Welcome to the Summer 2007 edition of the Blue Door Vineyard Newsletter! I hope this newsletter finds you in good health and good spirits. It’s been awhile since my last newsletter, so there is plenty to talk about. Read on and enjoy!

Weather

The weather in my part of the world never ceases to amaze me. We have experienced drought-like conditions for the better part of 2007. In the last two weeks however, the rain has finally arrived. At my last check, we are ahead of average for the month of August. While the dryness has been tough, the vines have been healthy with minimal mildue and fungus disease. Look for another update as harvest nears to find out how things ended up for the year weather-wise.

Summer Maintenance

My maintenance tasks have been fairly minimal this summer. I’ve tried to stay on top of keeping the vines and shoots growing in an orderly fashion. In addition, at this time of the year I put nets on the vines to protect the fruit from marauding birds. Last season I was not able to net the fruit and lost most of the crop over a two day period. Here are some other tasks I have ahead of me:

• clean out weeds from under vines
• stay on top of tying up the vines
• monitor ripening grapes
• reapply powdered rodent repellent

There will be more tasks to be accomplished post-harvest - look for those in the next newsletter.

Additionally, because I have multiple varieties of grapes each ripening at different times, I will likely freeze some of the earlier-ripening fruit until the later ones are ripe. Then they will all end up together in the same fermenter. I’ll keep notes about the progression of the wine as it ferments and share them in upcoming newsletters.

Vine Status

In this section of the newsletter I try to provide an update on the progress and status of each variety I grow. I’ve found this helpful for me as I plan out the evolution of my vineyard. I hope you find it interesting reading.

Valiant - one Valiant vine has done ok this season. It has enough fruit to make it worth putting the nets on it. It’s fruit will end up in the same fermentor with the rest of the grapes. I really need to evaluate the future of these vines in my vineyard. Each year they seem setback a little bit more - mainly due to disease and animals chewing their roots.

Prairie Star - I am excited to harvest my first (albeit small) crop of Prairie Star fruit this fall. These vines have done quite well over the past two seasons and I only expect their production to improve.

Frontenac - After replacing one Frontenac vine, the rest of the vines have done well. They bear the heaviest crop right now among any of their vineyard relatives. I am slowly working to retrain a couple of them that grew out of whack last season.

Marechal Foch - The Foch vines have had a good summer. They didn’t suffer their normal late frost issues of past seasons. But still they seem to struggle a little bit. Maybe it’s the grower!

Sabrevois - After a great year last year, three of these vines have had problems this season and I think it’s due to having their roots chewed by gophers. I continue to try alternative methods of protecting the vines from rodents, but to date, nothing has been that successful.

Marquette - Two of the three Marquette vines made it through the winter and seem to be ok. I’m doing what I can to help them end this season strong in order to make it through the winter. Once these two get better established and produce fruit, I’ll begin evaluating their ability to produce quality fruit in my vineyard. If so, I’ll begin adding more of them.

Wine

As mentioned above, I plan to make a small batch of wine out of a mix of grapes from all the varieties I grow this fall. I expect to produce about 2 gallons of wine from that batch. In addition, I have a white wine kit from a 3 grape blend of California-produced fruit that I will also get started.

Another interesting winemaking note: Northern Brewer in St. Paul, MN has begun offering pre-order sales of fresh California grapes by the lug. Prices vary, but are generally in the $23 - $26 range per lug. This seems like a great deal for fresh, quality wine grapes. I was tempted, but think I’ll stick to what I already have going for this year. If you’d like to know more about NB’s offer, go to their website: http://www.northernbrewer.com.
Calling All Authors!
If you are interested and have some grape-growing knowledge to share, contact me and I can see what can be done to include your writing on the pages of Grapelog.com. There is no monetary reward, but I will gladly add links to your website in exchange.

Support Grapelog

If you like what you read and would like to continue to hear more into the future, consider making a donation to Grapelog. There is a Make A Donation button on the right-hand side of each page on http://www.grapelog.com.

Thanks for taking the time to read the newsletter!

Don