Another year at the vineyard is over.....number 12.     Our vineyard continues to change with the removal of some vines and the planting of exciting new varieties.    In January we started out with a little pruning in our test area, of our 2-1-17 and I took over 100 cuttings to NDSU to be put in their Greenhouse and rooted.    These we planted in the spring on the west side.
   

Also in January and February, our juice from the 2014 crop was now getting happy at the two wineries.   Uncorked Winery in Fargo and Wolf Creek Winery in Coleharbor, ND.      Susan and I took a little trip to the wine country in Oregon and Napa Valley for a couple of weeks. On our return we stopped at Medford, Oregon and picked up a new and bigger press.   Its much easy to use and clean.
    

In April I started pruning and decided to prune the whole vineyard myself as I want to change some of the trellis systems and train some of the vines a little different.     It was a long process but I'm glad I did it and I think it will help in the long run.

The month of May we started with our Friday Nite Suppers and every supper was sold out.    We decided to continue into September and even had a Super Supper in October with Lobster and Red Curry Scallop's.     The summer was busy with weekend wine tasters, tourists, motorhome guests, family reunions, and a wedding.  In the vineyard we kept busy with the spraying, fertilizing, mowing, pruning and in general taking care of the vines.    The weather was good with a fair amount of rain and sunshine and vines look good and the crop looked like one of the largest we ever produced.    But on August 14th we had a hail storm and we lost about 50% of the crop.       In September the grapes began to turn and I thought we would be harvesting early, but that didn't happen and harvest started the last weekend of September as normal.      The red grapes where then destemmed and crush and ready for Wolf Creek Winery.     The Red Wines that Randy made for us from the 2014 crop were amazing.     We decided to hold the wine for a year and will bring it out next year.     The White grapes where destemmed and crush and the King of the North grapes where pressed and delivered to Uncorked in Fargo for our Alpha Rose wine.   

We would like to thank everyone for the their support throughout the year for joining us for our Suppers and others that stopped in just to lend us a helping hand.   Your kindness is very much appreciated.
 

We have some new and exciting plans for next year and we hope you will join us again, along the Red Trail.

   

Rodney & Susan