Vintage 2026: Veraison

We generally know when our grapes begin to ripen, but this year it seemed to be a little late until we went to the vineyard 3 days ago and found that our Auxerrois was beginning to enter veraison, which is the first stages of ripening. Axerrois is a white variety so signs of ripening include softness to the touch and a change in color from dark green to a chartreuse green. In a typical year, the Auxerrois ripens first. This year, we saw signs of bird pecking on our Auxerrois, which is a sure sign of sugar accumulation and a signal to us to get the nets in place to protect the grapes from the birds!

While we were netting the Auxerrois, we noticed that the few Cabernet Sauvignon vines that are in the Auxerrois were changing color. For a red variety like Cabernet Sauvignon, that is the visual sign of veraison. So, we went to check on our red grapes and the Cabernet Sauvignon as well as the Barbera are just beginning to change color.

The grapes are giving us our marching orders! Get the nets in place!

Racking Our Late Harvest Botrysized Chenin Blanc

On December 7, 2025 we harvested our late harvest Chenin blanc, which is a wine made from botrysized grapes. The conditions must be just so in order for this good form of botrytis fungus to infect the grapes, leaving the grape berry to look remarkably like a raisin, dehydrating and concentrating the sugars and the acids.
We brought in 6 lugs of grapes still in their organza bags and proceeded to press the juice out of the bags. We were able to get slightly more than two gallons of juice with a starting Brix of 32.
We began fermentation with a yeast called SM102 which is known to be a slow fermenter and also not able to ferment the high sugar content of the juice once the alcohol level reaches 12%.
On Monday, August 10, we racked the finished wine away from its lees (dead yeast) and were able to get two gallons of wine which we are storing before we bottle.

We dedicate half of a row in our vineyard toward this effort and the result is two gallons of racked Chenin Blanc. In the glass, the color was a golden amber and the taste was sublime. It still needs some bottle aging, but it is well on its joourney to become a true representation of a late harvest botrysized Chenin blanc.

2021 Forge Cellars Riesling

A few weeks ago, one of us was feeling the need to have fried chicken. We looked up a recipe from Ina Garten for oven friend chicken which sounded very good. The only drawback was that the chicken needed to soak overnight in buttermilk. This is a crucial step in having moist, delicious fried chicken, so satifying the craving had to be postponed for 24 hours. Ina's fried chicken is a good thing to have when time is limited because the actual frying part takes only 6 minutes, three minutes on each side of the chicken and then the chicken spends the next 40 minutes in the oven. Ina recommended 350 degrees but I think 375 gets the chicken crisper.
We made up our own flour coating for the chicken which consisted of 2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon each of onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika and 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. We didn't add any salt or pepper, but in retrospect, we would add salt and pepper to the flour mixture. Here is what it looked like:

We paired the fried chicken with a 2021 Forge Cellars Riesling. This was perfect! In November 2024, we took a short trip to Ithaca and went to Forge Cellars, this is a wine from that trip. The Caywood, Seneca Lake Riesling was dry on the palate and a perfect compliment to the fried chicken.

Fried chicken craving satisfied!

Vintage 2026: August Activities

Our summer so far: June was a month of hot and humid days followed by days of rain and July continued that trend. In looking back at July, it doesn't appear that there were too many days of rain, but what Mother Nature provided was enough to make our young shoots reach the top trellis wire and more!

When that happens, we are not in the vineyard and the vineyard will do it's own thing. In this case, the Chenin blanc will grow and reach across the alley and "hold hands".

In the photo above, the left side shows what the Chenin blanc looked like before we hedged and shoot tucked. On the right hand side shows what the alley looked like after we have hedged and shoot tucked. Ideally, the entire vineyard should look like the right side photo.
August is also when our white grapes begin to undergo the beginning of sugar accumulation called véraison in French. What this means for our work in the vineyard, is simultaneous to hedging and shoot tucking, we must also deploy our nets to protect the ripening grapes from birds and other critters that love sweet grapes.
We have a lot to do in August. We are hoping that Mother Nature is kind to us. Crossing my fingers!