Crazy season at Sampson Valley Vineyard

 Another season at Sampson Valley Vineyard has come to an end.  

We were more than a little worried after getting over 15 inches of rain from mid May to mid July.  But a long dry fall has come to the rescue.  As of today (October 26), we still haven't had a hard killing frost!  In all the years I lived in Sampson I don't recall ever having a frost this late.  A lovely by product of this is that the vines are able to show off their beautiful colors. Usually the first frost is around Oct 1 while the vines are still green, but this year they have turned a lovely yellow and orange.

Our last harvests, just last Saturday, were for our late harvest wines.  This year they made it to an incredible 28.5 brix!  Look for these to be released from Odilon Ford Winery in early spring.  In addition to our red Fallstreak (made from Frontenac), we will also have a brand new Fallstreak Blanc, made from our Frontenac Blanc grapes.

By the way this wine's name comes from Fallstreak clouds.

A big thank you to everyone who came out to help with the harvest, this year.  Every weekend the weather was incredible. And the people that came out to help were absolutely incredible.  Cheers!

New Wine release from Odilon Ford Winery: Introducing Noctilucent Ice Wine!

 Another new release from Odilon Ford Winery!  Noctilucent Ice Wine.

In the crisp air of November 2019, under the radiant glow of a full moon, we embarked on a unique journey at Sampson Valley Vineyard. Our dedicated team, including my sister, niece and nephew, braved the chilly 12ºF night (later droping to 9ºF), equipped with headlamps, to handpick the finest grapes for our special Ice Wine.

🌱 Harvested by Moonlight: The magic began as the moon rose over our vineyards, illuminating our path to select the perfect grapes, frozen naturally on the vine. This crucial step, essential for authentic Ice Wine, imbues our wine with its unique sweetness and concentrated flavors.

🔬 A Measure of Sweetness: Our initial refractometer reading showed a remarkable 46.9 brix, indicating the high sugar concentration in our grapes. After meticulous pressing throughout the night, the composite brix remained impressively over 40, a testament to the quality of our harvest.

❄️ From Grape to Ice Block: The journey from grape to wine is a marvel. After pressing, the remnants formed a stunning grape ice block - a visual representation of our dedication and the cold conditions required for Ice Wine production.

🍷 The Art of Fermentation: Our Ice Wine, Noctilucent, named after the mesmerizing, rare upper mesospheric clouds that illuminate the night sky, underwent a natural fermentation process. Using wild yeast, it matured gracefully over three years, reaching 10% alcohol while maintaining over 20 brix in residual sugar.

🌌 Inspired by Nature's Beauty: Just as noctilucent clouds are a rare and beautiful phenomenon, our Ice Wine captures this essence in a bottle. These clouds, among the coldest and rarest in our atmosphere, mirror the exclusivity and charm of our Noctilucent Ice Wine.

🥂 Taste the Elegance: We are thrilled to share the final masterpiece with you - a bottle of Noctilucent Ice Wine, embodying the purity and essence of that magical night.

Join us in celebrating this remarkable creation. Experience the taste of the moonlit night, captured in every sip of Odilon Ford's Noctilucent Ice Wine.

Dry and early start to the Season

 

It's been an early start to the season.  Bud break was in the first week of May (about a week earlier than average, and 2nd earliest in 18 years.   The vines are happy and healthy with very little disease pressure due to the dry weather.   Bloom completed by June 19, and even the Rose Chafer pressure was lower than in the past.

We have not used any Round Up/herbicide for over 5 years, so the drier weather has helped us keep down the grass and weeds beneath the vines, but I think even the mature vines could use a drink.   We also planted a small block of Itasca this year, so we are having to give those little guys a drink fairly often in this dry weather using buckets and hoses where they reach.

Crop load looks very high this year.   I think the vines went into the winter in the best condition in years after an excellent weather year in 2020.   The 2020 vintage while small, was perhaps the best quality since 2012.  By the way the 2020 Wisecco Rosé and 2020 Pet Nats are in high demand, so if you want to get your hands on one, order soon.

Very late Friday night, my son and I were out in the vineyard trying to capture some astrophotography pictures over the vineyard using my cheap smart phone.  It's amazing what these little devices can do, check out the pictures below.  There were no enhancements, or recoloring by me, just using the default astrophotography settings.

Cheers,

Jerrold

A Rose Chafer by any other name ... (would be just as bad)

Sampson Valley Vineyard,  Frontenac Blanc block on June 13, 2020

We are in growing year 18!   The vineyard is as active as ever.   We have made lots of changes in our practices since the first planting 17 years ago.

 We are at about 3 acres in size now.  Most of our grapes are Frontenac Blanc, LaCrescent, and Petite Pearl, but there several other cultivars as well.  Including LaCrosse, St Pepin, Prairie Star, Frontenac and Marquette.

We have changed our training practices and trellis a few times.  We went from Top Wire High Cordon, to VSP (vertical Shoot position), and now back to high cordon.  We are now using a modified HBrace trellis for the newer vines.

We have completely eliminated glyphosate (RoundUp) about 5 years ago. Some of the motivation for this were studies in California that have found glyphosate in wine (although probably harmless), I thought we can eliminate it.  In doing so, we have significantly added more labor into our grape production.

Right now we under the annual attack of Rose Chafers.   Since they come out during grape blossom, they are very difficult to control.  (sprays ... even some organic sprays could affect honey bees)  The most safe and effective control is manual removal.  So for the last week, we have been removing rose chafers by hand!

Some of our changes over the years have added a lot of cost, but we want any wine made from our grapes to be grown in an environmentally sustainable way.   These changes add to the price of the final product, but we think it is worth every penny.

Cheers,

Jerrold

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.

One of the reasons Harvest is later than usual this year

This picture kind of says it all.   For the first 8 months of 2014 the coldest anomaly on the planet is over Wisconsin.

At the same time, it is a bit scarey how much red and pink there is, and how little blue is on that image.

Now this is what I like to see two weeks before harvest!