2017 Year End Wrap Up
Posted by Rodney Hogen on Wednesday, November 29, 2017 Under: Vineyard News
Greetings,
This was our 15th year for our oldest grapes the King of the North, and it will be the end of the Alpha Rose wine. We will have a small supply to sell in 2018 , but starting with this years crop we will be making Sangria with our Valiant and King of the North varieties. In the vineyard our other varieties continue to produce a little more and this year we missed the frost and hail that wiped out some our grapes last year. We started pruning the middle of April and finished the middle of May. This was the latest I have pruned and some of the grapes were breaking bud. After the pruning was finished, it was time to mow, fertilize, fix posts, spray for weeds......etc. And that continued throughout the year. We were fortunate to have Pastor Joel from the Lutheran Church of the Cross in West Fargo, do his Sabbatical at Vineyard and he help with about every job there was to do in a vineyard, plus paint the west side of the tasting room. It was a delight and joy to have him and his family join us this year. We also had a grad student from NDSU, Andrej Svyantek who is working on his doctorate degree ,he did some of his research on the Marquette, Frontenac Gris and Sabrevois varieties. Andrej was a great source of knowledge and look forward to continue to work with him on his studies.
This was our 15th year for our oldest grapes the King of the North, and it will be the end of the Alpha Rose wine. We will have a small supply to sell in 2018 , but starting with this years crop we will be making Sangria with our Valiant and King of the North varieties. In the vineyard our other varieties continue to produce a little more and this year we missed the frost and hail that wiped out some our grapes last year. We started pruning the middle of April and finished the middle of May. This was the latest I have pruned and some of the grapes were breaking bud. After the pruning was finished, it was time to mow, fertilize, fix posts, spray for weeds......etc. And that continued throughout the year. We were fortunate to have Pastor Joel from the Lutheran Church of the Cross in West Fargo, do his Sabbatical at Vineyard and he help with about every job there was to do in a vineyard, plus paint the west side of the tasting room. It was a delight and joy to have him and his family join us this year. We also had a grad student from NDSU, Andrej Svyantek who is working on his doctorate degree ,he did some of his research on the Marquette, Frontenac Gris and Sabrevois varieties. Andrej was a great source of knowledge and look forward to continue to work with him on his studies.
The grape harvest started on September 27 and Carl Hovland and I picked 150 # of Sabrevois, just to make sure the equipment was working. The next day Bob Snyder joined us and son Mike came up from Sioux Falls to help with the harvest. On Saturday the 30 we had 14 volunteers and we finished the 600 vines of Marquette and got them all processed and put in the fermenters and they were on their way to Wolf Creek Winery to get happy. Harvest continue through the week and Saturday the 7th of October we had 12 volunteers come and help finish the Frontenac Gris. The next day Sunday the 8th , Mike and I finished the harvest of La Crescent and Prairie Star. It turned out to be a very good grape harvest throughout North Dakota and look forward of more wine production.
In the tasting room it was a busy year , I did a facelift on the south wall when I took some wood pallets apart and nailed them to the wall.....and it looks darn good. We also did some painting on the outside west wall and south wall .
Our Friday Night Suppers began on May 5th, (the people were hungry). We started something new , on the 1st Friday of every month we served a steak, baked potato, and coleslaw for $8.95. and every Friday we were overbooked. We continued throughout the year with our thursday and friday nights suppers, but this year we added a Mothers Day and Fathers Day Sunday Dinner. It was a busy year for Susan and I and we want to Thank everyone who helped us in the vineyard and Tasting Room. A special Thank You to Gwen Crawford, Kim Hamon and Staci Hovland for their help serving our guests. To Diane Hovland for her beautiful flowers and to Rose Mjor for planting the flower beds, and Hunter Berntson for keeping the grounds trimmed and mowed. Thanks also to Randy and Darcy from Wolf Creek Winery for making some of the best wine in North Dakota. Your wines are so easy to sell, cause the're just darn good. Thank You to our old friends and new friends, to our neighbors in Buffalo and Fargo for your continued support throughout the year. Our wines are now getting happy at the winery and some of the 2016 production is in the cellar just getting mellow, and you'll get to taste that next year.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
Rodney & Susan
In : Vineyard News
Tags: "2017 wrap up"
