We have had nice weather during the daytime hours so we’ve really made great progress with pruning. Itasca and Verona are new varieties that may not be familiar to you. Itasca makes a white wine. It is a grape variety that was developed at the University of Minnesota. Verona makes a red wine and the variety was developed by Tom Plocher from Hugo, Minnesota. We will be assessing juice from both varieties this year to determine how best to use it.
We have had some hail on a couple of occasions during the past week but so far, it doesn’t look like we’ve had any damage. The buds have leafed out so the vines are very tender right now. Assuming that the vineyard floor isn’t too soggy, we will be mowing this week and next while we hope that the hailstorms have come to an end for this season.
