Spring 2017 Vineyard Planning

We're looking out to Spring 2017 and beginning to plan for the planting of our next vineyard block.

Our plans include planting over 1000 additional vines, on just over 2 more acres. We already have the area plotted out and plan to dig all of the holes for the plants this fall. That way, by next spring, the holes will be all done and ready for the grape vines to arrive.

We want to order our vines this fall, this will enable us to get a better selection of the vines available.

Last year (Spring 2016), we ordered too late and had to settle for some younger vines. We hope to avoid some of the problems we experienced, by getting more mature vines for planting with an earlier order submission.

But, we need your help – we would like to ask our blog and Facebook followers to assist us in determining the type of grapes to plant!

What's your preference – Red Wine or White Wine?

This past spring we planted two varietal hybrids;

• Baco Noir – a hybrid red wine grape variety produced by Francois Baco from a cross of Vitis vinifera var. Folle blanche, a French wine grape, and an unknown variety of Vitis riparia indigenous to North America.

• Chambourcin – a French-American inter-specific hybrid grape variety used for making wine. Its parentage is uncertain. The hybrid was produced by Joannes Seyve who often used Seibel hybrids produced in the 1860s.

Both of our choices for planting were selected because of our own love for red wines.

Chambourcin is well know in Kansas and is a favorite grape to the vineyards & wineries in our area. Therefore, this one was an easy selection due to it's popularity.

We chose Baco Noir because of it's excellent flavor and reviews. In fact, we even ordered several bottles from a vineyard in up-state New York, to taste the wine made from these grapes, before ordering the vines for our own vineyard.

Red or White Wine, What's Your Choice?

So, back to the purpose of this post.

We are doing our planning for the upcoming planting (Spring 2017). We are wondering whether we should plant more grapes for red wine, or include some grapes for white wine, in our planting planning.

We would like to ask for your help to assist us in our planting decision.

Please comment here on our blog or on our Facebook page and tell us what your wine preference is.

We will publish the results of our informal survey and will provide details of our planting decision in a later post.

Thanks for your assistance!