Looks like a really clean batch of fruit should make some great wine
Harvest 2024
- Thread starter Obbnw
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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.
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.
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.
Hopefully I'll get another 2 buckets tonight and 2 more on Friday.
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.
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.
Beautiful cluster!
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.
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.
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.
I am now complete with my harvesting. Frontenac, Aromella, Delaware (all 3 producing about half yield for some reason), regent, and Blaufrankish (first pic), which is a delightful find. I harvested 125# this week from a vineyard in northern Utah. They planted a beautifully wide selection of grapes and I have gotten Foche from them in the past but this year I saw Blaufrankish and went to town. They hope to start a winery but the county is imposing additionally strict (and completely absurd) regulations beyond what the state requires (which are generally tenable) on them and they haven’t been able to begin operations - so they sell for u-pick. Anyway, that’s a different story. So an interesting year so far as I continue to bide my time before I find the ideal property for my own large vineyard/reshape the one I’m helping manage. (Also, fun note, it takes longer to prep and clean my crusher/destemmer than it takes to process 150lbs of grapes) and now I’m rambling because I’m sleep deprived with a new baby on the house. Keep the updates coming!
Attachments
More tomorrow as I’m late for dinner and completely fried but we finished harvest today - in 103 degree weather. Total of roughly 2900 pounds harvested in six picks.
After a good nights sleep and a couple of advil, I am feeling like a new man!
It was a very strange harvest - as noted up thread, we picked our Syrah first on September 14th (800+ pounds). Things were looking good for a nice flow of grapes from there - Brix numbers on that date for the other four varietals were 22.8, 22.8, 22.6, and 22.0. We did need the pHs to come up a bit but in general in pretty good shape.
Well, Mother Nature has a warped sense of humor. Cool weather set in, we even had fog, and Brixs went down into the 20s and 21s for a couple of days, then crawled back to 22.x. Then hot weather kicked in - back into high 90s low 100s. Fruit just sat there for two weeks. Syrah meanwhile finished fermentation and went into beer kegs undergoing MLF and awaiting a little bit of Mourvèdre and Grenache to make up a full barrel.
At long last , on 9/28, the Mourvèdre (which should be the last grape to ripen of my five) made a run up to 24.9 with 3.47 pH when we picked. Just three rows, 63 plants, a little over 300 pounds, but we were moving again.
Grenache followed - Brix good at 25.4 but a scary pH of 3.13. (510 pounds). It crushed to 65 gallons of must. We added half a gallon of spring water and pH came up a little to 3.30. Added another half gallon, pH came up to 3.43. Brix declined a little to 25.2 but we were fine with that.
Carignane was a nice straight forward pick of 42 vines (250 pounds). Brix 3.45 pH 3.45. Nice straight forward ferment thus far with a great color.
Then we waited for the Primitivo. It’s the biggest share of the vineyard at 211 vines. We decided with Temps in the low hundreds, we would pick four rows on Friday and four on Saturday, using Kmeta and dry ice to keep things under control. Total harvest was 975 pounds. Brix is likely to be in the 27-30 range after typical post pick bounce. Ph was 3.41 - so a little low. We will probably water back, using acidulated water prior to pitching yeast after taking measurements on Monday.
Here’s how we handled the pick - lots of buckets placed into a macro bin on forks on the front of my tractor. Buckets transferred to picking bins in the garage and then returned to vineyard to be filled again. Once all was picked, bins dumped into the crusher destemmer. We all agreed that this saved us a lot of time over dumping buckets into macro bin and then shoveling back into buckets to go into crusher in garage…
It was a very strange harvest - as noted up thread, we picked our Syrah first on September 14th (800+ pounds). Things were looking good for a nice flow of grapes from there - Brix numbers on that date for the other four varietals were 22.8, 22.8, 22.6, and 22.0. We did need the pHs to come up a bit but in general in pretty good shape.
Well, Mother Nature has a warped sense of humor. Cool weather set in, we even had fog, and Brixs went down into the 20s and 21s for a couple of days, then crawled back to 22.x. Then hot weather kicked in - back into high 90s low 100s. Fruit just sat there for two weeks. Syrah meanwhile finished fermentation and went into beer kegs undergoing MLF and awaiting a little bit of Mourvèdre and Grenache to make up a full barrel.
At long last , on 9/28, the Mourvèdre (which should be the last grape to ripen of my five) made a run up to 24.9 with 3.47 pH when we picked. Just three rows, 63 plants, a little over 300 pounds, but we were moving again.
Grenache followed - Brix good at 25.4 but a scary pH of 3.13. (510 pounds). It crushed to 65 gallons of must. We added half a gallon of spring water and pH came up a little to 3.30. Added another half gallon, pH came up to 3.43. Brix declined a little to 25.2 but we were fine with that.
Carignane was a nice straight forward pick of 42 vines (250 pounds). Brix 3.45 pH 3.45. Nice straight forward ferment thus far with a great color.
Then we waited for the Primitivo. It’s the biggest share of the vineyard at 211 vines. We decided with Temps in the low hundreds, we would pick four rows on Friday and four on Saturday, using Kmeta and dry ice to keep things under control. Total harvest was 975 pounds. Brix is likely to be in the 27-30 range after typical post pick bounce. Ph was 3.41 - so a little low. We will probably water back, using acidulated water prior to pitching yeast after taking measurements on Monday.
Here’s how we handled the pick - lots of buckets placed into a macro bin on forks on the front of my tractor. Buckets transferred to picking bins in the garage and then returned to vineyard to be filled again. Once all was picked, bins dumped into the crusher destemmer. We all agreed that this saved us a lot of time over dumping buckets into macro bin and then shoveling back into buckets to go into crusher in garage…
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Picked Itasca (24 Brix and 2.95 ph) and Marquette (21 Brix and 2.78 ph). I was really hoping my ph would have come up more this year. I have much better sugar, but still low ph. 
I know my soil is probably the issue, but I’ve been top dressing with lime at least twice a year for the last 5 years. I adjusted the Marquette, but hesitate with the Itasca because I don’t want to overshoot.
Itasca was pressed and I only got about 40% yield out of my must that was destemmed and crushed. Do other people get that low of a yield? Not too happy about that.
Friday we’re picking Petite Pearl and Frontenac. We’ve got some cold nights in the forecast, so I hope they won’t get affected with frost. The trials and tribulations of trying to grow grapes in the north!
. Good thing is I had lots of help!!
I know my soil is probably the issue, but I’ve been top dressing with lime at least twice a year for the last 5 years. I adjusted the Marquette, but hesitate with the Itasca because I don’t want to overshoot. Itasca was pressed and I only got about 40% yield out of my must that was destemmed and crushed. Do other people get that low of a yield? Not too happy about that.
Friday we’re picking Petite Pearl and Frontenac. We’ve got some cold nights in the forecast, so I hope they won’t get affected with frost. The trials and tribulations of trying to grow grapes in the north!
. Good thing is I had lots of help!!
Donnab1045
Winemaker
Final harvest is Montepulciano - 2 tons in a group buy from Amador. I have been trying to source that varietal for 20 years so really looking forward to it.
Malbec from Fiddletown is clearing and ready to go into a 10 gallon barrel
My whites - Clarksburg Chenin Blanc, and Courtland Albarino are clearing as well. Great aromatics.
The Albarino has a really high TA (12) so I may need to do something about that. Totally a 3 stooges scenario with keeping my whites cold in my uninsulated cluttered garage in unusually hot October weather.
