Chardonnay is a grape!

Those of you who know me or have followed my blog or tweets, you know that my main focus on our family farm is grape production.  We have 22 acres of winegrapes on our farm which is currently the largest wholesale vineyard in Maryland. I say wholesale because there are vineyards associated with wineries that are larger than ours. When I say we have a vineyard, folks assume that we are also a winery. We're not.  You wouldn't want to drink anything I have previously attempted to ferment. I've given up trying to gain the winemaking skill set and focused on developing my skills as a high quality grape producer. In addition to growing grapes on our farm, I also provide custom vineyard management services and consulting to other vineyard owners in our region.



Photo Credit: Curt Dennison



There is quite a bit of interest in growing grapes. Folks seem to think its "romantic". Personally, I've found nothing all that romantic about working in 100 degree heat in July or lifting 30 pound lug after lug of grapes onto a trailer to haul to a winery, but to each his own. Folks love the aesthetics of a well managed vineyard and enjoy consuming the product that comes from it. As romantic as it may seem to walk through a vineyard with a glass of wine, its takes a huge amount of work, mostly hand labor, to manage a vineyard. As a kid, my first job was working shade tobacco in Western Massachusetts where I grew up. It was a very labor intensive job. Grapes are even moreso. Keep that in mind if you're considering  a vineyard on your property.



Our vineyard at sunset.

We frequently have visitors and folks stop by who are interested in having a vineyard or just stop by out of curiosity. When they ask what grapes I grow, and I list them off, I usually hear "Oh! I didn't know __________ (fill in the blank) was a grape! I thought it was just the name of a wine." Chardonnay is a grape. Chardonnay wine comes from the Chardonnay grape. Likewise for Merlot, Riesling, Malbec, etc...


Hand harvest of Vidal Blanc, one cluster at a time...

Everything we have planted in our vineyard was at the request of one or more wineries in Maryland. When we first started growing grapes 10 years ago, there were only 12 wineries in the entire state. I called every one of them and asked what grapes they were in need of and kept a tally sheet to see which varieties had more interest. Today there are 55 wineries in Maryland and each variety we grow was planted at the request of at least one of them.

For red grapes (actually they are purple, but they make red wine so we call them red grapes), we grow: Sangiovese, Barbera, Pinotage, and Chambourcin. In addition, we manage customer vineyards who grow: Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Shiraz, Malbec, and Landot Noir.



Sangiovese, an Italian red grape.



For white grapes we grow: Chardonnay, Pinot Gris (is actually a purple-ish skinned grape but makes white wine, Pinot Gris is the grape, Pinot Grigio is one of the style wines). Traminette (hybrid of the grape Gewurztraminer), and Vidal Blanc. We also manage vineyards that grow Sauvignon Blanc and Petit Manseng. These are all grape varieties thus the name of the wine if they are bottled as a varietal wine. There are still hundreds of others grape varieties.



10 Tons of Vidal Blanc, hand-harvested and loaded for delivery.

We take great pride in high quality winegrape production. They say that wine is made in the vineyard, which is true. Poor quality grapes do not make great wines. Our grapes have netted wineries awards locally and regionally. This year, our grapes are represented in 9 awards given at the 2012 Maryland Governor's Cup including a Best in Class, as well as gold, silver and bronze medals for several of the wineries. The wineries include: Frederick Cellars, Boordy Vineyards, Cassinelli Winery, Layton's Chance Winery, St. Michael's Winery, and Woodhall Wine Cellars.

2012 Maryland Governor's Cup Awards

So far the 2012 season is one of our best grape-growing years. The drought which negatively impacted the corn and beans for the second year in a row, is beneficial for the grapes. (Thus it pays to be diversified) Unlike last year however, when we had 45 inches over an 8 week period during grape harvest, this year the rains hasn't come in amounts that cause the grapes to rot and fall apart.

We have hand-harvested 71 tons of grapes in the last 3 weeks. My picking crew is dedicated and hard-working. Without them, we'd never get all the fruit picked. We have about 50 more tons to go over the next couple of weeks. The fruit is in beautiful condition, super sweet with these warm days and cool nights. 2012 should be a fabulous vintage!

Growing great wine - Maryland's Wine Country!

You may remember from my earliest blogs or saw the pics in the margins of this blog, that one of the crops we grow is winegrapes. When we sold out of our livestock operation 15 or so years ago, we never thought we'd be grape farmers. But we are. We planted our first 3 acres of grapes 10 years ago as a “test plot” to see if we would be able to manage grapes as part of our farming operation and do so successfully. A vineyard (as with any of our diversification efforts) had to fit within the 2000-acre, multi-crop operation, not be a drain on the farm, be manageable from a human resources perspective, and ultimately be beneficial to the bottomline. Ten years later, our vineyard is 20 acres in size, and includes both vinifera and hybrid grape varieties. They include:

Red Vinifera grapes: Sangiovese, Barbera & Pinotage

White Vinifera grapes: Pinot Gris & Chardonnay

Red hybrid grapes: Chambourcin

White hybrid grapes: Vidal Blanc and Traminette.

 My father-in-law and husband strapping down a load of grapes for delivery.

Each of these varieties was planted at the request of a Maryland winery who was looking for a supplier of a particular variety. The only exception is Pinotage. Pinotage is a South Africa variety which is a cross between Pinot Noir and Hermitage grapes (also known as Cinsaut). I spent several years living in Botswana and working in the Ministry of Agriculture in the 4B youth program as well as got to return to the region on a Rotary Group Study Exchange (GSE) Program. I  spent time quite a bit of time in the South Africa wine country of Paarl and Stellenbosch and grew to love Pinotage. We planted this variety in our own vineyard simply out of our own curiosity and it has proven to be a nice addition. This year we are expanding the number of Pinotage vines we have in the ground.

Let me say upfront that I am not a wine-o-phile. See that’s not even the right word. It something like enophile. Either way, I simply enjoy a glass of wine now and then. To me wine is like food, every one likes something different and it’s OK to enjoy what you like, not what some expert says you should like.

Having said that, I tried my hand at wine making and it is not a skill set that I possess. I have dumped more of my own attempts than have consumed my own wine. I blame it on the fact that by the time I am done working in the vineyards and bringing in grapes from harvest, the last thing I really feel like doing is messing around with more grapes in my free time. I will leave it up to those who possess that skill set and buy what I need!

 A cluster of Sangiovese grapes from our vineyard.

So we got involved in grapegrowing as part of our efforts to add value to each acre of land that we farm.  In 2000-2001 when we first starting looking into winegrapes, there were 12 wineries in Maryland and there was a demand for locally grown grapes. We spoke to each of the wineries in existence then and got an idea of what they wanted to use for fermenting wine. We planted our first 3 acres in 2003. At that time, there was about 125 acres of grapes in the Maryland. Since that time, the industry has grown to a current number of 55 wineries and approaching 1000 acres of grapes planted. Granted, it is still not a huge wine industry, but the growth trajectory has been steep over the last 10 years and interest in the vineyards and wineries is still high.

To further diversify our farming operation, in 2009 we started offering custom vineyard work for area vineyard owners.  We formed Schmidt Vineyard Management LLC and have been busy ever since offering vineyard management services to vineyard owners throughout our region of the state. While still an emerging industry, it is exciting to have launched a new business successfully and further diversified what our 3^rd generation family farm can do to continue practicing and promoting a variety of agricultural markets.

Yesterday, we started vineyard installations for 2012. We were planting a few additional acres for a vineyard in Caroline County, Maryland who is planning a start up winery in 2013.  We planted 5 acres for the owner last year, are finishing out the back field this year while they draft up their winery design and layout to break ground this fall.  We planted Cabernet Sauvignon. Landot Noir, and Chambourcin for them. Today, we are in Kent County, MD planting Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling, and Muscat for another customer. We have another Kent County customer to expand their vineyard. By the end of this week, we will have planted 10 new vineyard acres and over 13,000 vines.

I decided to try my hand with my new iPad2 and take some video of the crew planting grapes. Here is a video link to our crew planting Cabernet Sauvignon in the vineyard expansion yesterday so you can see how we install vineyards.

It is my first YouTube video. I’m not ashamed to tell you that I had to go to a free Wi-Fi site about 20 miles away to upload it because my rural internet service tanked on me every time I tried to do it from home! Hope you enjoy a little sip of wine while you watch this short video!

Jennie Schmidt

The Foodie (&Grape) Farmer