Adding Blanc Dubois grapevines and more Black Spanish
Decided to add a row of Blanc Dubois grapevines to the vineyard. 30 vines to be exact. Living in the South we are limited to types of vines we can grow due to pierce disease. After a lot of research I decided on this vine. Plus I needed some white grapes, I’ve only planted red to date. I hear some people don’t want or like a red wine. Don’t understand that, but okay, white will be added. The Black Spanish did pretty good last year so I decided to add another half row. I now have about 30 of those vines as well. They didn’t have issues like the Lomanto did last year. They also don’t grow near as fast. With the vigor less, should make it easier to work with.
My poor wet, tired feet.
Video of Norton and Muscadine wine fermenting
This is from my daily punch down. The CO2 from the yeast makes the skins float to the top. You need to push them down under the must (juice before its wine) at least twice a day. Keeps bacteria from setting in and ruining the wine (vinegar), it also helps to form the dark red wine color as this deep red/purple color comes from the skins. If you didn’t ferment on the skins, you would get a light colored Rose’ instead.
Norton and Muscadine wine making
I found a local vineyard that sells Norton and Muscadine grapes. Had planned to pick 200-400lbs of Norton, but after several hours of picking and having to pick out the bad grapes from 90% of the bunches, decided to pick muscadines instead.
Here is a good bunch, not many were like this.
Here are the Muscadines.
Ended up with 40 lbs of Norton grape and 60 lbs of muscadine. It takes about 100 lbs of fruit to make 6 gallons, soooooo that’s right I got lazy and just decided to crush them together. I know you shouldn’t mix, but dude I was wiped out after picking most of the day. By the way you pick muscadine, one grape at a time.
So here is what it looks like after yeast and the fermentation working well.
Time to make Asian Pear wine
Picked what I could. Check out how tall that pear tree is. Really need to figure out a way to get the pears at the top of the tree. Should have enough to make 6 gallons. Crushed and then pressed. Got about 7 gallons of juice.
Lasterday corks arrive just in time
Its official, we have a cork with our name on them! Just in time for bottling of watermelon wine.
The watermelon wine is really clear after filtering.
Watermelon Wine making time
Picked the watermelons and time to make the wine. First time at making watermelon wine but here goes.
Pressing the watermelon:
Making a yeast starter so I can get a faster fermentation going. Watermelon juice spoils quickly so gotta get it bubbling quickly.
Yeast added to watermelon must.
The fermentation is going well.
Almost at the end of primary and the color is changing to a lighter color.
After racking to carboy I see this wine will be white when done. Did not know that. Discovered most vintners put strawberries in the wine to get that pink color you expect.
Kudzu
I totally underestimated the resilience of Kudzu. I bush-hogged the vineyard site, use a boxblade to pull roots and clean up. All looked good this fall, but spring and summer has been a fight. Every weekend is a battle to take back and kill this stuff. Kudzu grows about 12″ in 24hrs. With all the travel I’ve been on, by the time I get home, its several feet in length. I’ve used roundup as much as I can, but with all the rain, it just isn’t effective. Digging, hacking, and cutting seems to be the best course of action. I’ve broke one hoe, and bent the other. I’m slowly but surely winning the battle. Each weekend I find new pockets of vines, but less and less each week. I will win this battle!
They are alive!
The grapevines and muscadines are alive and growing well. First cluster of grapes. Shame I have to pinch off. Can’t let them grow the first two years.
New label for corn whisky wine
Didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped. I used the wrong yeast. Should have finished up with an ABV of 18% but stalled at 14% so it ended up sweet. I’ll try again next year. Still taste good, so I’ve been told. I heard it helped some friends through a tough weekend wedding party.
Planted Grapevines today
The Lomanto and Black Spanish grape vines came in this week. 9 of each. Just enough to test them out and see if this is what I want to grow. Once in the ground I put some grow tubes on them like the Muscadines. They help them grow faster and keep animals off the young shoots.
Before and After
Lasterday Wines 
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