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.

 

Wine not?

We processed the grapes by hand and got half a bowl of white and a big pot full of red. They were delicious by the way!

We crushed the grapes with the Mouli and got a glass full of green juice from the Solaris, which we drank. We got a jar full of must from the Rondo which Alex topped off with a little water and some yeast dissolved in 3/4 cup of boiled lukewarm water. The must is thick and we couldn't put it in a 5L demijohn, so we used my 2L apple cider vinegar jar and it promptly overflowed overnight. We then spilt it into two jars with plastic pull-on lids which let the air escape. 

The only good news is that the Brix measurement by reflectometer is precisely 20. 

How do farmers do it year after year?

Disappointing harvest

Shrivelled grapes

We couldn't harvest yesterday because Alex had to show Ross House with little notice. We had a lot of commitments this week, and I hadn't looked at the grapes in two days. I thought it would give more of them a chance to reach a brix of 20 as they were hovering around 19 three days ago. 

When we started picking the Rondo this morning, it quickly became apparent that we'd had a crop failure. Without rain for so long, in those two days, most of them turned into raisins.  I was gutted. We only had a few good bunches. Very tasty, but hardly enough for a bottle or two. 

A good bunch

The full harvest of Rondo.

Meanwhile, the Solaris also reached veraison. We picked what was there -- so little for the number of vines -- but our yield was barely half a bucket. Lots of hens and chicks but really tasty and sweet. Most were from the younger vines not the older ones. I just don't understand what went wrong. There was no early frost or major storms. 

You can see the damage to the foliage caused by the drought. The only good news is that the birds didn't eat all of the grapes. Our strategies must have worked:

• Kites flying overhead
• Heron on the ground
• CDs fluttering around the vines
• No bird food in the garden for the last two months
• Cats prowling far and wide

Curiously, some of the vines are flowering again. They are really confused by this late warmth and sunshine. 

Flowering Solaris

Flower buds on Rondo

Vines suffering from drought

The Pinot Noir is encouraging 

Veraison is beginning

Chardonnay still hard as a rock and sour

Veraison not evident

Hens and chicks

No transparency

Visiting honey bees

The vineyard vista is still magnificent

Farming during anthropogenic climate weirdness is going to be a challenge. 

Welsh Solaris receives a 98 from Decanter

A vineyard in Wales 'Gwinllan Conwy Vineyard' scored a 98 from Decanter World Wine Awards for their Solaris 2019. I wish we had known about this vineyard when we visited Conwy a couple of years ago. That score won them the bronze medal in the prestigious competition in 2021. It builds on medals won recently at the International Wine Challenge (IWC) for their Pefriog and Solaris products. 

Montgomery Vineyard, also in Wales, produces high-quality Rondo red and pink. Their 2018 Sparkling White Seyval Blanc won a Silver medal in the IWC, with 90 points. They also make a Seyval and Solaris mix, and a Pinot Noir. Their sparkling rosé 2017 won the best wine in Wales and their still rosé, red and white wines have also received top accolades.

White Castle Vineyard won an IWC silver medal and a gold in the Decanter World Wine Awards 2021 for its 2018 Pinot Noir Reserve. Their Siegerrebe 2021 white took silver in the WineGB Awards 2022.

In fact, there are almost 30 vineyards in Wales now. Most are in South Wales but a few are in the North.  As far back as 2012, a wine from the Ancre Hill Estate in Monmouthshire, one of few vineyards in the UK using biodynamic growing, was voted the best sparkling wine in the world at the Bollicine del Mondo International Competition in Italy.

What is truly fascinating is that almost all started with Rondo and Solaris and soon moved on to other grapes, in particular Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Maybe we're not so crazy after all? What has me confused is the Ancre Hill Estates Orange Wine is mostly Albariño but why is it orange? 

So if they can make great wines in Wales, we should be able to do the same in Ireland!