your pruning Chris?? The crew or yours truly?? Pruning can be fun, and also time consuming, but it's VERY important.

We're going to try ourselves this year. Most vines are to the point with established horizonital cordons and the vine shelters are coming off. We're attending another training class today at Hightower on Red Mountain, and I'm sure there are plenty of coaches if I feel like we're getting lost. The biggest challenge will be finding the time over the next few weeks. I hope to try a row tomorrow, see how long it takes me (or me and Barb), then gauge from there.

If we can get this done I'm hoping to fully wean off the paid crew and consulting fees this year. We've got the irrigation, picking and mowing rhythms down, and hopefully the pruning and training will be fairly straightforward. Time will tell.

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