Amateur grape grower question

I have been growing Marquette, a Pinot clone, in Wisconsin for 13 years but have not had a robust crop yet. I wrote it off to my clipping back technique as too aggressive each Winter. This Spring, after bud break and small clusters formed, I did a heavy clipping to remove some weight on the trellis lines and then a second bud break occurred with more healthy and robust clusters of larger grapes. It seems this second batch of grapes, a month later really took off. Is this a viable technique for cold climate grapes or will these not mature in time for my next snowfall?

It’s not a Pinot clone, it’s a hybrid with Pinot Noir as a grandparent and a complexity of several American species.

Those first clusters are formed in the buds the previous year and the secondary clusters in the current year. With vinifera the primary clusters are much bigger than secondaries. The first secondaries come about 3 weeks later, so are far behind in ripeness and typically not included. Though, a cool site given a long hang time they may be ripe enough to include for added complexity.

A quick search turned up that Marquette leans early on bud break, so that first crop could be lost to frost. So, having a Plan-B with those secondary clusters being substantial is good. But, as you note, they have more risk of not maturing in time. So, I’d prioritize Plan-A. Not sure if you’ll find anyone here with experience with anything like your climate or what is effectively (behaviorally) a different species of grape. The University of Wisconsin should have advice on optimal training. Perhaps there’s a local growers’ association, or you could visit, snoop around, pick the brains of local growers. Maybe even volunteer to help with some vineyard work to get some hands-on experience with what works for them.

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Thank you Wes for all of that information! I found that the second clusters were much more robust and were able to ripen beautifully on the vine. This was the first year I had enough volume to make wine with these vines. I know it’s a risk for early Fall frost, but I think late Spring frost has been affecting my first buds.

Always good to have another cheesehead on here.

When you do your spring trim, are you taking down canopy too? Or just weak and extra clusters? You want a decent amount of canopy early in the year to feed the vine with all that sunlight.