# First harvest



## wfournier (Sep 15, 2019)

We picked our first grapes this year from vines we planted three years ago. We didn't get as much as I had hoped for but enough to start playing with, learned a lot for next year. 

Numbers on some were better than others, I'm guessing some of the high acid is due to the vines being young and maybe not having enough leaves to properly ripen everything (over cropping?) but I am curious to hear others thoughts on that as well. I was only planning to pick the whites yesterday but after looking at the condition of the marquette we decided to just pick that as well (we'll be gone next weekend). The weather has not been ideal the past couple weeks as well, cold and lots of clouds.

Itasca (about 60lbs, best numbers) Brix 25, TA 12.9 g/l PH 3.12
La Crescent (about 10-15lbs, lots of acid) Brix 22, TA 17.7 g/l PH 3.04
Marquette (about 25lbs) Brix 22.5, TA 14.25 g/l PH 3.00

The itasca and Lacrescent are being blended in a field blend, not enough la crescent to be useful. I would have really liked to the the Marquette hang longer but everything was starting to see some major pressure from hornets etc and SWD is something I will have to plan for next year. I did not pick the petite pearl or verona as the numbers on those are still very low. Verona brix is at 16.5 and petite pearl is 17, apparently I didn't record the PH but as I recall one was 2.9 and the other 3.0.

All in all I was hoping for better numbers but we learned a lot.


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## wfournier (Sep 15, 2019)

The bounty


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## KevinL (Sep 15, 2019)

Seems like you brought the Itasca in at the right time, but the others needed a little more time on the vine.

Itasca harvests earlier than others based on my experience thus far (Very limited).

For the others it looks like another couple weeks or so would have been good. My Acid has been a bit higher this year than in years past, but we had a late start to the season thanks to a late frost that wiped out the primary buds on my Frontenac and Itasca. 

Looks like a good haul though! Hopefully you get a good wine out of what you got, and you'll have plenty to build on next year.


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## wood1954 (Sep 16, 2019)

very nice! enough to make some good wine.


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## wfournier (Sep 16, 2019)

KevinL said:


> Seems like you brought the Itasca in at the right time, but the others needed a little more time on the vine.
> 
> Itasca harvests earlier than others based on my experience thus far (Very limited).
> 
> ...



I tend to agree, but the La Crescent needed to be picked grapes were starting to deteriorate, not sure if it was insects or fungus (probably both) but they would not have lasted another week. I was surprised at the brix on them because my last sampling was 23.5, I must not have gotten as representative a sample as I thought I did. The Marquette was in better shape but still showing damage, I probably should have left as I had planned but what's done is done. I learned a lot this year and I'm looking forward to putting that into practice next year.



wood1954 said:


> very nice! enough to make some good wine.



I hope so, hopefully we'll get a bit more next year and have a better idea what to do with it.


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