Harvest season at the Vineyard, Are you receiving our Picking Updates? Protecting the grapes from the birds, Tips from Winemaker Magazine, Our trip to Bully Hill winery in New York

Harvest season at the Vineyard
Are you receiving our Picking Updates?

 

The U-Pick Vineyard and Honey Farm is now open. Our normal hours of operation are 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Friday - Saturday - and Sundays only.
(NO MON-TUES-WED- THURS)   
  Click here for our latest weekly picking update ......

If you did not receive your emailed picking update and would like to receive them (there is about 4 or 5 of them), click here to update your subscription.
Every week during the grape picking season we hold a drawing and someone wins a bushel of grapes.

Click here for a copy of the "Tattler" that we mail out each year with prices.

The long, cold winter has caused some winter damage on the vines and there may be a shortage of a few varieties of seedless and white winemaking grapes. There is a very good crop of concord types and red wine grapes. This is a very good year to try a “blush” wine.

 

New Grape Pails (or Grape Bags)

Make Red Wine the Easy Way!

Grape pails are a plastic pail, with a nylon stainer bag in it, tied with a loose knot, filled with crushed and de-stemmend grapes and quickly frozen. These grape bags may be added to grape juice to add color and body resulting in a red wine, or just used by themselves. They are very handy when you do not have a press - just squeeze them by hand or let them drain - And the strainer bags are re-useable!

 

Juice Available this year:

This year we are pressing DeChaunac and Foch for a blush wine or you may add a grape bag to make it a red wine.

Eastern white juice is a blend of concord, delaware or other native grapes (sometimes this juice could have a slight blush to it.)

Our white hybrid blend is a mix of white hybrid grapes.

Winemaking juice is sold in 5 gallon plastic pails with a plastic liner. (Pail exchange required) These pails are held in a freezer until you pick them up. This insures that you receive the highest quality juice that has not already started to ferment.

 

Large amounts of grapes are quite easy to pick and you get the best price. Most pickers (depending on variety) can pick from 1 to 2 or more bushels per hour. Bring your friends and get quantity discounts.

 

Blush wines are becoming very popular. A blush wine is made by using light red grape juice such as Foch or DeChaunac or adding red grapes to a white juice.
(Think White Zinfandel!)

White Wine Notes ... I have had good luck the last few years with making a soft (or slightly sweetened) white wine with Cote Des Blancs yeast (available at the vineyard.) This yeast doesn’t like to ferment very much past 12%. Adjust your juice sugar level for 12% alcohol & ferment with Cote Des Blancs yeast. 1 month later add 8 oz. sugar per gallon of wine, then crush and add 2 cambden tablets per gallon, let stabilize 6 months. Many people also add potassium sorbate at this time (1 gram per gallon). (Not foolproof, but often works)

COMMODITY PRICES U-Pick Grapes 1-19 lbs. .80/lb. ½ bu (20 lbs.) or more .60/lb. 5 bu (200 lbs.) or more .54/lb. 10 bu. (400 lbs.) or more .46/lb. (An average person can pick from 1 to 3 bu/hr - bring lots of friends) 1 1/2 bushel (60lb) makes 5 gal wine Red & White Wine Grape Juice Foch & DeChaunac blush juice Eastern white & Hybrid white juice 5 gallon pails @ $54.00 ea. Grape Pails (strainer bag included) 2 gallon grape pail @ $22 (16lb of crushed/destemed grapes) 5 gallon grape pail @ $42 (40lb of crushed/destemed grapes) Please order your juice as soon as possible. Although we try to complete every order, we sometimes have a shortage of harvest help, bad weather or U-Pick customers pick them first. Substitutions may sometimes be necessary. Call (810) 796-3253 in the evenings to order juice or order on-line at www.honeyflowfarm.com

 

Click here for a copy of the "Tattler" that we mail out each year.

Protecting the grapes from the birds

Preventing Bird Damage

Birds are a problem every year at harvest time at our vineyard. There is no such thing as "planting a little extra for the birds." When the birds are in the vineyard feeding on the grapes they will peck every cluster making them undesireable to most people, and sometimes will cause 100% crop damage.

At our vineyard we use many tools to keep the birds away. The only thing that is 100% effective is bird netting, but it is expensive and labor intensive. We apply bird netting to only the most sensitive grapes. The nets are 17 feet wide by 400 feet long and are stored in rolls that are rolled over the top of the rows and pulled down over the sides of each row. When you pick grapes from a netted row you just lift the nets up over your head, removing a staple if necessary. They are not to keep you out (I occasionally hear this.)

Alarms are also used to repel birds. We have two types of noisemaking devices at our farm. They are both designed to make the birds think about going over to our neighbors crops rather than ours.

We also use "Bird Scare Balloons" to make the birds uncomfortable. The birds think there are too many predators in the area & go elsewhere.

In some years we use a Repellant called "Rejexit" that is sprayed on some of the rows. This material smells like grape Kool-Aid and the birds do not like it, After a few pecks on the grapes they try to feed somewhere else. Allthough this material is so safe to people that it can be applied one day before harvest, I apply it about two weeks before we open and is long gone when we start to pick.

This year we are also adding a "scare windmill" that uses ultraviolet light (to the birds this looks like a flock of birds escaping.) We also have a large predator bird on order and will put that up.

In summary, our bird protection program is to keep the most attractive grapes away from the birds with netting and use other devices to make it a very unpleasant environment for them to feed in. Some years it works quite good and other years are more challenging.

 

 

More bird netting information at: http://www.birddamage.com

Tips from Winemaker Magazine

This is just a collection of interesting articles from Winemaker Magazine:

• Tips on pitching the right amount of yeast to get the job done.

• Some juicy secrets to help you get ready to make wine from the upcoming
  harvest.

• Mountain Dew wine? The wine wizard considers a question from a reader on
  turning soda pop into wine.

• 10 tips to a fruitful yield from your backyard vineyard this harvest.

• Can you re-use an aquarium tank as a fermenter? And what do you do with
  the leftover goldfish?

• Thoughts on those red wine-related headaches and what really causes them.

Our trip to Bully Hill winery in New York, August, 2003

 

Bully Hill Winery was a place that I have wanted to visit for many years. When Pat & I first became interested in winemaking and viticulture Walter S. Taylor was one of the first winemakers to use Hybrid grapes. We could go to the wine shop and purchase wine made from grapes such as Seyval Blanc, Foch and Baco Noir. Today they still grow and produce wines from these same grapes.

Our daughter Mary stopped at the entrance for a picture. The visitors center, wine shop and tasting room was one of our first stops.

 

 

---

 

 

When we returned home we continued to sample some of the fine wines we brought home such as:

Le Goat Blush - A blend of seyval, Aurora, Vidal and a hint of Colobel Noir for color. A perfect picnic wine.
Bulldog Baco Noir - Baco and oak aging produced a bold, intense wine perfect for red meat dishes.
Ravat 51 (Vignoles) - Ravat and Vidal create powerful pineapple/apricot quality. Enjoy with fruit or cheese.
Seyval Blanc - Crisp, dry, elegant blend of Seyval and Aurora to accompany a wide variety of food.
Marechal Foch - Well-balanced Italian Tuscan style with a hint of raspberry. Enjoy with pasta dishes.
Love my Goat - A uniquely mellow, easy drinking wine. Enjoy with steak or pasta
Space Shuttle Red - Blend of Baco, Leon Millot, Rougeon and Colobel. It soars smooth, clean and elegant.
Special Reserve Red - Medium-bodied Tuscan style dry red wine. Great with any red meat or pasta.
State Capital Red - Unique blend of rare red hybrid grapes produces a crisp, full-bodied wine for all meats.

 

 

---

 

The theme for many of the wine labels always has something to do with a goat. As the story goes, there was a lawsuit between Walter S. Taylor and his family the Taylor Wine Co. and Walter S. Taylor lost the priviledge of putting his own name on his wine. Therefore the theme: "They have taken away my heritage. But they have not taken my Goat." Signed: Walter S. ######

 

---

They have some beautiful old buildings on the site. The one on the left is the Greyton H. Taylor Wine Museum.
Inside the museum were many examples of old winemaking and barrelmaking equipment.
We took a tour and were shown the vineyards, lots of tanks, and the bottling area.

 

 

---

 

 

How would you like this view from the parking lot.
Rolling vineyards in front of us, Keuka Lake right behind the vineyards and the opposite shore of Keuka Lake in the background.

 

---

 

Did You Know?

Christian Monks dominated winemaking for hundreds of years.

The process of fermentation was thought to be magical in ancient times, and drinking was thought to be a mystical bond with the Gods.

 

---

Winery History
The Greyton H. Taylor Wine Museum. At the birth site of the NYS wine industry.
History of our New World Grapes.
Wine Crystals.
Wine Without Guilt. Why synthetic cork?

 

 

Bully Hill Vineyards  
E-mail: bullyhil@ptd.net

8843 Greyton H. Taylor Memorial Drive
Hammondsport, NY 14840

Winery: 1-607-868-3610
Fax: 1-607-868-3205

Open May through October

 

 

Mead Makers are preparing for the fall honey harvest.

 

I have just heard from Rex Halfpenny at Michigan Beer Guide and he is planning to do an article on mead making in his next issue. (Watch the cover - some of the pictures are from our website.)

His website is at www.michiganbeerguide.com

Rex Halfpenny
Michigan Beer Guide
PO Box 648
Leonard, MI 48367
248-628-6584

**********************

Plan to Attend the International Mead Festival

Savor the largest collection of commercial meads for tasting ever available at the Meadfest (www.meadfest.com) in Boulder, Colorado, October 24 and 25, 2003.

**********************

Other good mead sites:
The Honeyflow Farm mead page
Honeywine.com
AboutMead.com
GotMead.com

 

 

 

September grape recipe

Country Grape Sherbet

Combine ingredients and beat until sugar dissolves. Pour into 2 refrigerator trays and freeze until nearly firm. Turn mixture into chilled bowl and beat until fluffy and smooth. Work fast and do not let mixture melt. Return to trays and freeze until firm. Makes 6 servings. To freeze, wrap blocks of sherbet, seal, label and date. Recommended storage time is 1 month. Note: attractive and tasty when garnished with fresh strawberries, cherries or red raspberries. Georgia Peacock - Dryden, Michigan

1 cup dairy sour cream
1 cup milk
¼ cup lemon juice
1 egg white, beaten
1 ½ cups sugar
1 cup concord grape juice.

Honeyflow Farm
4939 Mill Rd.    PO Box 275
Dryden, Michigan 48428
(810) 796-2344 (Phone & Fax)

Comments or questions concerning Honeyflow Farm
should be addressed by clicking on the link: