tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20622421521724601982024-03-20T08:07:34.703-07:00 .The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comBlogger238125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-64438847530459054922024-03-02T19:10:00.000-08:002024-03-02T19:10:40.554-08:002024: Not the Warmest Winter we've had - Remember 2016?So not that much snow this year and its been pretty warm, kinda reminds me of another winter not that long ago. 2016 was one of those nice warm winters, really didnt get that cold at all and not much snow. Was remarkabley warm and by the 3rd week of March we were already working the fields and getting ready to put vines in the ground. See photo below from 2016;In comparison to 2024, January and The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-80361167335122833152024-02-17T18:03:00.000-08:002024-02-18T01:48:07.511-08:00NO GRAPES FOR 2024? Hang On A SecondHave to say I'm rather happy right now that we decided to go with cold hardy varieties at the vineyard. We tested about 30 different grape varieities, some less hardy than others, some with greater disease resitance than others, some with different growing seasons thatn others. Over the course of testing we had a few cold winters in the -24 to-25 c range and in those parameters we found that FochThe Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-73659188755578414912023-12-10T02:42:00.000-08:002023-12-10T02:44:11.459-08:00Nice Fall!We had an awesome fall with warm weather and really no snow to speak of until early December. We stopped counting frost free days in mid October but were well over 170bat that point. Bit of an anomaly for frost free days beyond that.Took advantage of the great weather to get some much needed trellising done for the new vines.Some had grown well beyond 7 feet of growth this year ...pretty The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-58341056607919965512023-10-11T19:40:00.004-07:002023-10-11T19:41:54.342-07:00ThanksgivingTaking a moment this thanksgiving to say thank-you to those that helped in the harvest and in various other capacities through the year.Arrow Lakes Vineyard has grown and we would struggle without the assistance of family and friends. This year was particularly difficult as some of our usual family harvest hands were unable to assist due to timing, which was in itself unusual. We also had to The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-39920806413491762672023-10-04T19:18:00.002-07:002023-10-04T19:19:18.082-07:00Harvest 2023We had a great year this year with great production and grape quality. We started harvest 1st week of September with whites and finished with reds on the 30thThe Foch came in at 21-22 brix, the Leon Millot at 22-23 brix - overall great numbers and quality that goes hand in hand with the warmest growing season weve ever had.St. Croix was a stand out in experimental part of the vineyard comming in The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-580627069923717252023-09-09T07:56:00.000-07:002023-09-09T07:56:52.254-07:00Sepetmber BrixEvery year we check the sugars (brix) of the grapes in the first weekend in September, generally somewhere around the 8th-10th. This allows us to estimate when the harvest might start and check on the condition of the grapes, make the nets are solid and keeping the critters out and see if there is any issues of rot.This year is an unusual year in that everything is so far ahead. So much so that The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-21830779555281625222023-08-24T20:12:00.002-07:002023-08-24T20:12:59.152-07:00August 20 - Big Rain and Way Ahead So we are about 7-10 days ahead of normal this year with most of the grapes fully turned and accumulating sugars. The Evangeline is furthest ahead as usual and most are quite sweet already. Our 1 vine of Siegerrebe and the grapes on that one are about the same level of ripeness and bith of these are very early varieties. We can pick these in early September this year.Our Marechal The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-34983256650776450452023-08-11T14:28:00.001-07:002023-08-11T14:28:09.737-07:00August 9 2023So as of August 9th the grapes are looking good..and just got about 1 inch of rain the past few days..just in time too as the vines were getting a bit stressed.The first evidence of veraison was about August 1 and reds started. The evangeline are softening and sweetening up and good colour development on all the reds. We are about 7-10 days early.EvangelineFochLeon Millot L'acadie BlancThe Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-3142013924134830182023-08-09T15:35:00.003-07:002023-08-10T07:46:48.683-07:00Early is the Word, July 19 So here we are July 19th and we are approaching bunch closure on the Foch. This is our benchmark as all of the other varieties are earliers if not a few days then a week. Nice clusters and we can expect some colour on them in the next week or so which will put us very early for veraison.This goes hand in hand with the extremely earlier bud break and flowering, not to mention big heat in The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-46122691085277718882023-07-04T21:30:00.006-07:002023-07-04T21:30:54.065-07:00Early Summer - Big GrowthWe are about 10-14 days ahead of normal and the grapes are looking great. We spent the last few days clearing out the late canes and secondary buds that are just flowering now.The grapes are looking good overall and most varieties have had good fruit set. The whites... l'acadie and Evangeline ...flowered later than the reds and just when we had a week of cooler and rainy days. That kind of The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-84381190755534190502023-06-18T07:01:00.004-07:002023-06-18T07:06:32.050-07:00The Baby Vines are Getting BigWe propegate our own vines from the existing vines in the vineyard. It takes a bit longer than ordering vines in from suppliers but kinda nice to know that all the vines come from the same plants. We also got stiffed by a supplier that went out of business after we provided our payment..which set us back a year. We blogged about the propegation a few years ago. See the links below...I am Groot - The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-11762422710996412202023-06-12T16:43:00.003-07:002023-06-12T16:43:58.381-07:00Winter - Spring - Summer in a MonthNever seen a start to the year like this one. Mid April we still had snow on the ground. Come May 1st we were about 7-10 days behind and the buds were barely hitting scale crack on some varieties. Come May 21, we were a week ahead and bud break occured in the 2 week period from May 1 to may 15.Come June 10th we are in full bloom, about 2.5 weeks ahead of normal and the earliest bloom we've ever The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-88503700507844440722023-01-07T17:22:00.001-08:002023-01-07T17:38:14.664-08:00December Deep Freeze Yikes! Just what we were hoping wouldnt happen - an intense deep freeze and early in the winter season yet. Thats not good.Mid December hit the Okanagan and our area with terrible cold..the kind that will set you back a season or two. Yes there was some intense cold with lows in the -30c range experienced from Kamloops to Salmon arm and Vernon to Kelowna. That kind of cold will kill The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-3485680757308860802022-12-11T19:31:00.000-08:002022-12-11T19:31:10.731-08:00Snow on the Vines Amazing time of the year as we head into winter. There was really no snow to speak of at the vineyard up until few weeks ago then it came and stuck. When it snows here the snow comes straight down and piles up even on trellis wires and vine canes. One of the most amazing things is listening to it fall...it is so quiet here that you can actually hear it hit the ground or The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-52864494872570953102022-11-22T18:10:00.000-08:002022-11-22T18:10:35.280-08:00Drought 2022 New DataSo now that the season is over and we are into late fall there is some data that has come out that plots the 2022 drought across Canada. So to be clear there was drought in some areas of Canada and not in others and really year over year this is the case. So places get rain or more rain than usual and other places get less rain than usual or in our case - No rain for over 4 monthes.The Manitoba The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-5770664054141880532022-11-01T19:31:00.003-07:002022-11-01T19:31:42.724-07:00Harvest 2022 and the Big Drought It is truely an amazing thing growing grapes year to year and watching the subtle and not so subtle differences in grape quality as a function of mother natures influences.And there it is, mother natures influences pretty much everything and this year was yet another remarkable year that was like no other in the 15 years weve been growing. 2022 started with the coolest May we ever recorded The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-56895635547380269212022-09-21T19:14:00.001-07:002022-09-21T19:14:37.003-07:00 L'Acadie Blanc Has Arrived So we have had L'Acadie Blanc in the vineyard for over 10 years first planting it in the test vineyard to see how it would grow. It really has not grown well in that part of the vineyard and struggles with the low moisture in the very sandy and rocky soil. The additional hurdle of low nutrients in the soil there slowed its growth, even with ammendments.What we did see from the test vineyardThe Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-90950993840188664592022-09-11T10:51:00.002-07:002022-09-11T10:51:32.333-07:00Shaping Up For A Late Harvest So as we approach the middle of September we do our first check on the ripeness of the grapes as that can give us an indication of when we may be harvesting. From the numbers we are seeing right now we can expect the harvest to be delayed as long a possible this year.We generally harvest the first week of October as we often face a frost event around then. Some years the season extends a The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-56665298289189153302022-08-28T19:37:00.001-07:002022-08-28T19:38:58.686-07:00Netting The Grapes The grapes are colouring up nice and accumulating the sugars. Nows the time the birds will be looking to get into the grapes.The Castel and Leon Millot are just turning and we estimate we are 7-10 days behind normal. Grapes are looking good.CastelLeon MillotEvangeline..from the 3 yr old vines.We put out drape bird netting on most varieties but use side insect netting on the Evangeline as The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-91573513846245158182022-08-10T13:50:00.002-07:002022-08-10T14:45:48.706-07:00Hot and DryEach year is different and you see that some years start out very similar to other years gone by but things can change very quickly. This year was cool in May and June resulting in delayed flowering into the 2nd week of July for some varieties. And since then its been 4-5 weeks since weve had any measurable rain and on top of that its been the second hottest July we've recorded with several days The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-72817769648181281462022-08-02T18:53:00.000-07:002022-08-02T18:53:06.857-07:00Grapes Are Looking Good Mid summer and the end of July finds us in a good but bad situation.The good news is the grapes have pretty much never looked better. Big full clusters, no sign of fungi, very healthy vines and tremendous growth in the heat weve had the past 3 weeks.On the other hand we were 7-10 days late in flowering and the grape development is about 1 week behind. Question is do we have enough heatThe Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-69291500931806299332022-07-19T16:28:00.001-07:002022-07-19T16:48:18.481-07:00Summer - Better Late Than NeverWell following an uninspiring cool spring we entered summer but without the heat. The heat is now here having arrived the second week of July with temps in the +30c area.Although all the vines are at least 7-10 days late we are now seeing remarkable growth and grape clusters growing very fast. And wow...first time in several years there is no forest fire smoke in mid-July, or nearby forest The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-22650420640453832412022-06-28T15:06:00.002-07:002022-06-28T15:06:26.095-07:00Slow Crawl into SummerThe weather is really the wild card every season. Some aspects are controllable, including the type of vine you choose to grow - matching it as best as possible to the location, the soil inputs to meet the needs of the vines, pest and competing vegitation control as well. But the rain fall, sunshine and heat vary from year to year.As is the case this year, its been really cold, perhaps the The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-85592493251565255632022-05-30T07:00:00.010-07:002022-05-30T07:08:03.405-07:00Cold Spring So you'll notice the choice of words "cold" to describe the weather. Its been cold with May vomming in at about 11c average for the month and everything is delayed. An average May temperature is about 12.7c.Bud break was about May 23-26 and this puts it at the latest weve ever experienced, normal is around May 18-21.With danger of any late frost having passed weve now completed the The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062242152172460198.post-10086232555650004672022-05-09T15:40:00.003-07:002022-05-10T11:56:08.977-07:00Vineyard Expansion ContinuesSo a few years back we began clearing more land to expand the vineyard. The piece of land next to the vineyard was full on forest land and took a few seasons to both clear the land and prepare for planting.Clearing the land to use it for farming takes alot of work and again a big thank to to Crescent Bay Construction for the heavy work in clearing the trees. We took dozens of cords of wood off The Vine Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08763085757494939860noreply@blogger.com