The Vineyard...trial and error

With the first of the photos uploaded reference the early development of the land and vineyard, we can now discuss many of the mistakes we made.

Why did we decide to cultivate grapes?

Bonnie and Kathy both enjoy wine, and our palates have evolved over the years from drinking the semi-sweet (and very tasty) Oliver Red, White and Rose to dryer reds and whites. Oliver Winery is one of the oldest and largest wineries in the state of Indiana. Their wines are sold all over Indiana in liquor stores, grocery stores, and restaurants. We purchase ours at Sam's Club. Almost everyone in Indiana who drinks wine, began with these wonderful, light and reasonably-priced wines.

When we realized that we would have no problem drinking a bottle of wine an evening, it was time to think about making our own. This Bonnie did from kits she purchased, mostly from Patterson's Do-It Best Hardware Store in New Haven, Indiana, where the owners are home winemakers and stock a large supply of wine equipment and kits. We also purchased supplies from Francie Lengerich at The Brewers Art Supply Inc. in Fort Wayne.

Still other kits were ordered through the mail, and Bonnie even tried her hand at making wine from Niagara grapes she purchased. We have driven to Indianapolis to purchase Catawba and Zinfandel juices from Easley Winery. Some of these endeavors met with success and some with failure, but each was a learning experience.

We attended a winemaking class at The Round Barn Winery in Michigan, and though we did not bottle wine from the grapes we personally picked, we did bring home some wonderful Syrah, half of which we left dry and half of which we bottled at 4% residual sugar. Both are very yummy.

We traveled to North East, Pennsylvania to Presque Isle Winery for another class, where Bonnie impressed everyone with how much she knew, making them wonder why she was there in the first place. Kathy was just trying to understand the whole process and had to keep herself interested by sampling the winery's wines as they were passed, which reminded her why she had agreed to the class.

The owner of the winery is Doug Morehead. When the class was over, we went to the shop to sample and purchase wines, and Bonnie asked Doug about a newer grape (Noiret) that she was going to grow. Doug was kind enough to take us to his wine cellar and let us sample his first vintage of Noiret that he blended with Cabernet Franc, as well as just about every other wine in every barrel in the cellar! We enjoyed this very much.

I believe by that time, Bonnie had decided on the varieties of grapes she was going to plant. The whites included, Vidal, Vignole, Cayuga-Riesling, Traminette and Traminette-Ravat. The reds included, Marquette, Noiret and Cab Franc.

The first vines were received and placed in 5-gallon buckets with amended soil and spent their first growing season at the side of our villa in Fort Wayne where we could keep an eye on them and keep them sprayed. They were then transported to the farm where they were transplanted and joined by dozens of other vines received in the spring of this year. Some fared better than others. We lost all 3 of the '07 Cayuga-Rieslings and a few of the others. Replacements will be ordered for spring '09.

In retrospect, we probably planted the vineyard a year too soon. We were unable to get on much of a regimen by being there only on weekends. Even driving down during the week wasn't enough. The holes, dug using the same large auger used to set the vineyard posts, were just too big. After planting the vines we got far too much rain. The vines sunk deeper into the holes. Since many of them were grafted vines, they had to be pulled up by their trunks and re-set. There are still depressions around the base of many of the vines that we should fill in. There was just too much rain in the spring, followed by, of course, draught. If that wasn't enough, the vines were devastated by Japanese Beetles.

Bonnie wanted to go organic as much as possible, so Kathy sprayed with the Cornell formula (baking soda, water, horticultural oil and insecticidal soap). This worked very well for molds and mildews, but did nothing for the Japanese Beetles.

As fate would have it, Bonnie went to a Farmer's Market in Roanoke and met Camille Cupa at her berry stand. Camille is a graduate of SUNY Cobleskill with a degree in horticulture. She agreed to act as our consultant, and a time was set up for her to survey our vineyard.

Camille put us at ease immediately by telling us that, in her berry business, her family had also made some mistakes for which she had had to seek advice from her former professors. She told us that no two growing seasons were identical, so what worked for you one year might not work for you the next. She told us that we had to get some leaves back on the vines and, even then, she was afraid that it might be too late to save many of them. She advised both foliar and root fertilizing, which we have done religiously since her visit to the farm. We have not been able to get the NPK levels in the fertilizers that she wanted us to use, but hope to have sources for them next year.

Camille got Kathy very excited about using nematodes for Japanese Beetle control next summer and also convinced Bonnie that non-organic products might have to be used at times. When the meeting ended we were all excited about the vineyard. Camille agreed to stay on as our advisor and to help us set up drip irrigation and trellis next year. We purchased grape varieties we could use on a VSP system because we felt we could manage them more easily. That system should help reduce the chances for molds and mildews and, hopefully, will also allow us easier canopy management.

Camille was pleased with the size of our vineyard in that we had kept it small. She advised us not to make it any larger until we have a handle on what we already have. She will help us with pruning, canopy management, and help set up a spraying regimen for Kathy (who isn't afraid of using chemicals) to follow. Bonnie, in turn, will help advise Camille on making wine from her wonderful berries.

In the meantime, we continue to plan vacations and outings that include trips to vineyards. We love the Finger Lakes wine trails, have been to Michigan, Ohio, Missouri (the Herman area), Pennsylvania, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts and, of course, Indiana vineyards. We will make it to Napa Valley one day. We also adore mead, and Kathy has been enjoying a new adventure in beers. We also attempt to go to local tastings and enjoyed a trip to Vintage Indiana at Military Park in Indianapolis in 2007.

Of our evolving palates we would like to say that everything changed for us after Bonnie made a trip to visit her son and grandchildren in Kansas and stopped at Herman, Missouri, and sampled some Norton (Cynthiana) wine from Robller Winery. She found that she was beginning to enjoy dryer wines. After her return she purchased a $30 bottle of Cline's Old Vine Zinfandel which she opened at Camp (summer '07). It knocked our socks off. We finally appreciated that dryer reds had to be room temperature, and Kathy realized that she must have thrown hundreds of dollars worth of dry red wines down the drain because she served them too chilled. Merlot and Syrah/Shiraz, Cabernet, Pinot Noir, Pinotage, Super Tuscan, Norton, and others followed. Kathy leans toward Shiraz and has a prized bottle of 1999 Penfolds Grange (the price of which is fluctuating at auction due to the current disastrous economy). She also still loves Zinfandel, the Super Tuscan, Merlot and Cabernet. Bonnie has a prized bottle of Opus One and loves her Merlots and Bordeaux, among others.

Next: Bonnie's lasagna garden.