Another year in the books at Calico Skies Vineyards! In 2010 we planted five acres of vines just North of our Tasting Room/Production Room. Originally pasture ground, our site is ideal for wine grape production with South facing slopes, well drained soil and not a tree in site- allowing for full sun and great air circulation.
The characteristics and quality of each vintage starts in the vineyard. You can follow the journey of our wines from grape to glass starting with pruning come late February, bud break in May, rapid shoot growth and pollination in June with continual combing and maintenance of shoots for optimal sun exposure of the fruit through August. Bird netting goes on as soon as the berries start to sweeten and we are at constant alert of signs of disease and pest damage. Each step along the way is imperative to producing the highest quality grapes.
Mother Nature keeps things interesting for us and gives each vintage its own distinguishing characteristics. Vintage 2015 had its fair share of ups and downs. The vineyard broke bud around the first of May. We were hit with a hail storm where we basically had to hit the restart button on growth from secondary buds pushing back our harvest date and setting us back in yield as secondary buds aren't quite as fruitful as the first primary buds.
The characteristics and quality of each vintage starts in the vineyard. You can follow the journey of our wines from grape to glass starting with pruning come late February, bud break in May, rapid shoot growth and pollination in June with continual combing and maintenance of shoots for optimal sun exposure of the fruit through August. Bird netting goes on as soon as the berries start to sweeten and we are at constant alert of signs of disease and pest damage. Each step along the way is imperative to producing the highest quality grapes.
Mother Nature keeps things interesting for us and gives each vintage its own distinguishing characteristics. Vintage 2015 had its fair share of ups and downs. The vineyard broke bud around the first of May. We were hit with a hail storm where we basically had to hit the restart button on growth from secondary buds pushing back our harvest date and setting us back in yield as secondary buds aren't quite as fruitful as the first primary buds.
The secondary shoots came back strongly, however, and we were back on track. We are always concerned with a late frost after bud break and we were at risk mid-may but were able to protect the new shoots by a foliar spray to make buds hardier.
We had pretty ideal weather after that. Enough rain in the spring and sunshine in the summer along with a late fall to help ripen the fruit and make up for the delayed start in the spring.
brianna
frontenac gris
Our 2015 Frontenac Gris's journey is going to be in uncharted territory for us as it is destined for some sparkles! More to come on that!
la crescent
We had an outstanding crew to help pick bring in our La Crescent crop the second week of September with a few wine club members in addition to a group from Dordt College.
marquette
Marquette came in over the course of four early mornings mid-September. There were a few days of picking solo, hence the four day time frame picking in the early morning and stopping by 11 am whether it's complete or not. We try to pick during the early mornings while the fruit is still cool maintaining fruit quality and keeping a wild fermentation at bay.
sept 19th, 2015 an especially cool morning in the marquette vineyard.
frontenac
Frontenac was ready for harvest the next week, leading to another multiple day harvest- careful to bring it in during the best conditions for the grapes as possible- again, during the cooler morning temps
lara helping with frontenac harvest
Harvest is just one part of the puzzle, of course. While we are working hard to bring the grapes in, we are busy with crush in the production room. That's a story for another time.
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