Harvest 2024

[Obbnw]

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.

When I netted the tannat I noticed more sunburn and bird damage than I expected.

This year I made an effort to keep the canopy a more open to reduce powdery mildew pressure and get more sun on the berries. I probably won't be as aggressive in thinning next year.

I wonder if that led to more bird damage. Previous years had denser canopy's with grapes not as visible from above. I also wonder if some other berry mostly failed this year so the robins are looking for a different food source. About 10 to 15 years ago the apricots froze. I didn't see a single apricot that year and that year was the only year our garden had bird, squirrel and rat damage. Without the apricots the animals had to replace a significant food source.

I was pretty happy when I didn't have to net and am naively hoping this years bird damage is a single year event.

 

[Musissa]

When I netted the tannat I noticed more sunburn and bird damage than I expected.

This year I made an effort to keep the canopy a more open to reduce powdery mildew pressure and get more sun on the berries. I probably won't be as aggressive in thinning next year.

I wonder if that led to more bird damage. Previous years had denser canopy's with grapes not as visible from above. I also wonder if some other berry mostly failed this year so the robins are looking for a different food source. About 10 to 15 years ago the apricots froze. I didn't see a single apricot that year and that year was the only year our garden had bird, squirrel and rat damage. Without the apricots the animals had to replace a significant food source.

I was pretty happy when I didn't have to net and am naively hoping this years bird damage is a single year event.

Some apricots froze this year. We had our Mormon apricot and Italian prune flowering happily and then the snow fell and there was frost several nights. My son's apricots were plentiful, his tree blooms and produces earlier than ours. I thought Utah was squirrel free till we saw 2 of them in SLC. We lived in SF Bay Area for 18.5 years, squirrels were everywhere, and they decided how much of crops people could harvest. On 2 photos is my son's backyard on March 26 and 28th, the bigger tree is his apricot in full bloom. On 2 other pictures are my Carmine Jewel bush cherry and Nanking bush cherry on May 7th.
Our green baby apricots and prunes shrunk from frost and fell, no singe fruit survived. But we had sweet and sour cherries.

 

[Obbnw]

Some apricots froze this year. We had our Mormon apricot and Italian prune flowering happily and then the snow fell and there was frost several nights. My son's apricots were plentiful, his tree blooms and produces earlier than ours. I thought Utah was squirrel free till we saw 2 of them in SLC. We lived in SF Bay Area for 18.5 years, squirrels were everywhere, and they decided how much of crops people could harvest. On 2 photos is my son's backyard on March 26 and 28th, the bigger tree is his apricot in full bloom. On 2 other pictures are my Carmine Jewel bush cherry and Nanking bush cherry on May 7th. View attachment 115584View attachment 115585View attachment 115586View attachment 115587
Our green baby apricots and prunes shrunk from frost and fell, no singe fruit survived. But we had sweet and sour cherries.

The squirrels moved into our neighborhood about 10-15 years ago (I've been here for 30 yrs). The squirrels outcompeted/drove out the rats. They both use the apricot pits as a primary food source. I'd rather have the rats back. We rarely saw the rats and the rats only ate the apricots after they fell and as far as I could tell didn't do any other damage. The squirrels are prolific and get into everything.

Our neighborhood used to be full of apricot trees. The apricot trees were probably planted when the neighborhood was first established in the 50's. They've been dying off or removed as the neighborhood changes. The 5 adjacent houses to mine had 10-15 apricot trees not including the 6 in my yard when we bought it (we removed 3 the first year - the yard was a disaster when we bought the house - the owner had MS and couldn't keep up with the maintenance), now there are only 4 left, 2 in my yard.

 

[Snafflebit]

Average Brix is creeping up we are 24-26 range and the berries have softened Sept 8 remains the pick date

A couple of days in the high 90s raises the Brix

 

[Garagista]

Average Brix is creeping up we are 24-26 range and the berries have softened Sept 8 remains the pick date

A couple of days in the high 90s raises the Brix
View attachment 115606View attachment 115607

Gorgeous!

 

[hptasins]

Picked a bit over 200lbs of Russian River Pinot Noir on Wed (sorry, no pics), from a commercial vineyard that had excess. Inoculated yesterday afternoon, bubbling away nicely today.

Picking my tiny Pinot Noir vineyard on Monday for a Rose.

 

[ChuckD]

I checked my Marquette today… tested six grapes and they ranged from 21.0 to 23.8 Brix. The average was 22.1.

 

[GSMChris]

Well, I’ll be picking our Syrah on Friday. Took a sample to our local lab - Brix 25.8, pH 3.28, TA .83. Assuming continued ripening the next few days, we may end up watering back a bit to raise ph and lower Brix. Last Monday, Brix was 19.6 on my refractometer, this morning 24.0. So the 25.8 was a bit of a surprise!

 

[Snafflebit]

50% Smaller harvest this year, bummer! One vineyard had lots of moldy clusters—the clusters looked okay-ish on the outside but loads of black mold on the inside. Yuck, I did not pick most of the vineyard. I assume that there is little that can be done to fix such grapes. I did my sulfur spray regularly, but I suppose once the inside of the cluster is mildewed, it is game over.

The other Cab and Merlot vineyard looked great.

And I collected one flat of Zin. I might do a small ferment using no adjuncts to get a baseline on taste and color.

 

[BRossi]

I am significantly behind everyone since I am further north in Upper Peninsula of Michigan, plus we had a cold rainy June which put things behind. These are my Marquettes. I am hoping they will be ready by mid Oct. much later than that and frost will be an issue.

 

[AutumnBlazeWinery]

I checked my Marquette today… tested six grapes and they ranged from 21.0 to 23.8 Brix. The average was 22.1.

Similar results in my Marquette on 9/7. Avg Brix of 21.7, ranging from 20 to 23.4

 

[bloombrews]

Hi Everyone! I am new here today, but a Supporting Member on HomeBrewTalk for many years.
I am a serious Brewer, but have not made wine since 2007 and I am stoked, at applying my advanced brewing operations and knowledge, at making wine.
Wine Juice just arrived here in Pittsburgh from California, this past Friday (9-6-2024). I picked up the juice Tuesday 9-10-24
Here are the results, and the "Big" question is - Would you adjust the pH and the Brix, if you had these results? The juice was cold and no signs of fermentation, other than the "off" pH and slight low Brix.
White Zinfandel juice - 53.4 F upon opening to transfer to Conical Fermenters, 20.8 Brix, 2.94 pH
Zinfandel - 55.3F, 21.1 Brix, 3.23 pH
Pinot Noir - 55.5F, 20.6 Brix, 2.89 pH
Pinot Noir - 54F, 20.7 Brix, 2.89 pH

All the juice is now in the Conicals, Yeast is LALVIN RC-212 rehydrated into 90F water 30 minutes, then slowing mixing in the colder must to not shock the yeast by temperature difference. Aerated the Must with pure oxygen, 2-3 minutes.
Holding temperature by computer automated Heat/Cooling, at 68F for the Zinfandel's, and 75F for the Red Pinot Noir (Using Fermentrack, here on Homebrewtalk.com)

 

[ChuckD]

I have one Brianna with grapes this year. The other 12 were browsed to nubs by deer when flowering. Today I noticed birds had been pecking and ants were all over them so I picked them


I destemmed them and ended up with a half gallon of grapes in the freezer that I’ll toss in with my Marquette. I was surprised that the Brix only measured 19.6. They tasted very sweet and acidity was low (by taste).

 

[AutumnBlazeWinery]

Got a quick measure on my Itasca, it's at just over 23 Brix and acid seemed a bit low when I tasted. Hoping to pick this weekend before acid drops too much more (but it is a busy, busy time...)!

 

[tjmeyer]

A hopper full of Malbec. Apple valley CA

 

[Snafflebit]

A hopper full of Malbec. Apple valley CA

I love Madrona Vineyards there

 

[Greg Corey]

Hi Everyone! I am new here today, but a Supporting Member on HomeBrewTalk for many years.
I am a serious Brewer, but have not made wine since 2007 and I am stoked, at applying my advanced brewing operations and knowledge, at making wine.
Wine Juice just arrived here in Pittsburgh from California, this past Friday (9-6-2024). I picked up the juice Tuesday 9-10-24
Here are the results, and the "Big" question is - Would you adjust the pH and the Brix, if you had these results? The juice was cold and no signs of fermentation, other than the "off" pH and slight low Brix.
White Zinfandel juice - 53.4 F upon opening to transfer to Conical Fermenters, 20.8 Brix, 2.94 pH
Zinfandel - 55.3F, 21.1 Brix, 3.23 pH
Pinot Noir - 55.5F, 20.6 Brix, 2.89 pH
Pinot Noir - 54F, 20.7 Brix, 2.89 pH

All the juice is now in the Conicals, Yeast is LALVIN RC-212 rehydrated into 90F water 30 minutes, then slowing mixing in the colder must to not shock the yeast by temperature difference. Aerated the Must with pure oxygen, 2-3 minutes.
Holding temperature by computer automated Heat/Cooling, at 68F for the Zinfandel's, and 75F for the Red Pinot Noir (Using Fermentrack, here on Homebrewtalk.com)

Fermentrack looks awesome! I've been considering creating my own raspberrypi or ardunio/spark based temperature logger. I don't really control temps during fermentation as my basement winery area is 65ºF+/- 2º all year round and I'm always pleased with the results but I do want to track the must temperature more granularly than just at punch downs - or never for my whites, mostly for curiosity and to see how larger batches differ from smaller batches from fermentation temp increases. Thanks for joining and sharing.

 

[bloombrews]

@Greg Corey , Here is what you can get with a Fementrack Dashboard. It is awesome to keep track of your precious Brew, Wine,.... anything your fementing!

 

[Greg Corey]

Very cool. Thanks!

 

[GSMChris]

So we picked our Syrah yesterday - 821 pounds in total. We decided to do 1/4 whole cluster and crushed the rest on top of it in a 3/4 ton bin. Total must is 93 gallons. We added some kmeta and then dry ice and then left it alone. Took a Sample this am to our local lab. Brix 25, pH 3.32, TA 0.69. We will keep on dry ice another day and then add yeast Sunday afternoon.

First picture shows the first of three trips from the vineyard up to the garage.