More Harvest numbers from Sept. 11, 2010

We harvested Prairie star, Marquette, frontenac, and the remaining LaCrescent Here are the harvest numbers:

Prairie Star 19.2
LaCrescent 20.5
The Prairie Star and LaCrescent were blended, so I only did a ph and TA on the blend which was
ph 3.30 ta* 11 g/L

Marquette 24.2 ph 3.18 ta* 12.5g/L
Frontenac 23.2 ph 3.16 ta 14 g/L

*The TAs may be a bit off, since my Sodium Hydroxide was old.

The prairie star and lacrescent, would have had much higher sugars, but almost half of the prairie star and lacrescent were eaten by birds, and they chose the ripest bunches.

Foch and some LaCrescent harvested

One of the wineries that uses my grapes in their wines, picked the Foch and LaCrescent Sunday (9/5).

The weather was gorgeous. Sunny & dry in the low 70s. Perfect picking conditions.

The Foch was in excellent condition. The lacrescent was not quite as good, but the downy mildew hit those harder. Overall I'm happy with the quality. Next Weekend, more lacrescent, Marquette, Frontenac, and prairie star scheduled to be picked.

Jack helped too.

Today's (Sept 2) Brix report

Only 4 varieties were checked:

LaCrescent 20.8

Foch 20.2

LaCrosse 16.3

St. Pepin 19.7

We will be picking foch and La Crescent this Sunday. (already sold)

Some varieties ripening quickly (Aug 29 Brix)

I was out in the vineyard yesterday, and collected some berry samples to test sugars.

Marquette and lacrescent are looking good. By taste, I think the acids are in the right range.

Only Lacrosse seems to be strugling to get sugars up .... maybe over-cropped?

Marquette. 24.0
Prairie star. 18.6
Lacrosse. 14.5
Lacrescent park. 20.3
Lacrescent vineyard 3. 23.3
Foch. 18.8
Frontenac 23.5
St pepin. 19.4

Latest brix numbers from August 22

From this afternoon:

St Pepin - 16.3

La Crosse - 11.9

La Crescent (5th year vines) - 18.9

La Crescent (4th year vines) - 20.1

Foch - 17.4

Prairie Star - 16.6

Frontenac- 21.5

Marquette - 21.0

Looks like a few varieties may be ready labor day weekend.

Veraison has begun .... in July!

Veraison started July 30-31 in Marquette and Frontenac. A couple of weeks ahead of schedule. Foch are not quite there yet. Looks like an early harvest ... probably the end of August or very early September.

Note: I will not have sufficient quantities this year for commercial wineries, but any home wine makers should be able to find plenty of nice grapes this year. All varieties of hybrids (lacrescent, lacrosse, st pepin) available at $0.75/lb (in any quantity.) I also have some very limited quantities of prairie star, foch, marquette, and frontenac.

If you're interested in buying pick-your-own wine grapes email info@sampsonvalley.com or call 331-grapes1 (331-472-7371) to schedule a picking.

New Grape picker

Jack and Alexandra

We got a new grape picker on Friday. No, not a mechanized one, but the kind that eats as many as she picks. My new little girl is named Alexandra, and I'm sure she will be helping out in the vineyard in no time.


P.S. I haven't been updating the blog much this year, but this doesn't mean I've stopped working in the vineyard. I've just been way too busy this year to update the blog with the latest news. I hope to find the time for more updates in the coming weeks and months. I mean how hard can having to children under 16 months be? I should have lots of time.....