Spring 2013 - cold start

May 3rd of this year we still had snow falling and at least 6 inches of fresh snow on the ground. In 2012 we were in the mid 70's for the same week.

Even with that, bud break was only about 5 days behind last year. Here is some video I took on May 26th after my Spring cleaning:

Seeing as Spring was upon us, and next year's crop had started I decided it was time to bottle the 2012 harvest.
Looking back at last year, I bottled at the end of February which in hind sight was probably a little early. but I was very impatient to try my first years vintage.

I ended up doubling my output from 2012 My first years output was 7 & 1/2 bottle. This year I ended up with 15 & 1/2 bottle.
2012 vintage was a Frontenac and Marquette blend.
2013 vintage is a Frontenac, Marquette and Frontenac Gris Vintage.
With any luck next year I should be able to make just Frontenac and Marquette vintages without blending as my crop output continues to mature.

Here is video of the finished product:
2013 - FronQuetteGris

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:

Weekend of Pressing and First Racking

Over the weekend I pressed the Must, let the juices "rest" for a bit and then racked into the Carboy's for the next phase.

2 Gallons of Must, from 6 1/2 vines, generated 1 1/2 gallons of wine. Not bad for the first year.. Hopefully as the Vines mature they will produce more grapes.. Or I'll just have to plant more vines ;-)

Here are some links to the videos:

Ready to Press:

1 1/2 gallons for the first year:

Early Harvest

Well, this is a learning year and we shall see if my mistake is a learning moment, or if the wine turns out OK.

Sunday 9/4 I checked the Brix and it was at 22.. being slightly.. OK REALLY impatient I forgot to recheck all my Notes and thought TIME TO HARVEST!!!!

Only after I had already Harvested 3 of the 4 Vines did I remember one note, which was that the stems should be brown before harvesting.. Mine were still mainly green.

Here are the grapes before harvest:

And the after Crushing "mess":

9/5... after letting the must "rest" for a day after adding Campden tablets, I added the yeast. This morning before leaving for work I checked and we have the beginning Fermentation!!

Pre-harvest Video:

Preparing to Crush:

After the Crush: 

Verasion Time and looking good!

The Marquette's and Frontenac have started their Verasion. Really great to see the "Fruits" of my labor coming to Verasion  ;-)

July of 2011

The grapes are growing! Here is a video that I made on July 5th:

Need to get out and adjust the clusters so there is only one cluster per shoot, but things are looking good to have be making wine this fall!

Spring 2011

Spring of 2011 brings hope. By May 11th there were many bud's breaking through:

This will be my 3rd growing season, and a few of the vines were 1-2 years old at the time of planting so I plan to let some of the vines produce grapes this year.

It is now June and some of the vines are looking very good:

Now it's time to watch, prune and hope...

Winter 2010

This looks to be a better winter in my opinion for the vines. Received a LOT of snow early on to provide insulation for the roots when it turns sub-zero here in January. The other morning I woke up to Hoarfrost and decided to venture out through the knee high snow to capture a few pictures.

They all look pretty good considering the wind storm and Blizzards we've had.

In a month or so I'll be venturing back out there to cut off the growth from last year to prepare them to grow for 2011. Should be harvesting grapes and making wine by the end of 2011!!

First Spring after planting

Spring came and things were looking good.. Maybe too good. Early warm weather got the vines growing early and showed me that all had survived the winter season!! WOOHOO!!!

Then, after about 3 weeks of unseasonable weather we had a Hard freeze and every single vine lost all the leaves that had grown. :(  It really sucked to see all the growth vanish over night and worry that I might lose all the vines.

After a couple weeks of worrying that I might have to replant and start over the Vines started showing signs of growth. Sure enough all the vines had survived the Hard freeze and started regrowing.

by June some even had the first signs of grapes:

To give the Vines the energy they needed to grow we had to cut all the "grapes" off, otherwise they would have grabbed the nutrients and not allowed the Vines to reach their maturity. But seeing the regrowth after the early spring and issue was a promising sign.

The rest of the summer will be spent training the Vines to the top and keep trimming away any "suckers" that developed on the vine or the ground around the vine.

Here is some video I shot late in the summer

Nearing the end of the first season fo growth

As I neared the end of the growing season I was surprisingly shocked by how far up the trellis the Vines had grown. Seeing as I got a late start I wasn't expecting much growth but almost every vine was close to the 6 foot wire.

Now came the hard part. WINTER!  I could only hope the roots had grown enough to protect themselves for the winter weather that would consume them.

The holes are dug time to build!

So after a full day of digging holes and recovering over night I was ready to "plant" the posts and set the wires.

Here is the "pre-wiring" stage: 

So now it was time to add the wires and prepare for the growth. Much of this was learn as I go but after a couple of hours I was able to get everything set.
The only thing that I need to do is cement the end posts in as when I tighten the wires it is pulling the angled posts out off the ground.

and I thought the Tilling took time and energy

Now came the time to build the trellis system to support the Vines. I researched what would be needed, purchased the items and started digging.

Man, did I learn a lesson quick. I was using a Manual post hole digger  and I needed to get at least 2 feet down and after about 6 inches ran into hard clay and rocks.

After getting one hole down the required length and half of the next one I decided to see what my other options were.

The local rental place had two different "hole diggers..The first one was $25 and the 2nd one was $50.. I went the cheap route as it looked like it would work just fine:

Man was I wrong!
Even with all my weight on it I was barely making a dent.
Spent the rest of the day switching back and forth from the Manual to gas post diggers and finding muscles I didn't even know I had.
If I ever decide to add onto my Vineyard I'll definitely spend the extra dollars to rent this bad boy:

Time to buy the Vines and start Planting

So, now that the ground was tilled up I started deciding what Vines to plant.

After a lot of researching I decided to go with 3 varieties that had been tested by the University of Minnesota.

Frontenac, a Red Wine grape - The wines produced from Frontenac typically present aromas of cherry and other red fruits.

Frontenac gris, the white wine version of Frontenac, wines present aromas of peach and apricot with hints of enticing citrus and tropical fruit

Marquette another Red wine - wines are complex, with attractive ruby color, pronounced tannins, and desirable notes of cherry, berry, black pepper, and spice on both nose and palate.

I found a place called Bermann's in Stillwater, Minnesota that had the vines. I now had my 12 vines and it was time to start planting! June 15th, 2009 and the Vines are ready to grow!!

Next up, need to build a Vineyard Trellis system to support the vines and in a few years the grapes that will grow on those vines.

Chronicling "Snoggers" Vineyard

In June of 2009 I decided to create my own personal Vineyard and make my own wine.

The first thing I had to do was determine where I wanted to build the Vineyard.
After walking my yard I determined the area in the back, which was "wasted" land as it was beyond our fence line and behind the sewer mound, would be the best place.

So, after deciding to go with 12 Vines I determined the area that would be needed and marked it off:

Next up was tilling the land to prepare the soil for planting. It took the better part of a day to get it tilled up as I made a few passes.
 We were now ready to go buy the Vines and start planting:

Morning views

As the sun rose, we enjoyed our view. The mornings are chilled, but the views are breath taking.
Relax, enjoy the sunrises and remember:
"Life is too important to be taken seriously".