Chateau Dinoseaux

[dinosaw]

Apologies but I couldn't resist posting some pics of my vine and the grape harvest from it, can't take credit for it as it was already here and I have no idea what variety of grape they are but I have always wanted to have a go at making my own wine so am very excited, though perhaps in a years time I might be boasting about my home made paint stripper instead of how good my wine tastes!. Ended up taking 2 buckets with a total weight of 25kg off the vines, enough to make roughly 18 bottles of wine, though because I never thought I would get anywhere near that I haven't got enough yeast so will have to make some grape jam and maybe have a go at drying them into raisins. The potential alcohol was predictably poor at 6% so a lot of sugar added into the must before putting the sulphites in to kill the wild yeast, tonight I will add the commercial yeast, a fellow I knew in Portugal used to just let the wild yeast do its thing and his wines were lovely but apparently that is a bit more hit and miss over here and you are equally likely to end up with vinegar, which in fairness does have it's uses, you can't put wine on your chips after all.

 

[chrismahon]

They look like good grapes Dinosaw and I am surprised they have grown that well. We have some vines near us -generally something to be avoided in France because of the powerful pesticides and weedkillers they use on them. However on these ones the vines are tended, without chemicals, then the grapes are simply left to rot- something which puzzles us? We've been taking the occasional bunch to feed as treats to the chickens. However we have to be careful because the natural sugars can promote bad bacteria in the digestive system. Most chickens love them, but for some reason the Leghorns don't.

 

[dinosaw]

My Leghorns liked grapes but wouldn't touch raisins unlike the other birds so maybe it is a sweetness thing Chris, if you brought a handful of raisins down they would just look at you with absolute disgust while the others scoffed away. I have always found grapes a really useful tool for handling chickens, just throw one where you want the chickens to go and off they race, in fact I think racing each other for them is half of the fun as they always seem far more interested when I throw a single grape a distance away so they can compete with each other than when I just drop multiple grapes on the ground, and if they are large grapes that can't be swallowed in one go then all the better as an epic chase then ensues as the winner tries to get away from the rest of the flock, if I threw another half dozen grapes during this time they wouldn't be interested it's all about the chase for them. We occasionally hold a single grape for the chicks to eat and if one manages to tear a large piece off it is similar behaviour with the lucky chick shrieking with delight running around the ring, in so much as to say look what I've got till it attracts the attention of the others who then give chase.

 

[chrismahon]

It's been a long time since I made any wine Dinosaw. Last was elderberry and I used a yeast that needed a mild starter solution because putting it straight into the mash would have killed it. The final result was 18% alcohol and it was fantastic. They sell all the kit here (we gave ours away before we moved), but I doubt I will ever have time now with all these chickens.

The environmental effect of wine production is regularly debated. Everyone knows it is seriously damaging but these chemicals can't be legislated against because France can't afford the loss of revenue resulting from what would be a big drop in production. Bio wine (organic) is produced here but it is very expensive. So we have to be careful to get grapes that definitely haven't been sprayed.

Most of our chickens are a bit too old to be running around after treats, but they still do and no injuries yet. We did lose a young cream legbar to over excitement at treats time- quite obviously a heart attack!

 

[dinosaw]

Waited to see how my wine was progressing before replying Chris, no activity for 24 hours and then it started and is now foaming away like mad, we have also had a go at drying out some grapes into raisins but because the sugar levels are so low they are really sour more like dried redcurrants or cranberries.
Chemicals are unfortunately such a prop now to modern agriculture that without them yields simply collapse, there has been no real incentive to innovate in a direction that reduces pesticide use and while the economics seem to be there for a small organic sector I do wonder if it will ever be anything other than a niche market.