January thru March
All is well on the snow covered western front.
March
A quick pruning to ensure that we are on top of things before all the snow melts.
April
We are ready to see some growth, but Mother Nature has brought the snow back for "Third Winter". We are eagerly awaiting some warmer weather, but will get our Grower's fix at the Montana Grape and Wine Association 4th annual Conference.
Summer
We spent the majority of the summer traveling back and forth between Bozeman and Dixon to monitor our growing vineyard. Needless to say it was a lot of driving time. We selectively grew a few test grapes to see where our vines were with age and what we might expect in the coming harvest.
September
There was a quick trip to the vineyard to collect what we had allowed to grow. It was a bit early in the harvest window, but we were able to collect 60 pounds of grapes between our 4 varieties.
October
With a move to Missoula to be closer to the vineyard we were able to put a weekend in to make a test wine from the harvest. We had to freeze the grapes as we were pressed for time in September with trying to pack our house, find housing and make the move.
December
Trial of the test wines… Well we have an AMAZING Itasca. It seems to have done very well in our vineyard. Our other varieties are still out aging. The bigger note is that we now have plans for a winery building, expansion plans for this summer, and a tractor to make a lot of it happen.
