netting

What a weird season so far. It's been exceptionally cold and rainy, not that I mind too much as being out in the sun every day at upper 90s would be terrible, but summer is just blowing by like nothing is happening.

But nevertheless, everything is growing just well. Here's the back vineyard on yet another overcast day with the Traminettes starting to hit the top wire while the indian corn sits like an audience watching.

The netting went over all the bearing grapes quite well and it looks like a veil over the vineyard. The birds are rather frustrated and only stuck around for a day after we netted the grapes before they accepted that their free meal was no longer.

The Marquettes are by far my favorite, without hardly any afterbite, they are sweet and delicious. As the numbers come in, they are setting sugars quite well. They turned two weeks before the other varieties and they are holding very well... aside from the birds getting the top half of the bunches before the netting went on as you can see in this picture. But from what I've read about them and after fighting with vines that push out new growth faster than any other variety and in every direction, I am actually excited to see how the wine turns out. They have an amazing flavor fresh so I'm sure they'll be delicious. Not saying that I'm particularly fond of the idea of planting any more acres of these time-consuming beasts, but I guess if the final product is worth the effort, it will be a labor of love.