From Our Vineyard
Our grapes like the warm weather (up to a point) and are back on schedule after a late start this year. They are almost done flowering and most varieties have set fruit. One variety that failed to set much fruit is St. Pepin from which we make Prelude. We’re not sure what happened but we […]
Category : From Our Vineyard &Newsletter Articles
We planted a small number of Itasca and Verona vines last week. Both are new varieties with the Itasca being a white from the University of Minnesota and Verona being a red from Tom Plocher, a private hybridizer in Hugo, Minnesota. This week we are taking delivery of Crimson Pearl and Steuben. We expect to […]
Category : From Our Vineyard &Newsletter Articles
We are frequently asked how the vines like 95°F heat. Fortunately, on most hot days, the temperature starts out at about 75° and climbs to peak temperatures in the early afternoon. When the temperature surpasses about 85°F, photosynthesis stops until the temperature comes back down. So, the vines just take it easy when it is […]
Category : From Our Vineyard &Newsletter Articles
The vineyard staff has about 26,000 of 38,000 vines pruned. All pruning now is final pruning. The chances of a hard freeze yet this spring are dropping every day. Nonetheless, we are keeping our eyes open to the possibility of a freeze. We have vines at Newport Lane and Meadowcreek to prune. We will start […]
Category : From Our Vineyard &Newsletter Articles
We will short prune vines at Meadowcreek and Newport Lane. Spraying lime-sulfur on our dormant vines is a stinky (rotten eggs) job that we do annually and are starting this week. And we will be mulching up the Tassel Ridge vineyard. We now have all 38,000 of our vines machine pruned and only short pruning […]
Category : From Our Vineyard &Newsletter Articles
The vineyard crew is making good progress cleaning out long canes and dead wood in the Edelweiss and Sabrevois at Tassel Ridge. They hope the weather will allow them to finish this week. They will mechanically prune the rest of the vineyards next. Most people I talk to are ready for warmer weather. But, it […]
Category : From Our Vineyard &Newsletter Articles
This week, we will continue to clean out the canes we have cut with the mechanical pruner in our Edelweiss and Sabrevois at Tassel Ridge. We have about 20 acres or 11,000 vines of these grape varieties so this project is taking some time. So far, we’ve gotten the nine acres of Marquette long pruned […]
Category : From Our Vineyard &Newsletter Articles
Our vineyard crew is finishing up pruning of our Marquette at Meadowcreek. Actually, we pruned last week using our V-Mech system and then we need to go back on foot and pull out all of the canes that are tangled up and don’t fall to the ground by themselves. With about nine acres of Marquette, this […]
Category : From Our Vineyard
Every year, starting in late February to early March, we prune all of our 38,000± grapevines. We select the time based on when the weather is reasonable and the vineyard floor is not too soft, but it is always near the end of winter. We prune in two steps: long pruning first, and then, beginning […]
Category : From Our Vineyard
We started with hand work in the H-Braces at the ends of each row. We pruned Marquette. The ground was too soggy for our V-Mech mechanical pruner until the end of last week when we were able to get it out. We rough pruned all of the Marquette and now have to go back and […]
Category : From Our Vineyard
