From Our Vineyard

Itasca led the harvest schedule this year. In fact, this is our first harvest of Itasca which is growing in our Tassel Ridge Vineyard. We got a small batch totaling about 730 pounds or 0.365 tons. We will make about 50 gallons of wine that we will

Each year, we bring our scale out and get it ready for weighing-in grapes. First, it has to be calibrated and certified by the State of Iowa and that happened on Wednesday. We also brought our hopper-elevator out from the warehouse and got it set up. We

We are getting bird kites and streamers installed in the Itasca grape blocks at Tassel in order to scare away the birds because the grapes are starting to get sweet. We removed grow tubes from the newly planted Clarion grapes and sprayed fungicide at Tassel Ridge. We

This week, we will finish tying up the Petite Pearl at Tassel Ridge and the St. Pepin at Maple Woods Vineyards. We will be checking trellis wires for loose staples and rod clips and we will finish mowing. We expect to sell several tons of grapes to

When the winds permit, we are getting both fungicide and herbicide sprayed; we are fertilizing the second-year LaCrosse at Maple Woods; we are mowing; and we are finishing the tying of the Foch. We are also working on our 2023 harvest estimate so that we will know

We are getting our harvester all cleaned up and ready for the Leighton Fireworks on Friday, June 30. It is always a fun time to be able to greet our neighbors at their annual event. We continue tying up our new Itasca and Verona vines. They have

Young vines all need attention at this time of year. Second year vines should have cordons growing in both directions from the trunk and they need to be tied to the top wire. This is done with a biodegradable jute twine which is excellent from an environmental

We hedged vines on VSP trellises this week in order to assure that the grapes on these vines were exposed to light. Light exposure helps to lower acid and it improves flavors. We have 17 acres of Edelweiss and these vines have not received much attention for

An important task in the vineyards in early June is to tuck all of the canes on our vines on vertical shoot positioning (VSP) trellises between the cage wires. While the canes are short and very pliable, this is time-consuming but easy. If we wait too long,