New Venture at Whittaker Farms

Corley5 · July 22, 2011, 11:50:54 PM

As a result of taking several courses at NCMC our local comm. college over the past year we have entered into a new operation. Cold hardy wine grapes.

A forest of posts. I used 10' utility poles for the end posts sunk 5' in the ground. Hopefully I won't need braces by going so deep but if I do they can be added. The line posts are 100" northern white cedar.

The very 1st vine in the ground. A Kay Gray white wine/table grape. That's Aaron

Augering the holes and planting the last of 800 vines. These were Elviras. A white wine grape. There are also Marquettes a red grape and Valiants a black grape. 200 hundred of each variety were planted with 100% survival

8) 8) 8). I've had to water once and had a battle with rose chafer beetles which I won with the help of Sevin 8) We should have a partial marketable crop in three years and a full crop in 5.

The crew Ryan, Bob, John and Aaron. And me ;D

The most important crew members Zach and Zander

The plan calls for us to have between 4 and 5 thousand vines in the ground by May of 2015 and to have our winery license in place before that. Eventually we want to produce "estate bottled" wines of both grape and other fruit varieties but plan to initially sell grapes to one or more of several local wineries that are online and coming online in the next couple years. We'll put our own label on wines made from our grapes by one of them to begin with. This a fledgling industry in our area based on cold hardy varietals.

Jeff · July 23, 2011, 12:23:13 AM

Awesome. You and Pete can talk Vino at the pigroast.

WildDog · July 23, 2011, 02:53:30 AM

Looks like you have plenty of help.

Nice looking place, good luck with your new venture.

I live in one of the coldest places in Aus and there is a successfull cold climate vinyard just out of town.

Their website, http://wrightrobertson.com.au/

fishpharmer · July 23, 2011, 06:21:18 AM

Corley, if those grapes take off and grow like them boys, you'll have a bumper crop.

Looking forward to pics of the vineyards development.

SwampDonkey · July 23, 2011, 07:05:04 AM

Wow, that's quite the set up. And lots and lots of work ahead. Nice posts there, and the tractor is the right color as well. ;D Looks like a nice piece of land there, so wishing you well on your new venture. Besides, nice way to keep the boys busy. ;)

Norm · July 23, 2011, 08:20:16 AM

Wow Corley no wonder we've not heard from you lately!

Thanks for sharing, Zander and Zach are growing like weeds.

Mooseherder · July 23, 2011, 09:12:31 AM

What a great venture.

Patty · July 23, 2011, 02:51:34 PM

Well how cool is that! Iowa has really gotten back into the grape growing / wine making scene, and I think it is awesome! I love to see folks venture out into alternative crops, good for you Corley!

Magicman · July 23, 2011, 04:03:31 PM

How long will it take those vines to grow large enough to produce grapes?

Ernie · July 23, 2011, 04:32:39 PM

Quote from: Corley5 on July 22, 2011, 11:50:54 PM
Hopefully I won't need braces by going so deep but if I do they can be added.

If you have properly footed and blocked the strainer posts, they should be good.

Looks like a great new venture, We wish you the best of luck.

Corley5 · July 24, 2011, 10:35:15 AM

We should have a partial crop from this planting in 2013. There will be grapes next year but to encourage vine and root development any clusters will be removed as soon as possible. I've pinched off three bunches this season

Cropping grapes too soon can injure the vines. This year we are letting the vines grow as they may to encourage root growth and the storage of as much energy as possible in the root system as the vines harden off at the end of the growing season. Next spring we'll prune them heavily back to two buds,install the trellis wires and begin training the new growth on to them. By pruning them heavily the new growth will benefit from the stored energy in the roots and they'll literally grow like weeds ;D

It's something different for sure 8)

Mooseherder · July 24, 2011, 10:39:14 AM

Do the Vines require any type of covering over Winter?
This has my interest peaked. Are you going to go with Stainless tanks?

Corley5 · July 24, 2011, 10:58:11 AM

The varietals we've selected are all rated for hardiness in USDA Zone 3 with no winter protection required 8) The Marquettes, Kay Grays, and Elviras are good to 30 below plus. The Valiants are super tough. They're grown well north into Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta and have borne a crop after winter lows of more than 40 below zero F.
Intially we'll go with food grade plastic tanks. They're cheap ;D Stainless may come later depending on our rate of success

Mooseherder · July 24, 2011, 11:36:29 AM

We went to this Winery last year on the way back from the Keys.
They were fermenting in Plastic tanks outside under cover then transferring into stainless tanks. They were the square type with wire cages on pallets around 4x4x4.
The bottling is what surprised me as they only bottle 4 at a time. It is still a smaller type operation that was interesting. You can see their tanks that they had in a refrigerated room. It was a nice room to be in.

http://schneblywinery2.ning.com/photo/albums/winery-photos

SwampDonkey · July 24, 2011, 11:49:23 AM

Grapes grow wild way up here, so I suspect some breeding of grapes has produced some nice northern hardy grapes.

Down around Woodstock to Nackawic, the old route 2 highway along the river has wild vines growing onto the guard rails and break down lanes. The old railway bed and line fence rows have tons of vines near the St John River valley. :D

Corley5 · July 24, 2011, 02:39:07 PM

The Valiant is the result of a cross between a wild riparian variety from the Milk River Valley in Montana and Fredonia. Many universities have breeding programs for cold hardy varieties. The Univ of Minn, Iowa and Cornell especially. The late Elmer Swenson is known worldwide for his work developing these varieties and many are his creations.
Sounds they were doing primary fermentation in the plastic and 2ndary in stainless. Fermenting outside with no temp control especially in Fla sounds risky to me