Harvest 2024

[Obbnw]

Who's harvesting? What are you harvesting? Pictures welcome!

We're getting close. I think I'll pick my baco noir Monday.

I'd like to leave them a little longer but have to be out of town for work from Wednesday to Wednesday, then leave for a wedding. So it's this Monday or Monday the 15th and by then I think the tempranillos will be ready.

Sadly, the birds have finally found my grapes. Previous years birds only hit the vines in October as they migrated through. So far it's not too bad but as they learn it'll just get worse. Next year I may have to get netting.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Birds and yellow jacket wasps invade grapes because they are ripe enough to taste good.

Watching the local winery they are predicting the first pickling starts in about a week. (Wisconsin crop) Watching the local winery they never have grapes ready to pick on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but always decide the grapes are ready on a more convenient Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. ,,, We all choose the date because it is convenient for the rest of life.

 

[GSMChris]

I’m a couple of weeks away. By both eye and Brix measurements done Thursday early in the morning, Syrah is likely to be first, Mourvèdre next, then Primitivo and Carignane. Grenache was hit by frost in some rows, untouched in others, so may end up picking twice.

I’ll be measuring Brix for the second time Monday and see how things have changed in the interim. I suspect Syrah will jump as my random sample included probably 10% greenies from clusters that I will drop later today…

Adding a picture of the Syrah while I’m out thinning.

 

[Neb Farmer]

Harvest for me probably won't be until a few weeks into October. ( SW Washington )

 

[Garagista]

In Lodi, the Petite Syrah is at 22 and Zin is at 23 Brix. I’m guessing 2nd week of Sept.

 

[wood1954]

my brix is about 15-18 so I'm on schedule for mid september. the acid level is what determines picking tho. I go thru the vineyard every day picking out green berries and any rotten or split ones to reduce the odds of any fruit flies and wasps.

 

[David Violante]

It’s not going to be October this year… Concords in the lower Hudson valley.

 

[Rob Kneeland]

What a difference a year makes. Last year I had beautiful clusters, and a bunch of crows kept the birds away. And no insect invasion.

This year lots of birds and the clusters are numerous but the berries are small with plenty of raisining even though I am only at 15 brix. Plus the asian beetles (lady bug cousins) have started to move into the clusters.

I think it may have overcropped. Plus a very wet year. I think I will harvest only the best clusters and leave the raisins/green berries to compost.

I learn a little more every year!

Good luck with your harvests all.

Rob

 

[Obbnw]

I ended up picking the Baco Noir on Saturday. It took 6 years for the birds to find my grapes but they found them and told all their friends. Figured I’d just pick them and try to find netting for the other varieties.

Picked about 50 lbs, left about 10-15 that were not as ripe. 1 “cordon” on 2 plants had grapes in the 20 brix range where all the others were 24ish. Cordon in quotes because it’s more like a proto cordon.




Final brix was 24, PH was 3.4 but my PH meter seemed wonky and I didn’t have calibration solution. I saved some juice so I could test it later. Pitched premier rouge and it took off.

Spent the rest of the weekend netting grapes, I’m about 85% done. It wasn’t too bad but I’m going to modify my pruning next year to make netting easier and may put up some permanent netting in a couple of spots.





The Tempranillo’s are around 21 brix, Malbec’s are 19 ish and I didn’t check the Tannat’s but they are still pretty green. Tempranillo below.

Overall harvest is looking good. I do have some powdery mildew scarring on some clusters but the grapes haven’t cracked yet.



I did find more herbicide damage…



Finally – last year’s Tannat or why I keep trying.

 

[Greg Corey]

Weird harvest year. I got about half yield from the last 6 year average. Super small berries on my Aromella and lots of sunburn and raisining. Frontenac also had small berries and some significant bird damage. Delaware was the only variety that produced about as expected. Still have some Foche and Chambourcin and LaCrescent to harvest so we'll see how that goes.

 

[Musissa]

It’s not going to be October this year… Concords in the lower Hudson valley.


View attachment 115463

My Eastern Concord is still very green, and berries are small (Utah, close to Salt Lake City). I have a single vine of it. But my Isabella (2 vines growing next to Concord) is gorgeous! Beautiful medium sized berries, lovely color but also not ready to be harvested. I am following you and hoping to learn how you are making wine from your Concord. Mu husband is very unhappy that I bought and planted these Labruscas. I agreed to get rid of Concord and plant Cab Sauvignon on the same spot, then I agreed to remove Isabella too. And as a punishment I have to harvest, destem, crush and make wine from them (blending Concord and Isabella) all by myself, and it should be a very good wine I simply can't make any mistake! I already bought several vintage books on eBay hoping to find good old recipes in them. We have a very limited space for growing grapevines, grapes are poisonous for dogs, so we are planting them away from our German Shepherd's playgrounds. That's why we are going to remove Labruscas and plant my husband's favorite varieties instead. He likes red table wines, not sweet ones. Your berries look beautiful, I love their color!

 

[Musissa]

Weird harvest year. I got about half yield from the last 6 year average. Super small berries on my Aromella and lots of sunburn and raisining. Frontenac also had small berries and some significant bird damage. Delaware was the only variety that produced about as expected. Still have some Foche and Chambourcin and LaCrescent to harvest so we'll see how that goes.

My Frontenac has small berries too and wasps love how they taste! They even decided to build a new nest there which I found and destroyed. Last year we harvested all our grapes on same day at the end of September. This year Frontenac has brix 25+ already (my husband received his refractometer 3 days ago; he didn't believe me that the grapes are quite ready) so we had an emergency picking on Saturday. Waiting for dry weather to finish harvesting. Destemmed Frontenac berries went into freezer and will wait for our Cab Sauvignon and Cab Franc, they are still very unripe. I agree, a weird harvest year.

 

[Musissa]

Already harvesting our Frontenac. It grows about 3 feet away from the Southern wall of our house. Wery hot and dry spot. It tastes delicious, I regret the berries are so small and have hard seeds. I would eat them all fresh and buy my wine at store (I am lying of course !) Cabernets are not looking ripe at all, they are growing near our Southern wall too. It is very strange! We will harvest them at the end of September as we did last year. I have to learn about the best time to harvest Concord and Isabella in order to make delicious wine (blend).

 

[Snafflebit]

My Cab Sauv and Merlot are all between 22 and 26 brix now. I plan to harvest on Sunday, Sept 8. Two hot days are coming this week which should accelerate the ripening. Of course, man plans and God laughs! I hope to harvest at lower Brix levels this year. I have pushed the ripeness levels in the past, which requires tartaric acid additions. I would like to reduce that.

 

[Musissa]

We finished picking and destemming our Frontenac. We have only 1 vine. 8lbs of berries are now in freezer waiting for the rest of our grapes to ripen.

 

[Obbnw]

I finished picking the baco and finished netting the tannats Tuesday night.

Picked 15 lbs of baco and about 7 lbs of tempranillo from one vine so I wouldn't have to net it. Combined brix was 23, ph meter still not working.... destemmed and added to the already fermenting baco. Just barely fits in my 7 gallon ferment bucket.

 

[Denise Willows]

Who's harvesting? What are you harvesting? Pictures welcome!

We're getting close. I think I'll pick my baco noir Monday.

I'd like to leave them a little longer but have to be out of town for work from Wednesday to Wednesday, then leave for a wedding. So it's this Monday or Monday the 15th and by then I think the tempranillos will be ready.

Sadly, the birds have finally found my grapes. Previous years birds only hit the vines in October as they migrated through. So far it's not too bad but as they learn it'll just get worse. Next year I may have to get netting.

 

[Denise Willows]

We are harvesting Noiret, Melody, Concord, Cayuga White, Aromella, Niagara, Arandell, and Steuben. Marquette harvest is complete and Vidal Blanc should be ready in 2 weeks. Crazy BUSY!

 

[Greg Corey]

That is quite the pile of grapes. Are you doing a field blend or is that just a wonderfully pleasing photo? I'm curious about your Arandell, my vines died in the second year. Really odd but I was looking forward to trying them and comparing to Aromella, which are healthy as can be.

 

[Denise Willows]

This was a field blend for a friend to taste everything. Our Arandell and Aromella are doing very well. They are 8 years old. Arandell is so very dark and makes a very interesting wine. I have a couple of friends who buy the grapes to make wine.