Grape Harvest starting Sept. 27th

September 22, 2014
It's that time of the year for harvest.   Even though our production will be down we consider ourselves lucky because many vineyards lost most of their grapes.    Saturday the 27th we will begin to pick the white grapes and de-stem, crush and press.    We will also harvest some of the reds.  We will be serving beef stew for noon lunch.    So please let me know if you can attend by calling my cell   701-238-3337. 

Saturday is also the day when we host the Vine & Dine event at the vineyard, sponsored by the North Dakota Grape & Wine Association.   The event begins at 2pm and tickets can by purchased on the NDGWA website.

Thank you,

Rodney

Posted by Rodney. Posted In : Vineyard News 

 

July 2014 Vineyard News

July 23, 2014
On my last trip through the vineyard, it looks like our production this year will be down.    All of our vines survived the winter except the Louise Swenson which died back to the ground and we plan to pull all of these to plant something new.    The other vines struggled with the cold and later spring, setting the flowering back about a week and when they flowered we had a rainy period that affected the pollination as the clusters have more shot berrys.     Our new plantings of Petite ...

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Posted by Rodney Hogen. Posted In : Vineyard News 

 

Vineyard News - May 2014

May 13, 2014
Greetings:)

Finally we finished pruning the last of our 2,500 vines on Saturday, May 10th.   A HUGE Thank You to all of our wonderful volunteers who helped out this year!   We had a handful of "vine die back" from the winter so we pruned quite heavily. Time will tell how tough the winter really was on the vines.  We decided to remove all the Louise Swenson varieties that were planted in 2005 as they didn't perform that well, probably due to pH levels in our soil. They'll be replaced with two r...

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Posted by Rod Hogen. Posted In : Vineyard News 

 

It's Spring (soon maybe?) & Time To Prune

April 3, 2014
As I watch the snow fall outside and notice that my calendar says it spring, I have to wonder "when"?  Well!   It always has in the past and I think our grapes are starting to move around a bit and getting ready to wake up for another year.     So!    The plan is to start pruning the week of the 7th and continue till we are finished.    If you would like to learn more about pruning we are setting aside Saturday 12th and 19th as  " Prune and Learn Days".   Food and refreshments will be ...

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Posted by Rodney Hogen. Posted In : Vineyard News 

 

Vineyard News - February 2014

February 21, 2014
Looking ahead a couple of months, around the middle of April, we plan to start pruning. If you would like to learn the basics of pruning, let us know and come on over for some hands on experience.
     
In the last blog post we told you we would be harvesting the new 2-1-17 grape from Tom Plocher.  The harvest went great on these 17 vines in the experimental plot.  Rod Ballinger made wine from this grape varietal, which is currently aging in an oak barrel down in the cellar at Bear Creek ...

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Posted by Rodney Hogen. Posted In : Vineyard News 

 

End of the Year Wrap-up

October 15, 2013
The grape harvest is finished and all the juice is now waiting to get happy.     Thanks to all who helped this year, it was greatly appreciated.     We have finished putting everything away and are now ready for winter and I hope in a couple months to pick our Concord type and La Crescent that are netted and waiting to be made into Ice Wine.   We will have new pictures soon of our Facebook and website of what all happened this year at the vineyard.     Our new babies, the Petite Pearl ...
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Posted by Rodney Hogen. Posted In : Vineyard News 

 

Thank You & Grape Pickers Needed!

September 17, 2013
It feels like fall is in the air and a quick check on the grapes showed that the sugars are rising and we should be on schedule to began picking the last weekend of Sept.     Both the Frontenac and Frontenac Gris had a Brix of 21 yesterday and the King of the North 20.    Our Ice wine grapes have been netted and I hope that will keep the birds away this year.     We also have 3 boomers in the vineyard and 3 kite like hawks that fly when the wind blows......so damage to the crop this yea...

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Posted by Rodney Hogen. Posted In : Vineyard News 

 

July Update...

July 9, 2013
The Grape vines are growing fast and we are now half done with our summer pruning. We'll finish up within the next week. Our bare root Petite Pearl have been planted and some are out of the grow tubes.  Today I picked up at the green house in Fargo another 100 Petite Pearl that will be planted this Wednesday.
        
We are busy getting ready for our 8th Annual Grape Harvest / Grape Stomp Festival on August 17th.  The Days Schedule is now posted on our website  (www.RedTrailVineyards.co...

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Posted by Rodney. Posted In : Grape Stomp 

 

June Update from the Red Trail Vineyard

June 9, 2013
Hello Friends,

Just a quick update on what's happening at the Red Trail Vineyard.

All the vines have been pruned and they have began to pop their buds.  One of the first things out are the new baby grapes and soon they will bloom and start their journey to becoming wine.


Baby grapes budding out

We finished fertilizing the north vineyard and will now start our process of burning down the weeds.  Burning the weeds is done with a special solution of organic ingredients that is sprayed on the...

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Posted by Rodney Hogen. Posted In : Vineyard News 

 

Pruning Party - May 4th!

May 1, 2013

Hello Fellow Wine Lovers!

The snow has FINALLY melted and the vines are ready for pruning.  So we'll be hosting a Pruning Party Saturday, May 4th.  We'll be providing food & refreshments too.  Not sure how to prune vines? No problem as we'll give you a quick lesson as it's super easy.  If you can help out, please give me a call at 701-238-3337.

Thanks much!

Rodney



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Posted by Rodney Hogen. Posted In : Vineyard News 

 
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About Me

Red Trail Vineyard
Buffalo, Nd
Red Trail Vineyard