Winter Girl for a Weekend

Even though I was born and raised in Minnesota,

I've never really gotten "used" to winter.

But this past holiday weekend...

I did not mind winter at all. Maybe because I didn't have to drive anywhere!

The fresh snow on the evergreens out our window was a sight to see and the temperature was actually manageable.

The vineyard provided a gorgeous backdrop...

for me to play with my new camera!

I got a really good workout stepping through the crunchy snow,

While experimenting with all the different camera settings...

On an overcast day...

And a clear blue sky day...

And of course, took about a 500 pictures of my two favorite models...

But I'll spare you ALL the pictures I took of them.

At least for now!

Hope you had a great holiday weekend and traveled safely!

A Merry Marquette Christmas: Part II

I'm finally getting around to posting the first of our wine tasting notes from my family members that I mentioned from Part I.  This whole working full time, Christmas shopping, and going to Christmas parties, has really gotten in the way of my blogging!  I know you've been waiting in suspense to hear what people have to say about our first bottle of Marquette.

While Aaron and I are certainly impressed with ourselves on our first vintage of Marquette, the opinions of others are truly what matters, so getting feedback from a wide variety of people is important to us as our goal is to make wine that is appealing to people from all walks of life.

As you read from Part I, first comments on our Marquette were taken at my pre-Christmas fondue and twice baked potato family dinner.  My family is made up of all sorts of personalities, opinions, and tastes.  We thought this eclectic bunch would be a good sample for our first sampling of this wine.

I don't think we could've started with a more forgiving couple as our very first tasters.  My parents,  who would likely describe themselves as social wine drinkers who never drank more than a drop of wine until about 12 years ago.  They really discovered wine on a trip with some wine drinking friends to Italy.  I am constantly rescuing bottles of half empty red wine from their refrigerator.  That's a no, no, but they are still learning!

Bob and Mary, what do you think?
Bob:  "I've never had anything with such a unique taste."
Hmmm...okay, kind of ambiguous, but I'll take it. 

Mary:  "Oh, wow! It's very light! I could drink a lot of this." 
Be careful, Mom! 

Next up, sister Allee, whose New Year's resolution THIS year was to drink more wine.  She prefers whites, and more specifically, sweet whites, like Reislings.   She is typical of a novice wine drinker who has started with whites, but is slowly working on developing her "red" palette.  Allee, what do you think?

Allee: "I can drink it!!"

Maybe this will be her transition into red wine!

Allee's husband, Jaxon, humored us by tasting our wine.  This is a rare photo of Jaxon with a glass of wine in his hand in place of a Coors Light.  This man has enough Coors Light stocked up and on hand at any given time to get him through Armaggeddon. I'm not kidding. 

Jaxon, whadda ya think?

Jaxon:  "I think it's great...but it's not as good as Coors Light."

Okay, that comment was to be expected.  But from a beer drinker commenting on wine, I'll take it.

My brother, Eric, and his wife, Jill, were kind enough to put down their second gin and tonic, each, of the night to participate in this wine tasting.  I feel the need to preface their comments with this fact as it may lend some insight to their comments.  They have similar taste in hard liquor, but how about wine? 

Eric:  "It has a really nice finish and it's better than a box of wine."

Leave it to big brother to give this type of statement.  The second part of that quote won't be going on the label.

Jill: "It's fruity."

Yeah, Jill, all wine probably tastes fruity after you've been drinking pine needles!

Finally, I got some insightful comments from my sister and brother in-law, Jen and Mike.  Jen will have an occassional glass of wine, likely at a party, dinner, or event.  And Mike, though not a connoisseur, gets to drink a lot of good wine at what he calls "fancy business dinners" where he is among lots of wine-o's.

Note: Jaxon in background with a Coors Light in hand.

Jennifer:  "Oh, it's good. It's very light!"

Wait, didn't someone else say that?

Mike: "It's good.  It tastes like a light Pinot Noir."

Yes!  Mike, finally someone who picked up on something truly insightful!  Indeed, Marquette is a hybrid grape.  It is a cousin to Frontenac (another cold hardy grape), and a grandson to...Pinot Noir!

As someone who doesn't normally opt for a glass of Pinot Noir, I do love this Marquette!  But, maybe I'm bias. And as it turns out, it does pair well with fondue, oil dipped beef cutlets, shrimp, cocktail sauces, horseradish, and mushrooms.  Mmmm...adds some nice cherry notes, a slight black pepper spice and some toasted oak.

Concensus: The Marquette is good and it appeals to beer drinkers, to gin drinkers, to novice wine drinkers, and to experienced wine drinkers, which is the ultimate goal!  As I mentioned earlier, we are pioneers in Marquette winemaking, so we will continually be experimenting and evolving to find the best way to make this wine.

And, although I love my family and know they take my teasing in this post with a grain of salt, I'm hoping to get some wine tasters with a more developed wine palette next time around. 

A Merry Marquette Christmas: Part I

Remember this post from a few months back?  That was when we bottled our white wine and I mentioned we'd be bottling the red soon after.  Well, it wasn't as soon after as I thought.  I guess one of the important traits of being a good wine maker is being patient and waiting for just the right time.  Good thing Aaron is much better at that than me. 

After 15 months of aging, 3 months oaking, Aaron checked the acidity level this past weekend and announced that it is now the optimal time for bottling.  Wahooo! 

I was excited about the white wine we blended, but not nearly as excited as I am about this red. Why do you ask?  In September of 2008, we picked and bought 100 lbs of Marquette grapes from a local vineyard.  This was a grape that was released from the University of Minnesota in 2006.  Which means..... the first possible year ever that they were ready to be harvested was the fall of 2008, making this among the first of all vintages of this varietal of wine.  It is an ideal cold hardy grape, and has been said by some that it could possibly make a wine that could rival California.  We, among with several other wine makers in the state, are marching into unchartered territory.  Unlike a Merlot, that has thousands of years of history, and winemaking notes detailing what it best lends itself to, the Marquette is only in its very first year of production.  Winemakers are having a hay day experimenting and finding the ideal way to make this wine. 

We are making wine making history here, folks!

Our wine bottle Christmas tree!

Cleaning the bottles

This is all the wine we have yet to bottle.  We only did one carboy of Marquette this time, which yielded about 30 bottles. 

We got close to 30 bottles and decided to bring the first bottle over to my parent's house for our very un-ordinary traditional fondue and twice baked potato pre-Christmas dinner.  Seemed a perfect introduction of this very unordinary non-traditional wine.  We even created some wintery labels just for the occassion and appropriately labeled this Christmas edition of our Marquette wine, Merry Marquette.  It took us all of 4 seconds to come up with that as a last second thought.

Proud parents, Ashley and Aaron with their little bundle of joy.

Of course, I had to document pictures and notes fom our first Marquette tasting, although I may regret having asked for "offical" comments from my far from wine connoisseur family members.  Stay tuned for tasting notes, comments, and the concensus on our first vintage of Marquette.

Visions of 300 Gallon Milk Tanks Danced in His Head

Aaron and I were exchanging Christmas gift ideas the other night.  I had a few ideas for him that I thought were good ideas, but was curious to know if there were some things on his Christmas list that I didn't have on my gift idea radar.  There were. If you don't know my husband personally, you've probably gotten a feel for him through some of my posts and learned that...the man has a lot of hobbies!  So it should be easy to get gifts for him, right?

When I asked the question, "Honey, what do you want for Christmas?"  These were some of the answers I got:

"A 300 gallon milk tank that I can use for oaking wine..."

"You could insulate the workshop...or just buy the insulation so I can start working on insulating the workshop and the chicken coop..."

"Hmmm...I could use a new electrical panel in the workshop...you could have Tommy (our electrician friend) come install one."

Gee, thanks for the ideas.  Realize these are very economical ideas, but something like an electrical panel would truly make him just as giddy as Ralphie getting his Red Ryder BB gun. However, the part that makes gift giving fun for me, is the element of surprise and being able to pick up on clues of something that he might need or want that would lead me to a very thoughtful gift.  How cool of a wife would I be had I noticed that there wasn't enough electrical power in his workshop and thought to get an electrical panel installed for him without him telling me he wanted that?! 

And then there is my other fantasy of us spending our first Christmas as a married couple together, where we are gazing lovingly into each other's eyes on Christmas morning as we exchange sentimental gifts wrapped in boxes that we can actually unwrap in front of each.  Maybe I would sell my hair to buy him a chain for his beloved pocket watch, while unknowingly he would sell his pocket watch to buy me some beautiful jeweled combs for my hair.  Reference?  Anyone? Anyone?

Then again, maybe this is just a sign of the lifestyle we've chosen and that I did not marry a man who will ever have "a new sweater" on his Christmas list, but rather anything that will contribute to our budding business.  I should've known this two years ago when he told me he wanted a hydraulic jack for Christmas. Don't ask me what it is...even though I did in fact get that for him, I still don't know.  But he's building something with it that he can use to build something else.  Or something.

I guess I will just have to learn to say "Merry Christmas, Babe!" and figure out how the heck to wrap up a big ol' wad of insulation and fit it under the tree.  Maybe the longer we are married, I will get better at picking up on clues that will make me think of some of these off-the-wall gifts myself. 

Since he reads this blog, I won't give anything away as to what I might get him this year.  But, if anyone knows where I can find a 300 gallon milk tank, you know where to find me! 

Minnesota Wine Grapes 101

"You can grow wine grapes in Minnesota?"  We get this question a lot from people who don't know about the plethera of successful vineyards in this state.  So today, on this bitterly cold Minnesota day, I will address how we can.

Disclaimer: This post is a very basic explanation of cold hardy grapes.  When I read and research about grape growing, I tend to skim over phrases such as "carbohydrate storage", "flow of photosynthates" and "phenological observations."  Thus, I am not going to get too in depth on the scientific reasons for why the grapes we are growing can sustain cold temperatures because there are many other resources out there that can address this topic much better than me.  My husband who's been studying this for over 12 years, can talk your ear off about it.  But he's not the writer.  I am just the vineyard wife with a journalism degree who is learning all she can about viticulture and winemaking from reading, listening, and doing.

Chardonnay, Zinfandel, and Cabernet Sauvignon are all household grape names.  In fact, if you are reading this post, my guess is you've had a glass or two, or a hundred of these wines.  These are some of your traditional grapes that have been growing in Europe for centuries.  They are a species of plant referred to as vinifera.  [Va-nif-er-a.] We don't grow vinifera grapes on our vineyard in Minnesota because these types of grapes could not withstand the cold temperatures.  We grow french hybrids.  I mentioned in an earlier post the grapevines we have planted and you can review that here.  Some better known examples of french hybrids are Baco Noir and Seyval Blanc.  Some better known northern climate french hybrids are Marquette, Frontenac, Frontenac Gris and LaCrescent, which are grapes we grow.  Hybrids are crossbred from two different species of plants.  So a vinifera plant could be crossbred with a different species of plant to make a hybrid.  And they tend to be heartier plants and produce more fruit than traditional ones. 

Fortunately for us, one of the best wine grape programs in the United States and is just down the street from us.  The University of Minnesota Horticulture Research Center has a developed program and facility for grape growing and winemaking and over the years they have released hybrid grapes from their breeding program that they have found to be of the highest quality, cold hardy, disease resistant, and most importantly, have the ability to make great tasting wine!  We buy our grapevines from local commercial nurseries and a portion of the sale from each vine goes to this program at the University. 

The cold hardy grapes we planted are able to withstand temperatures of up to -31 F.  Unbelievable, right? That is without windchill.  And it is not unusual for Minnesota to experience absolute temperatures this harsh every few years.  I wish I were that cold hardy!  We picked our vineyard site for many reasons, but one that made it ideal is that the land has a southern facing slope, thus being able to maximize sunlight exposure and heat for the grapevines. 

These are the pictures I took yesterday and just about froze my....hands off. 
Note: Taking pictures in 7 degree temperatures (-12 with windchill) and gusting 20 mph winds without gloves on is not advised.  See the sacrifices I make for this blog? 

Grapevines are very smart.  As early as the end of August, even before harvest, they prepare for the colder weather and begin what is known as "cold acclimation." They sense the days getting getting shorter and temperatures getting cooler and the vines start to harden off.  This is where things like "carbohdrate storage" and "flow of photosnthates" come into play, but if you want more details on that, I would suggest heading over to Google and doing a little search.  Or, if you are really curious to know, you can pick up the book, Northern Winework: Growing Grapes and Making Wine in Cold Climates. 

Can you see all the posts in the distance?  We (okay, mostly Aaron) planted 400 of them this fall.

As you can see, the vines have hardened off and are now in a dormant stage.  There are definitely things we have be to watchful for over the winter, such as fluctuating temperatures, abnormally early frost or early thaw, the amount of snow coverage, which can be good to help protect the roots of the plant.  These variables can all affect the cold acclimation process.  However, as we all know, weather is one thing we can't control, so we have to roll with punches and do the best we can to work with whatever conditions come our way. 

See our vineyard doggies playing?

The nice thing is the vineyard is relatively low maintenance for the next couple of months.  Come February and March we can start to evaluate how well the vines did over the winter and prune them to get ready for spring bud.  Can't wait!

Snow Day!

Tux did NOT pick a good day to eat the liner out of my new snow boots.  See, I told you not everything they do is endearing.  When I got home last night to find my boot liner butchered, I wasn't sure whether to get mad at the dog or at my husband, who was home when this happened.  Poor hubby got my wrath. 

It is NOT a pretty day in Minnesota today.  Winds gusting, white-out conditions, freezing temperatures.  When I was driving home at 9pm last night, the snow was blowing so bad on the road, I couldn't spot the taillights on the car in front of me!   And so to make good use of my time stuck at home on my country roads, I will blog.

But first, I am going to venture out to check on the vines.  I figured what better day, in this blustering, fridgid cold weather, than today, to address the question many of you have asked,  "You can grow grapes in Minnesota?"  So, stay tuned for my post on how that is possible coming soon!

Now, off to go find some old boots with, ahem, a liner, and go snap some pictures of those vines.  Wish me luck!!

Snuggle Buddies

You've heard the story of how we adopted our dogs this past July when they were about 4 months old.  For those who haven't, the quick story is that we got them from a rescue group.  They were found roaming together, starved, full of ticks, and eating some ladies garden hose.  We saw them on petfinder.com and went to go adopt one of them...but once we met them, and heard the story of this brother sister pair, we ended up bringing home both.  And those 40 lb 4 months old puppies we brought home quickly grew into 90lb and 70lb 9 month old...well, still puppies. 

While raising two puppies definitely has its challenges...

They have turned us from just a newlywed couple...into a family.  We've become "those" people who take pictures of their dogs by the Christmas tree and include their dog's names in their Christmas cards as if they were their children.  You know those people. 

We find everything (okay, almost everything) they do endearing, like when they watch our neighbor split firewood in his backyard from our bedroom window.

Which made us think, hey, we should have a fire! Afterall, it is getting coooooold in Minnesota!!

Which the dogs enjoyed as evidenced by this picture. 

But the one thing that is better than cozying up by the fire when it is cold outside...

is cozying up...

with a snuggle buddy.

Not only am I glad that we have them both...

I'm glad they have each other.

Every one needs a snuggle buddy. 

He Makes His Own Bricks

I've referenced my husband as being a jack-of-all-trades, but haven't really posted anything specific yet to demonstrate why he's deserving of that title, for those who don't know him personally.  You'll have to excuse me because I am going to gush about my husband a bit in this post. What can I say?  I'm a newlywed.

When friends come out to visit us for the first time, we have our welcome tour down to a T, starting with our guests being handed a glass of wine while I usher them around the inside of our old house pointing out our latest paint project, recounting how we acquired our vintage furniture, describing our plans for redesigning, and our dream of putting a timber frame addition on to our house. 

Then we take them outside. 

Aaron takes over from there while I stand back and watch people's reaction. He escorts them around the garage, the yard, and the vineyard, enthusiastically, but modestly, pointing out a few of the projects he has going on.  It is impossible to miss the passion this man has when his eyes light up as he reveals his latest project and the big dreams he has planned.  Things like, oh,

the two cars he built himself...

a self-made tractor attachment he created to spray the vineyard...

the greenhouse he constructed himself filled with various plants we are growing...

the outdoor hibachi grill and patio he designed and built himself...

our vision for rehabbing the old chicken coop into the winery...

oh, and the main attraction, the vineyard we have growing in our backyard...

Most recently, it was the pergola he built himself.  We've had many discussions on what exactly this is called.  We call it a pergola, but perhaps "trellis" or "arbor" is a better term.  Since it went up before the cooler weather started to set in, I wanted to introduce it on this blog so it gets the attention it deserves on its maiden voyage year.

After he erected this structure he informed me that it would be my job to stain and treat the wood, which at this point, is going to have to wait until spring!  Along with the grapevines that will start to grow up on the pillars, which you can just start to see a little in this picture. 

But, the best part about this whole project is the craftsmanship of the pillars.  One might think he just went to the store and bought the pillars...but they'd be wrong.  A normal person might just go buy some pillars for the pergola or buy bricks for the patio.  But not my husband.  He actually bought the concrete and bought the concrete molds and MADE his own pillars. Much like he made the bricks for the patio for the hibachi grill (which is unique enough that it will get its own post).  

I told you'd I'd gush a bit. 

Welcome to Schram Vineyards!