This year in our tiny vineyard (10 vines) we lost our Dornfelder grapes to the ravages of heat, insects, and birds. Yes, we sprayed using the same Bordeaux mix we successfully used last year but between the heat, insects, and birds we didn’t stand a chance this year.

However, a few steps away the Niagara grapes are coming along very nicely and it looks as if  we’ll be able to make some of our Niagara wine like we did last year. That’s if we can keep the birds away. In last year’s Niagara wine, we did make a slight error that some might see as a fault – there was a hint of effervescence in the wine. The wine was so good; we hope to repeat the error again this year!

All we’ve learned about winemaking and wine grape growing makes it seem as if there is more potential for failure in the vineyards than in the wineries. One just can’t predict and change Mother Nature. Cheers to the winegrowers who without producing quality grapes, there wouldn’t be quality wines!

This in no way diminishes the important role that the winemaker has in producing quality wines. The winemaker can shape the grapes into the type of wine they want to produce. It takes both the wine grower and winemaker to create quality wines.

Cheers! Kathy