Above - photos from 2018 harvest and some from previous years. 

Welcome to  Spring 2019.

Here are some of the things you should be doing now, espcecially if you are in the upper Midwest, where we've had a difficult, very cold winter.

If you want to determine how your buds survived the winter these 3 sites will give you more information. Just copy and paste these into your browser. Because of our extreme past temperatures you may have to leave more buds on your vines this spring in order to have the yeield you want. Even concord vines were damaged, especially the primary buds, which are the ones that yield your main crop. And if you leave more growing but fruitless canes this year you will have more canopy to deal with also. Best of luck to you and your vines!

https://grapesandwine.cals.cornell.edu/newsletters/appellation-cornell/2012-newsletters/issue-10/bud-fruitfulness-and-yield/

https://grapesandwine.cals.cornell.edu/newsletters/appellation-cornell/2012-newsletters/issue-10/bud-fruitfulness-and-yield/

https://www.extension.iastate.edu/wine/files/page/files/winter_injury_prevention-white_-100814.pdf

http://www.canr.msu.edu/uploads/files/Vineyard_management/AssessWinterInjury.pdf

FLGP Bud Injury Testing Part 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RHJ5mY3fAs

FLGP Bud Injury Testing Part 2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWtr0jzI2Dk

If there is damage to buds you can modify your normal pruning practices and leave proportionately more buds to try to compensate for the damage and get back to a “normal” or desired crop level.

How to adjust pruning based on assessment of low temperature damage to buds.

• 0-15% dead primary buds – Do not change normal pruning practices.
• 15-35% dead primary buds – Increase number of buds retained by 35%.
• 25-50% dead primary buds – Increase number of buds retained by 50%.
• >50 dead primary buds – Minimally prune. Prune away only those nodes which will intrude into the space of adjacent vines or which will produce fruit so low that it hangs to the ground.

Above photo from left to right A shows no damage to Primary Bud (which carries by far most of the crop. Photo B shows Primary bud dead....there goes the crop. Photo C shows all the 3 buds dead....which in the midwest probably means selecting shoots coming from parts of the trunk or base of the vines to reestablish your vineand cordons for upcoming seasons. 

- 30F temperatures can do a lot of damage. If your vines were completely covered with snow, it's insulation may have helped your buds survive. 

Mitchell Vineyard Pruning class Spring 2019

This can be an important pruning class. Maybe one of the most useful one in years because of the rough winter we have had. Many of you will have lost buds, some primary buds, some more than that. You may also have trunk damage on your vines and you will need a plan for resurrection of them. You will have a chance to see how to test for damaged buds. If you haven’t looked at our website recently you might want to check out some of the links for information on grapevines and bud damage and what to do about it. https://www.mitchell-vineyard.com.

Good luck with your vines this season!

Learn how to prune your grapevines so they produce a good crop of ripe grapes, perfect for wine, eating, or juice.  Bring your questions so you can get answers to your most pressing problems.

Where:          Mitchell Vineyard                     When: Saturday April 13 2018

                      4252 Sunny Ridge Rd 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM    Rain, sun or SNOW! 

                      Oregon, WI                                 Fee: $35      each individual 

                                                     AND

Where:          Mitchell Vineyard                   When: Sunday, April 14 2018

                      4252 Sunny Ridge Rd 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM    Rain, sun or SNOW!

                      Oregon, WI                               Fee: $35      each individual

                                                $60 for both classes

Items to sell:   We have alot of extra supplies at the vineyard. Of course we have a full complement of winemaking supplies available for sell when you come to ick grapes this fall. In addition we have vineyard wire, grow tubes for your new vines, and many other items. Check out our Items to sell sidebar.

Grape Picking Schedule  for 2018. 2019 may be different dates. We will know much more about the middle of August 2019 (dates can change as ripening proceeds)

2018 GRAPE AND VINEYARD INFORMATION  

LARGE, FRUITFUL CROP OF MOST OF OUR VARIETIES THIS YEAR!

We have been blessed with a bountiful crop of just about all of our varieties. The vines have recovered well from last year's, 2017, hail storm. The lighter crop load in 2017 and the plentiful rain this Spring have resulted in our nicest grapes in a number of years. Pickiing should be very good.....

SEEDLESS GRAPES

SOMERSET  Delicious! Eat well! Eat again! This makes a delicious rose wine. We have begun eating this variety as we work in the vineyard. It is good even while still golden and as it turns pink it becomes hard to stay away from. It is very early ripening and will be ready to eat as early as mid-August. Somerset is sweet, low in acidity, and gorgeous. It also has become popular as alow-acid wine grape.   It would still be a good seedless grape for home grape lovers, but it ripens too early for our winemaking customers. We have a very nice crop this year! We have decided to plant it into Marquette, a popular and more timely grape for our winemaking customers

REDS

Frontenac  Exciting news! Leigh's Garden Winery in Escanaba, www.leighsgarden.com  Michigan won a Double Gold for his Frontenac wine made from our Frontenac grapes in 2016, at the Cold Climate Wine Competition in Minneapolis. This grape is popular for making port wines and makes a good dry red wine if the higher acidity level is dealt before or during fermentation. We have winemaking directions at the vineyard. The crop looks nice this year and is our largest in a number of years. 

Foch  This is the most widely planted red wine grape in the midwest and upper mid-west. It can be made into a variety of styles. Try it as a medium rose wine, chilled. Delicious! Make a light red wine, easy to quaff or ferment on the skins longer for more tannins and aging potential. Foch has cherry notes. We have a very large, easy to pick  crop of Foch this season. A small amount of Foch in a white wine can give you an attractive, delicious rose wine.

Marquette Our nices looking crop in a couple of years.  Thisis one of our more popular red grapes. It has more tannins than other reds and has a high sugar and alcohol content.  However it bowed to hail and pollination this season. Our crop is small. 

St Croix Full crop and juicy, juicy, flavorful and soft. This makes a very soft, early maturing, easy to drink red wine with low acidity. A good blending grape.  If you prefer mellowness in your wine this is a good choice. It is ready to drink sooner than most other reds.  We have a very nice and large crop this year.  St Croix makes a medium to full-bodied, dry, deep red wine with soft tannins and good fruit aromas, along with currant and other dried fruit flavor qualities. It is often picked at 17 - 19- % sugar for best flavor. Don't wait too long to pick this variety. It will likely be gone after September 16. Alcohol is typically around 11%   

LaCrescent is our most popular white wine.  This grape provides honey, grapefruit, and tangerine aromas and flavors. One of Mary's favorites. We have a very nice crop this year, our largest ever.. When you pick this grape make sure you pick the golden clusters, ideally on both sides. 

Prairie Star This grape is a very good eating grape besides making a fuller bodied white with very mild and sensuous notes. It brightens with subtle flowing flavors. Blends very well with LaCrescent. If you want it you should get here early on the day we begin picking it. 2018 may be our last crop of this variety. It is a nice wine grape but it varies widely in pollination and may produce a small crop most any year. We are planting those rows to Istaca, a new white grape with a low acidity level. 

AROMELLA  Wines produced from Arandell are described as densely colored, have light to moderate tannins and exhibit notes of dark berry fruit (blueberry, dark cherry), tobacco and hints of black pepper or cedar on the finish. We have a moderatecrop this season. It ripens near end of September and is in high demand.

CONCORD  What can you say? Big, purple, bursting with flavor, good for eating, juice, and wine. We have an large crop with large clusters this year. Everyone who has tasted this grape when young knows it will always be around. It is the ultimate in a very flavorful, very fruity, great tasting grape, How can you resist it? Why is it an extremely popular grape among the non-experts of wine tasting? It's because people like the flavor. It can be made dry, slightly sweet, moderately sweet, or as sweet as you might like. 

Did I mention sweet wine or fresh juice - again the Concord rules.  We expect to harvest it mid September to late September.

DELAWARE  this is a pink, light red beauty, that is tasteee. Don't wait too long on it this year.  Among our fellow employees this probably takes top spot as favorite eating grape, seedless or wine variety. It is not well known outside the Eastern US, but once you taste it you won't forget it. It is popular as a pink and spicy, sparkling wine. The Delaware grape is also a table grape variety sold in supermarkets throughout Japan, where labrusca grape varieties are popular for their fragrance.  We had an abundant crop this year and it is turning red on schedule and is beautiful.  It has gone quickly.

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