Mold damaged grapes: crush or toss?

[NorCal]

I appreciate @Hazelemere comment re: making rose out of marginal grapes. I am at a cross roads on my Zin. I thinned out clusters with obvious mildew or were way behind in development. Do I make more rose than I know we wouldn’t consume for a long time or roll the dice, make a red and possibly blend with the Syrah. Pic is Zin 5 minutes ago. Still plenty of fruit, but not 100% mildew free.

 

[ChuckD]

I appreciate @Hazelemere comment re: making rose out of marginal grapes. I am at a cross roads on my Zin. I thinned out clusters with obvious mildew or were way behind in development. Do I make more rose than I know we wouldn’t consume for a long time or roll the dice, make a red and possibly blend with the Syrah. Pic is Zin 5 minutes ago. Still plenty of fruit, but not 100% mildew free.
View attachment 104707

Wow! Those are beautiful!
What kind of volume? Is hand destemming out of the question? At least for the red? I just thought you could get rid of the affected berries that way.

 

[winemaker81]

I appreciate @Hazelemere comment re: making rose out of marginal grapes. I am at a cross roads on my Zin. I thinned out clusters with obvious mildew or were way behind in development. Do I make more rose than I know we wouldn’t consume for a long time or roll the dice, make a red and possibly blend with the Syrah. Pic is Zin 5 minutes ago. Still plenty of fruit, but not 100% mildew free.

Not an easy choice. What is the shelf life of your previous rose? THAT is a telling factor, along with the fact that if you make too much this year, it will impact next year's plans. We're always making wine for the future, right?

If it were me, I'd segregate your grade A and grade B grapes, e.g., if it's not grade A, it's in the other bin. You're already being ruthless with grade C.

Make your normal amount of rose from the grade A grapes. Ferment and bulk age grades A & B separately.

12 months from now, bench test and see what works. That puts you in a position where you have accurate information with which to make decisions.

 

[NorCal]

Wow! Those are beautiful!
What kind of volume? Is hand destemming out of the question? At least for the red? I just thought you could get rid of the affected berries that way.

250-300 pounds. I would try to make the cluster decision at pick, before it went into the bucket. Electric destemmer.

 

[NorCal]

Not an easy choice. What is the shelf life of your previous rose? THAT is a telling factor, along with the fact that if you make too much this year, it will impact next year's plans. We're always making wine for the future, right?

If it were me, I'd segregate your grade A and grade B grapes, e.g., if it's not grade A, it's in the other bin. You're already being ruthless with grade C.

Make your normal amount of rose from the grade A grapes. Ferment and bulk age grades A & B separately.

12 months from now, bench test and see what works. That puts you in a position where you have accurate information with which to make decisions.

I can appreciate that level of separation. I may make another pass through the vineyard and drop any clusters that I see with mildew, but I’d be fooling myself if I think I’ll get it all.

 

[Snafflebit]

Wow, everyone is having mildew problems in California this year. Ugh, time to go cull some nasty clusters.

 

[NorCal]

Wow, everyone is having mildew problems in California this year. Ugh, time to go cull some nasty clusters.

I talked to the person that is running the 20 acre vineyard I used to manage and they too had to take extra steps to combat mildew this year.

 

[MiBor]

I talked to the person that is running the 20 acre vineyard I used to manage and they too had to take extra steps to combat mildew this year.

I know I don't have the perspective you do on the quality of grapes, but here in Michigan, every other lug of California grapes we get has some clusters with rot or mildew. I've been forced to make some hard decisions in the past and I had to forego the convenience of throwing all the grapes in the electric destemming machine, and sort by hand. I had a group of friends come and help sort the grapes, so I could put the better looking clusters into the red wine bin and have the not-so-good ones destemmed by hand to remove the bad/rotten/moldy/mildewed berries and save what was still usable for a rose, along with the signee from the big red. I've seen pictures you've posted in the past and I remember seeing lots of people helping you out, so why not ask them for help again and do a very through sorting of the grapes at harvest time, so you can make both, a good red wine and a rose from your grapes...

 

[nanobrau]

It turns out I don’t have as much choice as I thought. All C and some B clusters ended up rupturing skins or shriveling before surgars got high enough. I guess I’ll just split batch the As and remaining Bs and that will be that.