Harvest 2024

[wood1954]

Looks like a really clean batch of fruit should make some great wine

 

[BRossi]

Did some Brix testing in the vineyard today.

Brix - Itasca 18

Petite Pearl 10-11

Marquette 16-17

Frontenac 15-16

Still have a couple weeks of decent weather, so I hope it makes it to 20. Little disappointed in PP. It always seems to lag.

 

[Obbnw]

Picked about 66lbs of Tempranillo last night. 2 buckets of grapes usually gives me just enough grapes for a 1 bucket ferment. Brix after destemming and crushing was 24.5 PH was 3.4

Hopefully I'll get another 2 buckets tonight and 2 more on Friday.

 

[Obbnw]

Picked another 61 lbs last night 24 brix 3.6 PH. Am I the only one who doesn't trust their PH meter? Pictures would be about identical to above...

66 lb batch fermenting nicely, 61 lb batch ready to go.



I'll pick the remaining Tempranillos tonight or tomorrow. A couple of the Malbecs might be ready on Sunday.

 

[Greg Corey]

Beautiful cluster!

 

[Obbnw]

I picked another 50 lbs of tempranillo Last friday and 65 lbs of Malbec Tuesday night.

The Malbec was only 22 brix and an absurdly low (for my "vineyard") PH of 2.9. I really think the way I birdnetted some of the vines really slowed down ripening. I trimmed a bunch to get the nets around the vines that were growing over my driveway. I also folded some back in and over other grapes so they would fit. I think I really altered the effective leaf area to grape volume ratio. I picked these particular vines first because they were the most bunched and seemed to not be increasing sugar any more but were getting soft.

Luckily this year has had great grape weather, warm days and cool nights. The remaining Malbecs are also in the 22 brix range but look healthier and are not as soft. I might pick them next weekend since I'll have to leave town for another 2 weeks for work.

 

[Snafflebit]

I don’t understand the reason for the low ripeness of your grapes. You have approximately the same number of GDD as by me. Are you getting full sun during the day? A cluster of grapes needs only 15 healthy leaves on the cane to achieve ripeness. It is an incredibly small number and is why the French can get by hedging their vines.

 

[Obbnw]

I don’t understand the reason for the low ripeness of your grapes. You have approximately the same number of GDD as by me. Are you getting full sun during the day? A cluster of grapes needs only 15 healthy leaves on the cane to achieve ripeness. It is an incredibly small number and is why the French can get by hedging their vines.

Maybe this will help ; )



I do pay attention to leaf area and grape load. But this year the birds found my grapes and I had to net them quickly and decided to trim and bunch up the vines so I could get the netting around the grapes. It really altered the effective leaf area to grape volume ratio. Plus the bunching did lead to a little powdery mildew. Before the netting/trimming it was way more sprawling and open. You can see how the netting is confining the leaves. Next year I'll prune to be more compatible with the netting.

Plus as you guessed, in this urban environment, this late in the year they do get afternoon shade. You can see the shaded versus unshaded and the next pic is the tree doing the shading.


I definitely have significant sun variation in my yard. Right now I've got some Tannats that are literally 10' from each other but one is sitting at 24+ brix and the other is 19 brix. It's just local shading.

You gotta work with what you have ; )

It's one of the reasons why my harvest is so stretched out.