[Toosje]

Good evening,

I have been looking at grape varieties for making wine and because it is quite hard to find grapes which are a bit mill dew resistent And have taste: I wonder..

Has any one of you experience with growing wine grapes: which varieties, maintenance/disease etc, and can you maybe tell me something about the quality of the wine you made?

Thanks a lot!

[Toosje]

What I forgot to mention: our garden has heavy clay as soil.

[ilan]

Your soil will not be a problem I would suggest you pay a visit to a local vineyard and see what they grow They will more than likley have vines for sale In the uk we tend to use non grafted vines as we are free of some of the deseses however on the continent they need to use a grasted variaty Wine quality will vary a lot on season soil and above all skill of the winemaker of course you are not controled by regulations 

[Toosje]

Thank you, in the mean time we did

Although the owner of the vine yard told us grapes don't like wet feet, we wil plant some anyway. We will be able to order a Johanitter together with him and we have been searching the internet for some other varieties. Since we don't have any plans to make wine commercially, there are no restrictions on varieties but the ability to purchase them!

I planted a few little ones last year: they were cut from a big plant in the garden where I used to live. They did really wel.
My wine making experience is limited to elder flowers, apples, normal 'table grapes', berries, cloves and honey and am very curious how much difference there will be between an official wine grape and a nice sweet ordinary grape
It is new to me you don't have the same diseases as here on the continent. Luck you Hopefully it is also mill dew that is not on the list It is the mail problem here because of the humidity.

[ilan]

We unfortunatly get all the common problems especialy the mildews and moulds However As far as I am aware we dont have the devestating Phylloxera which can wipe out vineyards on the continent . I only have a couple of vines which  produce enough for a gallon or so of wine so I mix mine with apple juice and sugar not sure what the variety is as I took cuttings from an established vine that on a south facing wall. that made table quality grapes and was at least 50 years old ? 

[Toosje]

That's a shame ..

What a nasty litte creature! From what I understand infestation is low now because european plants are budded on to american roots. But you never know..

From my experience a juicy sweet table grape can give a very enjoyable wine.. The last time I tried, it didn't go far enough with the fermentation? so I added yeast after it was stopped, with some sugar. It ended up being a tasteful port. A nice surprise