It was a busy year along the Red Trail.    With hail, birds,and deer that tried to destroy our crop the weather seemed to be the savior.
We started with an early spring and we finish pruning on May 3rd.   We could see that with the nice weather early I thought it was to our benefit to prune as late as possible and on May 14th we had a lite frost, but it didn't seem to hurt the vines.   I think with our elevation of 300 ft above the valley and the late pruning our vines remained healthy with the potential for a large crop.    As the vines continued to flower and then shoot out the little clusters of grapes and weather decided on the 4th of July that it was time to do a pruning as a hail storm with 60 mph winds and hail the size of BB's swept across the vineyard, destroying about 30%.    Even though we had a 30% loss , I think when the damage berries dried the extra juice went into the remaining berry's.    The results at harvest was very good with a record crop.....I think we produced more grapes at the Red Trail Vineyard than anyplace in North Dakota.

We continue to propagate more Crimson Pearl and will have about 200 vines this year with half of them starting to produce a crop.  Along with the Petite Pearl that seem to take longer to establish and I look forward to expanding these varieties in the future.    The other varieties include, Frontenac, Frontenac Gris, Sabrevois, Marquette, King of the North, Prairie Star, Valiant, and LaCresent,    All of these were harvested and delivered to Wolf Creek Winery in Coleharbor, ND and are currently getting happy.    
It was also a busy year in the restaurant as we continued with our Friday Nite Supper's and expanding to some Thursdays Nite's also.   We seemed to be book full every night.    We doubled our area for seating when I screened in the porch this spring and it became a hot spot for dining at the vineyard.    
This winter as the wine continues to be processed we hope to take a trip to the wine country in Oregon and California and see what we can learn and meet up with friends.  
Susan and I would like to thank you once again for your support your help and your friendship as we continue on our journey at the Red Trail Vineyard.
      
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
The Hogen's