A Year In The Vineyard: A Grape Grower’s Calendar

By Kevin Kourofsky

As I look out over my tiny vineyard I see a beautiful, if stark, vista with vines covered in snow and ice. One might think that, like the dormant vineyard, your grape growing tasks are dormant. But, if you are fortunate enough to grow your own grapes, you know that there is always something to do in, for, or about the vineyard. Whereas in January my winemaking year is coming to a close with final testing and bottling of the finished wine, my grape growing year is just starting. January starts the cycle of grape growth, from pruning to veraison to budding-out to harvest.

Inspired by the Vintner’s Guild Winemaker’s Calendar, I’ll attempt to catalog some of the many challenges each month of the year offers up to the non-professional vineyard owner, manager, grower and laborer, all usually found in one person.

Reflections On Climate Change: Harvest 2021

By Kevin Kourofsky

Tom Mitchell, an iconic grape grower in the Finger Lakes, alas no longer with us, once said that everyone always talks about the “average” growing season, but in all his time he had never experienced one. I can appreciate what Tom meant.

Canopy Management: The Virtuous Cycle

By Kevin Kourofsky

Photo by mali maeder on Pexels.com

Canopy Management sounds a bit like an investment firm, but it’s really a description of your plan to care for all the parts of a grapevine that hold, shelter and nurture the grape berries. Canopy Management (CM) is also an important part of your overall Integrated Pest Management Program (IPM). IPM is also a fancy name that describes your overall plan to keep your grapevines healthy and to bring your grapes to maximum ripeness. So, if your CM program fits well into your IPM program, then everything should be A-OK.

The Spray’s The Thing: Disease Management When & How

Photo by mali maeder on Pexels.com

By Kevin Kourofsky

Every vineyard is a battleground. Every good harvest is a successful campaign. Napoleon once said that no plan of battle survives first contact with the enemy. But he always had a plan and you should too.

Every vineyard plan should integrate grape vine disease control with pest management, thus its fancy name: integrated pest management (IPM). This article will discuss some of the whens and hows of vine disease management. 

Pinot Noir: Taming The Enfant Terrible A Conversation With Winemaker Michael Countryman Part One: Growing

by Kevin Kourofsky

In French, an enfant terrible means an unruly child, a child who says or does obstinate or embarrassing things.  Pinot Noir is often that difficult child as a grape on the vine, as  must, or as wine in the barrel.  It is a thin-skinned grape that is easily damaged and is susceptible to mildews and a range of rots.  Usually ruby colored as wine, it can suddenly decide to lose its color for no obvious reason.  A flexible wine, great with beef, chicken or fish, it can be a great expression of terroir or it can be thin and acidic.  Mike Countryman of Point of The Bluff Vineyard calls it “capricious.” 

Want to Grow Your Own Grapes? Five Things to Know

 

By Kevin Kourofsky

It is said that good wine is made in the vineyard.  So if we want to become better It is said that good wine is made in the vineyard.  So if we want to become better winemakers, perhaps we need to become grape growers.  This column is intended to encourage those who are considering starting their own vineyard to take the leap, but also to inform those who are not sure they want to go to the trouble.

I have a very small vineyard that I started 12 years ago.  My tale is one of “oops,” “gosh darn!” and “”Oh, is that why.”  Here are some areas that I should have considered more in starting my vineyard and which may explain why the vineyard treatises emphasis certain things.