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Sunshine

Sunshine Wine Details
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Description: An off-dry white wine made from a blend of cold hardy grapes grown here in the Flying Otter Vineyard, including Frontenac Gris, La Crosse, La Crescent, St Pepin, and Brianna. Fresh, crisp, and Pure Michigan.

Varietal Definition
Brianna:
White wine grape developed by Elmer Swenson. Berries are greenish gold to gold when fully ripe in early to mid September. Wine is balanced with pineapple nose and flavor. Also makes a flavorful white juice.
LaCrescent:
La Crescent's intense nose of apricot, peach, and citrus lends itself to superior quality off-dry or sweet white wines. Produced in a Germanic style, La Crescent wine is reminiscent of Vignoles or Riesling. The grape's high acidity provides good structure for excellent dessert or late-harvest style wines.
Frontenac gris:
'Frontenac gris' is a white wine grape variety which makes table and dessert wines; is very winter hardy with trunks surviving temperatures as low as -38C; is a mid-season variety with an average harvest date of Sept. 30 in Minnesota (approx. 45-degree latitude); yields and vigor are high; has moderate susceptibility to powdery mildew and black rot, low susceptibility to downy mildew (on the leaves and fruit), and moderate susceptibility to foliar phylloxera; has small gray berries on medium clusters that are somewhat loose; berry splitting and botrytis have not been observed even under wet conditions; wine quality is very good, and aromas include peach, apricot, citrus, and pineapple with no herbaceous or labrusca aromas.
St. Pepin:
St. Pepin is a sister seedling of LaCrosse, which was also developed by Elmer Swenson. However, the similarly cold-hardy St. Pepin is a fruitier and earlier-ripening grape, which makes one of the best white wines in Minnesota. It is also used for juice. The grape is being grown experimentally in South Dakota and in other cold winter states. The vine has average susceptibility to Downy Mildew, Powdery Mildew, and Black Rot.


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