2 Minute Pruning Workshop

Patrick and I have been busy in the vineyard this week.  I thought you might like to see a little pruning as we remove the grow tubes.

Zac Efron and the Bible

If you had to describe how blessed and happy you were to someone, how would you do it?  If you are anything like me, you would invoke some happy go lucky things like puppies and kitties and stickers and lollipops.  Maybe some androgynous child with golden curls in a sailors outfit could be playing hopscotch somewhere.  Unicorns could be jumping over rainbows, the music of Jennifer Lopez never existed, and no one ever discovered putting barbecue chicken on a pizza (I’m a pizza purist!).  The bible liked to describe happiness and blessings as well, and there is one particular item they refer to as a blessing over and over.  I’d like to show you some verses so you can see what I’m talking about, but I don’t want to tell you what the great mystery item is just yet, so I will substitute something else really great and cool that brings the world lots of happiness.  Since the Minnesota wine industry is dominated by women, for now we’ll call the mystery item a Zac Efron (or Ricky Martin circa 1998 if that was as good as it got for you).

Psalms 104:14-15 He provides grass for the cattle, and crops for people to cultivate, so they can produce food from the ground, as well as Zac Efron that makes people feel so good, and so they can have oil to make their faces shine, as well as food that sustains people’s lives.

Deuteronomy 14:26, Then you may spend the money however you wish for cattle, sheep, Zac Efron, beer, or whatever you desire.  You and your household may eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and enjoy it.

Psalm 4:7 You make me happier than those who have abundant grain and Zac Efron.

Jeremiah 48:33 Joy and gladness will disappear from the fruitful land of Moab.  I will stop the flow of Zac Efron from the winepresses.  No one will stomp on the grapes there and shout for joy.  The shouts there will be shouts of soldiers, not the shouts of those making Zac Efron.

Zechariah 9:17 How precious and fair! Grain will make the young men flourish and new Zac Efron the young women.

HAHA, I love how that last verse turned out.  If you haven’t guessed it yet, the mystery item is wine!  Wine is all over the bible.  27 times wine is explicitly described as a blessing from God, and 19 times a lack of wine is called a curse.  Now if those verses actually read the way I wrote them, with Zac Efron replacing wine, you would think Zac Efron would be pretty popular with Christians.  Alas, it is not, and I don’t understand that.  There are 40 negative references to wine in the bible, and all but one warn against too much.  The other one tells Christians not to be a stumbling block to other Christians, i.e. don’t drink in front of recovering alcoholics or those that can’t control themselves.  So wine seems to be a gift from God, and an indicator of good and happy times.  Obviously too much gets you drunk and that’s a bad thing, but too much Zac Efron can be intoxicating as well you know.

Let’s not forget that Jesus was also a winemaker.  In John 2: 1-11, Jesus turns water into wine at a wedding.  If wine or alcohol were inherently evil, why would he turn this water into the best wine men ever drank?  Why wouldn’t he turn the dirty water into drinkable water or a sherbet punch fountain?  The head waiter at the wedding said that usually you serve the good wine first and the bad wine when everyone has had too much to drink, but you have saved the best for last.  So Jesus made wine—and he made good wine.  I often wonder how good it was.  I doubt that he was bound by the wine making knowledge of his day—this was probably Opus One he was serving up.

John 15 is an oft quoted chapter, it is where Jesus said, “I am the vine, and you are the branches.“  The analogy is about Jesus being the trunk and cordons of a vine and we the shoots or canes (the new growth that bears fruit).  God the Father is the pruner.   Here is a link to a little grapevine anatomy for those that want a visual: click here.  He did not have to use a grape vine to make this analogy, but he did anyway.  This does not overtly imply that wine is a good thing by talking about a vine, but it’s interesting to note that grape juice did not really exist back in these days.  Here’s why - Grapes are the fruit of choice to ferment because they are the easiest to ferment.  Everything you need for fermentation, the conversion of sugar to alcohol, is present in and on every grape.  There is naturally occurring yeast on the skin of every grape, that yeast eats the sugar in the grape, and you have alcohol.  You do not even need to crush the grapes to start this process, whole grapes can start to ferment on their own.  The only way to stop this from happening is to add a preservative like sulfur dioxide or keep the temperature below 50 degrees.  Neither of these were an option at the time, and it was pretty hot in the Middle East, so any grape juice more than a day old was turning into alcohol.  So if you have 6-8 pounds of grapes, you can either a)eat the grapes right away and probably ralph some up later because you can’t eat 6-8 pounds in one sitting b)make raisins out of the grapes, which is really dumb since clean water is at a major premium in 30 A.D. Israel, or c)make one bottle of wine and become popular with your neighbors.

Wine is one of the pillars of the ancient human diet.  There is just something about wine and alcohol that makes certain human interactions better.  If someone were to ask me if wine had supernatural powers, I would not say no right away.  I believe olive oil does something for the body that science cannot understand.  It is entirely possible that wine may do something for the soul that is not tangible.  Wine is a gift, just like many other gifts we are given that can be abused.  There are certainly reasons to abstain, be it alcoholism or just as a show of faith and dedication.  However, based on the scriptures I have read, I don’t think a potential for abuse means we should not use.  I am told that an abundance of wine is a blessing, and we are meant to enjoy each other’s company over some good food and good wine.  That is what Four Daughters Vineyard and Winery is all about.

Welcome to the Vineyard side of Four Daughters!

Welcome to Four Daughters!

You've heard from Justin, our winemaker, so let me tell you a bit about another side of the winemaking business: viticulture, better known as grape growing. As the vineyard manager, I'm in charge of maintaining the vines, managing the vineyard, and in general producing large quantities of high quality wine grapes.

As a growing vineyard, this is an exciting time for us. Our vineyard has 600 established grape vines, and we have been working hard this spring planting five more acres. This gives us a total of almost 3000 vines to tend, so we'll be busy! Wine grape vines generally produce their first crop during the third growing season, so we have some time before we'll be using grapes from the vines we just planted. Don't worry though, we're working with a number of local growers to provide enough fruit for some delicious wines in time for our grand opening this fall!

Here are a few stats about acres to bottles. An acre of vines in our area usually contains 500-600 vines, depending on how they're spaced, and produces anywhere from 2 to 7 tons of grapes. At an average yield of 3 tons per acre, our 6 acres should produce 18 tons of grapes. Each ton of grapes can make around 60 cases of wine, so our 18 tons of grapes can be made into about 1000 cases of wine, or 12,000 bottles. I know I had always wondered just how many grapes it took to make all that wine, so now you know.

Here in MN, we can't plant the typical varieties of wine grapes that you may be familiar with. Most wines worldwide are produced from vitus vinifera grapes. This includes all of the famous varieties such as Chardonnay, Zinfandel, the Pinots, Cabernets, Reisling, etc. In our climate these varieties have a tough time surviving the winter cold, so we have to plant cold-hardy varieties specifically developed for our climate. These are often variations of our native vitus riparia wild grapes that can be found growing all around the wooded areas of the upper midwest. The University of Minnesota and other cold climate researchers have developed a nice mix of white and red cultivars that thrive in our climate and soil conditions.

In our vineyard, you'll be able to stroll through acres of these cold-climate varietals:

Brianna – One of our favorites, this is a white grape that makes for a sweet, fruity wine

Frontenac – A nice red grape developed by the U of MN

Frontenac Gris – A white variation of the red Frontenac

St. Croix – Another red grape useful alone or in blends

Marquette – A red variety that can be used alone or blended with other reds

Edelweiss – A white variety that works well alone or blended with other whites

These should give us a nice mix to enable us to produce a number of different styles and flavors of wine (sweet, dry, reds, whites, rose, and sparkling). We'll also be keeping an eye out for any new developments in cold climate viticulture.

In addition to the vines themselves, we have also been busy getting the vineyard structure built. If you have the opportunity to drive by our site, you'll see a lot going on, primarily trellis posts in the ground (over 900 of them!). These will eventually form the framework trellis that we train our vines onto to provide the best balance of quality and quantity of fruit while still allowing us easy access for spraying, pruning, and harvesting. Watch for a future blog about types of trellises and why we use what we do.

Now you have a bit more knowledge about the vineyard side of Four Daughters Vineyard and Winery, and about growing grapes in MN. I hope you're all as excited about this venture as we are. We can't wait for you to taste the fruits of our labor!

Patrick Sween

Vineyard Manager