We spotted the first purple grapes in our Marquette vineyard. They start out a milky green and then start turning purple as the ripening process shifts from growing the size of the individual grape to reducing the acidity, increasing the sugar level, and developing the flavor in
Read more →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
Read more →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
Read more →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
Read more →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
Read more →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,
Read more →Last week, we planted several hundred new LaCrosse vines at Maple Woods and this week, we planted a test plot of 60 Clarion vines at Meadowcreek East. We use the LaCrosse to make a varietal wine and also as a blending component in three wines. The Clarion
Read more →This week, we finished pruning Itasca, Verona, and Petite Pearl at Tassel Ridge vineyard. We also tied up the year-old LaCrosse at Maple Woods. We started spraying fungicide and mowed everywhere we could. The vineyard team will start planting new vines next week. They will include 66
Read more →This week, we finished the pruning and tying up of Foch and LaCrosse at Newport Lane and Itasca, Verona, and Crimson Pearl at Tassel Ridge Vineyard. We took advantage of still air to spray fungicide and we used our weed badger to clean weeds out of a
Read more →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
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