Bennington Suburban Vineyard- Vortexed

Well this year it looks like there will not be a harvest from our little vineyard. Our vines are very slow to grow and aren't flowering at all.

Usually by Mid- July we have awesome little green grape clusters like these.

But this year, our vines are struggling to reach the first rung of the arbor, and there are no flowers yet to be seen.

What caused such a dramatic shift? That horrible winter we had, specifically the low low low temperatures brought by Polar Vortex. Our area got to around -25 to -30 farenheit. Also known as...just too damn cold.

Earlier in the spring we were worried that they would be actually dead dead, until some vines started slowly growing up from the bottom. On the older 'anchor vines', nada.

So we'll continue to water them and let them grown, then cut back in the fall and bury the root base just in CASE we have another horrible winter. And hope for the best!

In the meantime, Jeremy will have to keep buying those juice concentrate kits.

Bennington Suburban Vineyard- We Have Wine Labels!

Jeremy's been wanting to label his wine with the graphic help of our friend Erin, but it's been a little lower on the priority list than the other stuff. Last year's bottles were all labeled blue painter's tape and a sharpie, which I think added a little bit of trendy mystique no?

But as of yesterday, this year's wine has actual labels!

Doesn't it look like something you'd actually buy in a store? Of course we don't have enough to sell, nor the legal abilities to do so since this 'vineyard' is run out of our suburban back yard, but I'm just sayin'....

The hubs was smart enough to print on the kind of labels that will peel right off so we can use the bottles again next year.

And now we give a big shout out and THANK YOU ERIN! These are beautiful.

Autumn in the Vineyard

This year's grapes have been harvested, crushed, gone through primary fermentation, strained and are now sitting it out for the long winter's wait in a 6 gallon glass carboy.

So now the leaves on the vine turn yellow and brown like so many other things do in October. In about a month we will trim almost all of the vines down and make some kind of art out them. In the past several years it's been giant crosses that were hung at our house, our church and a friend's living room. We are considering doing smaller ones this year so we can give them to more people.

When they are trimmed, we will then bury the base of the vines in a big heap of mulch to keep it warm for winter, and un-bury it in the spring.

Then do it all over again. 

Bennington Suburban Vineyard Opus 2- Harvest and Crush

Yesterday we harvested the Cabernet Franc grapes off of our vines in order to start this year's batch on wine. At the end of the day we drank a little from last year's batch and it was super good. Finally good enough to take out of hiding a share a bit.

I put Tessa in charge of picture taking this year and she did a pretty good job.

It was a nice cool day for being outside, although the vines were covered with bees looking for that sweet grape juice.

Unfortunately we probably should have harvested two weeks ago but Jeremy was hoping for just the right amount of sugar in the grapes. He felt like last year he harvested too early before there was enough sugar. Maybe eventually we will figure out when the perfect date is to pluck....third year will be the charm?

Because of this we had about four less gallons of grape clusters collected than last year, which didn't seem like that big of a deal until we crushed and there ended up being about half the juice. We had a LOT of squishy or raisined grapes that didn't make the cut. Wah wah.

Look, Tessa took a picture of our tomatoes too! 

In all, 22 gallons of grape clusters were brought into the house. 

Washed and plucked off the vine. 

Then mashed in small piles with a handy potato masher. 

And this is the end result, crushed up juice with skin and seeds still in there. After primary fermentation we will remove and the solid stuff (known as the must).

After the juice and must sat over night, Jeremy made some chemistry adjustments this morning with citric acid and sugar, and added a burgundy wine yeast. And now we wait for the house to get super smelly with the odor of fermentation, and continue to 'punch the cap' of floating skins to make sure it aerates. And then wait until it's time to strain.

Last year we had 26 gallons of healthy clusters which ended up in the end being 6 gallons of wine. Since we brought in less clusters and had less quality fruit, we expect a pretty small batch this year. Which makes me feel a little forlorned about my back ache following 9 hours of non stop standing and crushing in the kitchen, but I suppose we're only doing this for the purpose of fun, creativity and learning....just like an other kitchen experiment.

Then I take a drink of last year's wine and feel pretty proud of how delicious it is. Yup, pretty much worth it.

Bennington Suburban Vineyard- The New Breed

This summer makes the 5th year that we've had our four Cabernet Franc vines. Last fall was our first big harvest. , about 25 gallons of grapes harvested which turned into about 6 gallons of wine. After first planting the vines, it commonly takes a few years before the vine produces a lot of fruit.

And now that we have, it looks like we may be in business!  This year's grapes are doing very well too.

Jeremy did notice something called 'bunch rot' in a few of the clusters and quickly went out to get some spray. Apparently it's a fast moving thing and be contributed to our super wet spring and summer. But hopefully we haven't lost too many grapes to it.

If all keeps going well...more wine making is in our future. Bennington Opus 2?

Bennington Suburban Vineyard- Just Being Messy

Jeremy is occasionally still getting juice concentrate deliveries from our wine store and starting new batches. The batch from our grapes was long ago bottled and stored in our wine fridge, but the cycle of the process still continues.

So every once in a while on a Saturday Jeremy will just say...I need to do some wine stuff. When it comes to something like bottling taking place in our kitchen though, it's just a big ol' mess. Wine on the floor, the counter, staining the sink. The sink nozzle removed to hook up that bottle washing thingy. And bottles bottles everywhere. Good thing I wasn't trying to cook or anything.

It would seem possibly true that any good hands on hobby worth doing makes a big mess. As long as the wine maker cleans up after himself.

Bennington Suburban Vineyard Part 4- Bottling

This weekend we started bottling one of the batches of wine. 

It's still not quite super tasty and needs to sit in the bottle a while longer. But it was time to move it, partially because we had a newer batch of skins that needed to be pressed and moved into a glass carboy, and we're too cheap to buy another one.

We're also too cheap to buy our own bottles, so there's an open call out to anyone who has ANY wine bottles they want to give us. Everyone who donates gets a free bottle of the finished product to take home.

This looks kinda like a weird Christmas tree doesn't it? It's a bottle drying rack. The white thing on the top will squirt a sulfer sanitizing solution deep into the bottles to clean them out, then you hang them to dry. My question is, why don't they make these for baby bottles?

By the way, this is after these bottles soaked in the tub and had all of their labels peeled off.  Since our friend who works at St. Elmo's had given us some, I think Jeremy was quietly moaning about some of the awesomely expensive bottles and wishing he had emptied them himself.

So from the glass carboy, we have a tube with a squirty thing on the end that cuts off when you have the right amount of liquid per bottle. Think about the fast food soda machines that know just when to stop.

The corks have to be mailable to go in the bottle, so we soaked them in a bath for a while just like the bottles. Basically everyone gets a soak in the tub during this process.

 Fill it up

Then place it under the corker and POP! it goes straight down in. Done. Now wait for it to mature, have your graphically talented friend make you some special wine labels and you're good to go.

This one was one we made from the store bought juice, but while Jeremy was at it we sampled some of the juice from our own garden grapes. I've got to say it was pretty darn GOOD. I think it will be so cool if our grapes actually make a bonafied good-tasting wine, especially since we've been tending to them for 4 years waiting for a bumper crop.

From plant start to delicious wine, the circle of life.

Bennington Suburban Vineyard Part 3- The Long Wait

There's been nothing to post about in wine making land for a while now because the wine has just been doing it's secondary fermentation in the glass carboys. Nothing to do but wait....

So one of these is juice from our grapevines (remember that it took about 25 gallons of grapes to make this much juice), two of these are purchased juice from the wine store, and the trash can like container full of purchased crushed grapes that still need to be pressed and put in a carboy.

But today there's action, because we're bottling some! It's not yet quite drinkable but probably will be by Christmas or after. Not bad though, tastes (kinda) like wine! Stayed tuned for pictures from bottling.

Bennington Suburban Vineyard Part 2- Press

Primary fermentation of our grapes is done, and today Jeremy removed all the skins and contained the juice in glass carboy. 

No more 'punching the cap' or sniffing the juice. It's all closed up now in the glass with a bubbler on top to release the gasses produced by fermentation.

And now it sits for the long rest.

First he took the chunky juice with skins (aka the must) and pushed it all through a sieve. The skins are what have given the wine it's nice dark color and flavor, but now it's time for them to go before they mold and rot. By the way...the only difference between white and red wines are that red does primary fermentation with the skins on and white does not. It doesn't come from white grapes. Mind blowing I know.

Then Jeremy made a holy mess of my kitchen by filling up the carboy to exactly 6 gallons.That was his ultimate goal was to get one full carboy from our own grapevines. He was over by just a couple of cups. Remember it took more than 30 gallons of grape clusters to get us here. Holy reduction batman!

The beautiful purple skins and seeds, after their work has been done. Good job fellas.

By the way, all these years I thought the word for that glass jug was carboid. Blogger says that's not a word and Jeremy informed me that it's spelled carboy. That just sounds goofy. That sounds like a character from West Side Story.

Bennington Suburban Vineyard Part 1- Crush

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about how, 4 years after we planted them, our grapevines had finally produced enough Cabernet Franc grapes to make a decent amount of wine...and how Jeremy had made and judged wine long ago in a previous life and how he was geeeking out about it all over again.

So I guess technically that is 'part 1' in our wine making chapter for this year...growth and vine care (I'm thinking there's got to by some theological symbolism in there; John 15). And finally after testing the sugar level for a few weeks, Jeremy declared it time to harvest.

We did that yesterday. And by we, I mean I helped for a few hours and then split town with the kids to go to Mark's birthday party. So it was mostly Jeremy. And today...his back hurts

We started the day by 'racking' his previous batch of wine from the plastic tub to the glass carboid, meaning it was done with primary fermentation, done being stirred and tested, and ready for the long rest in the glass. This was from the juice that Jeremy had purchased from a wine store, in attempt to re-hone his skills.

So if you want to do this without the pain and mess of growing  your own grapes, buy a big jug of grape juice!

I had my camera set to the 'super vivid' setting that I recently discovered, which worked out so perfectly for the outdoor pictures. A little heavy on the saturation color of people's skin....but overall a very nice affect.

Some of these are downright frameable.

We filled this two gallon bucket 11 times.

Tessa helped a little but really wanted to return to her Saturday morning cartoon watching. Kindergarten is tiring, you know. Charley found a neighbor to run around with.

I did this for a long time. The  grape must (or juice with seeds and skins on) can have no stems or leaves or rotten/green/crusty berries in it so we picked them off one by one. This was more than a little tedious (says the lady who skipped town after three hours).

Doesn't everyone have Lego guys mixed in with their wine making supplies?

Pick pick pick. Then sanitize in a sulfur cocktail. Then little by little, we smushed them with a potato masher.

You'd be surpised how much elbow grease it takes to get this much must. This is what red wine looks like in the beginning. The skins will give the juice it's dark color and tannins, then be filtered out later. If it were white wine, it would ferment with no skins.

Yes I took a wine class at Purdue, people.

Oooh...trippy fish eye grapes.

In the end we had 9 gallons of must with Jeremy thinks will make 2-3 cases of wine. Today he played mad scientist and added his yeast mixtures which made the must expand in the container and also begin that interesting fermentation smell.

Every day we have to 'punch the cap' 3 times (meaning push down the floating skins so air can get in). And when primary fermenation is done, this too with be tranferred to a glass carboid with a bubbler on top to release gasses created by the yeasty chemistry inside.

Punching the cap always reminds me of when Jeremy did this in college. I actually stopped by his apartment more than once to punch the cap when he was too busy to do it himself. That's love, people.

Until the next step...we wait!

I Paint Them, Jeremy Ferments Them

I think Jeremy and I both have needed to rekindle hobbies and interest for a while now. You know, doing something just for fun and not having to do with the kids. Being productive in free time.

It's quite a concept.

Especially now that we have cable.

But on Thursday we were laying low because Tessa was coughing quite a bit and she said she wanted to paint. When I broke out her washable kid paints, I broke out mine as well. I had bought them an acrylic set last fall in hopes of painting when I was laid up but it never really happened.

But I was on so many hard core pain meds, I have to say those would have been interesting painting. As a side note, hard core pain meds made me really really ridiculously good at Words With Friends. When I stopped using them, I lost my savant scrabble skills.

Anyway, Tessa painted and I painted. After 30 mins she lost interest and watched a movie, but I kept going all afternoon.

Ta-da! I painted some grapes! The only experience I have with painting AT ALL comes from my four times doing 'wine and canvas' classes. But they really taught me a lot about how to mix colors and blend blend blend.

See I thought if you wanted to paint purple grapes you would buy purple paint. Silly me. All you ever need is a primary color pack (you  know, roygbiv---actually minus the V which is apparently not part of roygbi anymore) and you can do anything.

They look cartoonish because I know nothing at all about shadows and highlights. But that's okay. They match the other cartoonish paintings of mine sprinkled around the house.

-

So this is the first thing I've ever ever done freehand without someone guiding me. I'm pretty happy with it. Here's the original picture....

It was an absolute coincidence that while I was painting grapes, Jeremy was behind me working on his own grape project...making wine!

We are about to have a whole mess of grapes to harvest (hence the picture above, from our yard) and we are going to make wine. This is something we did in a former life a million years ago but are trying to rekindle.

Did you know that Jeremy's wines from 1999 took blue ribbon in an international wine competion?

Did you know that Jeremy himself got to be a wine judge in the same competition when it took place in Indy (and that the two statement are not related)?

Did you  know that wine competitions are sometimes judged by 23 year old grad students?

All true.

So before our actual grapes are ready and the messiness of 'crush' begins, Jeremy decided to buy some grape juice at a local wine store to hone his long forgotten skills. Apparently that's a whole industry....buying brand names vineyard juices and taking them home to make your own Opus at a fraction of the cost.

So far it's going well and Jeremy is feeling very very happy again.  Our kitchen smells like a winery, and when he's all tied up with work...it's not uncommon to find him sniffing the barrel for stress relief.

I asked him how many times yesterday he sniffed his barrel and he didn't want to answer me.