2021 Wines - Chapter 5 - Chambourcin

 The 2020 Chambourcin was probably my best red wine to date. It has good flavor and great color retention. It may be a little bit over-oaked, but I expect it to age fairly well.

So the same approach was taken to the limited 2021 crop. The vines have crown gall and so I only have 3-4 left. Those that are left are heavy producers. Picked 9/22, at 1.080, TA 12, pH 2.86. I crushed and destemmed 9/24, then adjusted with 1T calcium carbonate to pH 3.14 and 500g sugar to 1.090. Opti Red/Booster Blanc/Avante/VP41 coinnoculation. I pressed 5 gallons on 9/29. By 10/23 the test strips read zero malic. I let it go another few weeks before SO2 to be safe. 

I've not decided whether to barrel this wine just yet. It's just aging quietly. My "hands off" winemaking approach is either wisdom or laziness. 

2021 Wines - Chapter 4 - Vidal

Last year's 2020 Vidal is not bad, but not notable. So I "spiked" it with some 2019 Vidal that was over-tweaked with citrus and I also added a hint of passion fruit. I have the feeling that none of that would be necessary if I let it hang longer, But Vidal for me is troublesome. They occupy two rows in the vineyard, but I get about 10 vines worth of grapes. I have to net the entire thing because the vines that are doing well are so spread out. I'd love it if I could let these hang to 1.100 and 3.00. Nope, not this year. 2021 Vidal was picked 9/11 at 1.080, TA 13, pH 2.62. I didn't record any acid adjustments but it's entirely possible, even likely, that I made some. Sugar was added to bump the SG to 1.090. Opti White/Booster Blanc/Allegra and room temperature ferment had us down to 1.000 by 9/22. 8 gallons, not counting the Vignoles coferment. I haven't made a really awesome Vidal wine yet, and given the pick numbers I have some doubts that 2021 will be exceptional. Maybe a blender with the Vignoles. 

2021 Wines - Chapter 2 - Frontenac

My Frontenac wines, with the exception of the Frontenac Gris, to date have been disappointing. Maybe persistence will pay off. I double netted the back row of the vineyard and still lost practically all of the Foch. But the benefit was that Foch and Frontenac sat on the vines much longer than in years past. I picked around the first of September (failed to note the date) in order to make a Frontenac that is also 8% Foch. I pitched a Renaissance yeast, Avante, on 9/4. No adjustments were made to the must at 1.102, 3.05. Booster Rouge, Opti Red, coinnoculation with VP41, and by 9/9/it was down to 1.000 and I pressed 6 gallons. On 9/12 I racked and added Uva Tan 1.5g/gal to see if we can make this wine color-fast. It's now aging and I'm considering skipping the barrels and only lightly oaking with some cubes. The wine has the usual Frontenac cherry flavor which I'm not wild about but maybe we can make a go of it this year. 

2021 Wines - Chapter 1 - Itasca

 This grape ripens really early. By the time I got around to netting it, critters had taken half. I wound up with 1 gallon worth of juice after picking 8/10. I went with Allegro, a Renaissance yeast that doesn't make H2S. These grapes were whole cluster pressed, with initial readings of 1.104, 8.8, 2.8. No adjustments, cold settled, racked, Opti White and Booster Blanc at usual doses, then into the refrigerator for a cool ferment. This fermentation was made possible by my new Inkbird controller.

I bounced it around between 13-15C. Finally at 1.014 on 9/3 it came out of the fridge. I racked on 9/25 and hopefully it has finished up. Aromas of honey and honeysuckle. Could be a nice wine.

Spring has Sprung, 2020 Version

Let's start with the yard. We had plenty of help with the mulch this year and it's all down by the first week of April, thanks to Hunter.

Epimediums

This little loader was not sufficient. Bucket was too small and it didn't easily clear the edge of the truck. We made it work but next year we'll use a real loader again. The grasses are mowed, pre-emergent down, beautyberries and other shrubs pruned. We're seeing 100% survival of the transplanted hellebores in the woodland area, and the epimediums are starting to poke through.

In the greenhouse, most plants look good. We have strawberry guava and grumichama fruit set. Pitomba is flowering as never before. We lost a calamondin, and a couple of the other citrus trees don't look great. The star apples have some marginal leaf necrosis, I wonder if they didn't like so much fertilizer. Hopefully we get them outside soon and they perk up. I took some fall cuttings of grapes, and some of them are pushing leaves.

Frontenac Gris

Speaking of grapes, we have the vineyard pruned. The Chardonel look like a complete loss. They didn't look great last fall but we got 3 gallons of wine from them. It may be the last Chardonel wine we make. My plan is to replace these with Frontenac Gris from cuttings. Aside from the Norton losses to crown gall, we're otherwise in good shape. Foch broke bud 4/9. We replaced some of the Norton with 10 Itasca vines. Itasca is described as having "aromas of pear, quince, violet, melon, minerals along with faint notes of honey." It broke bud already on 4/10. Another 10 Norton were replaced with La Crescent. This grape is used to make off-dry to sweeter wines and is known for "aromas are primarily apricot, peach and citrus." I'm linking the Stark Brothers page here because after the crown gall trouble on the vines from AA Vineyards, I found a new source. Our Frontenac, Vidal and Traminette look strong and I see bud swell on at least 9 Nortons. 

Itasca foreground, row 1; La Crescent row 2

Foch and Traminette

Jake and Taylor were in town for a few weeks after being sidelines due to the pandemic. Jake fished at every opportunity (thanks to Dave, Jane, Betsy, Jorgen, Tom, Jamie). 

Fruit is Coming!

Normally by this time of the summer we are dragging hose and just trying to keep enough water on plants to keep them alive. But so far this year we've stayed wet enough to keep plants looking good and rain barrels in the greenhouse topped up. Growing degree days started accumulating late and despite some really warm temps over the past week, haven't really caught up too much. We're at 1842 since April 16 (average bud break). Also, climate change:

Despite two trips out of town, we largely stayed ahead of the beetle damage so far. We have veraison on Foch and Frontenac, but not Chambourcin:

 

Speaking of trips, we spent a few days at the Chalet. Bob and Sharon visited, and the weather and company was great.

Upon our return, we had water issues in the greenhouse. The point of failure with my demand pump is the pressure switch. The diagnosis was easy, as this has happened before. Feeling clever, I ordered not one, but three replacement switches. I didn't feel that clever when, after receiving my shipment, I found 2 more extra switches from my order the last time it failed. 

The GFCI outlet the pump uses also failed. In the process of fixing that, I fixed a stripped screw hole in the cover, making it watertight for the first time in a couple of years. The repairs were more satisfying that one would imagine.

This time of year lots of stuff fruits. Not only are grapes coming on, but we've finally got enough jaboticaba for a batch of wine. 

First time ever for a Second crop of Grumichama

Lemondrop Mangosteen

Dragonfruit

Not pictured are blackberries, because I'm embarrassed by the fact that the patch is completely overgrown. More pawpaws again this year, but I suspect it will be another month before they are ripe. 

Some of the Nortons are still struggling but we haven't lost any more vines. And in some really exciting news, we have about 5 of the cuttings take root.

Lisa and I had to work all week, but Allie and Joe were here and got some work done as well. We really enjoyed the visit, hope they did too!

Recovery Underway

Just in time for us to leave town again for another week, the grapes are recovering.

I lost about half of the Foch clusters and more of the Traminette, but the Chardonel and Frontenac still look pretty good. In fact, starting to see some early color on the Frontenac.

Irrigation is required as we have no more than a 20% chance of rain any day for the next 2 weeks.

Some trouble with shingles this week. Not the shingles I usually encounter - I'm talking about shingles that belong on the roof.

There was also one pesky shingle that has been out of place for several years. The need to repair this section prompted me to go ahead and fix everything. Adam says OSHA would not approve.

We are on garcinia watch. The G. uniflora set some fruit last year but dropped them early. This year, I got flowers from G. intermedia as well, and I went to work with my paintbrush. Still holding so far. The G. intermedia did not set any fruit.

Finally, just had to post a pic of the best ribs I think I've every made. Fourth of July ribs on the BGE. Recipe here, but we used Mango Coconut and Blackberry instead of the salted caramel preserves.

If you do one thing late...

It is thus with farming: if you do one thing late, you will be late in all your work.

-Cato the Elder

We went to Florida for a medical conference. I'd seen a couple of Japanese beetles before I left so the last spray included a small dose of Sevin. We returned to devastation.

About 25% of vines were completely defoliated, including several vines loaded with grapes. All of the vines had some damage. I resprayed immediately and they are now under control but I had to drop the clusters on half a dozen vines, a mix of Foch and Traminette. We'll see whether there are enough grapes for even a one-gallon batch now. It depends what other calamities befall us.

On the plus side, those clusters that remain look decent. The Frontenac and Chardonel are in the best shape. Vidal recovery continues, we'll have about 13-14 vines this year and the plan right now is to replant.

The serviceberry and haskap harvests continue to grow. The haskaps are getting an occasional dose of antifungal after spraying the grapes. I don't know yet whether they will need to be sprayed with the same regularity as the grapes but we will know by August.

High temperature of 99F today, so we'll have an early start to pool time.

Est. 2017

Last week my dad drove down from Michigan to help plant the vineyard. He arrived on Thursday, and we had a light supper at Bek's. But I could tell something wasn't right. I didn't rest that night and by the next morning I felt entirely unwell. Dad and I went outside and planted two vines, but I could not continue. Six hours later, my swollen appendix was in a jar of formalin.

I woke from anesthesia with a little problem. I had over 100 vines to plant, and while I was much improved, I just wasn't really yet up to the task. Fortunately for me, I have friends and family that pitched in and got the job done.

Shawn, Dad, Jakob, Suzanne, Lisa

The appendicitis rescue crew got the vines in the ground in under 3 hours.

• 9 Foch
• 9 Frontenac
• 10 Chambourcin
• 9 Chardonel (grafted)
• 9 Traminette
• 36 Vidal
• 44 Norton

We heeled in at least 1 extra vine of each variety in the event that I lose one.

On Sunday, Dad and I strung and connected the irrigation lines.

It certainly was a memorable weekend.