2012 Harvesting

It was a rough year to say the least...
we had a early spring warm up which brought out the buds about 2 weeks early..
Then we got hit by a hard freeze for two nights.
Luckily I now have a bunch of old sheets stored that I use to cover them for such nights so no repeat of 2 years ago where I had two vines basically killed by the freeze.

Late Spring and early summer were very wet, especially at night.
Due to no issues last year I was not prepared for it and I ended up with quite a bit of Black Rot :(   next year I will spray as a precautionary step.

So, it was Labor day weekend again and decided to harvest..
Last year Labor day weekend gave me Brix level of about 21 and in my haste I harvested too early and had to fight Acidity levels through out the process.
This years Brix level was between 24 and 26 so a lot higher sugar levels which should help the acid levels.

I spent Sunday, September 2nd from 10am to 5pm harvesting and then crushing the grapes.
Last year I ended up with about 2 gallons of Must.. This year I have just over 4 Gallons!

Last year with 2 Gallons of Must I ended up with 1 1/2 gallons pressed and 7 bottles of wine..
So, I should be close to doubling the bottles this year!!

The yeast is now hard at work and I should be pressing by the weekend.. :)

Here are a couple of Pictures pre-harvest:

Also took a short video:

May 2012 - Early growing season

Due to a Very warm March and April, the Vines completed Bud break very early and the grapes are already forming.
Considering last year I had bud break at this point, we are looking at a early harvest..

here is a Photo of some of the vines:

I also captured some video to show the grapes that are forming:

Vintage 2011 - My first attempt at wine

I ended up bottling my first attempt at making Wine this weekend!

There are a lot of things I learned this first year.
#1 - I harvested way too soon and ended up having to adjust the must throughout to reduce the acidity. Next year I need to wait until the stems and the seeds are brown, not green, before harvesting.
#2 - Now that I have multiple 1/2 gallon carboys next year I won't combine the Frontenac and Marquette grapes into one big batch. 
#3 - Since everything else had been early I decided to continue the process and bottle a early..

All in all, for my first attempt the taste is pretty good. In my opinion the wine is a little "Heavy" but the taste is good and doesn't leave an aftertaste.

here are some pictures I took:

First up, my bottling area:

Hopefully sooner, rather than later I'll get a true area to make my wine and bottle. Right now I just have a corner in the unfinished part of our basement.

I had 1 1/2 gallons and ended up with 7 full bottles and 1 smaller bottle. Looking at the picture I think I made a small mistake of not filling the bottles enough, but again learn, learn, learn ;)

and last picture is the finished product in my nice Wine glass:

Videos of the process:
Racking to bottle:

Finished bottling: