Microvin Results, Minot, ND
By Chris Asmundson, NCREC
It’s that time of year again when we roll up our sleeves and get down to the wine research. The weather here, like so many other places, did it’s best to make everything more challenging. With a killing frost coming in especially early, we had to harvest everything all at once and go from there. The whites were processed right away and the reds were cleaned and frozen to be processed later. Twenty-two whites were finished and evaluated. Overall I was pleased with the results considering the high acid content of the not-quite-ripe fruit. We have started bottling the first finished reds (of which there are 67) and are eager to see how they do as well!
Data for the reds should be released the first part of January, 2020.
Download data here: 2019 White Wine Microvins Minot
NDSU Trial Grape Results, Miles City, MT
By Bob Thaden, Tongue River Winery
I thought you all might be interested in the results we’ve had at Tongue River Winery with the 5 NDSU cultivars we’ve been trialing here. NDSU had me set up a replicated research trial here 4 years ago. Marquette, King of the North and Frontenac Gris were grown at NDSU’s request also as controls. As you can see, Marquette doesn’t like our site very well!
Samples of these wines, except for 04 #1 (wasp damage: developed acetic acid before we realized it.) will be available at the NDGWA Annual Meeting.
My general take on the reds so far is that I like 04 #1 best of the three. The two whites really have some potential. As you can see, they were massive producers, equal to King of the North. And not a single trunk of the NDSU cultivars has died back over the past three winters. We’ll see how this winter goes.
Download data here: 2019 Trial Grape Results Miles City