|
Come on Spring, I got Stuff to Do! |
 |
 |
 |
|
Written by Doug Fabbioli
|
The winter has certainly been a challenge for all this year. I grew up in upstate New York where the average snow fall was 100 inches. It was not pretty, but it would come in 6” snows rather than the devastating back-to-back monster storms that we have just shoveled out of. In our neck of the woods of Loudoun County, the snow drifts were up to 8’ high and ½ mile long . The spirit of the neighborhood was such that we knew we were on our own. Everyone with a tractor and a bucket got to work. After lots of work, coffee and diesel fuel, we were able to get our road cleared as well as a number of driveways. Now maybe we can get moving on some winery and vineyard projects.
Winery:
I have been continuing with making our Pear Wine thru the winter. I still have one more batch of pears in cold storage with my grower in PA. I will bring that in soon to crush, ferment and then strain off. We now have a distiller in the county and he has been able to still down my pear wine to make brandy. We blend that back into the pear wine to increase the alcohol and intensity. Cheers to Catoctin Creek Distillery, coming soon to an ABC store near you! Also, we will be bottling again at the end of next month. I will be racking wines and preparing blends along with getting accurate volumes. This information goes into my ordering plan so I have enough labels, bottles, capsules and corks for this run. We will be bottling Tannat this time – this is a first for us. The blend is intense but balanced. I am looking forward to getting feedback on this wine for food pairings and descriptions. That also means I need to come up with a new label. The other wines on the schedule are Raspberry Merlot and our Rose, Rosa Luna.
Vineyard:
As soon as I can walk thru the vineyard without snow or mud, we will begin the layout for our new vineyard section. We will be planting Carmenere in the spring. This is the lost grape of the Bordeaux region. I have enjoyed the wines from Chile and look forward to growing it here. We will lay out the rows, rip them with a big hook on the back of the tractor, and then herbicide the rows to keep the weeds down. Once we grow the vines for a couple of years, I can back off the herbicides, but for the initial planting, weed control is critical. Also this spring we will be finishing our final pruning in the vineyard. This critical step keeps the vines well managed and will define the year for production and canopy design. We will plant more raspberries this spring as well. The Josephine varietal has been very positive for us both in production and flavor so more will be going in the ground. The rows are already established with irrigation and all. We just need to plant and trellis.
Other projects:
The barn we built last year still needs lots of attention. When the weather hit us this fall, the cash flow dried up. So we still have drywall to do, electrical work and some air conditioning and permanent heat to put in. I would still like to use some green energy sources for this but I haven’t had time to do my homework. I will! I am also looking forward to making more space for our guests. We are finishing up some picnic tables as well as putting down more flagstone in order to make our space more defined and practical for the customers. There is always something to on the farm! I am just so ready for the snow to go away so I can do more! If there is still snow on the ground, when March rolls in, is that lion like or lamb like?
|
|
|
|
|
