2001& Early 2002 Vineyard Newsletter #4

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="160085a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Shelburne Vineyard</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Shelburne Vineyard "><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Business People Vermont Feb 07"><U>Business People Vermont -Feb 07</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Title 60"><U>Title 60</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id63.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Half the juice but Twice as Sweet Shelb"><U>Half the juice but Twice as Sweet - Shelburne Vineyard's Ice Wine Story</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Customer Comments"><U>Customer Comments</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id27.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Shelburne Vineyard Newsletter 1"><U>Shelburne Vineyard Newsletter #1</U></A>   |   <A HREF="newsletter_2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Newsletter 2, Dec 1999"><U>Newsletter #2, Dec 1999</U></A>   |   <B>2001& Early 2002 Vineyard Newsletter #4     </B>   |   <A HREF="id54.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE=" 2002 progress July 7 02 update "><U> 2002 progress  July 7 '02 update     </U></A>   |   <A HREF="id59.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ColdClimateWorkshop"><U>ColdClimateWorkshop</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="161d2e83.jpg"> <div> Shelburne Vineyard</div> <bR> <div> Our Vineyard</div> <div> <IMG SRC="03f647c0.jpg" border=0 width="100" height="124" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Shelburne Vineyard "><U>Home</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="News"><U>Our history & Newsletters</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Our Vermont Vineyard "><U>Our  Vineyard</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Winemaking"><U>Winemaking</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Our Wines"><U>Our Wines</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="About Us"><U>About us</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id31.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Organic Viticulture"><U>Press Coverage</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U>Visiting our Vineyard</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U>Contact Us</U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="16207073.jpg"> <div> <I>2001& Early 2002 Vineyard Newsletter #4     </I></div> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="535" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 2505 WIDTH="523"><div> May 18, 2002 - <B>Our 2nd Harvest, and our 1st year of winemaking and sales!!</B></div> <div>      2001 was the first year we had both grape growing and wine making activities going on at the same time. It was a year of exhilaration, sun, more learning, and more investment</div> <div>      The former Bostwick Farm alcohol plant that we are leasing for our winery turns out to be a good place to make wine. The building's solid construction and sound insulation kept the space at an even temperature, so important to making quality wine. This first wine making effort was indeed a learning process. The cool and wet 2000 season produced beautiful grapes with sufficient sugar but with higher than desirable acid content. We needed to apply considerable effort in the pursuit of acid reduction. The Cayuga White grapes were mildly acidic but the Riesling and Vignoles varieties had considerable acid. After much consultation, rumination and research we applied acid reduction techniques and produced a wonderfully balanced dry Cayuga White, a very fine off dry Riesling-Vignoles blend and as a bonus, a wonderfully aromatic Riesling Ice Wine. From Merlot grapes trucked in from the North Fork of Long Island we made a nice medium bodied red wine. We had the satisfaction of seeing our first bottling brought to market and then sell out in about a month.</div> <div>      What a difference a year makes! The 2001 growing season was memorable, with almost constant sun and warmth and a long golden fall. The vines also benefited from a good start to the season, as there was virtually no bud kill over the mild 2000-2001 winter. The temperature never went below 0F at the vineyard site. All the varieties ripened with higher sugar than the first year and with considerably lower acid readings. All our varieties ripened earlier than their counterparts in the NY Finger Lakes region. We even produced a late harvest Vignoles wine from grapes harvested at 27 brix. We could have left these grapes to hang even longer but raccoons were beginning to feast lustily on the super-sweet fruit. Our production (all from our first vineyard site just south of the Shelburne Farms' Breeding Barn) saw a 75% increase over our first year's yield. To date (early May 2002) we have about half of our 2001 vintage bottled and awaiting labels.</div> <div>      Over the 2001 season we think we finally determined the cause for the poor performance of the vines planted on our second vineyard site located one mile south on Meach Cove Trust. The first vines at Meach Cove were planted in the spring of `99 to be followed by the driest growing season in memory. We first attributed the poor growth to drought, but when the wet 2000 season also produced disappointing results we began our search for other reasons. The browned leaf edges with loss of green between the veins on the leaves, along with tiny leaves emerging at mid season suggested a micronutrient deficiency. We added chelated iron and zinc. We also contacted a local horticulturist with apple orchard experience and received the advice that the problem might be due to an excess of calcium in the soil that might be impeding the uptake of micronutrients. It was also suggested that we get a leaf petiole (stems of the leaves) tested for confirmation. Cornell's Geneva, NY lab, where we submitted the sample, identified the problem as a severe lack of potassium. Fortunately a potassium deficiency is a bit easier to correct than iron deficiency. Over a pound of compost was added to each vine last fall (compost has 2% potassium content) and we are in the process of adding approximately one pound per vine of potassium sulfate (55% potassium content) to each vine at Meach Cove this spring. Potassium travels slowly to the root zone so it may take some time to see results. It may be necessary to add a similar dose of potassium sulfate again next spring.</div> <div>      The winter of 2001-2002 was even milder than the previous winter with the temperature never going below +1F at the vineyard sites. Virtually every cane and every bud survived on both sites, only to then experience some bud kill in late April 2002. This unique April saw two above 90 degree days in a row soon followed by a night where the temperature dipped to 26F. The bud damage is most evident on the Meach Cove site where perhaps the weaker vines and buds were more sensitive to the low temperature. Now, mid May, the Meach Cove vines are recovering from the bud kill with many secondary buds now vigorously filling in for the killed primary buds. With just a little bit of help from the potassium we hope to have a small first harvest from this site this fall. Some of the Riesling and Zweigelt (our only red vinifera) vines show the most promise for a little bit of fruit this season.</div> <div>      </div> <div>      </div> <div> <U>Organic Management</U></div> <div>      Our biggest vineyard challenge continues to be weed control. In early season we are forced to make passes with our Weedbadger every two weeks. This is much too labor intensive for this busy time of the growing season. We will explore application of corn gluten as a seed germination inhibitor and try a vinegar-lemon oil compound as a natural herbicide. We are also planning on covering one row with black landscape cloth using straw as winter protection for that row in place of earth to allow the cloth to stay in place for several seasons. For the rest of our vineyard rows for winter protection we will continue to hill up earth in the fall against the vine trunks to a height of 10 inches or so.</div> <div>      </div> <div> <U>Winery Operation</U></div> <div> In our first season of operation our winery produced both grape wine from our own vineyard as well as blueberry wine from the Pelkey Farm blueberries. We anticipate bottling 200% more grape wine this season and 50% more blueberry wine. To date our production equipment has consisted of </div> <div>      a small motor driven crusher, </div> <div>      two medium sized hand operated upright basket presses, </div> <div>      a 20 cm Italian made plate filter, with a stainless steel pump, </div> <div>      a 6 position, also Italian-made, gravity fed bottling machine </div> <div>      two hand operated corkers. </div> <div>      Our tankage consists of 300L, 600L and 1000L stainless steel floating lid tanks and</div> <div>      Nine 60 gallon French and American oak wood barrels. </div> <div> Potential future upgrades are the purchase of </div> <div>      a label machine, </div> <div>      a temperature controlled aging tank for cooling and better cold stabilization control. </div> <div>      perhaps an automatic corker with vacuum control</div> <div>      perhaps a motor-driven horizontal bladder press, </div> <div>      </div> <div> We expect our current equipment complement to take us through at least our current season. </div> <div> <U>Vineyard - Grape varieties Planted to date</U></div> <div> Breeding Barn site 3A: (planted 1998, in 3<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >rd</FONT> year of production)</div> <div>      Cayuga White</div> <div>      Riesling (#239 and "Arctic" clones)</div> <div>      Vignoles</div> <div> Meach Cove site 3A: (planted 1999, expect first small harvest this fall)</div> <div>      Riesling</div> <div>      Zweigelt (a red vinifera originating in Austria)</div> <div>      Vidal</div> <div>      Melody (a Cornell Univ. developed white hybrid)</div> <div>      Also: small amounts of Traminette (white hybrid), NY 73.0136.17 (experimental red hybrid), Reliance (a red seedless eating grape)</div> <div> <U>People</U></div> <div>      The winery operation consists of Scott Prom and myself as co-winemakers. We usually have a total of 3 to 4 volunteers for each bottling session. Tom Cottrell of Owego, NY is our consulting enologist.</div> <div>      My wife Gail has helped out in the vineyard for pruning and weeding and in the winery for the bottling sessions, as well as, advice and support for planning and strategizing</div> <div>      In the vineyard during the growing season I work with one full time employee, Christina Castegren a soil science graduate of Univ of VT. For early season and mid-season pruning we usually employ an additional person or two. Harvest is accomplished with several volunteers. These volunteers usually stay around to help with the crush and press. </div> <div> Kenneth Albert</div> <div> Shelburne, Vermont</div> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>May 18, 2002-Our 2nd Harvest, and our 1st year of winemaking and sales!!</B></div> <div>      2001 was the first year we had both grape growing and wine making activities going on at the same time. It was a year of exhilaration, sun, more learning, and more investment</div> <div>      The former Bostwick Farm alcohol plant that we are leasing for our winery turns out to be a good place to make wine. The building's solid construction and sound insulation kept the space at an even temperature, so important to making quality wine. This first wine making effort was indeed a learning process. The cool and wet 2000 season produced beautiful grapes with sufficient sugar but with higher than desirable acid content. We needed to apply considerable effort in the pursuit of acid reduction. The Cayuga White grapes were mildly acidic but the Riesling and Vignoles varieties had considerable acid. After much consultation, rumination and research we applied acid reduction techniques and produced a wonderfully balanced dry Cayuga White, a very fine off dry Riesling-Vignoles blend and as a bonus, a wonderfully aromatic Riesling Ice Wine. From Merlot grapes trucked in from the North Fork of Long Island we made a nice medium bodied red wine. We had the satisfaction of seeing our first bottling brought to market and then sell out in about a month.</div> <div>      What a difference a year makes. The 2001 growing season was memorable, with almost constant sun and warmth and a long golden fall. The vines also benefited from a good start to the season, as there was virtually no bud kill over the mild 2000-2001 winter. The temperature never went below 0F at the vineyard site. All the varieties ripened with higher sugar than the first year and with considerably lower acid readings. All our varieties ripened earlier than their counterparts in the NY Finger Lakes region. We even produced a late harvest Vignoles wine from grapes harvested at 27 brix. We could have left these grapes to hang even longer but raccoons were beginning to feast lustily on the super-sweet fruit. Our production (all from our first vineyard site just south of the Shelburne Farms' Breeding Barn) saw a 75% increase over our first year's yield. To date (early May 2002) we have about half of our 2001 vintage bottled and awaiting labels.</div> <div>      Over the 2001 season we think we finally determined the cause for the poor performance of the vines planted on our second vineyard site located one mile south on Meach Cove Trust. The first vines at Meach Cove were planted in the spring of `99 to be followed by the driest growing season in memory. We first attributed the poor growth to drought, but when the wet 2000 season also produced disappointing results we began our search for other reasons. The browned leaf edges with loss of green between the veins on the leaves, along with tiny leaves emerging at mid season suggested a micronutrient deficiency. We added chelated iron and zinc. We also contacted a local horticulturist with apple orchard experience and received the advice that the problem might be due to an excess of calcium in the soil that might be impeding the uptake of micronutrients. It was also suggested that we get a leaf petiole (stems of the leaves) tested for confirmation. Cornell's Geneva, NY lab, where we submitted the sample, identified the problem as a severe lack of potassium. Fortunately a potassium deficiency is a bit easier to correct than iron deficiency. Over a pound of compost was added to each vine last fall (compost has 2% potassium content) and we are in the process of adding approximately one pound per vine of potassium sulfate (55% potassium content) to each vine at Meach Cove this spring. Potassium travels slowly to the root zone so it may take some time to see results. It may be necessary to add a similar dose of potassium sulfate again next spring.</div> <div>      The winter of 2001-2002 was even milder than the previous winter with the temperature never going below +1F at the vineyard sites. Virtually every cane and every bud survived on both sites, only to then experience some bud kill in late April 2002. This unique April saw two above 90 degree days in a row soon followed by a night where the temperature dipped to 26F. The bud damage is most evident on the Meach Cove site where perhaps the weaker vines and buds were more sensitive to the low temperature. Now, mid May, the Meach Cove vines are recovering from the bud kill with many secondary buds now vigorously filling in for the killed primary buds. With just a little bit of help from the potassium we hope to have a small first harvest from this site this fall. Some of the Riesling and Zweigelt (our only red vinifera) vines show the most promise for a little bit of fruit this season.</div> <div>      </div> <div>      </div> <div> <U>Organic Management</U></div> <div>      Our biggest vineyard challenge continues to be weed control. In early season we are forced to make passes with our Weedbadger every two weeks. This is much too labor intensive for this busy time of the growing season. We will explore application of corn gluten as a seed germination inhibitor and try a vinegar-lemon oil compound as a natural herbicide. We are also planning on covering one row with black landscape cloth using straw as winter protection for that row in place of earth to allow the cloth to stay in place for several seasons. For the rest of our vineyard rows for winter protection we will continue to hill up earth in the fall against the vine trunks to a height of 10 inches or so.</div> <div>      </div> <div> <U>Winery Operation</U></div> <div> In our first season of operation our winery produced both grape wine from our own vineyard as well as blueberry wine from the Pelkey Farm blueberries. We anticipate bottling 200% more grape wine this season and 50% more blueberry wine. To date our production equipment has consisted of </div> <div>      a small motor driven crusher, </div> <div>      two medium sized hand operated upright basket presses, </div> <div>      a 20 cm Italian made plate filter, with a stainless steel pump, </div> <div>      a 6 position, also Italian-made, gravity fed bottling machine </div> <div>      two hand operated corkers. </div> <div>      Our tankage consists of 300L, 600L and 1000L stainless steel floating lid tanks and</div> <div>      Nine 60 gallon French and American oak wood barrels. </div> <div> Potential future upgrades are the purchase of </div> <div>      a label machine, </div> <div>      a temperature controlled aging tank for cooling and better cold stabilization control. </div> <div>      perhaps an automatic corker with vacuum control</div> <div>      perhaps a motor-driven horizontal bladder press, </div> <div>      </div> <div> We expect our current equipment complement to take us through at least our current season. </div> <div> <U>Vineyard - Grape varieties Planted to date</U></div> <div> Breeding Barn site 3A: (planted 1998, in 3<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >rd</FONT> year of production)</div> <div>      Cayuga White</div> <div>      Riesling (#239 and "Arctic" clones)</div> <div>      Vignoles</div> <div> Meach Cove site 3A: (planted 1999, expect first small harvest this fall)</div> <div>      Riesling</div> <div>      Zweigelt (a red vinifera originating in Austria)</div> <div>      Vidal</div> <div>      Melody (a Cornell Univ. developed white hybrid)</div> <div>      Also: small amounts of Traminette (white hybrid), NY 73.0136.17 (experimental red hybrid), Reliance (a red seedless eating grape)</div> <div> <U>People</U></div> <div>      The winery operation consists of Scott Prom and myself as co-winemakers. We usually have a total of 3 to 4 volunteers for each bottling session. Dr. Tom Cottrell of Owego, NY is our consulting enologist.</div> <div>      My wife Gail has helped out in the vineyard for pruning and weeding and in the winery for the bottling sessions, as well as, advice and support for planning and strategizing</div> <div>      In the vineyard during the growing season I work with one full time employee, Christina Castegren a soil science graduate of Univ of VT. For early season and mid-season pruning we usually employ an additional person or two. Harvest is accomplished with several volunteers. These volunteers usually stay around to help with the crush and press. </div> <bR> <div> <I>Kenneth Albert</I></div> <div> <I>Shelburne, Vermont</I></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>