Pruning Goals

Not much has changed in the pruning department. After a decade of winter pruning, it’s still our mission to ensure vineyard health and productivity for the coming harvest.

Our goal this year is to replace cordons in an acre and a half of our marquette grapes and an acre and a quarter of La Crescent. We will also spend extra time tending our one row of melody, our newest planting of an acre of Marechal Foch, and our frontenac, our only variety on the Geneva double curtain trellis system. With this additional tender loving care, we hope to boost quantity in these varieties. The rest of the vineyard will be spur pruned with cordons being renewed where needed. The growing season and harvest of one year dictates our pruning goals for the following year. And, so, the cycle continues.

Our 2023 harvest yielded a lower-than-normal crop load, especially in our marquette due to some extensive winter bud damage caused by two 20 below zero nights in February after an otherwise mild Winter. The rainy Summer also contributed to our reduced production. We dropped fruit last year to prevent disease during the wet season. We spent extra time controlling lots of vegetative growth and cutting back the vineyard floor to allow for air movement through the vineyard to dry out the vines and prevent disease.

Over the 15 years we’ve learned a lot about growing hybrid wine grapes in Easton and we’re still racking up more experience in a continual effort to make wine we are proud of. We are positive that great wine is grown.