Last Monday, the Brianna was ready and we harvested it. Nothing else is ready so we are taking samples and testing, testing, and more testing. We got all of our grapes tested to double-check our lab numbers and we’ll be out tasting and picking up samples for
Read more →Herbie the Hawk (actually, we have five of them stationed in our vineyards) spends his days flying around. All he needs is a wind of 2–3 miles per hour. Our present all-natural hawk can’t quite figure out what to make of Herbie. He has checked Herbie out
Read more →Herbie the Hawk became the newest member of our team last week. He and his brother float above the Maple Woods Vineyard and our hope is that they scare off little birds. Of course, they are just elegant kites that are tethered along the west edge of
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All of the grapes in our four vineyards are in veraison now. That means that they are changing color from a milky green to a translucent yellow-green or to purple. More important, the amount of malic acid in the grape is dropping and the sugar is increasing.
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Although the start of harvest is 2–4 weeks in the future, we are already thinking about steps we must take to be ready. We are doing preventative maintenance on machinery and equipment right now. We planted about 1,500 new vines this year and now is the time
Read more →So, what is veraison? Veraison is when grapes start to change color. Purple grapes change from a milky green to purple and green grapes change from a milky green to yellowing, almost translucent green. This is like the sprint to the finish line (harvest). Acid levels (especially
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This is the time of year that we engage in purely routine regular tasks like mowing, removing suckers, spraying fungicide, and tying vines to the trellis. When we tie new vines, we are also tying them to the pencil rod so their trunks grow straight up. This
Read more →Our vineyard team will be tying up new Brianna and St. Pepin vines at Maple Woods and the high wires at Newport Lane and Meadowcreek. They will be tying up several varieties at Tassel Ridge. Removal of suckers is essential to keep vines focused on producing grapes
Read more →We will be mowing and spraying as needed and we will install pencil rods and grow tubes on our new vines that are already planted as soon as the pencil rods arrive. We are getting our La Crescent blocks cleaned up. We had quite a bit of
Read more →Our vineyard team planted all of the new Verona and Itasca vines last week and we got most of our vineyards sprayed with fungicide. We’ll try to finish spraying fungicide this week if the weather cooperates. This week, we will plant about 1,000 Steuben vines which we
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