Epona Vineyard Grape Update - 2020:

 1. I told my Cab Sauv/Cab Franc grower in Yakima that I can't buy this year. Ditto the Syrah grower in Dallesport. Partly due to Covid risk and partly because my (Double Gold) wines from there just aren't selling fast enough. My market is too small for me to run at max production every year. Hoping to get into some local restaurants, but none of them are buying now.

2. It's an off year for apples thank goodness (my trees are heavily biennial); I've learned that my mix of heritage cider apples makes a great apple wine if I age it 3 years, so I'm going that route this year with my apples. If I do it right, you won't be able to tell it's not a good, dry white table wine.

3. My grapes are a bit further along than I expected:

Newer Leon vines: 19.3 Brix average, with a mix of light brown and dark brown seeds. Skin runoff color isn't there yet. Flavor is nowhere close yet. Very optimistic that these will fully ripen this year, and I haven't dropped much of it! Have also learned to never make the red wine style, if the grapes don't have a long, warm summer. If GDD are low, or if grapes don't hit 24B with great flavor, or if it rains before harvest, then 100% of it needs to go to rose (where it performs great). My 2018 Estate Red (Leon) had a too-low Brix of 20.7, and pH was 3.1 (also too low for red wine); I chalked it (Pot Carb) and got the chemistry perfect, but the wine aged to brownish red and I don't like the flavor and I'm having to pour it all out. Lesson learned.  But my 2017 Leon Red was fabulous; much hotter summer and better harvest numbers.

Older Leon vines: Averaging 19.4B. Coming along great.

Mindon: 18.7B; tart; yellow seeds; great skin color.

Jupiter: 16.5B (but it only goes to 19 or 20 tops); flavors getting there.

Monas Muscat: 13.0; ridiculously tart; and low set this year (rainy Spring)

LaBelle: Tiny berries--incredibly small. But I forgot they're tenteurier! Avg is already 20.8B and juice tasting good. This one is so early--maybe earlier than G'bok. Glad I planted more!

Delic: 13.0; tart; great skin color. Needs a long, hot summer. Probably not right for here unless we get a near-record year. And my Labelle can supplant my love of Deli's tenteurier juice.

Zero bird predation so far. Blackberries are fabulous and feeding the birds well. 

Long-range forecast  Looking great. Sunny thru at least Sept 17, with no rain. That gives enough time (probably) to get all my varieties harvested fully ripe.  With this great late heat,  I'll send half my Leon to red wine and half to rose, if the Brix and flavors warrant it, otherwise all to Rose. But I bet the Estate Red will be made, and will be quite good, this year. Smoke in the skies is starting to appear in the forecast, from OR and CA fires, but it should be minor here, this year.

Dogged: 2018 Epona Cider: It's all about learning, learning, learning - Look at this possibly-stupid level of effort:

"Dogged." I don't know if dogs are persistent, but I am.

My 2018 apple cider has an issue: It hardly fermented in the bottle at all (I use the French country style, where you "charge" each bottle with sugar and yeast, as you bottle it).  While "still cider" is a thing in Europe (and it's a legitimate cider style), in the US most cider lovers want those bubbles.

At first I just discounted the cider in price, sold a quarter of it, and jumped into trying to figure out what happened. Then, I got creative about how to rescue the remaining cider:

What happened originally:
a. The cider itself (disregarding the bubbles is the best I've made. It's my first using crabapples and bittersweet apples, all from Epona Farm, in addition to the wonderful array of "sweet-sharp" heritage cider apples that were already here. It's the first to have some lactose added to it (dairy allergy alert), which is "milk sugar" and is unfermentable; I added it to provide just a bit of residual sugar which I thought the acidic juice needed, and it also provides a creaminess in the mouthfeel--more body. So far, so good. The cider tastes really great.
b. I put the clear, aged cider into a tank and added yeast and priming sugar calculated at 2 volumes of CO2. That is for the low-end of "sparkling" which is called "petaillant" by the French.  So far, so good.
c. I tested the free sulfite and added just a touch, to get up to 45ppm, which was perfect for the cider's pH. This is what winemakers do, and for cider it is controversial: A few cidermakers sulfite their ciders, as it gives them more shelf-life (more microbial stability); in my defense, commercial yeasts can handle up to 50ppm sulfite, so I thought it would be OK. But most cidermakers do not sulfite before bottling. Here's why:
d. Steve Bader (owns wine/beer shop of that name; great guy and a great scholarly resource, and he runs an expertly-staffed and equipped shop) told me that the sulfite will scavenge all the O2 that's in the headspace. That was new to me and is an issue, because (as every winemaker and cidermaker should know) the yeast goes through two phases: first (the lag phase), the yeast multiply until they reach a density that satisfies them; and then (the fermentation phase) they start to convert sugar to ethyl alcohol, CO2, heat, and other byproducts (including sulfite, which is a natural component of any fermentation). If the free sulfite in the cider uses up the O2 in the headspace (under the crown cap), then the yeast can't multiply, and I'm not sure if they will then give up trying to multiply and start fermenting in tiny numbers? I think that is what happened, because when you open one of these ciders, it makes a faint hiss, and that is the CO2 escaping, and there are very faint and few bubbles rising in the liquid in your glass. I added enough priming sugar that there should be more hiss and more bubbles in the cider.
e. I waited 6 months before trying and selling the cider. Maybe if I wait longer, the few yeast in each bottle will finally make more CO2 and raise the carbonation level. BUT, apple cider has a shelf life and if it takes ?2? ?5? more years to finally get carbonated, the fruit flavor might be faded.
f. Another thing I think I did wrong is that I filled each bottle pretty full, leaving about 0.5" headspace (as we winemakers are supposed to do). I now know that some cidermakers leave 1.5" headspace, which gives more O2 to the yeast. As Steve noted, the O2 in the headspace doesn't raise spoilage issue because the yeast will use it up (during their lag phase) and then the headspace will be only CO2 after the in-bottle fermentation, which is a good preservative.

Dogged. So, for a month I've been reading about this, and thinking about what to do. Now, I'm working an experiment on my cider. This is what I just did to a 4-case test batch; I'll open a test bottle in about late July, to see if I have more carbonation  then:

1. Open the bottles up and pour into carboys, leaving 20% of the inside carboy volume empty for lots of O2 space; cover with towel to allow more O2 to enter. Then I didn't want to rinse, wash, sulfite each bottle, so I stuck the empty bottles in the winery refrigerator, at 33F, thinking that would keep them "bugless."

2. Add more charging sugar in the carboys, calculated to raise the desired CO2 volume from 2 to 3.8 (4 volumes of CO2 is about the upper limit for in-bottle carbonation in a beer bottle). I was too cautious at 2 volumes.

3. Add K1V-1116 - the "killer yeast" (I used the workhorse EC-1118 yeast last time. I also added yeast nutrient; the yeast can't function well (or at all) if they don't have enough food. Well-cleared cider doesn't provide much nutrient to yeast.

4. Stir vigorously; lots of splashing.

5. Wait 24 hours with towel over carboy neck to allow O2 entry; then put on a ferm lock and test for evidence of renewed ferm.

6. This morning, each carboy was showing slight ferm, after about 16 hours (bubbling about every 40 seconds LOL). That was progress! I think it was so slight because that's not much sugar--not like the original ferm, and also because the yeast's lag phase is slower when I use a carboy, compared to using an open primary fermentation tank. I could've used a tank but that's more work and with lots of headspace in the carboy I thought I had this issue covered.

7. Re-bottle (with 1.5" headspace) and cap. I've learned to be very cautious and slow while capping, so that I can gently press down hard and get a tight seal, but without snapping off the bottle's neck. 

If this re-done batch gives me good carb in-bottle, then I'll be pretty excited and will probably enter it in some competitions, because the taste is so good. We will know by late July maybe.  If this works, I have about 12 more cases I can do the same to. THAT is the crazy part--opening a bottled cider and doing all this to it. It's more about learning, and maybe pride, than anything. It is not common at all to do this once you've closed a bottle. But, dogged.

Taste-testing is a great benefit of winemaking: Epona 2018 Syrah-Malbec notes

...because you get to observe how a wine changes over time, even before it's released to the market.

The Syrah in this wine came from the Graves Vineyard, which is the southern-most in the state of Washington (Dallesport WA), near the Columbia River, and it's also one of the oldest. Planted by Mr. Graves, a BPA employee, a very long time ago (1970s?) and now tended by his son. The Malbec came from Noble Wolf Vineyard east of Lyle WA. Both grapes were fully ripe and in excellent shape; I picked them up in early morning and by noon was processing them on the Epona crush pad. Super-fresh treatment with high-touch winemaking all the way.

1. Youth: I'm learning why Syrahs (and Malbecs, too) need years of aging before they show their best. Some Syrahs don't come to market until they are 6-7 years old! This wine, upon opening is mostly shut down. The nose is faint and the palate is clunky, showing some nice red/blue fruits but with a sense of disjointedness and a bitter finish note.  An hour later, the nose is showing now--complex and awakening: Red/blue/purple/black fruits (yes-all of those, and I dare you to disagree), and herbs, and medicinals, in that order. On the palate, the wine is thick (good body) and acidic (good for food), with purple fruits and a coffee finish.
2. Then I put the leftover half-bottle of the wine into the fridge for four days. Sounds too long, right? But I suspected the wine was very, very early in its development, and 4 days on air provided a good test for what it might become.
3. Then, the wine was really good: The nose predicts ripe red/purple/black fruits with bolstering acidity and matching fairly high alcohol, and you can even smell the thick body too. In the mouth, it's very nice: rich, thick, but acidic too, with wonderful complex fruit and herb notes, and a nice finish.

I will definitely submit this one in competition, but not for another couple of years. Big hopes for this one! But patience is required. I plan to offer it next week, in order to get the hivemind's comments, and then either sell the rest, or hang onto it, as appropriate. One great thing about having a SUPERB wine buying club, is that you can access a wealth of great wine palates, in order to get the correct skinny on a wine and what to plan re that wine...

May I review my own wine? 2017 Epona "Rosso Misto"

Rosso Misto means "mixed red" in Italian, and I made this wine from three modern grape varieties, all grown here at the Epona Vineyard: Mindon, Regent, and Delicatessen.

This is really good!
Color: Clear; pretty red.
Bouquet: Very nice rustic, cherry nose, with flowers. I'm proud of that bouquet.
Palate: Medium body, with a touch of heft, but this is a lighter, more-elegant wine. Pleasing balance. Moderate tannins. Nice fruit notes.  I give this wine a solid "B" and it's fun to drink!

I work pretty hard to weed and mulch the Epona Vineyard. So, why mulch a vineyard?

You can't make great wine from shoddy fruit. One of the benefits of owning a small, hand-tended vineyard is that you can do many things to improve fruit quality, and hopefully that shows up in the wine. Just go look at other vineyards, and you almost always see weeds/grass growing right up to the grapes' trunks. Not mine. I work hard to keep the "vinerows" weed-free and mulched. 

Heavy rains aside, I've been weeding and mulching the Epona vineyard this week. First, I weed each row by hand, then spread mulch from the trailer, by hand. The ground is so wet that even on a rare sunny day, it is making bubbling/leaking sounds, probably relating to the little passageways carved underground by the earthworms. The mulch helps the grapes in many ways: it prevents weeds that compete for nutrients; it holds moisture in the soil on hot sunny days; it keeps the soil cool on hot days, which the roots like; it eventually decomposes and adds nutrients to the soil. The mulch would last for 2-3 years if it weren't for the moles, which throw huge piles of dirt on top of the mulch (the moles are after the worms that I'm trying to grow--the worms are the big secret in an organic vineyard). I've tried metal mole-traps--they occasionally work and are a big pain to set correctly. I've not tried the shotgun-shell traps. I have tried using road flares to fill the mole tunnels with sulfur gas, which sometimes makes the moles leave for another home. 

But the best mole-trap is one invented many millions of years ago: It's this thing called a "gopher snake" ;) . I was lucky enough to see the back half of one, here, once, as it desperately fled me into a big logpile--I said, "You cannot be a rattlesnake--no way, not here." So I researched what those rattler-like splotches were, and the answer was clear: Gopher snake! They have all my best wishes and support. I am fairly sure they are active in my vineyard, even though I've never again seen one. I know this because many other nearby places have thousands more mole mounds than we have. I know  why other places don't have gopher snakes: Those other property owners are killing animals, including snakes, with inorganic fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides. Just go organic! and let Nature help you.

We also have a few black racers, but 99% of our snakes--and we have many thousands of these--are garters, which eat many bugs but alas can't control moles. 80% of the garter snakes are "yellow-stripes," and about 15% are "red stripes," and 5% are "blue stripes"--vivid teal-blue stripes and I can prove it ;)

(Photo credit of non-venomous, "scaredy-cat" gopher snake (and doesn't it look a bit like a rattlesnake?): desertusa.com)

Washington state relief map!

This is pretty cool. You can see the state's wine valleys very prominently.

Though the Columbia River cuts through it, the extreme northern end of the Wilamette Valley is where our vineyard is. We're on the south side of an East-West little mountain range that extends SW from Mt St Helens. That little mountain range plunges to the Columbia around Kalama WA.

Epona Wine joins the Porto Protocol

Epona Wine is committed to organic and other sustainable practices in bringing both classical and modern grape variety wines to discerning consumers. It recently joined the important Porto Protocol, an international effort led by famed Port producers in Portugal, committed to addressing climate change through such steps as installing solar power, conserving water, insulating winery buildings, planting trees for shade and carbon capture, sourcing fruit locally instead of bringing it in from far away, and other similar means..

"The Porto Protocol initiative was started by Taylor Fladgate, a major Port house in Portugal,” explained Kenton Erwin, Epona's CEO. “It is being joined by numerous worldwide wineries and vineyards, and even heavy industry, with the shared goal to find and implement new ways to fight climate change."

"Grapes and wine are one of only a few branded fruits--where fruit is converted into a finished, branded product, such as Epona wines. Because of this branding, the wine industry has a special connection to its consumers, which puts us winery and vineyard owners in a unique position to address climate change with individual consumers. We can be important leaders in fighting climate change. And there is an economic upside to it: There is a large and growing market for Green products.”

For more information about Epona, go to eponawine.com.

Read more about Porto Protocol here.

Sobering thoughts (pardon the pun) on Millenials' wine consumption

There are reasons to think that wine consumption will slowly decline in the US, according to this article by Rob McMillan.

Crushing student loans are keeping Millennials from owning homes at the same rate as Boomers when they were that age. This means that Millennials don't/won't have as many wine cellars to fill as Boomers do. And, because premium hard liquor is a bit cheaper than premium wine, thrifty Millennials tend to drink the hard stuff instead. And the anti-alcohol movement is momentarily succeeding in vilifying all alcohol, using bad science to dispute the long-proved notion that moderate wine consumption has health benefits.

All this, coupled with the aging of the Boomers, will tend to reduce wine consumption in the US. Wineries need to be careful about expanding, and lower-cost premium wines may win out over wines that are clearly-overpriced.  Epona (both the winery and the virtual wine shop) focuses on making/finding good wines at lower prices, and so we hope we're well-positioned for these trends. Three Epona wines just won Double Gold, Silver, and Silver at the state's-best Seattle Wine Awards. And of course we're one of the most-sustainable "Green" wineries in the country, with modern grape varieties that are grown organically and never need spray or netting, that don't see fruit having to be trucked over the mountains, to get wine to consumers. And we are 100% powered by solar energy. You just cant get more "Green" than that!

Pourt - a port-style wine made by Epona

I invented and claim a trademark in the word "Pourt." I invented that word in order to have a name for my sweet, high-alcohol wine that doesn't run afoul of the word "Port," because "Port" is reserved to ONLY port-style wines made in the Douro region of Portugal.

To me, "pourt" refers to "pouring" as well as to "port."

If another winery would like to use the word "Pourt" in the US, they should contact me for permission.  kenton.erwin@gmail.com

That said, my 2016 Raspberry Pourt is just now hitting the market! $10 for a 375ml bottle. Fantastic, pure raspberry flavor, with a rich, thick body and a hint of old toasted oak.

Orin Swift 2016 "Fragile" Rose - Can't live up to its hype

It was with a sense of excitement that I opened this bottle, after several customers told me that "you can never go wrong with anything made under this label." It's about $17-$19 retail, though I found it on a great sale and was able to sell it for just $10.

It's a deeply-colored rose. I am NOT one who likes only faintly-tinged rose wines. Why penalize a wine for having pretty color? Why turn away from a bigger-bodied rose (which a deeper color suggests may be present)? My Epona rose wine looks much like this one. It's a pretty bottle and label, which present well.

Nose: Not much going on. Sad. Our noses can distinguish thousands of different sensations, whereas our tongues can manage only six. Why winemakers don't pay attention to extracting a great bouquet, is beyond me.

Palate: Huh. A little disappointing. This wine is fine--it's got fruit and good acid. Certainly not a revelation or anything like that. There is a fairly pronounced bitter orange peel note that is too strong for me. The wine's definitely drinkable, and it's fine, but not quite super-enjoyable. Give me the $10 Barnard Griffin Rose of Sangio (a repeat Double Platinum winner up here in the NW) anyday over this. Give me an Epona rose (also $10) over this.

Making Noble Wolf Malbec!

403 lbs of gorgeous Malbec grapes from Adolfo's "Noble Wolf" vineyard near Dallesport WA (high in the mountains above the Columbia River--about 1000' I think). 23 Brix; pH 3.2. Fantastic boysenberry jam flavor. Well-tended vines (a really pretty site, actually). Lucky to have sourced this fruit.

"Mal bec" in French means "bad mouth," meaning the wine tastes green when young. Right now, the juice is pure and rich, with great body and deep flavor, with no greenness, but that may come soon. The secret to good Malbec appears to be aging the wine for a long time, which lets the wine soften and mature into its final richness. Will do.

THANK YOU to Andrew who helped me crush this fruit in very high heat (for so late in September).

Epona 2017 Cayuga white wine with grilled no-preservative sausages and a cabbage saute:

Highly recommend butcher boys (butcher shop) in vancouver. Killer good, no-preservative sausages. Simmer, then grill. With this saute of cabbage, shallot, havasu hot pepper, garlic, and our apples, and vinegar and sugar. With mustard of course. And my Epona Cayuga wine. Yum!

Slab 3 finished and for sale!

Slab 3 finished and for sale! Sitting bench or low table. 30"L x 16"W x 16"H. Single slab of walnut. All the wackiness you see in the grain is natural, except for spots where I filled cracks and holes with epoxy. From a fallen dead tree. (It's in Woodland WA now, but I can bring to Vancouver WA.) Custom steel legs with felt floorpads, from a blacksmith I like in NY.

This took about 50 hours of work, starting with a rough chainsaw-cut slab. Sanded by hand through six grits, with five rounds of epoxy fill, and interim sanding. Tung oil finish. Stamped "KLE 3" on the underside. The top is mirror-smooth; the edge is live and semi-rough. 

Next up (slab 4) is a twin of this slab--same size, shape, and grain. If you want a pair, I can't guarantee the finish color of slab 4 will be an exact match.

Check it out! The market will tell me if this is good or not; 3 and 4 are my last slabs unless they sell to enthusiastic buyers, in which case I'll go hunt for slab 5. If interested, pls contact me at kenton.erwin@gmail.com . Thank you!

Best use of a wine barrel yet found:

Cut off one end (keeping the metal hoops intact, to hold everything together), and have a wood shop with a CNC router carve your winery's name and logo into the face of the barrel-end, for a hanging sign.

It's certainly a better use for a wine barrel than holding wine in it.

Why not to hold wine in a wine barrel:
1. Barrels leak.
2. Barrels are expensive (new French oak barrel is about $1000 now).
3. Barrels get infected.
4. Barrels can allow excessive wine oxidation.
5. Barrels can be used for only a few vintages (if you want noticeable oak extraction), so they have to be replaced relatively often.

In stark contrast, using tanks for storage (stainless steel, speciality plastic, specialty concrete, or glass) makes much more sense, and the winemaker can carefully control the oak dosage and type--just add the oak to the wine in the tank!

Brilliant.

So please try not to be THAT kind of wine customer--the kind who thinks less of a winery if they don't see lots of barrels stacked around; the kind who asks "how many acres of grapes do you have?" Quality is more important than quantity; science is more important than tradition.

Pictured is my wine barrel-end, after heavy oil staining (to help the staves swell up tightly). Next up is CNC routing of winery name and logo, by a wood shop. Once the carved-out letters and logo are painted white, I'll coat the entire thing with polyurethane (for weatherproofing), and hang it by chains from a new beam we installed over the barn's hayloft doors!

World wine output falls to 60-year low!

So THAT's why prices are shooting up! (Maybe).

Read the article here. It's about the lousy weather across Europe last year. So it should be only a passing blip in the long history of wine. I hope. If the weather can be closer to normal, this year.

Speaking of, I attach the annual photo of one of the Epona vines' budding out (this one is Jupiter). I love how a grape vine can show you the four seasons, just about as well as anything else can...

Small wineries are seeing a good increase in sales of their premium wines

This is encouraging news. Small wineries are seeing good growth in sales of their premium wines.

Epona Winery is certainly a small winery, and is also seeing good sales growth of the Epona brand. We sold out of 2016 Cayuga and 2016 Muscat Rose, but there are still some Blackberry Pourts (375ml), and we just bottled a GREAT and very unique wine that brings to mind lying on a sunny tropical beach: It has strong notes of toasted coconut, butterscotch, lime, and coconut oil (as in old-style suntan lotion). Wow! And soon to be bottled are the 2017 Muscat Rose and 2017 Cayuga. The 2016 Leon Millot (big red style) is resting, as it is so great after an extra year of aging.

Thanks, Friends, for your support!

Kenton
(pictured are Epona's Monastery Muscat grapes)

On Farming and Winemaking

 On Farming and Winemaking:

It is said that farmers do not grow plants. They grow dirt. And that is correct. Yes, they tend plants and that is important, but the plants know what to do, and growing plants is secondary to growing good dirt. Our South African Peppadew peppers are still chugging away outside, turning a new set of peppers red every week or so (when I pick and pickle them), laughing at the ridiculous improbability that it is still sunny and warm and dry on October 27??? But it's the dirt--the mix of compost, manure tea, other organic material, and native soil, and sand, and gravel, that makes earthworms and microbes and the peppers' roots happy.  

In the same way, winemakers do not really make wine. Winemakers grow yeast. And if we create a good environment for yeast, they make wine for us. Yes, understanding the chemistry, and intervening in different ways when necessary, are important, but those are secondary to growing yeast. Some winemakers just cut open a yeast packet and dump the yeast on the pomace, thinking the yeast will find their way to the wine and do their job, and in trruth they probably will, but that is like unloading your high school soccer player ten miles away from the game, without having fed him lunch or dinner before the game, and telling him, "Good luck!" I've researched yeast-growing for many years, and have written a pamphlet for winemakers explaining how to treat yeast, and why. If your yeast grow throughout the grape juice rapidly, and start fermenting earlier, then you have just radically reduced the time during which bad things can happen to your wine. 'Nuff said.

​Look for the new wine offer coming soon, and in the meantime please enjoy this truly spectacular Fall!

And to anyone in the ether who may read this: I am a virtual wine retailer (no shop, so low overhead and low prices), and a small commercial winery (Epona brand). If you would like to be added to my email list, please email me at kenton.erwin@gmail.com . And there is never an obligation to buy anything. Thank you!

The photo is of the lovely Epona Vineyard this week, near Woodland WA.

Epona Vineyard harvest report

Cayuga: My next-to-latest grape (Regent being the latest to ripen); a favorite; hanging at 19.0 Brix and 3.12pH. Flavor is apple-moving to citrus now; a string of warm sunny days coming; I could make a good Riesling style wine with it now, if weather was turning bad, but by waiting I'm hoping for citrus-moving to peaches in the final flavor, when it tastes more like a Viognier. This one has EXCELLENT vinifera flavor emulation. No bird damage yet at all (unnetted, but scarecrows).

Leon Millot (pictured) : Picked 14 lbs per vine this week; sample berries were 24 Brix but the must is 21.5. pH is 3.56; that's not so high that I'm worried--I added 11% white grapes to fix color (same as adding Viognier to Syrah for same reason; it works), and let the ferm reach 88F as you taught me George. In my location, I prefer the big red style (actually tastes a lot like a good Pinot here) to Paul's rose style that is so delicious up on Salt Spring Island. I get nice purple fruits with a hint of woodsiness (not herbaceousness) here. 

Delicatessen: Picked at 21 Brix; pretty high for this variety. Nice fruit. Young plants, so low yield.

Jupiter, NY Muscat, Venus, Monastery Muscat: I make a rose from a blend of these. Jupiter had scraggly clusters (rained during bloom) and I got only 4 lbs per vine. Worse, the clusters shattered (right term?) during picking, so about a quarter of the berries fell to the ground. It reached 23 Brix, though. But if you want a good seedless grape here, why not grow Monastery Muscat? 23Brix and many large pretty clusters of large yellow grapes (13 lbs/vine) with superb flavor, compared to Jupiter's "fairly weak" flavor and Venus' "almost not there at all" flavor. NY Muscat (about 21 Brix) has superb flavor but has one seed per berry here. I should ditch the Venus and Jupiter (sorry, Arkansas) and just use NY Muscat and Monastery Muscat.

Mindon- what I call MIN(nesota 1095) x DON(skoi, which I read is probably the grape called Norway Muscat) is a winner here. David Roy Johnson's grape. 20 lbs from one vine, at 24 Brix. Nice flavor. No bird damage. I blended it into my Leon.

Regent- Sure like its fruit, but it's late here and the birds hit it hard. Only 18 Brix now and I have 33% bird loss already. I should really just give up on it. Makes a nice, full-bodied, Syrah-style wine, though.

Apple Cider!

I ground up and pressed 55 lbs of Fameuse (Snow Apple), 3 lbs Gravenstein, and 10 lbs of Fiesta apples today. Took a long time to make just 3.5 gallons of juice, but it seems to be very nice juice (11.5 Brix; pH 3.33). It's settling now and fermentation starts tomorrow. One thing very different with cider, compared to wine, is the low alcohol level: With cider, it's usually less than 7% alcohol, versus 10-15% for unfortified wine. So hyper-attentiveness to sanitation is even more important with cider than with wine. We'll see how it turns out!

Favas

Fava beans, which contain protein and are thus a meat substitute, are not really beans (they're a vetch), but they are delicious! Pictured is a fava bean pod, our crop of shelled fava beans, and an ear of corn: To the favas and corn kernels, add some onion, garlic, mild peppers, and cook briefly in hot olive oil, salt and pepper. A variation of Succotash!

And a white wine to go with it.

Maybe a wine I made.