Vines are WAY behind last year

[Sage]

In a former life I worked for a large canning company. We had peas, beans, corn.

Everything was planted in sequence based on degree days so that ripening \harvest would fall in an orderly sequence also.

The old mom nature would step in to screw things up. Ever try to run a 10 ton pea harvester through mud?? The crop was ready and the next field was approaching ready.

The point being, I remember years when the rain quit at the end of May and it turned hot!! Scramble to harvest as fields were ripening too fast. Then years when it rained until the 4th of July! Sit around hoping they got ripe before the cannery had to switch machines over for corn.

Weather right now is not any different. One year a lot of rain (this year), or no rain and hot (last year). Make the best of it!!??

 

[David Engel]

Hi Everyone,

Update on the vines... the leaves have started to turn on the 6 year old vine and she only gave 7 clusters this year and they are are not even close to finished. I figure we have another 3 weeks left before rain becomes an every other day even here (north of Seattle). Has anyone ever had those years where you get nothing? There are a lot of Vinyards here in Western washington, wonder how they're doing?

 

[HillPeople]

Between the turkeys, bears and weird weather- we got nothing.

 

[Obbnw]

Hi Everyone,

Update on the vines... the leaves have started to turn on the 6 year old vine and she only gave 7 clusters this year and they are are not even close to finished. I figure we have another 3 weeks left before rain becomes an every other day even here (north of Seattle). Has anyone ever had those years where you get nothing? There are a lot of Vinyards here in Western washington, wonder how they're doing?

Even worse, in 2020 I some grapes but they were not quite ripe, went through the effort to make wine but ended up throwing most of it away because it was so bad (a more talented winemaker probably could have made it palatable...) 2021 vintage is pretty good which helps me keep a positive attitude.

This year started slow, then started to look pretty good. But the September heatwave hit my tempranillo's pretty hard. My malbecs fared better but the big surprise was the tannats. They are 3 years old and the first real harvest year, picked yesterday, 25 brix, 3.3 ph. Ph on the tempranillos and malbecs is typically 3.6 to 4.0 so the 3.3 is fantastic. Hoping to do a Malbec tannat blend.

Looks like I'll get just enough heat to finish the malbecs, they are 21 to 23 brix now with high 70's forecast for the next week. I'll be picking grapes almost every night for the next 10 days.

So far I have picked about 250 lbs of tempranillo, 25 lbs tannat, 25 lbs baco noir. Have about 50 lbs tempranillo left and 400 to 500 lbs of Malbec.

 

[Sage]

Mine are ripening very slowly. Did a random brix test yesterday. Most were in the 14-17 range. Low 11 and one oddball high of 22.

Temperature running in the 70's and the days are getting shorter!

 

[Sage]

Not looking good. Brix test showed little to no change. Weather forecast is cold and colder. Rain off and on next 5-7 days and into the 30's. I'm going to leave them hang until it freezes or they turn into rasins.

 

[Neb Farmer]

SW Washington....my 12 year old vines made it through the dry spell we had , watered during the 100 degree period we had, and now I'm going to be harvesting. we have light rain today, so everything is ' coming in '.
The Riesling was picked,destemmed,crushed and pressed yesterday, getting up to 19 brix with a 3.17 ph. about as ripe as they seem to get here.

The cooler evenings is perfect for cold crashing the Riesling must, so I'm pretty happy with that

Compared to previous years, this year seems to be about two weeks behind. I don't consider that to be a big deal, after all, this is farming!

 

[Sage]

Now...... Damned birds have gathered here. Lost some, might need some practice for pheasant and quail season!

 

[winemaker81]

Now...... Damned birds have gathered here. Lost some, might need some practice for pheasant and quail season!

Pheasant McNuggets are good ... IF you get all the birdshot out.

 

[Sage]

It's contagious.... 37 degrees

Now it's snowing! I don't know what has "next" !!