Mitchell Vineyard News Update:

Having had the Vineyard for many years, We have decided to retire! The Vineyard is now up FOR SALE!

We have a very nice couple who are quite interested and the sale is proceding.

We expect to have the fine grapes again in 2025 as we've been having for well over 40 years.

(Please scroll down for the Varieties and Prices

And

WE ARE NOW CLOSED FOR 2024. WE ARE OUT OF GRAPES AND WE HOPE VERY MUCH TO BE OPEN FOR 2025. PLEASE FOLLOW OUR WEBSITE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION!

As of OCTOBER 10, here's the Grape Update:

Vineyard, grape and wine lovers. and those who love we are closed for the season of 2024. Please visit us net year!

We have had another very unusual year. 2024 has been hot and wet, until recently.  This has meant a lot of labor on our part. Some we've enjoyed, others we've had to deal using our youth and vitality as we dealt with the heat and humidity to just "getter done!" FORTUNATELY THHE PAST SEVERAL WEEKS HAVE BEEN BEAUTIFUL!

If you have any questions it is best to access us through our email address:  dgmitchell25@gmail.com.  

Please check our Website at: www.mitchell-vineyard.com

                        Important Vineyard News

WE ARE NOW CLOSED FOR 2024. SEE YOU IN 2025!

* If we pick the grapes for you we add .25/lb.  For large orders we need several days advance notice to be able to hire pickers.

(We need the lead time due to labor shortages   It covers our extra costs!)

Concord    OUR VERY PORULAR PURPLE GRAPE! It tastes great, makes wonderful juice and a very popular mildy sweet wine.   It often ripens about mid-September. and you can pick them faster than you can eat them.   Children, and some adults, can find them difficult to resist!   

Marquette. What a delicious wine grape!  This variety may have the longest length of flavor in the mouth. It gives the base of structure  upon which other grapes in a blend will add their additional flavors.

Petite Pearl   is a red grape variety, bred by Tom Polcher in Hugo, Minnesota in 1996. It is highly-regarded for its ability to withstand temperatures down to -32°F (-35°C). In comparison to other cold-hardy grape varieties, Petite Pearl is abundant in tannins, producing wines with structure and fullness. It is sometimes used on it's own as a grape but is usually blended with Marquette or Foch to add flavoid dimensions.

Foch  is a red grape variety, which is becoming popuoar enough that you will want to get some of this variety for your wine when it is ripe. It's popularity to use as a Foch alone wine is increasing rapildy. We have a smaller crop than usual though still abundunt,  We hope to have enough for those of you who also use it to provide character to your other varieties It is commonly used to provide depth of red color to other varieties. Marechal Foch makes a deeply colored wine with earthy characters as well as some jammy, dark-fruit flavors. Maréchal Foch is classified as a teinturier, a kind of red grape variety where both the skin and flesh of the grape is a deep red color. This makes for deeply colored wines, and Maréchal Foch is often employed in blends to enhance color.  It is a very popular grape for blending with Marquette and Petite Pearl to make a tasty, balanced wine. Combined with superior cold hardiness and disease resistance this is a very popular grape to make a red wine. It's great for the upper Midwest, Michigan, and New England. A very small of Foch can add color to a Concord wine.

Frontenac  This grape is very 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 is a little small thatn last year,  but there are some fine clusters. We have 4 rows of them. 

                                 Decreasing Wine Acidity

Here are some ways to decrease the acidity in your wine if needed.

We also carry information on tis at the vineyard during picking season.

1. Blend, with a low acid wine, e.g. St Croix

2. Dilute Add water to taste. It will dilute the flavor and acidity.

3. Malolatic Fementatation. You will need a malolactic lculture for this! It improves mouthfeel, is used in most red wines and works well in many white wines also.

4. Cold Stabilization this means chilling the wine prior to bottling. It preceiptates out excess tartaric acid, which settles out into the bottom of our glass fermenter. You rack off this sediment and have your lower acid wine.

5. Chemical neutralization. Potassium or Calcium Carbonate can be used ro remove wine acids. It is usually done before fermentation so as not to reduce aromatic compounds in the wine. "Acidex Super K" can alse be used to lower the acid in your wine.

                Winemaking Supplies & Equipment                                  

We have a lot of winemaking supplies to purchase at the vineyard, including:

Yeasts, nutrients, other winemaking chemicals, jugs, plastic pails,  in various sizes. We are not a full-time wine and beer shop, but we carry the essentials. 

Vineyard Items to sell:   

Aluminum  picking trays, vineyard wire (and lots of it), in various lengths and sizes, trellis and vine equipment including wire catches, rubber tying bands, various VSP clips, GDC arms..all at very good prices. call us at 608 225 9210

We also have now a Howard Rototiller, 6' long

It can rototill anything. Works on a 3 pt hitch. $300

Our Aluminum Picking trays are just $15 each. Can be used for strawberries, grapes, anything you can fit in them. These will never rust. Will last as long as you do!

Variety Description

Concord...a very good sized crop of this tasty purple immensely popular grape variety.

Delaware.  this very popular light red grape which makes a nice wine and is delicious eating has a moderate crop. It is a popular variety to just pick and immediately eat! The clusters we have are very nice though. It will go early. So be prepared. 

Foch...we have a large sized crop of this versatile red variety with great depth of color. It has become very popular as the basis for the blending of very good wines. Quite easy picking. It has become very popular in blends with Marquette and Petite Pearl. 

Frontenac...one of our largest crops of this variety. So, if you like a sweet wine or a port this would be the grape to have. Because ot its higher acidity it makes wonderful sweeter wine.

Itasca.... we have our largest crop thus far.  But the supply is still limited. It is a new white with a low acidity so it should produce a white wine that is easy to make since it may need little or no acid reduction.

LaCrescent  . a very popular white...we have a good sized crop, but is popular so goes quickly. it makes very nice off-dry white wines. We have a nice crop in 2024.

Marquette...this very popular variety has a very nice crop. We have tried to increase our amount each year to satisfy our customers.

Petite Pearl...We have our largest crop so far of this shy bearing red grape. This late season red should ripen a bit early this year as we have controlled its quantity to have that happen. 

St. Croix....this early picking, soft to the taste, soft, red grape looks very good this year. If you liked it in the past be sure to get on it early. Beautiful red color. Picking in late August 2024.

St. Pepin white. This vine has been more and more popular . However it is a shy bearing variety. It makes a nice dry or semi-dry wine.

Crimson Pearl  The grapevines are cold hardy resistant and can survive to -23 °F as observed in 2019 in Iowa, and they are reliable in Zone 4b (temperature below -30 to -20 °F) (Jones McKee, 2015). Similar to Petite Pearl, Crimson Pearl is resistant to diseases. The budbreak is rather late in the spring, and the grapevine has a neat growth habit with moderate vigor. The budbreak is rather late in the spring, and the grapevine has a neat growth habit with moderate vigor. Our crop this year is just getting started, so it is quite limited in quantity. 

 2024 GRAPE AND VINEYARD INFORMATION  

 MORE INFO IN AUGUST 2024!

This may be a very nice year. The vines have responded to the sun and heat with a very nice crop. We are hopeful they will meet your expectations. We appear to have been fortunate to survive the 80 degree temps followed by the frost and sun. It has resulted in some extra work, but we are doing it and looking forward to the harvest. You may see a few more weeds beneath the grapes this season. This is due to the persistant rain followed by more rain. We are happy to have the current sunny days.

WHITES

 Please remember that pressing white grapes can take a while. Please help us by having your whites or reds ready for crushing and pressing (of whites) at least 1.5 hours before closing time. Reds are almost always fermented on skins before pressing. This makes a fuller bodied and more highly flavored wine than just fermenting on the juice, as is done with whites.

SEEDLESS GRAPES

We have no seedless table grapes. They ripen early and the birds take advantage of that fact.

However, our seeded grapes taste as good. We eat the a lot and can't wait until they ripen.

As for the seeds, one can chew them ( a ripe grape has crunchy, tasty seeds), swallow them, as do birds, or see how far you can blow them out of one's mouth. 

REDS

Frontenac  This grape is very 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 one of our largest of this variety in the past several years.

Foch  A very nice, large  crop this year! We think you will be happy at the ease of picking. 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 and is a very good grape for being the base wine in any blend.  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 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 We now have 5 nice rows of this variety.This is one of our more popular red grapes. It has more tannins than other reds and has a high sugar and alcohol content. We have a larger than average, nice crop of it this year. We have a very nice Marquette in 2024.

Petite Pearl  This season of 2024 it is very nice, with a plentiful crop of large clusters.  Low acid levels make Petite Pearl ideal for northern red winemaking. It makes a standalone varietal wine and also serves as a valuable blending component. The wine has a dark red garnet color. It shows complexity in aroma and flavor that can be easily shaped by yeast selection and blending. The grape chemistry of Petite Pearl has been lauded as being vinifera-like (Brix ranging from 22-24.5, pH of 3.3-3.6 and titratable acidity of 6 — 7 g/L.) In addition, the wine has no labrusca-like or 'hybrid” aromas or flavors..

It is a later season red..so patience is required to pick it at it's best. This year it will be mid-season.

St. Croix  Nice crop this year 2024! juicy, juicy, flavorful and soft. Increasingly popular! 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 early September. Alcohol is typically around 10- 11%   

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WHITES

 Please remember that pressing white grapes can take a while. Please help us by having your whites ready for pressing at least 1.5 hours before closing time. Reds are usually fermented on skins before pressing. This makes a fuller bodied and flavored wine than just fermenting on the juice, as is done with white wine.

LaCrescent   This grape makes our most popular white wine.  It provides honey, grapefruit, and tangerine aromas and flavors. 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. We have rigorously pulled leaves around these clusters to get as much sun as possible on each and every one.

Istaca This is a very populare white variety white variety. We have our largest crop so far in 2023 and we hope more of you will have a chage to try some.  Itasca produces a dry, or sweet,  white wine that is light yellow to straw in color and has aromas of pear, quince, violet, melon, minerals, and subtle honey notes. Itasca has exhibited lower acidity and higher sugar levels. It is considered a very hardy, disease resistant cultivar expected to reduce spray inputs. It should survive - 20 F temperatures.

For winemaking the acid is low, needing no adjustment, the sugar is high.  Have fun with this newer variety this year. Our 2024 crop is our largest of this fine white variety. It doesn't last long.  It is also very popular with birds! Be sure to keep your Campden TAblets (Potassium Metabisulfite) up to recommendations so oxidaton of this lower acid white is prevented!

St Pepin  This makes either a dry wine (one of my favorites) or a slightly sweet wine. It is having a nice crop for this light bearing grape. Makes a very fruity white wine. The grape has low acidity and moderate sugar content. Because it is thick skinned it is popularly used to make an "ice" wine. The crop looks good, but we have just 1 row, and the demand will be high. However, we cannot not save it here for ice wine. If you have your own grapes and want to put in the effort, give it a try. We wouldn’t mind tasting your effort if it works out.

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TWO VERY POPULAR SPECIAL GRAPES  CONCORD AND DELAWARE!  YEA!

CONCORD  What can you say? Big, purple, bursting with flavor, good for eating, juice, and wine. We have a 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 is because people like the flavor. It can be made dry, slightly sweet, moderately sweet, or as sweet as you might like. Remember, fermenting on the skins and then pressing afterwards will give you more of the famouns Concord PURPLE color! Of course this is your decision. 

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

DELAWARE   2024 will find it back to its usually fine place in our list of varieties. 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.