My first attempt at a video about pruning grapevines is done! I'm still not happy with the quality, I enlisted a good friend, Robert Coffin to help me out and we realized that the right equipment is a must. We are now in the process of getting some video equipment that will make this much easier and increase the quality of the videos. (please forgive the creaks of the tripod)

About the video:

In my vineyard I use two types of training/pruning methods: Double Guyot, which is cane pruning using a low wire and vertical shoot positioning and Low wire cordon training with spurs. This video covers the latter. I will be posting another video in a few days that covers the Double Guyot method which is the system I use on most of my vines. In the mean time I hope you enjoy this one. Pruning is something I look forward to every year. After a long winter it is the first time you get into the vineyard, the first sign of spring, and the beginning of a new, hopefully delicious, vintage! I look forward to your comments and/or discussion.

I love wine with food. More and more Americans are discovering just how enjoyable combining wine and food is. While Europeans have know the pleasures of wine and food for centuries, it is a relatively new experience for we "New Worlders". In this regard, I have had the advantage of being of Italian descent, my paternal grandparents being Italian immigrants and my maternal great-grandparents likewise so. Thus, wine is something that was fairly common at the dinner table for me as a child. I cannot say however, that it was anything like you would find in Europe. Although my paternal grandfather made wine annually and drank it as you would find in Italy, my father did not follow suit. The product of a time in this country when being an Italian immigrant was not as glamorous as it may seem to me now, he and his siblings endeavored to be more "American" than Italian. He was much More likely to have enjoyed a beer with dinner or a ginger ale for that matter. My mother is another story. She has loved wine as long as I can remember. Well wine in the sense of fermented grapes. She enjoyed, and still enjoys the Italian homemade style wines. These wines are far from what you would consider "fine wine". The commercial equivalent of these are jug wines like Fortissimo or Piasano. While I can say that I cut my teeth on these wines, they are not what I strive to grow and make. I have become somewhat of the family wine snob, tasting my way through these jug wines on up to California Merlots of the late 80's, later Cabernet's and eventually finding my palate planted in old world wines like Chianti, Barolos, Super-Tuscans and Bordeauxs.

As far as the vineyard is concerned, winter in the Northeast is a time of inactivity. In the wine cellar it's a completely different story. Harvest in my vineyard starts in late September and runs through the beginning of November depending on the variety. This time period brings to an end the constant vigilance of the growing season but mobilizes the time sensitive, whirlwind of winemaking itself. It's absolutely critical to get the perfecly ripened grapes that you've patiently labored over all season long, crushed and turned into wine as quickly as possible. So from the day of harvest for each variety, your goal is to crush that fruit immediately after picking. The sooner you turn those grapes into must, the less chance they have to degrade or be affected by spoilage organisms and the like. I crush within an hour of completing harvest of any particular variety. Once you have the grapes crushed and in the primary fermentation vats covered, then begins the huge task of cleaning up your equipment and the winemaking area. This is vital to prevent organisms like acetobacter or brettanomyces from invading your cellar to infect your wine, tainting it with vinegar or "barnyard" aromas and tastes. Now you can breathe for a moment. Eveything is clean, the wine is safe and protected from the air. You've given it a dose of postassium metabisulfite (sulfer) to kill of the wild yeasts and you've covered the wine with CO2 to protect it from oxidation.


24 hours later you will add your cultured wine yeast and within a day or so primary fermentaion begins and your grape juice is on its way to becoming wine. The fermentaion vats begin to foam and froth from CO2 produced by the happy yeast feasting on the sugar in the grapes and converting it into alcohol. Now you have another job to do if your making a red wine. It's called "punching down the cap". This is the act of pushing the red grape skins, which have floated up to the top of the vat, back down into the fermenting juice to extract color, tannins and other flavor components from them. This should be done at least three times a day. This is one of my favorite times of the year because the whole winemaking area is filled with the warm, sweet smells of grapes and yeast together. It's a delightful aroma. When the fermentation starts to slow down after anywhere from 5-15 days you have to watch the wine carefully. Up until now the CO2 that has been produced by the yeast has kept the wine protected from air and the molds and spoilage bacteria it contains. Now, as fermentation slows down there is less CO2 and thus less protection. So if you're going to let the maceration continue, you'll have to add CO2 again yourself.


Now you have to gear up for work again, it's time to press the wine. You set up your press and secondary fermentation containers such as glass carboys. Pressing you also want to do as expeditiously as possible so as to again, minimize the new wine's exposure to air. You drain off the free run juice that is easily poured from the skins. Then you scoop or pour the remaing skins and juice into the press basket and extract the rest of the wine from it. Now you have glass carboys filled with new wine. You have to top them up leaving not more than an inch of airspace, and then place a fermentation lock in the opening. This will let CO2 out, but no air in. Clean up again, wash and sanitize your equipment, and it's time to open a good bottle and remind yourself why you've done all this work. Your young wine is safely tucked away in a corner of your cellar slowly tranforming itself into something you'll be proud of, hopefully, and you can take a breather now. Really it's the first time you can relax and not worry about your grapes since budbreak. It's a wonderful feeling. Just don't get too comfortable, you've got three more varieties to harvest! Then there's raking, fining and oaking. Suddenly it's mid January, how'd that happen? Ah, but never fear, the winter doldrums will soon be here.

Here again is some video from 2004. It is footage of my vineyard in mid September as the grapes began approaching ripeness. My vineyard has changed a lot since then as I've detailed in my posts. I have removed varieties and replanted with others. I've also learned a great deal since then and it's reflected in how I mange my vines now and how I did back then. My video skills need some work and I think a better camera is in order, but you'll at least get a feel for the layout of my vines. I will film an updated "vineyard tour" this summer and post that as well for comparison.

I hope you enjoy this little walk through my vineyard. The varieties you'll see growing are Cabernet Franc, Marechal Foch, Frontenac and Riesling.

I thought I would try something different. I have been wanting to include video of my vineyard and some of the techniques I use to grow grapes and make wine. To get started with it I experimented with some video of winemaking from back in 2004. My friend Rich Schell and I make wine together every year. Before planting my vineyard in 2001 we purchased all of our grapes from a local importer of California grapes. We still purchase some every year but now we also have our "estate grown" grapes from Villa Ruzzo Vineyards, my backyard of course.



In the video I've uploaded from 2004, we are making Zinfandel. We bought 288lbs(8 crates ) of Zin and went to town. In the video you'll see the old Italian way of crushing the grapes. We've since gone hi-tech, but that was a lot of fun. If this "test" video uploads and works, I'll put something together with video of my vineyard. This one is rough and it's a little dark. At the time we filmed it we weren't thinking about adding it to a blog. We just wanted to have some video of our winemaking to look back on and laugh. So please forgive the poor quality. What I'd really like to do in the near future, is make videos by subject and upload them. The first one will be on pruning and I plan on completing it in the spring of 2008 and then I'll upload it. I'm very much an amateur at making these videos and editing them . I'm sure I'll get better along the way but "you gotta start somewhere" right? Hope you enjoy it!

I really love red wine, but I love white wine too. After the first few successful years of my vineyard and in particular my Cabernet Franc vines, I realized it was time to expand and plant some white wine grapes. I was again faced with the dilemma of deciding which variety. I tasted through a whole bunch of French-American hybrids like Vignoles, Seyvel Blanc, Aurore, Vidal and the like. I've always liked these hybrids. As a matter of fact the White hybrids are excellent and compare well with white viniferas. But since I had some success with Cab Franc I checked on the cold hardiness and growth characteristics of some white vinifera varieties. The ones that seemed to hold promise were Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and, to my surprise, Riesling. I say this because I didn't want to grow Chardonnay. I just don't like it well enough and I would have chosen Vidal Blanc or Vignoles instead. Pinot Blanc was a possibility but Riesling... now Riesling has always held my interest of all the white wines I've ever tasted. It's steely acidity, hints of tropical fruits, green apple and the haunting aroma of petrol. I love it! If I could grow it in my backyard...no way! I did some more research and was thrilled to find out it is the hardiest vinifera white, hardy to nearly -10F and it can survive down to almost -16F. The most encouraging news was though, that some of the world's best Rieslings are being grown just 200 miles or so from my house in the Finger Lakes. And the variety ripens earlier than Cab Franc.

That was it, Riesling it was. I planted 10 vines just to make a few gallons and it has been the easiest grape to grow and make wine with. It seems no matter what the weather is or what the numbers come in at, the wine is always good. The exciting thing is, just like the other varieties, I think this year's fruit gives me a shot at not just good wine but, dare I say, great wine. It was sweet, clean and balanced. I simply can't wait to see how it turns out. I'm very happy so far.

Here are the numbers:
Brix: 21
TA: .6
PH: 3.38
The quality and taste of the juice was unprecedented for grapes from my vineyard, or even grapes I have purchased in the past. We'll see if my skills in the cellar can coax the best from this delightful fruit produced by God and Earth . I hope I know what I'm doing.

My quest to grow grapes worthy of making great wine caused me to be willing to experiment and take risks. The biggest risk was deciding to try and grow some vinifera vines when I planted my vineyard. Although everything that I read and researched told me I couldn't do it because of my winter lows and too short a growing season, I tried anyway. I did a lot of research and found what I determined to be the only red bordeaux grape that had a chance here: Cabernet Franc. It is one of the three main grape varieties that comprise a classic Bordeaux wine or an American Meritage(the Bordeaux style but grown in the U.S.) along with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. It is actually a genetic parent of Cabernet Sauvginon along with Sauvginon Blanc. It produces a much less tannic, lighter red wine than Cab Sav and a bit more herbaceous in character. It generally makes up the smallest percentage of the Bordeaux stlye blend. The best ones however, can be excellent and there are parts of the Loire Valley in France where it is the primary part of the blend. I have had some excellent "old world" style Cab Francs as a single varietal wine from the Long Island and Finger Lakes regions of New York State, as well as some more "fruit forward" New world style Cab Francs from California. I like them from both coasts for their respective characteristics. The variety just happens to be the most winter hardy of all vinifera varieties. It can survive well between -5 and -10F with minimal bud damage and the vine will not be killed until temperatures drop lower than -16F. It also ripens earlier than many red wine varieties including Cabernet Savignon. My only concern was that weather records showed a -28F record low for my City in upstate New York.

It's amazing each year just how quickly the trellis fills with new growth. Once budbreak begins, it almost seems to happen overnight. You just wake up one morning, walk outside and Viola! It's full. In actuality, it took roughly two months, all of May and June for the trellis to fill up. Of course weather plays a big part in new shoot growth. Keeping up with suckering and spraying is always challenge for me between work and family responsibilities. This year, fruit set was rather poor especially on my Cabernet Franc and Riesling. I'm not quite sure why, but I believe I sprayed too close to bloom. I know that rain, cold, or damp weather can cause this, but that was not the case this year. So to compensate for the lack of berries in many clusters, I will not do as much cluster thinning or "green harvest" as it is called. This removing of perfectly fine clusters of grapes prior to, or just after verasion ensures that the vine's crop load will not be too heavy and thus cause a reduction in ripening and grape quality. Every year really does present it's challenges and these are reflected in the different wines produced from the same vines and same grape varieties each year. Hence that is why vintages will vary from year to year. One thing that never changes with each vintage, is how much I love to go out in my vineyard in the evening and just sit with a good glass of wine (Preferably made from my own grapes of a previous vintage). As dusk sets in and the birds settle into their nests, everything starts to quiet down. The crickets begin their hypnotic chant and a warm breeze rustles through the vines. A waft of oak, cherry, and tobacco rises from my glass and then: a sip of good wine. There are not many things as peaceful as this.

The vines broke bud back in May and from that point on they screamed ATTENTION, NOW!! I had sincerely intended on writing this post by mid-May, but my vines would just not have it. Like little children awakening from a nap, they began to cry for my constant attention and care. I began "changing" them weekly, that is spraying them with sulfur and copper to protect them from the onslaught of fungal diseases like powdery mildew and black rot. Then of course they need "discipline" and "training". You see grapevines love to push the limits as they grow, sprawling up and out, here and there, wanting to grow their shoots long. I, as any good grower would, need to keep them in line by setting limits. That is, by tying them to the trellis and keeping them looking neat by trimming their suckers and water shoots. Oh they fight, but eventually they settle down and when the trellis is full of a new healthy canopy of green, they have shown me that they still love me. Now, if only they'll cooperate right up till harvest. Well it is a labor of love you know and after all, they are still my babies.

Well May is upon us and the vineyard is pruned and ready for this year's growth. I have my vines planted at very close spacings; 3.5x5 feet to be exact. I do this in an effort to maximize grape quality by limiting crop load. At these spacings I can only allow about 10-14 buds per vine using the Double Guyot pruning system, as it is called in France. Basically it consists of two short canes(last year's shoots) tied down to the bottom trellis wire. (see below)

(click on pictures to enlarge)
This system allows for VSP(vertical shot positioning) of this year's growth, and thus the maximum exposure to sunlight. There are many opinions and theories as to what will accomplish this best, but for me this is what has worked best after eight years of experimentation. The French have also made quality wines in this way for hundreds of years and many vineyards here in USA use the same method. Each vineyard though, must experiment and come up with the best system for your individual scenario. The buds are very swollen and about to break, budbdreak is arriving a bit late this year due to a cool spring. The forecast is calling for lot's of sunshine and warm temps for the upcoming week and this should get things rolling! It's a very exciting time of the year for a grower. The first variety to break bud in my vineyard is the French-American hybrid Marechal Foch. Followed closely by my Vinifera varieties Cabernet Franc and Riesling. My most recent addition, a German variety called Regent will be making it's first budbreak for me this year, so we shall see when it happens. I'll be adding some pictures of budbreak and early growth in the next week or so. We're off and running toward another vintage, hopefully a great one!

It's March 8th and I'm so frustrated with our weather report which is calling for the coldest weather of the year so far. A bone chilling -4 F is predicted for tonight accompanied by howling winds. These temperatures are far below the normal averages for this time of year, so much for global warming. It's definitely that time of year in the Northeast when you can't take the weather anymore. Everyone has "cabin fever". But for wine growers who would love to be outdoors tending the vines now, it's even worse. You've been spending all of your free time in the cellar racking, fining and bottling wines that are aging. You look out the window and see your vines buried under a layer of snow, the winds whipping and you just wonder why you live here. Out west and in the temperate parts of the country and world, pruning is well underway or long finished. Thoughts of a mild April breeze carrying the smells of spring fill our minds now. The feeling of the warm spring sun on your face, the smell of earth, grass and the fragrance of early spring flowers filling your nose as you prune away. We live for days like these. The vineyard looks so clean, open and neat after you prune. As the sun begins to go down and the spring air takes on a chill, that's the perfect time to get a fire going and start tossing in the pruned canes. Warming yourself by the fire with the sweet smoke from the burning canes in the air, is the perfect way to end a long awaited spring day such as this. Except maybe for the glass of wine that awaits you back inside. Oh well, those days will be here soon, just not soon enough for me!

My name is David Ruzzo. I have been making wine with my best friend Rich Schell for more than 15 years. I have loved wine as long as I can remember. My grandfather (Papa), an Italian immigrant used to make wine in the "traditional Italian" way every year. back in 1991 my friend Rich noticed a heavily laden concord grape vine that ran between my yard and my neighbors. I never paid the vine much attention, but one September day he said "we should make wine with those." Thus began the quest, how to begin, how to do it and so on. My grandfather had been dead for years and my father viewed wine making as a chore since he was forced to help Papa each year when as a teenager he would have rather been playing basketball with his friends. So Rich and I bought books, picked minds and did everything one could do in the days before the Internet, to find out how to make wine, and we did. We turned those Concord grapes into the worst batch of whatever we had ever tasted! That was just the beginning, we learned about varietals and started purchasing classic varieties imported from California and have made many vintages during our yearly ritual. When my father's oldest brother heard about my endeavors, he called and asked if I wanted Papa's Torcietti(winepress) and other equipment, since it was sitting in his basement gathering dust. I never knew it existed, but Rich and I immediately went and picked it up and we've used it ever since. It stands 5' tall and works great. It's my tribute to Papa and reminds me that my winemaking is genetic. Upon purchasing a fixer-upper home in 1999 I was surprised to find out that an overgrown extra plot of land came with it. I eventually cleared up the thickets and planted a nice large tomato garden. One day as I stood looking at my garden noticing just how much sun it received, when it suddenly hit me. I thought to myself "I think I'll plant a few grapevines here to make wine from." Little did I understand the implications of that statement. Living in the Northeast in upstate New York, I had no idea about what varieties grew and where. What types of wine were made form which grapes, and the word terroir, huh? As I began to research viticulture, I slowly realized I had bitten off more than I could chew. Nevertheless, I persisted and successfully planted 40 vines in the spring of 2001. "VillaRuzzo Vineyards" was officially underway. Since then I've added 50 more vines, removed two of the original 4 varieties, and learned the challenges of growing vinifera grapes in cold climates. I learned a lot and lost a lot, but I have realized my dream of making wine from my own grapes. It's getting better with each vintage and I continue to get excited with each budbreak and harvest. I have a lot to share, but a lot more to learn and that's what I hope to accomplish by means of this blog. I hope to create a place where home grapegrowers and winemakers can share their failures successes and tasting notes. Hope you'll share yours with me!