Grape ripening time running out?

[David Engel]

They say confession is good for the soul. I have read about crop thinning, but never in a million years would I have thought I’d need to do it with such a small offering. As the clusters continued to grow, I did think about it, but as mentioned… little late now. I’m going forward with every grape I can just so I can go through the winemaking process. Chalk it up to the journey of knowledge.

 

[Snafflebit]

Yeah that's looking pretty close in appearance. The varietal I'm having issues with is zinfandel, my merlot is totally fine. Thanks for the tip, I'll look into Eutypa.

No, I think your vine has leaf roll virus, noticing the curved leaves. It is common so that is what I guess

 

[vtoddw]

They say confession is good for the soul. I have read about crop thinning, but never in a million years would I have thought I’d need to do it with such a small offering. As the clusters continued to grow, I did think about it, but as mentioned… little late now. I’m going forward with every grape I can just so I can go through the winemaking process. Chalk it up to the journey of knowledge.

It's a very conflicting feeling ripping off all those clusters early in the season, questioning "do I really need to do this? what if I leave them all, maybe they'll ripen and I'll get a huge crop?" One approach I've seen online and practiced is to drop clusters that are still solid green a few weeks after veraison starts, primarily further away from the cordon on a cane that has a closer cluster. But I'm always conflicted about doing it. This year I got greedy with two of my more vigorous zinfandel vines, figuring their vigor indicated they could ripen a lot of clusters. For reference, one of those vines yielded 212 oz of grapes (albeit poorly ripened), so given it's 8 ft span that was definitely a lot of grapes and therefore very demanding on the vine.

I think that's the right call, you've got nothing to lose if you make wine with your under ripe berries when you feel confident that their not gonna get any better and the risk of fungal loss gets too high. Maybe the wine won't be amazing, but if nothing else you will have one more season of wine making experience under your belt and you'll know first hand what to expect with under ripe fruit.

Here's a pic of what some of the zin looked like when I harvested a few weeks back. And another pic of the wine in bulk aging, which actually has a decent color in spite of the fruit thanks to my reuse of the other varietals skins I mentioned earlier in the thread. Hopefully that gives you some encouragement!

 

[hptasins]

Fingers crossed for you! I’m hoping to pick Syrah today. Brix was 26 on Thursday morning but ph was only 3.22. I’ll test first thing this morning but also can’t wait much longer as birds and bees are just hammering the grapes.

We have low pH across the board on the grapes so will need to deal with that this winter.

Are you checking the pH right away after sampling, or letting the grapes macerate for a few hours? I'm seeing some pretty big shifts after a few hours - pH went up 0.3 on some PN yesterday after about 5 hours of soaking at 55F. Only a minor shift in Brix.

 

[BarrelMonkey]

Are you checking the pH right away after sampling, or letting the grapes macerate for a few hours? I'm seeing some pretty big shifts after a few hours - pH went up 0.3 on some PN yesterday after about 5 hours of soaking at 55F. Only a minor shift in Brix.

agree - 'soaking up' makes a huge difference. (See my recent Syrah thread for another example)

It also makes a difference how you press the grape samples, eg mashing up by hand vs blending. The latter will likely give more meaningful results, though it's a bit harder to measure pH unless you have a centrifuge to spin out the solids. You can prepare a suitable sample by passing through successive filters (eg a tea strainer followed by filter paper) but it takes a while.

 

[GSMChris]

David - sorry for hijacking your thread. I’ll respond to this here but then take my stuff over to my own vineyard thread.

So the pH measurements have been done a number of ways.

Prior to picking I picked a large sample - probably 75 berries - from all over the relevant rows. I place in a gallon sized plastic bag and begin squishing as I walk back from the vineyard. I then take a rolling pin and run it several times over the mash. I then wait until temps rise to at least 70 and then draw a sample with a syringe to avoid seeds. I then either take to a local commercial lab (if I want more data) or visit a neighbor who has a Hanna pH meter. He’s a commercial grower and has all the toys.

Post picking, I’ve pulled samples from the must and had the neighbor measure that and have also taken samples to the local lab for a more official number. Numbers have generally lined up. Not exactly the same but in the Vicinity.

So I did pick the Syrah on Saturday. Brix was 26.2 and pH was 3.25. I’m proceeding with fermentation and will probably reach 0.0 later today. The neighbor was curious and can over with his Hanna on Tuesday and pH was up to 3.45. Hopefully mlf will maintain or slightly improve on that.

We also picked the Grenache on Tuesday as the Brix was climbing rapidly and we were heading into a few hot days. Brix was 27.1 and pH 3.14. Ugh. I watered back slightly - about 2% and got brix down to 25ish and pH up to 3.3 (same pH meter). I‘ve had that one on cold soak but will take another sample to the lab and pitch yeast today.

 

[ibglowin]

What a crazy year for Cali grapes in general!

 

[BarrelMonkey]

It also makes a difference how you press the grape samples, eg mashing up by hand vs blending. The latter will likely give more meaningful results, though it's a bit harder to measure pH unless you have a centrifuge to spin out the solids.

Well, I'm going to eat my words. Heard from ETS labs about a sample that we (ie the winery where I work) sent them, and their recommendation is to not blenderize any samples, just hand crush the fruit. I think we started doing the blender thing (at least for reds) a couple of years ago at the insistence of another winemaker who was buying some of our grapes, but it's clearly not the industry consensus.

 

[CDrew]

Interesting that ripening and pH are decoupled this year. I had the same experience.

Still, we can be optimistic, that in 3 or 4 years we will be enjoying this wine.

 

[Sage]

Checked Brix yesterday. Looking good at 19-27. Odd that the cabs are reading near ready. Usually the last. Carmenere are definitely way ahead of last year and the usual green taste is gone.

Weather shows 60's day, mid 40's night for the next two weeks. If I can just keep the birds out!

 

[Sage]

Picked today, VERY short crop. About 20% of a normal crop. Quality does look pretty good!

Forecast is below 20 by the weekend (night temp).

 

[Snafflebit]

Pinot Noir is still coming in, later than usual and recent rains are not helping the harvest.

Pinot Noir Harvest 2023: The Race to Ripen

This season has been a learning experience for me