Another year at Sampson Valley Vineyard

Sampson Valley Vineyard on July 8, 2018

It has been a while since the blog has been updated, but things are going very well at Sampson Valley Vineyard.

We are currently at 3 acres of vines.   Our newest vines are Petite Pearl and Frontenac Blanc.   They are already in their 5th year, and should both have a nice crop this year.

Frontenac Blanc

2 years ago we started Odilon Ford Winery.  So now all of Sampson Valley Vineyard's grapes now go to Odilon Ford Winery to make sparkling wines! (and a couple of non sparkling wines).

We have a few other updates as well. 

• We have been moving to single high cordon for our grape vine training from Vertical Shoot Positioning (... aka VSP).  About 2/3 of the vineyard is now single high cordon.  Research shows it tends to provide larger crops, requiring less labor, with no significant quality impact compared to VSP.
• We are no longer using any glyphosate (RoundUp) under the vines (or anywhere in the vineyard.)   It is a little more work to maintain, but eliminating, a likely, unnecessary pesticide is a good thing.
• We are removing Rose Chafers by hand!   My nieces removed 10s of thousands of Rose Chafers by hand this year.   They shook them off onto tarps, used hand held vacuums, and squashed them individually.   Last year these critters (along with grape flea beetles) wiped out almost my entire crop.   This year with a lot of work, the grapes were mostly spared.

After a crazy spring, (30+inches of snow in April), we have had excellent weather in the vineyard.   Disease pressure is the lowest I have seen in several years.  Grapes are a little behind this year,  I expect harvest to be in late September, or early October.

If you are interested in trying out our sparkling wines, they are available online!

Cheers.