Photos - Flying Otter Vineyard & Winery

Flying Otter Vineyard Photo Timeline

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2005

2005 - Inaugural Year

This is the starting point. Spring 2005

The ground has been disced three times.: The rows are laid out 10 feet apart and the first row is staked for the grape vines – 7 feet apart.

The vines were soaked in water overnight

Having the right tool for the right job can be a huge asset.

Measuring and marking the rows for plants and posts.

A good start. Seems like a long way to go for a glass of wine…

The Utter kids, Jeff, Josh, and Lauren work on end posts and bracing.

Bob and Jeff: We used a 12 inch auger for the grape vine holes. This dug a nice sized hole that we made plenty deep to loosen up the soil and promote root growth.

The second day we dug 8 inch diameter holes for the posts. The posts are native locust – untreated: Lauren, Sarah, Linda, and Jeff

Rows: After building the H-braces and stretching the cordon wire, Sarah and Linda placed stakes, grow tubes, and tied the stakes to the wire.

The completed planting and trellis. Finished – for a little while.

They grew!

They continued to flourish, surprising us with their growth in the dry summer.

Uh oh. Something likes the grape leaves.

Here are the culprits. Japanese beetles.

Traps: We immediately set out Japanese beetle traps, which caught beetles by the quart, but didn’t seem to help the infestation in the vineyard. After further research we discovered that you need to place the traps farther away from the vineyard, as they attract the beetles to them. After a strategic redeployment of traps the problem was much more under control.

Who ya gonna call? Jeff, the Beetle-Buster.

The vigorous growth caused us to re-think our trellising plans.

We added a new Geneva Double Curtain (GDC) trellising system.: By the end of the season the plants were growing up and over the new trellises

October 2005, the end of our first year.

January brought some snow.

Scary. We have our fingers crossed, waiting for spring.

2006

2006 - Second Year

A warm April and early May brought early growth. A bit too early.

The Frontenac vines really wanted to get growing.

Drip irrigation system.: We put in a new drip irrigation sytem in all of the first year vineyard rows. This should save us a lot of watering work this summer.

Josh & Nikki at work. She wasn’t really going to run over him, the tractor wasn’t running.

Vineyard workers: Bob, Susie & Randy. These friends came to visit for the weekend, and we put them to work. And we wonder why we get so few visitors…

New machinery: Randy and Bob run the new and improved post hole digger. Having it on the tractor saved a lot of work in moving it from place to place.

A finished row, posts, plants, grow tubes, and stakes.

New growth on last year’s vines.

Jeff and Sarah putting out stakes.

The last remaining crew members on the last day of planting work. Tired, but happy.

Frontenac on July 5, 2006

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Bob, fighting the bugs with the small sprayer.

New part of the vineyard, planted spring 2006.

Our new arrival, the big sprayer.

The big sprayer at work on the Frontenac vines.

It may be hard to tell, but the new sprayer DOES make the vintner happy.

We were very happy with the first year’s growth from Marechal Foch

The second year Frontenac vines continue with their vigorous growth.

Marechal Foch: We clipped off almost all of the grapes this year to get the vines to prosper, but a few made it past the pruning shears. It is gratifying to know that they can make grapes, and we hope to see lots of them next year.

Vigorous. It’s a good thing we decided to go with the extra support of a Geneva Double Curtain trellising system.

Inside the Geneva Double Curtain.

This year we planted a new section of several varieties of white grapes.

More of the new whites.

End of the line: The far end of the white section was closest to the woods, and it took a major hit from the japanese beetles. The vines struggled valiantly, and we are hoping they will make it.

Pests: Here is the villain. This was a very big beetle year. In the height of the siege we were getting over a quart a day from each of three beetle traps, and they just kept coming.

More pests: After the beetles left we breathed a sigh of relief. Until we noticed the deer were starting to munch on the leaves.

Our vineyard: This is most of what we have planted now. Just under an acre, with the reds in the foreground and the whites towards the woods starting at the top of the hill.

Water. After last year’s dry summer and having to hand water the plants, we installed a drip irrigation system. Since it’s underground you can’t see much of it except for this hydrant. Fortunately, the installation of water seems to have insured that we had much more natural rainfall this season.

Aileron. Aileron is our vineyard dog wanna-be. Her invisible fence collar doesn’t allow her to visit the vineyard now, but she watches us from the yard, and dreams of expanding her range. Hopefully we can figure a way to get her out there with us without confusing her sense of boundaries.

Fall: This leaf on the tree in our front yard was the first one to turn. It seems like it’s really throwing up a red flag, warning us that winter is quickly approaching.

2007

2007 - Third Year

Frontenac in early-mid May

January ice storm.

Ice on the vines and the wires.

Ice: Ice on the trellising. This ice won’t hurt anything as the plants are dormant. But we don’t want to see this in the spring.

A good start of Frontenac growth

Blossoms are forming

Pruning in May. It seems a shame to cut off all those leaves, but that’s what you have to do.

Freeze damage to some of the high ground Frontenac

More freeze damage to Frontenac

Downside: This is a very sad photo. The Marechal Foch had really gotten a good start, but the freeze just devastated it. In many cases it will have to start over and grow from the ground up.

Preparing the ground for the new row of growth for 2007.

One of our new babies, Marquette, for 2007.

Bugs: The rose chafers made a brunch of some of the Marechal Foch. They were treated to a chemical dessert.

I believe this is the Sabrevois about June 5th. It is trying to grow lots of grapes already.

The Frontenac on about June 5th. They are loaded with clusters.

Lots and lots of baby grapes. They are so cute when they are little.

Frontenac vines about June 5th.

The whites section on about June 5th

On about the 20th of July we started to notice some color changes in the frontenac.

This change in color, known as veraison, was very exciting for us.

Progress: They looked so pretty, but even more importantly, they looked like they might be something we could make wine out of someday.

Veraison: As you can see, there was quite a range of shades from green to purple, and they seemed to be changing rapidly.

We had to remind ourselves there was still a long way to go.

In another month the dark color of ripe frontenac filled the vineyard.

But they were still not ready for picking.

Waiting: At this stage they looked ready, they even tasted ready, but we had to keep checking the brix levels, the acid levels, and the ph till they were perfect. So we waited.

Turkeys: It was at this point the turkeys discovered that the grapes were indeed quite ready for their standards. Apparently they have no regard for brix levels and ph. Anything on the lower cordon wire (St. Croix, Sabrevois, and all of the whites) were largely wiped out.

Hiding: Here’s a bit of Sabrevois that was hiding from the turkeys. We did not expect to get a harvest this year from any of the vines the turkeys attacked, as they were all two year plants, but it certainly gave us something to contemplate for next year.

Bees: Another problem we had, mostly on Sabrevois and St. Croix, were bees. If you look closely you can see one of them munching on a split grape. We got a lot of rain in a short period in mid-late August, and it caused some of the grapes to split.

CD collection: We hung CDs in the vineyard to discourage the turkeys and birds. I’m not sure if they did any good, but it made us feel better to be doing something.

Marquette: These are our first year plants for 2007, Marquette. They seemed to do exceptionally well this first year. We are hopeful they will handle the winter.

Unfortunately, another pest that plagued the vines was deer damage.

Deer: They didn’t exactly try to cover their trail. We responded by spraying the leaves with a couple of commercial products called Deer Out and Deer Away. They seemed to discourage the deer from the salad bar…until it rained and we had to spray again.

Hooter: Our neighbors loaned us this guard owl. I’m not sure whether he kept the turkeys away, but he did seem to have a dampening effect on the flying birds. I’m glad it worked a bit because I have to admit I did feel a little silly carrying a big plastic owl out to the vineyard. I was sure the turkeys were hiding in the woods and laughing at me.

The Machine: This is the crusher de-stemmer that Bob bought on Ebay. It was in New Jersey, and our son Josh picked it up for us and kept it in his closet till we could come get it, which was several months later. Josh gave it the nickname Grape Annihilator.

Dressed Up: This is the Grape Annihilator after her makeover. She is beautiful. She got sanblasted, powder coated, got new hose, and got as many new stainless steel parts as we could find.

First Harvest: Finally the big day arrives. Jeff came down and helped with the Grape Annihilator makeover, then we (Bob, Jeff, and Linda) did the first Flying Otter harvest.

We picked about 400 pounds of frontenac.

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A bin of frontenac is a happy thing. It has been a long wait and a lot of work to get to this point

Then you just turn on the annihilator and pour in the grapes.

Turn, turn, turn: It turns the auger which feeds them into the lower part where they are separated into the good stuff and the bad stuff.

Good stuff: This is the good stuff. It is called the crush or must, and this is the very first view of what will become the first Flying Otter wine.

This is one of our new blue winemaking barrels.

wait for it…

Ta Da! The first crush for Flying Otter.

Grape Annihilator: On the other side, the Grape Annihilator spits out the bad stuff, the stems. I don’t know how it does it, but it does an amazing job. It ran through the 15 bins of grapes in less than half an hour. Cleaning up took considerably longer.

The crush looked and tasted great.

This is the Grape Annilhilator at work. You just pour them in and repeat.

And Repeat And Repeat And Repeat

Crew: The second week we recruited an enthusiastic picking crew. Bob, Wayne, Lauren, Diane, Jeff, and Sarah. (Linda with the camera)

We picked the rest of the Frontenac.

We crushed a lot of grapes.

Now it’s time to take this must and press it to separate the gunk from the juice.

We put the grapes in here.

Pressing: Slowly turn the press to gently press the juice out the sides. This takes a lot of time and patience to avoid it squirting out the sides and making a big mess. Pressing goes much slower than the crushing.

Some of the crew was starting to appear less enthusiastic.

058otteWhen as much juice as possible is pressed out, you open the press.r_2007_58

Cake: And discard the

Gunk: So far as we know there isn’t anything this stuff can be used for, but the bees really liked it. Although they were having a little trouble flying after sampling. That’s all for 2007, see you next year!

2008

2008 - Fourth Year

Bottling: In May 2008 we bottled the first Flying Otter wine. We had four experimental wines in our lab from our first harvest, and we are pleased with the results we are getting in our initial cautious tastings.

Filling Bottles: We have basic filling equipment that works fine for small amounts. There were one or two somewhat messy incidents as we mastered the learning curve of operating this aparatus, but once we got the hang of it things went pretty well.

Floor corker.

Linda and Jeff, bottling crew.

Cheers!

Hail: In late June we came home from a vacation to find hail damage from a major storm that had hit while we were gone. Apparently the vineyard frog in the center came through in better shape than the grapes.

And these guys survived the hail, but eventually were evicted from the vineyard by Bob.

Frogs: This was the second frog we saw while cluster thinning. Cluster thinning was pretty sad this year, since the hail had done a thorough but non productive thinning for us.

Very sad.

We are hoping to get a partial harvest, but they are obviously cut back a lot.

Bob built a contraption for the trailer that would help us put up and take down the bird netting.

Uncle Kid and our neighbor Wayne got roped into helping us with the process.

Nets: This is taking the netting off. It took one person on each side of the row, one person in the trailer and Bob to drive the tractor.

This is Linda in the trailer, pulling the netting down and folding it into the bag.

Uncle Kid mans the boom that channels the bird netting.

Our neighbor Brandon helps pick the grapes.

Jeff can reach the high spots.

Sadly, the grapes were pretty pitiful after taking a beating from the hail.

Lauren has to reach for the high ones.

Harvest: Definitely not the lush harvest we had last year, but we did get some. If it’s true what they say that grapes like to suffer, this is sure to make some very special wine.

2009

2009 - Fifth Year

Pruning grape vines in early April

Michael inspects the cuttings

Planting day, June 8

Grandma and Michael with hats

Sarah and Michael assembling grow tubes

Bob and Jeff building new trellising

Sarah and Michael put grow tubes on the new vines

Frontenac Gris

Grapes on Sept 1, Frontenac

One of the whites

Picking Day!

You just have to get a little taste, right?

Our destemmer on the pedestal

A happy viticulturist at harvest

2010

2010 - Sixth Year

In spring of 2010 we committed to remodeling part of our pole building into a winery building

We started gathering paperwork for our permits and clearing out space for building

Everything had to be moved out so we could re-shape the space

First we had to cut a notch in the existing concrete for a floor drain

It’s a lot of work to make a nice clean notch in solid concrete

As the construction continued, the vineyard continued to grow. Veraison at the end of July

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A freak storm with high winds blew through in late July and flattened a couple of rows of whites

Very unhappy viticulturist

Jeff & Sarah hurried down to help us prop up and reinforce/replace the trellising

The line posts were mangled and had to be replaced, but thankfully the vines survived unscathed

Meanwhile back at the ranch…construction on the well and sewage treatment system begins

Septic tank in place

We poured a new floor over the old one, enabling us to build a slope down to the center drain

Smoothing out the new floor

As the construction continued, the grapes kept growing

Walls were framed, the winery is taking shape

Outside one of our new varieties, Petite Pearl is growing strong

Until the deer developed a voracious appetite for Petite Pearl

We owe so much to our friends who have helped us with harvest since the first one in ’07

An upgrade to a larger, hydraulic press is a big time and energy saver

Squish power!

2011

2011 - Seventh Year

Working with the very first Flying Otter wines

Grandpa and Michael walk out to the winery. Michael is probably asking for a tractor ride

Winery desk for paperwork and recordkeeping

We had a major expansion in ’11, adding around 600 vines

Lab bench and equipment for testing

We changed the whites to high wire trellising. We hope this will help with low lying pest issues

Tiered storage

New Flextanks

More Frontenac

Handwashing sink and stairs leading to overhead storage area

First week in July and Frontenac is going strong

Cleaning and sanitation is the biggest part of winery operations, and essential for quality wines

2012

2012 - Eighth Year

Construction begins on The Pavilion, our outdoor tasting room

Going up fast

Sarah, Jeff, and Linda enjoying the Pavilion interior

Great view overlooking the vineyard

Exterior nearly finished

Bar area inside

And meanwhile the vineyard continues. Jeff at harvest, with help from Michael and Sean

New barrels

Opening Day for the Pavilion

2013

Friday Night with Cat Canyon

Tasting Room Central in the Pavilion

May 12th, early start

May 13th, Frost! Start over

View towards the Pavilion

Whites

Reds

Bottling day

Vines, after harvest, after the fall leaves come off, and before pruning.

2014

Addition of outdoor deck

Deck substructure

Running electric service to the Pavilion

Finished deck

Deck in use.

Tiny grapes in June

Vineyard view of the Pavilion

Vineyard visitors, Dr. Paolo Sabattini and Dr.Stan Howell from MSU

Milllie’s Polka Band brings polka to the Pavilion

Bottling line has expanded with upgraded equipment

Winery

2015

Cat Canyon entertains in the Pavilion

Construction on additional storage

Grape harvest, filling the destemmer, then into the press. Thanks to Bob Mayfield, aka Uncle Kid

Bob built a fire ring, apparently for himself.

2016

Linda helps with pruning. This may have been the last time…

Cat Canyon rocks the Pavilion

Birds of Prey visit Flying Otter

Veraison, when the grapes start to ripen and change color. This was July 28th.

We often get beautiful views from the Pavilion. This was a very impressive one.

Harvest bin. Each weighs about 30 lbs when full.

One of many tactics we use to discourage birds from using our vineyard as a buffet.

Solo accordian player and comedian. Both terms applied loosely.

Welcoming front door. Decor by Cliff

First appearance of The Wine Curmudgeon

Cat Canyon onstage

Fletcher survived his first season!

Bob demonstrates a good pairing for Curmugeon’s Red

Winery is filling up, bottling and more new equipment

2017

New tractor was needed to run the frost protection machine. The old tractor froze up trying, which seems rather ironic

Cat Canyon

Cat Canyon tries out the new stage

Our favorite view

Putting up the deck cover

Vineyard Platter, one of our food service options

Tent going up for Otterfest.

The Wine Curmudgeon gives a tour.

Bob fills the destemmer

Fall view

Last show of the season

Linda and Michael practising the painstaking tast of wine analysis

2018

It’s always a good idea to start the season with bagpipes

Getting pretty crowded in the winery

Adding utilities for new construction of bathrooms and kitchen.

New well

water line

Plumbing. Yes, it’s a picture of plumbing. If stuff costs this much, it surely rates a picture.

2019

We were working hard to complete the new restroom building as soon as the spring weather permitted.

2019-1

Marquette vines are mature and producing well.

2019-10

Deer damage was a major issue. These vines should hang to the ground but the deer have “hedged” them.

2019-11

Activity in the winery continues throughout the year.

2019-12

The monthly “Dinner with the Winemaker” event was quite popular.

2019-13

Harvest and winemaking is always a very busy time.

2019-14

Millie’s Polka Band, Cat Canyon, and Ryan Rolf performed at this year’s harvest fest – “Otterfest 2019”.

2019-15

Flying Otter Winery sponsored a food and wine tour in Tuscany in early November

2019-16

The Wine Curmudgeon enjoys the best part of any food and wine tour.

2019-17

End of season. Winter pruning so we can start all over again next year.

2019-18

A very welcome addition to our tasting room – the new restrooms.

2019-2

The 2019 additions were completed in May.

2019-3

Cat Canyon on Friday nights – the tasting room is a rock’n

2019-4

The Wine Curmudgeon conducts his monthly walk and talk in the vineyard.

2019-5

We began our “Vino in the Vineyard” experience. It’s a wonderful picnic in the vineyard. Reservations can be purchased on-line.

2019-6

Our annual “Birds of Prey” event was very popular again this year.

2019-7

The bald eagle is always the hit of the “Birds of Prey” event.

2019-8

The tasting room rocks every Friday night with music by Cat Canyon. Various artists perform on “Wine Down Saturday”.

2019-9