Fall Harvest

TGHIO – Thank God Harvest is Over! 2007 was a difficult growing year all around. The Midwest experienced a late frost in April which destroyed new bud growth. We initially believed we had little damage here, but the yields proved otherwise on many varieties. At my personal vineyard I expected a normal crop of 4-5 tons from one variety but harvested 660 pounds! On the optimistic side, 2008 has the potential for heavy crops as plants this year did not have to expend much energy on fruit production.

We have received some very nice Frontenac, St. Vincent, Chambourcin & Lacrosse grapes this year. Depending on how processing goes, we may try to make each into a new straight varietal wine. By the way, the new Pink Festiva is available.

With the help of Dr. Murli Dharmadakari. from Iowa State University, we are revising and updating many of our lab testing procedures and equipment. I hope to also remodel the lab this winter once things slow down.

Let’s see...what’s new for equipment? We retired our trusty old 12” x 12”, 20-plate filter and replaced it with a 40cm x 40cm, 40-plate unit and tripled the capacity of our pre-bottling line cartridge filters. We have two new 1,500 gallon chiller tanks on order, and they should be here in late October. We obtained a portable (sort of) 5,000 pound capacity scale before harvest which proved very helpful for weighing macro bins and barrels. Next season I hope to move toward harvesting with more macro bins and make a hydraulic dump unit.

We are running quite low on many of our bottled wines, so I hope the fermentation goes well. Stop in and see what’s new.