The Norton Are Progressing Nicely

Newness

It's the little things that one should pay attention to and love and enjoy. These barrels are my new favorite additions to the winery. We have other Missouri oak barrels, but these are so fresh and clean and new. Plus they are filled with our Estate Seyval, so the smell is heavenly.

Sleep tight, my new little friends, over the weekend. I'll have visions of you all through the night. ;)

Vidal Blanc

Here is a picture of a bunch of Vidal bunches. =) It will be a couple weeks before we harvest these, but they do look scrumptious already.

Standing Guard

We are in the middle of harvest over here, and also in the middle of sweltering heat. We set two records in temperature this week, Tuesday at 104, and Wednesday at 105. Naturally those are the days we decide to pick grapes, namely the Vignoles. After all the frost this spring, and draught this summer, the fruit looks great, and the quantity is smaller than normal, but we'll take it! We also picked the Seyval blanc grapes today, so the tank room is full of fermenting white wines, yum!

This is another picture of another scarecrow. This one is minding the Vidal blanc grapes, who probably won't be ready for a couple weeks. As we pick more and more grapes, the wildlife seem to hone in on what's still out there to munch on. Hopefully this soldier is doing his part.

Jump, Jive and Wail.

Here is a picture of the blackberries we have fermenting right now. Not too many people had blackberries for sale this year. I think with the frost and now all this dry weather, this isn't too good of a growing year for most things in Missouri. These blackberries sure are beautiful though, and their perfume radiates the air around them. When you stir them, or punch them down, a pink foam forms and bubbles up and looks like sherbet.

Harvest is soon approaching. We are greasing the harvestor today and I am furiously taking berry samples, mainly the Vignoles right now. I think we will be harvesting early this year, with the small crop and draught. The wildlife are in full force, birds, turkies, squirrels (who knew squirrels ate grapes?) We have caught (and released far far away from us) 3 raccoons. Raccoons can eat a lot in one night. The scarecrows are in effect also, and they make me jump when I 4-wheel past them. Then again, I'm jumpy. The amount of crop that we have lost already in the Vignoles to wildlife makes me very sad. There needs to be a better solution. Maybe we need our border collies out there all night to howl at the moon and anything else that crosses their path.