I have just written a new post today about winter pruning that you might find helpful. It sounds like your vines have grown very well this year, more vigorously than many do in their first season. If that’s the case you may be able to retain some pretty robust canes as their main trunks. Please describe them to me or send a photo; I could advise you on how to prune them.
Marko
Hey there this came up on google when i looked for sulphur, i’d just like to say well done and congratulations. this is an awesome project. I’m actually from nz & work at palliser estate wines (vineyard worker not winery) in a small town full of vineyards. keep it up & live the dream. seeing this has added to my amazing day.
Hi Marko,
I live in Clerkenwell, Islington and have a very small old backyard. When i moved here 9 years ago, i inherited a single vine that the old occupant planted. He was an old Sicilian man who produced his own white wine from this very vine. . I know this because when i moved in i found 3 large green glass vats full of spoiled wine in the basement. Each year i prune it back but have never done anything with the bunches of grapes. This year however has been extraordinary and, right now, i have about 30 to 40 full bunches of white grapes hanging. I would love to make these into wine and label it after Gianni Piscini, the old man who planted the vine..can you help? I fear i need to act quite soon.
Best,
Huw
Dear Huw,
Why don’t you pick those grapes, remove any rotten berries from the bunches, put them in a big pail, trample them with your bare feet, then cover the pail with a clean cloth, secure it with a string so the fruit flies don’t get in. Put the pail in a coolish place and within a few days it will start to ferment. When it starts to ferment stir the mash around with your hands and make sure the skins floating in the top are wet thoroughly. Then after two or three days fermenting, press the juice out of the mash – with your hands or a press if you can get hold of one – and put the fermenting juice in one of those big glass vats. Make sure its clean – you might have to swill dry lentils or corn seed around with some water inside the vats to scrape off any sediment sticking to the insides. Once the fermenting juice is inside the vat, stopper it with a fermentation lock – available from beer and wine making supplies online. You may have to fashion or whittle down a suitably sized cork to fit the neck of the vat. if you cant get one of these locks, pack the neck fairly loosely with cotton wool – and then look for a proper lock. Keep the vat then in the dark if you can. The juice will ferment for a couple of weeks, then die down. But leave the lock on it and keep it in the dark for some months.
Once you are into it, let me know how its going.
Good luck,
Marko
We have about 30 vines here planted this Spring that are going mad.
Have started to train them but suggestions would be great.
Or, HELP what shoul I do now?
Alex
I have just written a new post today about winter pruning that you might find helpful. It sounds like your vines have grown very well this year, more vigorously than many do in their first season. If that’s the case you may be able to retain some pretty robust canes as their main trunks. Please describe them to me or send a photo; I could advise you on how to prune them.
Marko
Hey there this came up on google when i looked for sulphur, i’d just like to say well done and congratulations. this is an awesome project. I’m actually from nz & work at palliser estate wines (vineyard worker not winery) in a small town full of vineyards. keep it up & live the dream. seeing this has added to my amazing day.
Hi Marko,
I live in Clerkenwell, Islington and have a very small old backyard. When i moved here 9 years ago, i inherited a single vine that the old occupant planted. He was an old Sicilian man who produced his own white wine from this very vine. . I know this because when i moved in i found 3 large green glass vats full of spoiled wine in the basement. Each year i prune it back but have never done anything with the bunches of grapes. This year however has been extraordinary and, right now, i have about 30 to 40 full bunches of white grapes hanging. I would love to make these into wine and label it after Gianni Piscini, the old man who planted the vine..can you help? I fear i need to act quite soon.
Best,
Huw
Dear Huw,
Why don’t you pick those grapes, remove any rotten berries from the bunches, put them in a big pail, trample them with your bare feet, then cover the pail with a clean cloth, secure it with a string so the fruit flies don’t get in. Put the pail in a coolish place and within a few days it will start to ferment. When it starts to ferment stir the mash around with your hands and make sure the skins floating in the top are wet thoroughly. Then after two or three days fermenting, press the juice out of the mash – with your hands or a press if you can get hold of one – and put the fermenting juice in one of those big glass vats. Make sure its clean – you might have to swill dry lentils or corn seed around with some water inside the vats to scrape off any sediment sticking to the insides. Once the fermenting juice is inside the vat, stopper it with a fermentation lock – available from beer and wine making supplies online. You may have to fashion or whittle down a suitably sized cork to fit the neck of the vat. if you cant get one of these locks, pack the neck fairly loosely with cotton wool – and then look for a proper lock. Keep the vat then in the dark if you can. The juice will ferment for a couple of weeks, then die down. But leave the lock on it and keep it in the dark for some months.
Once you are into it, let me know how its going.
Good luck,
Marko