Bunch Close

Tomorrow is the first day of July. The Japanese beetles are out. The mosquitoes are terrible this year. The horse flies are still blood thirsty as ever. And the vigorous Marquettes are growing faster than I can pull them into the shape I want them.

I still watch the trains go by every day, whistles blowing deafeningly loud.



Time marches on in the season and now I'm organizing lists of tanks, pumps, mixers, hoses, and gaskets that we will need for 2010 crush. It's coming on us pretty fast. The grapes went from bloom to bunch close before I could even get pictures. Veriason is coming soon... this whole season has just been a flurry of working until I can't stand up - falling into a hard, exhausted sleep at night and then waking up to do it again. Oh, and some crappy fast food in the middle because I can't find the time to get to the grocery store to buy real food or cook dinner anymore. :( That's pretty pathetic. But otherwise, everything is good.

The next step is getting everything in order as far as tanks, presses, pumps, and grape crushing equipment. At the same time, we will be netting the grapes to keep the birds off. August was kinda slow last year and once a week, I'd go out and pick a representative sample of grapes from 3 different types to test sugar, pH and tannins. I think this year I'm going to be collecting ten different samples from 7 different types of grapes to see which ones are ripening the best and hoping that they aren't all ready at the same time.



Along with grapes, the cider is in the back of my mind as well. The late frost nipped almost all the blossoms off our apple trees, so now sourcing apples from other local orchards is in order. Nick has his cider recipe down except for the perilously high alcohol content combined with easy drinkability. It's really delicious, so much it might be dangerous.

We just tried another experimental blend with fresh pressed cherries - gorgeous in color and really smooth, slightly dry too. I'm excited to see what we brew this fall.

Alright, time for me to get back at the vines. It's 70 degrees and sunny out today, perfect weather for wrestling grapevines and looking forward to the cold hard cider waiting for me when I get home tonight.