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May 2013
March 2013



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 May 2013

“You may ask yourself, what is that beautiful house?
 You may ask yourself, where does that highway lead to?”

-Once In A Lifetime.....Talking Heads

May, 2013
What a difference a year makes! Spring so far has been cool and wet, but no big freeze. Everything is running late. Even May took thirty
long days to get here. Peaches and cherries are just coming into
bloom, at least a week later than average. This will be the start of a
spectacular crop, the likes of which we have not seen in many
moons. I’m not just counting on it, I’ve already promised my banker!
Starting to finally see temps in the 70’s and even 80’s.  Gorgeous,
sunny days that remind us what summer is like around here. The
gods are smiling. What’s not to love?

We are pouring the 2012 harvest Sauvignon Blanc, Mojo Nouveau,
and Gunzan Rose´ in the tasting room. Several more still to bottle,
hopefully before Memorial Day. That includes our new Muscat, and
the second vintage of our Devil’s Head Red. I’ll show you the new
labels as soon as we have them out. Way cool! Already looking
forward to the Weko Beach Wine Fest on June 15th. It’s an incredible
event at the beach featuring all the wineries of the Lake Michigan
Shore Wine Trail. Great music, great food, great way to kick off the summer.

Now, it is time to plant something. Go out, stick something in the
ground, and see what happens. All of farming, and pretty much most
of life, can be divided into two parts. Part one: Plant Something. Part
two: Try Not to Kill It! It may sound simple, but we all know it’s not.
Spring is for planting.
What a great time of year.

“You may ask yourself, am I right, am I wrong?
 You may say to yourself, my god, what have I done?”
                         .........ibid above

  March 2013


 

“Got to get back to the land, and set my soul free.”
                          -Woodstock; Mitchell & CSN

Late March, 2013

We had a great winter break. A wonderful time in Napa and Sonoma; a
couple trips to Chicago; a conference in Lansing and a quick visit with our oldest son Jake in Detroit and the next thing you know it’s time to
get back to work!  Somebody needs to tell Mother Nature though. It’s
cold and there’s still occasional snowflakes in the forecast. The two
pictures were taken the same week in January. The lighthouse is on
Lake Michigan in St. Joseph, a few miles from the winery. Lucky for
us, we were in California at the time! What a difference a year makes.

Fortunately, we have plenty to do in the wine cellar preparing our new
releases. Hope to start bottling next week. First on the schedule is the
2011 Stone Temple Pinot and ’11 Cabernet Funk. After that, we are
almost ready to bottle the 2012 whites, starting with Sauvignon Blanc
and Cha Cha Chardonnay.  We are working on labels for the Marquette
and Valvin Muscat, brand new wines for release later this spring. Do we
have enough bottles? Do we have enough corks? Where did I put the
labels? If I was the worrying type I would have trouble sleeping. 
Fortunately, I delegate the worrying to Sue. It frees up my time for
other things, like sleep!

All the grapes have been trimmed and the crew is going back over them
now to tie the canes down on the fruiting wires. I delegate that too. There’s
grape brush to chop. Peach trimming starts tomorrow. We will begin
fertilizing cherries any time I can get a tractor to start. Tractors don’t like
cold weather either. Susie says the sap is moving slow, and I think she’s
looking at me.  The vines are in great shape. The temperature never got
below zero this winter. That’s hurdle number one, cleared. Looks like a
good late spring; hurdle number two coming up. It’s a mixed blessing.  A
late spring will reduce the chance of freezes after bud break, but it also
means the grapes will have less time to ripen in the fall. The growing
season is pretty much over November 1st, so we will have to take that into
account when we evaluate crop size. A shorter season means you have to
be aggressive in limiting the clusters. Too many grapes and the vine
cannot ripen them all. But we’ll add that to the list of things to worry about
later. By we, of course I mean Sue. It’s important to delegate.

“We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion year old carbon,
And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.” ...woodstock
 

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Karma Vista Vineyards & Winery
6991 Ryno Road
Coloma, MI 49038

Hours
Closed Tuesday
Open: 11 - 5 Monday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday and Saturday, 12 - 5 Sunday

Phone: 1-269-468-WINE (9463)
Email: 
info@karmavista.com

 

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Last Edited: 05/06/13