We are taking samples of grapes every day or so now and are running chemistries in our lab as well as tasting the fruit. We are also picking samples that we will take to Iowa State University to test for Yeast Assimilable Nitrogen. The results will tell
Read more →This is the time of year when we collect petiole samples (stems of leaves) and send them to a lab for analysis. We collect the stems of certain leaves because the stems are the pipelines of a grape vine. All of the nutrients in the vine travel
Read more →We’ll be doing some cleaning and equipment maintenance before we bring our hopper, fruit elevator, destemmer-crusher, and must pump from the warehouse to the crush pad. Then, we’ll get that equipment cleaned and ready. We have a bit of wine in the tanks that we’ll be moving
Read more →We will bottle our last wines for this season: 2019 Iowa St. Pepin and 2019 Iowa Louise Swenson. Both of these wines are new for Tassel Ridge and we’ll be excited to release them in the Fall. Batches of American Steuben and Cranberry Wine have finished fermenting.
Read more →Veraison is an annual milestone in grape ripening. It is when the red/purple grapes change from a hard, milky-green to purple. That process started late last week in our Marquette and Frontenac. St. Croix, Sabrevois, and Foch will follow soon. Veraison also happens with white grapes. They
Read more →American Pink Catawba is a semi-sweet, refreshing, fruity rosé with pineapple and other tropical fruits on the nose and hints of green apple and citrus on the palate. Made entirely from Catawba grapes, American Pink Catawba pairs well with barbecue or picnic foods like cold meats or
Read more →We will get our 2019 Iowa St. Pepin and 2019 Iowa Louise Swenson filtered this week so we are ready to bottle both wines next week. We are monitoring the fermentation of another batch of Cranberry Wine. Fermenting cranberry is a slow process. We are also getting
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The shrimp in this recipe don’t have strong flavors but the other ingredients are very flavorful. The tropical fruit notes, with pineapple especially prominent, and hint of citrus in Tassel Ridge Iowa Edelweiss will pair nicely with the lime in the Ginger-Lime Sauce.
Read more →On Wednesday, we will bottle another batch of our very popular Blackberry Wine. If you like a really smooth sweet wine, you should try Tassel Ridge Blackberry Wine. We are fermenting batches of Cranberry Wine and American Steuben so we’ll be monitoring those fermentations. We will be
Read more →We Finish Tying and Suckering New Vines at Maple Woods and Make this Season’s First Harvest Estimate
We have a lot of new vines at our Maple Woods vineyard and we will finish tying them to the pencil rod and top wire and also remove any suckers. We have more fungicide to apply. Because of our high humidity right now, this is really important.
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