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Posts Tagged“2012”

Harvest 2012: Chardonnay in Niagara USA

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Harvest has ramped up here in Niagara this week as the time for chardonnay had come in several local vineyards. Leonard Oakes Estate Winery had already taken Vignoles before pulling chardonnay in addition to pinot noir for sparkling wine. Freedom Run Winery’s custom crush operation had already brought in Brianna, Edelweiss and Leon Millot before they began their estate chardonnay picking on Monday. The picture at left shows the bounty of chardonnay collected at Eveningside Vineyards yesterday where the yield looked larger than normal and the quality looked to be very good. In the coming days I’ll post the film…

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Hail Storm Hits the Finger Lakes — Has There Been Any Damage?

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This morning, Rick Rainey from Forge Cellars published some photos and a piece on the winery blog about some hail that he encountered at his home in Trumansburg, NY. Luckily, none of the vineyards Forge purchases fruit from was affected by the sizable hail that feel at the Rainey home. We have some emails out to local growers — but has anyone heard of any vineyard damage from this hail storm?

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Harvest 2012: Seyval Blanc at Gibson Farms for Villa Bellangelo

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Chris Missick from Villa Bellangelo sends this harvest report — and video — about the first grapes processed on their new crushpad: [quote]We harvested Seyval Blanc from a great 10 acre site owned by Marty Gibson, on the west side of Seneca Lake, and crushed the grapes at our winery a few miles away. The Seyval came in at 19.5 brix, the fruit tasted amazing, and I am looking forward to what our winemaker, Ian Barry, can do with the fruit this year. Although most of our wines under the Bellangelo label are vinifera varietals or blends, our Seyval, crafted in…

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Harvest 2012: Estate Seyval Blanc at Hudson-Chatham Winery

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From Hudson-Chatham Winery owner Carlo DeVito:   [quote] We harvested approximately one ton of seyval blanc from our North Creek Vineyard, Block 1 location yesterday. Brix were at 21. We would have actually let it sit longer, but extreme bird pressure and deer pressure led us to pick it earlier than we would have liked. We had several growing experts come in a take a look at it and help us make our calculation to pick. All agreed that we had excellent fruit, and nice production. We’ve found bird pressure immense this year. Possibly, with the drought-like conditions in the…

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Send Us Your 2012 Grape Harvest Updates

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The 2012 harvest season has begun in New York, with pinot noir and chardonnay being picked across the state for sparkling wine production. The past few years, we’ve made a concerted effort to publish as many harvest photos as we can — so please send them our way along with some basic harvest data — tonnage, brix, etc. and anything interesting about the grapes that you’d like to include. Good luck to all of our friends in the New York wine industry!

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Hop Harvest Party in Niagara County!

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McCollum Orchards hosted an old-fashioned harvest party this week to enlist the helping hands of their Niagara County neighbors, willing homebrewers in search of “U-Pick” hops, and any folks interested in experiencing the farm’s first commercial hop harvest. As guests helped owners Rich and Bree Woodbridge cut down Cascade bines and pluck hop cones, then sort them and lay them out on drying racks –– all in 90-degree heat –– the community got a taste of the life of a hop farmer. They also got a taste of banana bread, homemade brownies, pie, hot dogs, and a fresh batch of…

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Harvest Update: Cascade and Centennial Hops at McCollum Orchards

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McCollum Orchards, Niagara’s new hops farm and orchard in Lockport, New York, kicked off its first commercial harvest this week with Centennial hops. Bree Bacon Woodbridge, co-owner of the farm with her husband Rich, reports that the crop “looks pretty good, all things considered. We picked several cones that are the size of my thumb.” Woodbridge says the very hot, dry 2012 season brought “more pest pressure than last year. We were back on our heels and then were able to put in irrigation, with inline fertilizer, which helped regulate a lot. We have done a lot of hand-picking of…

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