The 2021 grape harvest is in full swing this month at Rock Ridge Vineyard in Amherst. The vineyard was established in 2012 by brothers Shawn and Cary Kottke, with the help of Shawn’s wife Mindy and Cary’s wife Shelly.
The year before starting the vineyard, the brothers were trying to think of a plan for after they retire because as Shawn said, “we didn’t want to sit around as retired guys and watch TV, so we figured we had to have something to do.” After that, things started to fall into place, Shelly knew of a winery that could use more grapes and the brothers had the land, so a vineyard was the perfect opportunity for them.
At Rock Ridge Vineyard their job is to grow grapes that are then distributed to various wineries in Wisconsin and turned into wine. Cary explained that they have two main wineries at the moment, Sunset Point in Stevens Point and Rock N Wool Winery in Poynette. “We’re establishing relationships with a new winery, Lunch Creek Winery in Neshkoro,” he said. “We’re always looking for anybody who’s interested in grapes, and if we have extra, we’re more than happy to provide them.”
Cary said that this year’s grape harvest hasn’t been the best compared to past years, mainly due to heavy rainfall in the Amherst area. “It’s been tough this year with all of the rain. The forecasters will tell you, we had 25 inches of rain through the three summer months, which is way more than you’d want because that promotes a lot of bugs, promotes a lot of funguses, a lot of rot, a lot of moistures and molds. The grapes actually do better in the drier weather.”
Due to the excessive amount of rain over the past three months in Portage County, the grape’s sugar content is diluted by water, which means that the alcohol content of the wine made from grapes in that area will be slightly less than normal.
This harvest season Shawn expects they’ll have about 30,000 pounds of grapes in total and in order to pick that many grapes, they reach out to the community for some help. Shawn’s wife Mindy is the brains behind the picking events. “I put a notice on Facebook. Once we have established pickers, I send them a personal note to let them know that we’re picking and it has grown immensely. It’s just something different to do,” Mindy said. “I think with COVID last year, that’s kind of when all of this really came to…and there’s always a meal after picking.”
Harvesting begins at 8 am and this is the last weekend (September 18th) to volunteer to help at the vineyard. If you’re interested in picking, you can contact Mindy through the vineyard’s Facebook page. A meal, prizes, and spending some time doing something a little different than normal. Sounds like a good Saturday morning!
The brothers had some advice for those thinking about starting a vineyard. “They better have a lot of time on their hands. We’re still both working full-time and like I said, this was going to be a retirement gig for us…it’s a full-time job. It’s a lot for just two guys. I would say you should have more than two guys if you’re going to do a vineyard of this size,” Shawn said. Cary mentioned that even with a one-acre vineyard, you can expect to spend anywhere from 12 to 20 hours per week out there during spring and summer.
“Anticipate that you’re going to be spending a couple of hours a day throughout the summer growing season. Between mowing, fertilizing, fungicides, trimming, tucking, all that stuff, it’s a lot,” Cary said. “One of the things I always told my dad when we got into this was that some youth would be very helpful. Don’t wait until you’re 50 to start this.”
Contact Rock Ridge Winery if you’re interested in volunteering some time to help harvest grapes this Saturday morning (September 18th). You can hear the full interview with the vineyard on our agriculture podcast page.
