Growing grapes in the Northeast

Can you be more specific on exactly where you are located.

Southeastern PA and would like to make a nice red.

Can you be more specific on exactly where you are located.

Excellent folks to do business with.

Interesting you should bring this up. Yesterday my wife and I stopped at two wineries in Maine where we live. One was the first winery in Maine - 20 years old. The wine laws in Maine had to be rewrittten because of this winery. The second was not as old, but both of them made only wines from fruit other than grapes. Apple, pear, and blueberry are the local fruits and much of the wine was made from these fruits or a blend of them. They tried growing grapes, but the Maine weather was prohibitive. It's just too &*#$% cold here. I am told that there are some microclimates where grapes can be grown, but they just don't have the sugar content to make a good wine. I will say that the fruit wines were very good, and we did buy a few bottles to have on hand.

My St Croix vines have survived 4 winters in Maine near Bar Harbor and there is another guy near Bar Harbor which is on Mt Desert Island who has started a very small vinyard.

And how is the wine from those grapes?

I've only been able to make one gallon so far and think it's a little on the tannic side. Also, the growing season isn't really long enough and the grapes don't seem to develop as fully as one would like. I noticed the little vinyard was using reflectors between the rows to get more sun. I may have to try that.