Harvest day for Solaris

I measured the Brix this morning and Solaris was consistently at 22. Rondo was testing at 18-20. So we decided to harvest the Solaris today as we have weather weirdness approaching next week. We started at about 10 am and finished at 3 pm. Not too bad for a harvest of 45 kg of grapes by two people! It was lovely and sunny until late in the afternoon when it was raining heavily in the south and east all day. Lucky us. 

This was our first major Solaris harvest. Last year, we had very little. A couple of years ago we had enough for two bottles of white. This year, in contrast, was very encouraging. 

The donkeys kept us company all day

Some of the bunches were gorgeous and the grapes are super tasty. Here are a few observations:

• The grapes on the 5 yo vines at the top of the vineyard were the most beautiful, bountiful, and healthiest. They were on vines that had the least foliage. We need to prune more heavily in the spring when the clusters form and we know where they are. 
• The lower we came down the field, the more grapes were affected by powdery mildew. Alex thinks it's the trees alongside the field of grapes that are reducing the air circulation.
• Grapes in the green bags fared better than grapes in the white bags. I think the green mesh allowed better air circulation and better exposure to the sun. 

The destemmer/crusher we ordered several weeks ago has not arrived and we don't know when it will. So we started rinsing and destemming this afternoon. We got through 14.5 kg of grapes before it got too cold to continue. I think we'll be working on it tomorrow and Saturday and will juice and start fermentation then. 

I used the bathroom scale which talks to weigh the grapes. You can place the container on the scale and don't need to see the readout. 

On Sunday, the weather is to be fine again. If the Brix of the Rondo reaches high enough (over 20), we will harvest the Rondo on Sunday to avoid the storm that may hit us Monday coming from Greenland of all places. We thought Hurricane Margot would reach us mid-week, but instead, this giant blob from Greenland is looking to attack us at the beginning of the week. Margot may still come along later in the week. 

Notes to self:

• Have a way to stow the bags so you don't have to pick them up later.
• Get containers with comfortable handles to stow grapes as you harvest in the field. 
• Work out a system by which to collect the grapes easily and empty them into larger containers in the field. 
• Have a damp towel handy as our hands were getting sticky from the grape juice. 
• Bring water to drink during the day. 
• I used a fish box to stand on for extra height and still could not reach the highest clusters. 
• Ghostie was of great help, holding down the fish box so it wouldn't move out from under me.