Other notes and brix readings:
Breeding a great fall ripening wine grape for North Texas
Sunday, October 6, 2013
1st Octorber brix tests
Cabin Bicolor x Lady Patricia, brix of 23, taste reminded me of sucking on a sugar cube. The biggest berry is about .44 inches in diameter
Other notes and brix readings:
Other notes and brix readings:
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Chalk Mountain cinerea x Villard Blanc
Saturday, I went up to Chalk Mountain and picked my crosses. It was the first time I had been up since May 27 when I pollinated.
I had 6 clusters bagged. In each bag, I had used a twisty to attach a flower to the cinerea blossom. I didn't try using a brush to pollinate. It was a bit early, and flowers were not open, yet.
In 4 cases, the twisty didn't hold and the flower fell off. Zero berries produced. In two bags, the twisty stuck. In one, 0 berries.
That left one bag. Chalk Mountain cinerea x Villard Blanc. This had 8 dark berries and a number green ones of various sizes. Each of the 8 dark berries had 1 seed. I checked the 3 largest green berries and foudn each had a full sized light green seed.
I didn't see any clusters in the trees. This surprised me. I know where to look, but didn't find any.
The vine was very stressed out. There were no leaves on the cane I had used for bagging clusters..
I suspect the berries were not as ripe as they would be in a few weeks. The brix was only 18.6. Last year, on 9/2/12, I got a brix of 21.5.
I will be planting the seeds in a few days. I'm also going to try rooting some North African vinifera that has been in the refrigerator all summer. It came from GRIN too late to root. Summer temps were almost upon us.
I had 6 clusters bagged. In each bag, I had used a twisty to attach a flower to the cinerea blossom. I didn't try using a brush to pollinate. It was a bit early, and flowers were not open, yet.
In 4 cases, the twisty didn't hold and the flower fell off. Zero berries produced. In two bags, the twisty stuck. In one, 0 berries.
That left one bag. Chalk Mountain cinerea x Villard Blanc. This had 8 dark berries and a number green ones of various sizes. Each of the 8 dark berries had 1 seed. I checked the 3 largest green berries and foudn each had a full sized light green seed.
I didn't see any clusters in the trees. This surprised me. I know where to look, but didn't find any.
The vine was very stressed out. There were no leaves on the cane I had used for bagging clusters..
I suspect the berries were not as ripe as they would be in a few weeks. The brix was only 18.6. Last year, on 9/2/12, I got a brix of 21.5.
I will be planting the seeds in a few days. I'm also going to try rooting some North African vinifera that has been in the refrigerator all summer. It came from GRIN too late to root. Summer temps were almost upon us.
Monday, September 2, 2013
First September taste tests
We have survived August! I'm expecting the heat to stay in the upper 90s for a week or so, then start cooling off.
Based on reports from other vineyards, there has been a late harvest here in North Central Texas. Red Caboose, 30 miles south was picking in mid-August. Brushy Creek, 50 miles north, was harvesting August 31st. My Black Spanish (Lenoir), the only commercially bottled grape that will fruit here in the frosty hollow, was ripe August 5th. For us, that's about average.
We still have 3 vines with clusters still hanging. All three vines were grown from seeds. "Bridlegate x Carnelian" was bred by Rich Ellison. "(B49 cinerea x Villar Noir) x Herbemont" and "Cabin Bicolor x Lady Patricia" was bred by Cliff Ambers. They all started growing here in 2010, so it is their 4th leaf.
Below are the first brix tests on them. Since this is the first year for these crosses to produce fruit, it isn't clear when any will be ripe. The Bridlegate cinera x Carnelian tastes like it is ready. The (Cinerea x Villard Noir) x Herbemont is clearly several weeks from being ready. The Bicolor x Lady Patricia is a real surprise. The bicolor side is from Ohio. Lady Patricia is a cross of two French-American vines. It isn't clear why the fruit is hanging so long, but the vine really likes it here in Texas!
We haven't used any sprays at all this year, so the local white fly and leaf-roller populations have been active. Leaf rollers seem to have a particular fondness for many of the cinerea crosses. All three vines had their clusters protected in brown paper bags, or nylon socks. Birds strip everything from unprotected clusters. They even poked a few holes in the nylon socks.
Black Spanish berries are about .4 inches in diameter here. All three berries are around the same size.
Bridlegate x Carnelian:
(Barrett's B27 x Villard Noir) x Herbemont
Cabin Bicolor x Lady Patricia
Based on reports from other vineyards, there has been a late harvest here in North Central Texas. Red Caboose, 30 miles south was picking in mid-August. Brushy Creek, 50 miles north, was harvesting August 31st. My Black Spanish (Lenoir), the only commercially bottled grape that will fruit here in the frosty hollow, was ripe August 5th. For us, that's about average.
We still have 3 vines with clusters still hanging. All three vines were grown from seeds. "Bridlegate x Carnelian" was bred by Rich Ellison. "(B49 cinerea x Villar Noir) x Herbemont" and "Cabin Bicolor x Lady Patricia" was bred by Cliff Ambers. They all started growing here in 2010, so it is their 4th leaf.
Below are the first brix tests on them. Since this is the first year for these crosses to produce fruit, it isn't clear when any will be ripe. The Bridlegate cinera x Carnelian tastes like it is ready. The (Cinerea x Villard Noir) x Herbemont is clearly several weeks from being ready. The Bicolor x Lady Patricia is a real surprise. The bicolor side is from Ohio. Lady Patricia is a cross of two French-American vines. It isn't clear why the fruit is hanging so long, but the vine really likes it here in Texas!
We haven't used any sprays at all this year, so the local white fly and leaf-roller populations have been active. Leaf rollers seem to have a particular fondness for many of the cinerea crosses. All three vines had their clusters protected in brown paper bags, or nylon socks. Birds strip everything from unprotected clusters. They even poked a few holes in the nylon socks.
Black Spanish berries are about .4 inches in diameter here. All three berries are around the same size.
Bridlegate x Carnelian:
(Barrett's B27 x Villard Noir) x Herbemont
Cabin Bicolor x Lady Patricia
Monday, July 15, 2013
Northern Grapes Project
I came across this when I typed 'North Texas October Grape Project' into my browser's URL field. It looks like something I need to review carefully.
Northern Grapes Project
Northern Grapes Project
"Our vision is to develop grape production, winemaking, and marketing practices suited to the unique characteristics of these V. riparia-based cultivars marketed through retail tasting rooms and their niche in the U.S. wine market..."
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Reviewing response to the record breaking late frosts
Frost tolerance this spring was surprising. Some vines ignored frost, others were lost all their flowers and/or fruit to frost. Here is a recap (click to enlarge). The data is in roughly chronological order. The blue lines represent frosty mornings.
To summarize, it looks like the local wild varieties have adaptations that maintain fruit production despite a late frost, even a record breaking late frost like those we suffered through in 2013. I've been told April 15 is the last possible frost date, and we had 2 after April 15. The French-American crosses have no coping adaptations, and none produced any fruit. The North American bred vines, Extra and Lenoir were in between.
To summarize, it looks like the local wild varieties have adaptations that maintain fruit production despite a late frost, even a record breaking late frost like those we suffered through in 2013. I've been told April 15 is the last possible frost date, and we had 2 after April 15. The French-American crosses have no coping adaptations, and none produced any fruit. The North American bred vines, Extra and Lenoir were in between.
Grape purity
Like anything else 'grape', purity and hybrid are in the eye of the beholder. As far as I can tell from the academic papers I've seen, vitis has a lot of regional gene pools that exchange DNA continuously with neighboring regions. From this perspective, 'Hybrids of other species' doesn't mean much unless you are saying people want to cross non-reproductive organisms such as a grape x peach cross.
DNA flow between somewhat stable regional gene pools seems a better model than 'species'. Pure and 'hybrid' don't seem workable metrics.
This brings me to the notion of 'regional wine,' something that reflects the regional vitis gene pool. For my own purposes, 'regional wine' is something associated with a region's non-commercial winemakers, the salt-of-the-earth wine makers (anyone who doesn't make wine for a board of directors on a different coast). The real road block to a regional wine is not grapes, but our choices about what to focus upon. As such, the project of determining 'the taste' of 'Central Texas wine' by breeding a 90% Central Texas cinerea with perfect flowers, 25+ brix and an October harvest may seem an implausible long term plan, but an unstoppable one, too.
DNA flow between somewhat stable regional gene pools seems a better model than 'species'. Pure and 'hybrid' don't seem workable metrics.
This brings me to the notion of 'regional wine,' something that reflects the regional vitis gene pool. For my own purposes, 'regional wine' is something associated with a region's non-commercial winemakers, the salt-of-the-earth wine makers (anyone who doesn't make wine for a board of directors on a different coast). The real road block to a regional wine is not grapes, but our choices about what to focus upon. As such, the project of determining 'the taste' of 'Central Texas wine' by breeding a 90% Central Texas cinerea with perfect flowers, 25+ brix and an October harvest may seem an implausible long term plan, but an unstoppable one, too.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Bridlegate x op cluster discovered
The last two months have been devoted to getting the irrigation system up, and keeping seedlings, cuttings and transplants alive. We are making progress, but nothing is done. I'm keeping things alive, though.
It is so hot during the day, I end up having two work sessions. One in the morning, and one after dark, wearing a headlamp. So, at midnight, I am rushing to finish line testing and replacing drippers that are not working.
Something caught my eye. It looked a bit like a caterpillar, which I'm always watching for. On closer inspection, it was a cluster I'd never seen before! It is the first Bridlegate x OP to produce a cluster.
First impressions don't mean much, but the berries are very small. It might be a cultivated wild cinerea female. Bridlegate is a cultivated wild cinerea, and the pollen parent was probably a wild male cinerea. If so, it will be the 4th cultivated wild cinerea in my vineyard, and the first to set a cluster. I'm looking forward to making some wild cinerea wine and trying to find out what it wants to be.
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