Put in a vineyard

[subbrew]

Well working on not having to pay the government taxes for any of my drinking fun. I previously had some Frontenac grapes at my former house. Decided I needed to put in some grapes here. Been here 4 years so it is about time. Needed ones that will work with a Northern Colorado climate. So today I put in 4 each of Frontenac, Crimson Pearl, Itasca and Brianna.

If anyone has any hints or help on making good wine with those varieties please let me know.

I have worked with Frontenac and it has a lot of acid to deal with. Never did made anything good from just Frontenac but it does add structure to a blend. Crimson Pearl is supposed to be low acid so hoping they will balance each other. Guess if it doesn't work out I now have the knowledge and gear to make a brandy.

[NZChris]

Good move. I've only ever used table grapes that were already growing on the properties we bought, none were good wine grapes and made poor wine, but the brandys were better than the wine, so do I believe it's possible to get an ok heart cut out of pretty much any grape. I started replacing my vines last year.

[Bolverk]

Let me preface with, I've only really started reading about grape varieties for brandy.

My understanding is the best grapes for brandy are the worst grapes for actual wine... that is to say table grapes make shitty brandy.

The best grapes for brandy (coniac and armagnac) will only have the sugar for about 6% abv potential, be very high acid, and they tend to be picked prior to being fully ripe.

The soil and environment in northern France didn't make good wine grapes so they make brandy and they would trade that for table wine made further south.

[zach]

As a former resident of Northern Colorado, which is more known for brewing, planting vineyard sounds challenging. I'm in central CA now and planted vineyard 4 years ago of 60 zinfandels. In the time waiting for a crop, I've picked grapes in other vineyards, and have made a few good wines, and some decent brandy from wines that were less than perfect.

Wish you much success!

[sadie33]

How goes the vineyard? We had concord grapes at our old house, but I didn't care for them. My mother-in-law made a decent jam with them, but I don't really care or grape jam. Then we put in some Thompson green grapes. They were about 3 yrs old when our uncle tied his dog up next to them and his leash took out the whole lot of them! I haven't tried grapes since.

Hope all is going well.

[subbrew]

Grapes are so slow to break buds in the spring. They are only just getting leaves now. I will see which ones overwintered in a week or two. And the others I just put in last weekend. As Zach said it will be challenging but I tried to select the most hardy ones. Unfortunately, like a good whiskey, it is three to four years from the time you start until you really see what you have.

I need to stop selecting hobbies that take so much patience.

[bilgriss]

Patience is hard. I figure by the time I reach the end, I'll have it.

I've only had concord grapes available, and never was able to make much good from them, although the leaves work well to keep fermented pickles crisp.

[zach]

My vines started bud break back in the first week of March. I've been busy trimming the more vigorous vines. My rows are 8 feet on center and it was difficult to walk between prior trimming.

Just bottled my 2024 wine and am happy that sometimes patience has a reward.