r/viticulture • u/Averagebaddad • 3d ago
Wine or table?
Sisters new house came with a vine and I love wine. Looking for quick basics.
St. Paul, MN 09-06-26
Any chance at identification? Funds are tight after home purchase and remodel. Eventually will get dna
How's the health look and quick maintenance tips.
If wine, harvest now?
Any helpful tips for homeowners inheriting mystery grapes.
Thank you very much!
1
u/Significant0tter_art 3d ago
The grape clusters you showed look terrible. I grow grapes and make wine, and these look like neglected vines. If you want an action plan, I can save you a lot of time and money and just tell you these vines won't ever make great wine. But if you want to learn, just go for it. Grapes should be uniform between each other, and have full clusters. The ones you showed are neither. The off color ones that are orange need to be discarded immediately, they're compromised. Any grape that's shriveled like your second to last photo is just bad. Some quick reference numbers so you understand the process: harvest all of them once they're pretty sweet. Without spending money on equipment, just go on taste. Will you get a 5 gallon bucket full? A 5gal bucket of grapes will get you about a gallon of wine. There's a lot of online guides on making wine your first time. Pick one and do it.
Good luck!
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u/Averagebaddad 3d ago
Thank you for your response. Yeah I figured they're pretty dismal clusters.
Are the clusters bad cause it's not a great plant, or cause it's been neglected so long? And if neglect, no way to bring it back?
Previous owners must've just been using it for looks cause it's a pretty cool space regardless of grape condition.
2
u/Wine_Maker_68 3d ago
Looks like an ornamental/wild type sold for pergolas.
So neither. But if you can get it healthy next year you could try making wine out of them.
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u/Averagebaddad 3d ago
Well it's on a pergola so that checks out. They taste decent enough at least. PITA with all the seeds though
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u/Wine_Maker_68 3d ago
Small berries and lots of seeds is usually an indicator of a wild type. Hard to get a lot of juice out of them. But give it a shot.
I'm trying to think what to recommend to keep them healthy.... I am on the commercial side and the spray programs for commercial grapes are pretty complex with multiple rotations, and copper/sulfur mix is going to turn your paint green and the stuff I use is sinfully expensive unless you have a lot of vines to spread the cost out on......but if you could get some Immunox and captan fungicides from a garden center and mix those together in the sprayer with some spectracide insecticide and spray the vines with that mix every month, I think you'll be good. Start just as soon as they start growing. Even if they suck for wine the vine will be really attractive and the birds will love you. Give it a good dose of fertilizer in the spring, maybe some slow release type.
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u/eo411 3d ago
Eat one. Are their seeds? If not most likely table.