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.

mid august

Marquettes are now almost fully turned, and pretty small as far as the bunches go.

Frontenac Gris look delicious. They are turning this beautiful champagne color, small grapes on a large bunch.

And Frontenacs, which are huge and it seems like it takes forever to get the entire bunch to turn.

Corot Noir, still nothing.


And finally the Noriets, who are by far the most inconsistant plants in the vineyard. Some are dead. Some are vigorous. Some bunches are tiny, some look great. And still some pushed up new growth with blooms and leaves only to die back all the sudden. Weird. Looks like a very light crop if any at all will make it.

Otherwise, everything looks good. I keep watching the tractors do their rounds cutting, tethering, and baling the hay. It seems like it's never ending and I always look out in the field just a few weeks after it has been cut to find that my dog almost disappears in the tall blades of grass and bushes of clover.

Every day for a week I've seen the same turkey vulture sitting on top of a giant round bale, just giving me a long hard stare. Sometimes they circle overhead and I wonder what I look like to them... although I wonder that when the planes and helicopters circle overhead. The blimp came by once. I just imagined rich people drinking champagne on their -alternative to a cruise ship- day outing. It looked like they were not sure which way to go when leisurly hanging in the sky until they saw me and made a quick jaunt over to see what the little plot of land with such strange angular rows of green could be. By the time I could hear the whurr overhead, they had found something else that caught their eye and changed course so I went back to counting train whistles. Some conductors really go for the gusto and blow their horn for 5 seconds with only a half second rest. Some are very conservative and only blow two short horn blows before going through the crossing. And there must have been a new guy who was a real jerk who decided it would be funny to blow it at me when I was less than 50 feet away playing in the garden by the tracks. It took me a half hour to get the ringing out of my ears.





Anyway, it feels like the neverending task of beating wild vines into some managable shape is never ending, but I'm starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. While it used to take me a long time to go down a row, straightening trunks, training new trunks, combing fruiting wood, thinning clusters... now it's starting to be a bit easier. I come up to a vine and look at it like I've seen it before and I kinda get what I was thinking when I tied it up the last time and all I have to do is a little light pruning and move the tie up higher.

Help is always good to have as well. After awhile the grapevines start blurring in together and every once and awhile it's good to have a word of empathy at the ease or difficulty of a particular variety (oh man the marquettes...) or to judge pace at how fast a row can be done. Otherwise, I was going to the dollar store just to have a conversation with the outside world. I keep asking my friends about fashion because I feel like I live in a grape vine bubble where jean shorts and a tshirt is perfectly accented by waterproof rubber boots and a baseball hat.

...oh how I hope farmers tans are in style this fall.

Let's go for a walk

Let's take an August walk around the vineyard.....


In the front, the Frontenac Gris from last year's planting is going crazy. It's at the top wire, making cordons and trying to flower again. You just can't stop them.



A Cabernet Franc in basic training. My advice to Jason when tying up these VSP vines; "make it look like a menora." I think it worked.






Rootstock 3309, a Cab Franc trained below the graft junction last year. My initial response in the spring was - why is this one over here growing like crazy? A little glance at the graft cleared that up... but we still didn't have the heart to just chop it down after it tried so hard. Maybe next year.







A Vidal Blanc, trying to be a little more white with the odd leaf in the middle. I find these white leaves mixed in a lot, springing up in random spots on vines. Looks like someone bleached the new shoots and they either grow out of it into dappled green and white or die.







The Traminettes holding their own.


Nice fruit... but we'll wait until next year to harvest








Oh my, Marquettes!




Shoot positioning and leaf pulling is a pain for these hardy vines. They push out branches and leaves everywhere at a rate like you wouldn't believe.







The Fronenacs are blushing


and the canopy looks nice too







The Frontenac Gris showing that white grapes turn too







The Noirets, limping along as usual.



Nice clusters forming though. Not too many of them, but they are nice.







Corot Noir..... not too bad. Pretty lush, but the grapes seem not as developed.

veraison

Ah, sweet veraison...


I am not sure where this came from, but all of the sudden, the marquettes started blushing. It kinda looks more like a bruise, and it's only on a couple grapes out of every bunch, but they are starting to turn! It kinda makes it worth it... all that fighting through the many branches on the fruiting wood to try to find the grapes. The clusters are much smaller than the frontenacs, but there are enough of them to make it worth it.






The frontenacs are growing well... really well. All those little flower clusters have turned into massive globs of little green pebbles coming off of every branch, 2 times over. The 2006 planting is amazing. I almost think I should take some off there are so many. We just finished up combing and I've started on leaf pulling, but it seems like once I'm done in one section, i have to go back over it. They are all growing so fast!!!


And, of course, we are not without our problems. Here's the pesky black rot that plagued the Marquettes early this season. It's tough to open the canopy fast enough to prevent it, but now I know for next year, I guess.




Row 13 of the Vidals started showing signs of downy mildew during our big drench of rain weather. I contemplated just tearing our the one plant that had it, but I cut it off and thought that was the end of it. Nope. It sprung back up on that plant.... and again on the other side of the Vidals. It makes no sense.




And of course, par for the summer course, the beetles are at it again. I find them everywhere; crawling on my shoulders, in my hair, on my pruners, even in my shoe. I'm not a girlie girl, but that's just gross. But then again, as long as they stay out of my mouth, I can deal


Anyway, that's pretty much it for now. I have two helpers (well, one and a half with the attendance record... grumble grumble) and it's nice to not be so alone out in the middle of nowhere with only the grapevines and the trains to talk to. It's been a super mild July, feels like springtime. Wohoo! Not sweating... yet. We'll see though. I fear August is really going to kick me in the pants.

clusters during combing

Frontenac

The Marquettes

Maize Valley

So, Jason and I have been diligently working on our new goal of visiting all the local vineyard and wineries every Saturday after working all day out in the hot sun on what seem to be an unending field of vines. Last week at Wolf Creek was cool, but this week we took a different way home and stumbled on Maize Valley Market and Winery.

First off - check out Maize Valley - blog

Anyway, we showed up at about 6pm, exhausted from being in the sun all day and were super happy to see that they also offered small amounts of sustinence along with booze. We did a basic tasting of all the grapes grown on site, the server was pleasant as we pointed to names of wines on a bright red colored menu and tried them for a quarter a piece. We went through almost all white wines before I asked her - do you grow any reds? The answer, not really. I got a taste of the Red Neck Red which includes some wine grown on site, but it kinda tasted more like a white than a rich red. But I still ordered a glass to break my string of white wine loving and Jason settled on a subtle but delicious La Crescent.

The wine that I liked the most at Wolf Creek that they grew on site, the Vignoles, also found its way in to the Maize Valley vineyard, but their mix in the wine was a lot less sweet and a lot more pleasant on the pallet without being overwhelmning. I was excited to try the Traminette wine, a variety we grow, but was almost knocked out of my seat with the sugar content and was equally stunned to find out they didn't grow it on site. Pity, but after seeing the winter die back, I can certainly see why.

I liked the Chardonel, which def tasted like champagne, but the white Vidal was waaaay too sweet for my blood. All in all though, the flavors of their selection were far greater than the previous vineyard and the hand hewn barn beams, large selection of produce and pickles, along with the incredible salami really stole my heart.

We sat outside on a large patio that kinda seemed more like a pavilion with a rope around it. It was laid back while staying upscale enough to make you not want to get loud and drunk. There were a few small outposts for the kids along with some tame representatives from different types of farm animals just beyond the patio, however the quarter machines with feed were all empty. Pity. I really wanted a mule to eat out of my hand.

I knock down a couple of points for the grape wallpaper in the bathroom and the light up grapes around their merchandise. I give mad props to them for classy wares and local artists along with a very rustic yet clean and crisp building. I liked the locally grown produce on their shelves and if I had my own building, I think it would be a fusion similar, with local artists, local meats, local cheeses, local musician, and our own wine and beer made on site. It really got me thinking... hmm, I could get a loan out and rebuild the old mill and do something --- wait. I already work my butt off 7 days a week. I do not want to get ahead of myself. Sheesh

I liked their little petting zoo and the wildflowers. Their grapes were very young. The sheep were friendly and... massive! The pig wanted nothing to do with people. The mule had huge, dopey ears. And while we were enjoying our cheese plate, we witnessed the pygmy goats getting out and mowing down half a row of new grape vines before I ran in frantically telling the lady behind the meat counter about their rampage of destruction. After thinking about it though and knowing how destructive our goats have been on my three year old vines at home that look like I just bought and planted them yesterday, I thought they probably already figured out that was a bad idea but fencing in an ornary set of goats is like trying to hold water in your hands without loosing a drop. They always sneak out.

I loved the wildflowers. Blue bachelors buttons and black eyed susans sat back in patches around oddly placed newly planted trellises and vines. The hen house was empty. The hay house was full. A John Deere tooled around with a happy looking farmer mowing grass with a brush hog. It was a very pretty place and very pleasant as well.

We ended up going home with a bottle of La Crescent with a picture of an ostrich on it. I did like how they had a photo contest to see what picture to put on their wines. I do wish they would have had a signature on the photos though or their logo or something. I do love the simplicity of their MV stamp, which was on everything from the wine bottle seals to their burlap carrying bags. It has a great impact and it really got me thinking what the hell our little logo would be... but then again, what the hell is our name going to be?

As we were leaving and the place was filling up with people of all ages, I would certainly go back... although I would bring a few friends to share the experience with me.

Oh, and I would bring a pocket full of food for the mule as well.

AHHHH!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

It starts! The battle has begun! Shots have been fired and now it's war!!!! AAHHHH!

Mark the calendar. June 25th, 2009. The day I spotted the first japanese beetle.

These little buggers are ridiculous. Every year it seems like they get worse. I just remember them covering the roses at the nursery, crawling into every orifice of their delicate flowers, making my grapevines in their little pots look like green swiss cheese, and buzzing out if you brushed the red beech as you walked by.

In Bowling Green in the summer time, I remember their hot July emergence and the graveyard of beetle corpses on the sidewalk under the house on the corner of court street that sprayed religiously to keep the pests away.
Even before that, when i was young, picking raspberries and sometimes accidentally pinching a beetle instead of a berry and squealing with shock. I liked the iridescent glow of these little bugs, much like my favorite dragon fly that looked like an oil slick. I didn't know what they were until my great aunts informed me that these were pests that had no place in this world and i should kill them whenever I got the chance. Of course, with raspy voices from chain smoking unfiltered cigarettes for 50+ years, their warnings were scarier then the little bugs and it really didn't sink in as far as the magnitude of the beetle problem until much later.

Which brings us to today as I drove around cutting the grass and weeds from around the trunks of the vines in the back vineyard with a keen eye on the vines and shaking a fist and yelling at the little beetles like an old man keeping kids off his lawn. After the anger subsided, I began saying my farewells to the lady bugs and friendly spiders, knowing that the insecticide sprays are soon to follow.

Anyway, here are some pictures of a short little jaunt around the rest of the vineyard to see where all the types are at... some are a bit farther along than others. We'll see how they grow.




I think it is awful now looking over these pictures and I am wondering why I remembered my camera when the grass and weeds were so out of control. But then again, I took so much care taking pictures because it is so difficult to work when the grass and weeds are high so I guess it is a double edged sword.



Anyway, it is really fun to see the "buckshot" berries forming more and more by the day. It seems like the whole summer is flying by as the grape clusters start to actually look like something we might harvest. It feels like just a couple weeks ago my toes were numb in the cold Feb. mornings... but now it's hitting 90 degrees and I am hiding in the shade of the vines for a little reprieve from the sun. Already I am kinda looking forward to football season and Thanksgiving turkey, but maybe it is just because I would like a reason to sit around and drink beers on a Sunday and my turkeys are really getting on my nerves.

I guess I should just enjoy the summer while it's here... horseflies, beetles, turkeys, and all.

~j