We’ve now harvested eight different grape varieties and have only the Frontenac and Sabrevois left to harvest. About 100 tons have been harvested from our vineyards, and we have purchased about 4.5 tons from other Iowa vineyards. That leaves only our Steuben from which we dropped the fruit.
Read more →We’ve now finished harvesting the following grape varieties: Brianna, Edelweiss, St. Pepin, LaCrosse, St. Croix, and Foch. We expect to begin harvesting Marquette on Wednesday of this week followed by La Crescent, Frontenac, and Sabrevois as they become ripe.
Read more →We began harvesting Brianna on Monday, August 17. These vines produced a heavy harvest this year and more important, the flavors are outstanding. Our Brianna will be used to make a semi-sweet white wine. We only have about 0.6 acres of Brianna so we expected to harvest
Read more →We began harvesting Brianna on Monday, August 17 and the harvest of Edelweiss won’t be far behind. Our Brianna will be used to make a semi-sweet white wine. We only have about 0.6 acres of Brianna so we expect to harvest only about 1,800 pounds of Brianna.
Read more →During the past week, we’ve concentrated on getting our Marquette grapes netted. This turned out to be a much bigger job than we realized. Three people spent three full days getting this important job done. They actually installed eleven miles of netting! Vineyard Manager, Adam Nunnikhoven, guides
Read more →All of our grape varieties are in veraison now. That means that all varieties are in the final stage of development before harvest where they change color from a milky green to either red or yellowish-green depending on the variety. They are also starting to produce sugar
Read more →All of our grape varieties are in veraison now. That means that all varieties are in the final stage of development before harvest where they change color from a milky green to either red or yellowish-green depending on the variety. They are also starting to produce sugar
Read more →Our vineyard crew will take advantage of dry weather this week to remove suckers on vines in two vineyards, removing grow tubes in one vineyard, and tying up vines that have come loose from the trellis in another vineyard. They will also be spraying fungicide and mowing.
Read more →Monday’s rain this week was mercifully only about .25 inches in Leighton and the surrounding area. While rain prevented vineyard work on Monday, we were able to be out in our vineyards on Tuesday. And, that is important because we are facing a lot of fungus pressure and we need
Read more →Working in the vineyard during the last couple of weeks has required the crew to dodge a lot of rain drops. Rain in Iowa is usually accompanied by lightning and that makes a vineyard, with its miles of trellis wire, an extremely dangerous place to be. On dry
Read more →