We're excited to announce the debut harvest using the Big Blue mechanical Braud Harvester. We began the 2017 today with the Marquette grapes as planned. Austin (driving, vineyard owner) says It's a steep learning curve to use the machine but the machine is picking at 95% and leaving VERY little MOT (material other than grapes) in the bins. This makes our customers very happy.
Dulcius grapes (Marquette, Traminette, and Cayuga) highlighted in radio news
(Excerpt from the WBOI spot) Indiana’s growing number of wineries and small vineyards want to make the Hoosier state synonymous with wine country.
Yet, a tricky climate limits what grapes they can grow in-state, and complex regulations limit where they can sell the resulting wines.
So these local wine destinations are finding other ways to make their marks.
At Two-Ee’s Winery near Huntington, the barrels and tanks in the production room are full of juice from grapes you’ve probably never heard of.
Wine-maker Eric Harris rattles them off: Tannat, Aglianico, Norton and Dolcetto bought from California, and Marquette, Traminette and Cayuga from Indiana, among others.
Baby, it's cold out there.
Northern Indiana experienced a frosty night last week. We at Dulcius took some precautions creating giant smudge pots to create frost-fighting smoke. Scott and Austin stayed up all night feeding the fires and generally warming up the low areas of the vineyard with their positive attitudes! Some of the vines did experience frost damage, especially our early to bud and burst Marquettes (see April's post below).
A Dulcius giant smudge pot- aflame with pruning twigs at 3:00am.
Our Marquettes felt some of the frost on that early May morning.
Pruning complete! Spring cleaning and vine growth at Dulcius
Spring at Dulcius is about watching wooly grape buds transform into bright green leaves and cleaning up the big mess we made by pruning. Also, Austin and Kyaw Naing have discovered a new, absolutely gorgeous, electric pink variety of Captivator grape. Austin has made several cuttings of this grape to start new plants.
Each one of these canes (sticks) was pruned by hand. This is only a mere fraction of what we need to clean up!
On April 26, Marquettes were beyond wooly bud stage (E-L # 3 for all you grape nerds out there!) and had burst out 4-5 tender green leaves on each shoot (E-L # 11-12).
A sneak peek! Behold the Pink Captivator!
Marquette: before and after pruning
This (almost) 3-year old Marquette vine was pruned in unseasonably warm February weather. Last year, the vine was not permitted to fruit so all of its energy went into creating more vine. This year (2017) we will let this vine make fruit for the first year!
