Secondary fermentation has begun....

Cellar hands John and Scott ( and Diane) completed the primary fermentation on Saturday and have transferred the juice to a 5 gal carboy to begin the secondary fermentation. This step could take weeks so don't get toooo excited. We are a long way to a finished and hopefully drinkable product. ( The date on Scott's camera is incorrect so don't worry you haven't missed anything!)

The first Henderson Family Farms LLC Sandyland Vineyard with more beer, wine, and scotch consumed than havested. By the time the last grape of the last vine of the last row had been picked the tempature was approaching the century mark and the stomachs were getting restless. In all nearly a ton of grapes were in the tubs and we all a learned all about specific gravity, must, brix, titratable (sp) acid, grams per pound, liters per gallon, where MacArthur is and Johnnies. Since this is my first blog attempt I am going to submit it before spending to much time on my speed typing abilities.

Harvest 2009

Sandyland Vineyard completed our first harvest on August 9th, 10th and 11th, 2009. This is a picture of some of the 716 pounds of Riesling grapes that were picked on August 10th. More pictures to follow.

Harvest 2009

The fields are high and summer's days are few; green fields have turned to gold. The time is here for the harvesting, for gathering home into barns. The harvest is plenty; the laborers are few. Come with me into the fields. Your arms may grow weary; your shoes will wear thin. Come with me into the fields. Come with me into the fields.-Dan Schutte

the monster vine of '09

after the big rains of july my vine has started growing again. it has grown so much that i had to move up the upper trellis wire support installation. i thought i could slack a bit and do it next year but the monster keeps growing. the vine was so "top heavy" a big gust of wind had knocked over one cordone and was in danger of being damaged. i did loose the biggest cane to the high winds. so i pulled out my trusty dusty hobart mig welder and whipped out the two support poles. notice the u-bends at the top so no eyes will get poked out while pruning or harvesting the crop. i'm going for maximum condone length, 4 feet each way for a total of 8 feet of producing vine. notice the baby grapes too! i'm hoping its a red grape variety, i might make a pint of jam with it!