Assessing and Managing Cold Damage

I found a downloadable PDF called Assessing and Managing Cold Damage in Washington Vineyards, written by Michelle Moyer, Lynn Mills, Gwen Hoheisel, and Markus Keller. It is a 12 page document that gives information on how to make an assessment of bud damage in the vineyard prior to pruning.

Here is a photo showing how to assess trunk damage.

There are also two YouTube Videos made by Hans Walter-Peterson of the Cornell Cooperative Extension on how to do field testing for bud injury prior to pruning. Here are the links:
Bud Injury Testing Part 1
Bud Injury Testing Part 2
Perhaps, too late for this year, but worth remembering for the future.

U Conn Extension Information on Grapes

I found some comprehensive information on wine grape growing when I was Googling tall grafts. I was somewhat puzzled because the result took me to the University of Connecticut Extension Center, but when I tried to go to the Extension Center Home page, I couldn't find the information on grapes. It wasn't straightforward. After a bit of poking around, I found the link to grapes under the Resources Tab, but I had to scroll way down the page to find it.

There is some good information there, so here is the link:
      Extension Information on Grapes
There is also an "Ask the Experts" function, links to informative Webinars and much, much more information. The URL is http://www.extension.org/grapes and there must be some underlying code that takes data from the Internet and collates it to provide information pertinent to your particular region in the U.S.
Check it out!

2004 Jacky Truchot Morey St. Denis Les Blanchards

A few nights ago, my husband and I had a simple dinner of French baguette, cheese and sausage and had the 2004 Morey St. Denis Les Blanchard. We have been drinking Pinot noir from places other than Burgundy, so I told my husband, "This is a real Burgundian Pinot, but I repeat myself." It was inky, cloudy purple and the nose was a bit of barnyard, but it had a wonderful flavor and went well with our light fare. In the past, we have relied on importers such as Kermit Lynch and Neal Rosenthal for our wine purchases and I had no idea that my husband had purchased this wine from Weygandt wine. We've also been very privileged to do some barrel samplings and meeting winemakers recently, and I really like that aspect of knowing the story behind the wines. I wished that I knew more about Jacky Truchot and did some search online and found a short biography of Truchot on Burgschnauzer.com.

Farm Credit East's Winery Benchmark Program

We are learning how we can get help from our state institutions such as the USDA-NRCS. We recently came across a video that shows how Farm Credit East can help established wineries. Gregg McConnell explains the details of the Farm Credit East Winery Benchmark program in this video which is about 2.5 minutes long:

A History of Connecticut Wine

Since we are getting into the vineyard and winery business, I thought it behooved us to read this book: A History of Connecticut Wine Vineyard in Your Backyard written by Eric D. Lehman and Amy Nawrocki, published in 2011.
I found the book to be very interesting and well researched. The authors began the book with the early colonists who found wild grapes and made wine. Therefore, one could claim that the history of wine in Connecticut can be traced back to the earliest colonial times. By the mid-1800s there were enough grape growers that a Grape Growers and Vintners' convention was held in Meriden.
The Temperance movement and Prohibition took a toll on grape growing. Attempts to grow grapes in Connecticut saw a resurgence in 1974 with the planting of Chardonnay and Riesling by Sherman Haight in Litchfield. There is information on all of the thirty-one wineries currently operating in Connecticut as well as a map and the location of the wineries at the end of the book. There also are interviews with many of the winery owners and winemakers. If you are interested in learning more about the passion, dedication and philosophy espoused by the winegrowers in Connecticut, this is a good read.

Vine Balance

I wanted to understand more about vine balance so I was doing a little online research and came across a clear and concise presentation called Dormant Grapevine Pruning which includes Basic Pruning Concepts and Grapevine Anatomy and Vine Balance. The presentation takes about 24 minutes and it is given by Fritz Westover, Viticulture Research Associate from Virginia Tech's Cooperative Extension. Some training systems that Fritz covers include Vertical Shoot Position (VSP), Smart-Dyson, Geneva Double Curtain and Lyre systems.

Fritz's take home message was about how to use pruning to achieve vine balance, the balance between vegetative growth and crop load which could help in vine cold hardiness.

1. Dormant Grapevine Pruning
Addendum: As of 2006, Fritz Westover moved from Viginia Tech to assume the viticulture extension role with Texas A&M University with responsibilities in the Gulf region of Texas.

Meeting with Javier Cruz of NRCS

We recently met with Javier Cruz of the Connecticut Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) on a beautiful day up on our land. We should have done this long ago, or as soon as Joan Nichols mentioned it way back last winter. Javier explained to us how the NRCS can help us with good conservation practices as we set up our vineyard and accompanying buildings. One of the programs that the NRCS has is the identification of the trees in the forest on our land by a Connecticut state certified forester. This is important to us because we do have to open up a little of the land to the east of the north field in order to get more sunlight into the field. In the process, we want to know if we can save the trees that we would have to cut down for future use in the construction of our buildings. The CT NRCS can also help us with irrigation of the vineyard. This would involve a CT certified irrigation engineer. Javier gave us a one page sheet of instructions that we have to follow in order to be eligible for the programs that fall under the NRCS purview. It really would behoove us to form a Limited Liability Company (LLC) as soon as possible, so that we can get a Federal Tax ID to take advantage of the NRCS programs.

A Hedonist in the Cellar by Jay McInerney

Reading Jay McInerney's book, A Hedonist in the Cellar reminds me of a Greek word called "pikilia". When my husband I went to Greece, we had a plate of "pikilia" or "assortment" at the foot of the Acropolis in the Plaka area. Our host, also used the word, "pikilia" to describe the high throughput sightseeing that we were doing in Greece when we went to see many of the major ruins in the span of 10 days. You can read McInerney's book from cover to cover, which is what I did the first time, but you can also select little stories to read which have such engaging titles that it pulls you in to find out what its all about. The stories are short and they all have some interesting point to make. For example, "The Shedistas of Santa Barbara" are about a group of people making wine in sheds! Kris Curran is mentioned as an example of a shedista---she makes Sea Smoke! McInerney also has a story about one of our favorite wines, Lopez de Heredia. There are stories on what to drink with Asian cuisine and also what to drink with asparagus. I was intrigued by the story called "Monk Business The Secrets of Chartruese". I had never heard of Chartruese and this story piqued my imagination. I think someone like Dan Brown should write a book about it, a la his "The Da Vinci Code". This was a fun read.

Ontario Wine Awards

Recently, we shared a bottle of Natalie Spytkowsky's 2009 Sussreserve Riesling with our friends and they really enjoyed it. This allowed us to relive our visit to Ontario. We had such fun, met so many wonderful people and learned a lot about quality wine.
The 2012 Ontario Wine Award Results are in and we learned that Natalie's Rosewood Estate wines have won awards, wines from Southbrook Estate Winery have also won awards and Exultet's 2010 Blessed Chardonnay took gold for the second year in a row. We purchased a bottle of 2010 Blessed Chardonnay and are anxiously awaiting the appropriate time to feature the wine. Not only that, Andrzej Lipinski was named Winemaker of the year! The wines from Ontario are something special. Congratulations to all!

Brown Marmorated Stink Bug---New Vineyard Pest

At our recent Connecticut Master Gardener Hot Topics seminar, one of the new pests spotted in the state is the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug or Halyomorpha hayls (Stål). The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug can be distinguished from other stink bugs by its speckled appearance, white stripe on the antennae and the black and white banding on its abdomen. The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug feeds on a wide range of fruits and vegetables beginning in late May and early June.¹

An excellent seminar given by Tracy C. Leskey from the USDA-ARS can be found here: Sudden Emergence of Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, Halyomorpha hayls (Stål), as a Serious Agricultural Pest in the Mid-Atlantic.
The seminar takes approximately 80 minutes to view. It is a narrated slidedeck with embedded videos and very worthwhile to view.
How Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs can affect grapes and wine: The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug has a long stylet which it uses to pierce the grape. The juice from the grape can ooze out leading to infection by bacteria and fungi causing rot. During the question and answer portion of the seminar, Tracy mentioned that there was an occurrence of a winegrower who had to throw out his wine due to stinkbug taint. When they went back to determine how many stinkbugs it took to have a discernible taint, it was found that as little as 10 stinkbugs found in one lug contributed to the stinkbug taint in the juice.
A printable poster identifying the key features of the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB), as well as look alikes can be found here: INHS UIUC Stink Bug Poster

1. How to Identify the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug

Writing a Business Plan

We're ordered the vines and have done the research, so the rubber is hitting the road and now it's time to get down to business! Specifically, writing a business plan. My husband and I had a breakfast meeting this morning where we decided how to divvy up the work. This is all relatively new territory since the UC Davis courses didn't cover this topic.

We're proceeding in the following way:
I went to the Small Business Administration site and had to fill out a registration which allowed me access to various and comprehensive information which I highly recommend.
A good template can be found here: Writing a Business Plan: Example for a Small Premium Winery. Another place to find information regarding how to write a business plan can be found at this link: Winery Start-up & Business Plan Workbook.
I'll be posting more on our effects on writing a business plan on this blogsite so please return to read about our progress.

Knucklehead Red---It's a Family Endeavor

When we went to Exultet Winery on Prince Edward County, we were surprised, delighted and quite honored to receive from Mario and Joseph, a bottle of their 2011 vintage called Knucklehead Red. We wanted to feature the wine with the appropriate meal and that event occurred recently, when our friend invited us over for a dinner of aged beef tenderloin. We disguised the wine in a brown paper bag and asked our friends to guess what it was. One of our friends correctly guessed that it was Pinot noir grape, but nice and clean. The color was a clear and sparkling garnet in the glass. When it was revealed that the wine was indeed Pinot noir, but made by two boys under the age of 12, our friend said he would like to be on the wine list for future efforts from the Knucklehead brand. We all enjoyed the wine! I think that it just goes to show that you don't need to know the science or the technology of making wine, you just have to have the passion and the love, to make delicious, honest wine. Mario and Joseph, you have fans! We are looking forward to your future releases!

May 2012 Update on Tall Grafts at Mercier

We feel very fortunate that we have Mercier Vineyards working on creating our tall grafted vines. Recently, Sebastian sent us photos of how the tall grafts were doing.

We had asked Mercier if they could provide us with rootstock of approximately 30-inches. We were a little concerned that the rootstock would be crooked but Sebastian assured us that he would employ only the best grapevine chiropractors so that the rootstock would be as straight as possible. Approximately 6 inches of the rootstock, including the newly emerging roots will be planted in the soil, but the rest of the rootstock, approximately 24-inches will be part of the tall graft that will be the trunk of the vine. Our research on tall grafted vines began with a visit with our state viticulturalist, William Nail in October of 2010. He showed us some of his tall grafted Chardonnay growing at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station’s Lockwood Farm in Hamden. The tall grafts that Dr. Nail used came from Rob Russell at Westport Rivers. A 2009 progress report written by Dr. Nail can be found here: Effects of Graft Union Height on Vine Performance and Winter Survival.

To expand our knowledge of how tall grafts perform in our area, we met with two viticulturalists in our area, the Southeastern New England AVA who have tall grafts planted in their vineyards. Close Encounter with Tall/High Grafts was our first field trip to see tall grafted vines in 2011. Next came a visit to Westport Rivers to meet with Rob Russell. We visited Mercier Vineyards for the first time in September, 2011, A Visit to Mercier Grapevine Nursery and again in January, 2012 The Clones are Coming.
The photo to the right shows the newly emerging leaves of the scion on our tall grafted vine in the Mercier Nursery. Sebastian and Mercier have kept us in the loop regarding the progress of the tall grafted vines. They have answered all our questions, provided us with additional information on tall grafts, and sent us photos of our tall grafts-in-the-making. We are confident that our vines are in good hands at Mercier!

Sparkling Pointe---One Last Stop Before the Ferry

I am thinking of the clever saying that Leap Frog has on their wine label: "Time's fun when you're having flies", for us, "time was flying because we were having fun" on our short trip to Long Island. Steve Mudd recommended that we go to Sparkling Pointe that produces methode champenoise sparkling wine and we thought we had just enough time to stop there before catching the ferry at Orient Point---step on the brakes!!!! When we went into the tasting room, we were met by Mike who asked if we wanted a tasting, "Yes, indeed." We mentioned that Steve Mudd and Russell Hearn said that we must stop here so Mike asked us if we were in the business.

"Not yet", we said, "although we've ordered our vines and will receive them in the spring of 2013". The Sparkling Pointe sparklers were crisp and had good depth of flavor. As we neared the end of the tasting, Mike asked us if we wanted to see the cellar. "Yes!, but we do have a 5 p.m. ferry to catch". Mike said he would give us the 2 minute tour. In the cellar we met Gilles and cellar Mike (unfortunately not in the photo) and Gilles and my husband got into a discussion about growing grapes in Connecticut.

Gilles wanted to show us around but we demurred saying that we needed to catch a ferry. Gilles said that we have at least 15 minutes, but when we looked at the time, it was 4:40, so reluctantly, we said goodbye, but not before purchasing 2 bottles each of the 2006 Blanc de Blancs and the 2007 Brut---good stuff! We really enjoyed the tasting and for us, Mike's friendliness and enthusiasm, as well as Gille's interest in our project, made it a very memorable and enjoyable experience. We definitely need to go back to Long Island and are already making plans. We've convinced our friends that they should play hooky from work and come with us to Long Island for a day trip.

Premium Wine Group and Russell Hearn

Our last stop on our quick trip to Long Island was with Russell Hearn of Premium Wine Group. This was a hastily arranged visit so we were very glad that Russell could see us. It was a little past noon when we arrived. Going in through the back gate, we looked at all of the equipment and saw a EuroSelect. This is the destemmer/crusher that Darryl Fields showed us when we went to Jordan, Ontario. Russell mentioned that 2011 was the first year that they used the EuroSelect and they used the function where the grapes were selectively triaged for the best grapes. He said that it was a godsend in a year where the bunches came with more rot than they were used to seeing.

The Premium Wine Group provides state-of-the-art facilities, equipment, and personnel for the making of fine wines. This interests us because they have all of the equipment, including a EuroSelect, they also supply labor and space. What we would need to provide would be the grapes, yeasts, barrels, bottles, labels, and explicit winemaking instructions. We wondered how much of a hands-on experience we would get. We wanted to start in May, with grapes from the Southern Hemisphere, specifically, Chile, but I don't think this is feasible at PWG since they are set up to operate their equipment during the fall harvest. We need to rethink our plan.

Steve Mudd does Laser Guided Planting

The following morning, we went to visit Steve Mudd to ask about laser guided planting. We met Steve in his office and sat and talked with him for about two and half hours! At the moment, Steve is trying to dissuade us from planting our vineyard at 4 x 7. He said that 4 x 7 is too dense and he has seen where this does not really produce better quality grapes, moreover, we would need to get all kinds of small equipment to navigate the narrow rows. We threw him another curve ball when we said that we have ordered tall grafted vines and he asked us about the merit of ordering tall grafted vines. Steve also gave us a lot of tips like:

• establish a farm plan with our local Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
• get soil analysis done with Kinsey Agricultural Services, Inc. in Charleston, MO
• get custom blends for soil amendments from Fieldworks in Rochester, MA
• get petiole and leaf analyses from A & L Eastern Laboratories in Richmond, VA
• contact Steve Hart Lumber Company in Oregon for non-CCA treated posts

Steve showed us the laser guided planting machine and we decided that it could handle the tall grafts. Our visit with Steve came to an end. It was clear that we just tapped the tip of Steve's immense iceberg of knowledge for establishing a vineyard.

Meeting Charles Massoud One Year Later

My husband and Charles both think that it has been two years since we last met, but it's really only been one year. We first met Charles last year just around this time and I wrote up a blogpost: Visit with Charles Massoud at Paumanok Winery. This past year has been filled with all kinds of activities for us as we try to get our land prepared to receive 6,000 vines from Mercier Vineyards in Vacaville, CA, so it may seem like two years. Charles was as welcoming as ever and we sat down with him and he poured us tastings of his wines made in 2011. The year 2011, will go down as a challenging year on the East Coast. But the places that we have gone to taste the 2011 vintage, reveals that the hallmark of a knowledgeable, talented winemaker is to take what the year gives you and make something stellar from it. The Paumanok wines are a fine example of knowledge and talent in practice. Charles let us taste two different clones of Chardonnay and clones in fact, do make a difference. The wine from the Muscat clone had a fruitier aroma and flavor than the other Chardonnay made from a different clone. Then, we were treated to a barrel tasting and were able to compare two different styles of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and the first vintage of the small berried Cabernet Sauvignon that Charles had told us about during our first visit. Here was another example where clones again made a difference. This Cabernet Sauvignon showed amazing depth of flavor although the fruit came from three year "young" vines. Our short visit with Charles came to an end since we did have another appointment to keep. We returned the following day to make some purchases and found Charles in the middle of making preparations for bottling and planting another 8 acres of vines.

2011 Rosewood Estates Riesling

When we visited Natalie Spytkowsky at Rosewood Estates Winery, one of the wines that we tried was the 2011 Rosewood Estates Mima's Block Riesling. We purchased a bottle (sadly, only one bottle), and had it with dinner recently. When my husband brought me my glass, there was an unmistakable aroma of Riesling emanating from the glass and even my seriously challenged nose could identify the varietal. The flavor was all of the goodness of citrus and stone fruit with a serious, but delightful dose of acidity that made it refreshingly delicious! The VQA on the label stands for Vintners Quality Alliance, it is a regulatory organization that sets standards for quality wines. The wines from the Niagara Escarpment in Ontario are, to borrow a phrase, "Seriously Cool"!

66 Gilead --- A Distillery in Prince Edward County

We walked the short distance from the Carriage House Cooperage to 66 Gilead. The tasting room was open again so we walked up to the bar and we were met by Sophia and Amanda.

This is the first distillery tasting that we have been to. We're doing this tasting because we have a friend who makes the best mixed drinks and we're thinking of bringing him a bottle of handcrafted vodka. We tasted rye vodka and wheat vodka straight up and then with a mix that included fresh squeezed lime. I liked the rye vodka straight up but when it was mixed, I liked the wheat vodka. We bought the whiskey vodka and gave it to our friend. Recently, he told my husband that he has been drinking the vodka and absolutely loves it! Their website mentions that the tasting room is in the historic Cooper-Norton house. It is a second empire house built in 1874 by the wealthy Hops grower, Bert Cooper, during the County’s Barley Days. Our visit to 66 Gilead capped a week long stay in Ontario which began with a Winery Sanitation Workshop in Portland, New York. As we drove home, we both remarked that we had met so many wonderful people and gone to so many places that it seemed as if we were away from home for a much longer time.