Wine Lover’s Kit

Start a Vineyard in Your Own Backyard!

Looking for the perfect gift for the wine-lover in your life, or curious about the process of wine-making? If so, you need our Wine Lover’s Kit! Each one comes with:

• One 3-gallon Carlos Muscadine Grape
• One 3-gallon Summit Muscadine Grape

The Carlos Muscadine is the most popular wine-producing grape from North Carolina. It boasts bronze-colored fruit with deep green leaves, and is very resistant to pests and tolerant of cold temperatures. The Carlos Muscadine is perfect for making sweet wine or juice for a refreshing summer treat. The best part? It’s a vigorously producing vine that will yield pounds of sweet grapes for the picking. 

And you’ll love the Summit Muscadine Grape for its low maintenance and abundant harvest. Known as the “beginner’s grape vine,” Summit Muscadines require nearly no maintenance after planting – and you’ll get a huge harvest of juicy grapes year after year! The grapes will be smaller, with a slightly tougher skin, but still packed with flavor.

Grab these Carolina favorites today and start making homemade wine, juice, jams, and preserves from your very own vineyard!

Curious how to harvest your grapes? Taste is the best determining factor when it comes to proper harvest time. When fruit appears, test its ripeness by simply picking a few grapes from different areas of the vine and tasting them. If the grapes are sweet, start picking as they ready for harvesting. Grapes won’t continue to ripen after they’re picked, so be sure not to pick them prematurely! 

Planting & Care

1. Planting: Plant your Carlos Muscadine and Summit Muscadine grapes in a location that offers full sun and moist, well-draining soil. Avoid shaded areas. These grapevines will require some type of trellis to grow properly.

2. Watering: Water the roots directly at least once a week the first year, but watch out for leaf drop as it could be a sign of overwatering. Once your grapevines are established, they will not need much watering. 

3. Pruning: Pruning maintains the vine’s form, size, vigor, and the next season’s fruiting. Prune your Muscadine vines when they are dormant in late winter or early spring. 

4. Harvesting: Taste is the best indicator of whether your grapes are ripe or not. When grapes begin to appear on the vine, pick a few and test their sweetness. It’s important to note that they will not ripen once picked, so make sure not to pick them too early.

5. Pollination: Most species of grapes are self-fertile, but it is a good idea to plant them in pairs to increase pollination and fruit yield.