Marquette growing in MA
- Details
- Published: Thursday, 22 August 2013 11:42
- Written by David DeCiero
My friend Jonathan is trying to grow Marquette in his backyard. He has multiple different blocks of vines and has had some challenges over the years. Seeing him have difficulty with growing the grapes has been hard to watch since I know he puts so much effort into the vines.
Jonathan decided to grow Marquette grapes about 5 years back. He has had one struggle after another, mostly with pests. I know he has put a lot of work in over the years to ensure a good harvest, but something always seems to go wrong. One year it was birds who would sit on his netting and peck through to get the grapes. Once he figured out how to stop them from getting his grapes, he then had a problem with yellowjackets. They were flying in and literally sucking the juice from his grapes, leaving him with only shriveled raisins. So, this year, he bought some insect netting that has holes that won’t let in any insects. We helped him put it up a few weeks ago and have not heard any stories yet, which we assume is a good thing. Hopefully, he is able to stop the little guys this year. Here's a link to his blog, Chateau Oiseau.
Jonathan’s plight highlights one of the main things about everything in life. It is a constant trial and error process. We learn by doing, making mistakes, then solving the next problem that comes along. I can’t tell you how many mistakes I made the first time I made wine from grapes. In fact, if I had started with grapes, I probably wouldn’t be making wine anymore. So many things went wrong that I couldn’t have anticipated. I took good notes, reflected on what went wrong, and then decided to make a Chilean wine just so I would have more practice. That way, by the time I did my thirds harvest, I had figured most of the stuff out. It all came down to trial and error. I like to think I make less mistakes now, but there is always something I don’t anticipate.