We are totally engaged in harvesting grapes. The Brianna was ready first, followed by Edelweiss, and then St. Pepin. These were all grapes for making white wines. Last week, we harvested our first red grape of the season, Sabrevois. This was followed by LaCrosse, another white, and then Marquette, a red. Finally, last weekend we harvested St. Croix, and our grape suppliers harvested Brianna, LaCrosse, and Foch.
The grape varieties that remain to be harvested are La Crescent, Frontenac, Foch, St. Croix, and Steuben. All of the grape varieties we grow are coming on strong and we should be done with harvest sometime this week, except for Steuben which is always the latest grape we harvest.
Our Marquette was especially productive this year. Acids were low and sugar levels were high. The juice really tasted good. We had a team of five regular vineyard workers with Adam driving the harvester, Gene driving the tractor, Denise and Sky doing the grape cleanup on the trailer with the bins, and Ian serving as back-up. Because the Marquette is at Meadowcreek Vineyard, we had two refrigerated box trucks shuttling back and forth to the Winery. Mark drove those trucks and then supervised the crush at the Winery.
