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.

 

Grape testing

I tested a bunch of grapes that had turned deep red and got a Brix reading of 14. Since the optimal sugar content for red wine is Brix 22, we have a little time left before we harvest. I will take readings every other day for the next week and daily after that. 

The white grapes seem far behind the red Rondo. The photo coming up is of Chardonnay. Brix should reach 20 if it's to be wine. Not sure what will happen. 

The next two are Solaris. They are on the younger vines. The older vines didn't do much. Weird. But it's possible veraison has begun there. I will test them next time, but there won't be much of a harvest. 

The two coming up are Pinot Noir. Some of the vines seems to be infected with something - looks like powdery mildew to me. Others look fine. There are no Albarino grapes coming. 

The roses in the garden are all looking good, so we don't have a major fungal intrusion. 

This page is really good at helping to identify problems. 

The apple harvest is underway and the donkeys are loving the periodic small apple donations. It's a good year for apples. But we've lost our pear trees to disease. It's also our first harvest of hazelnuts. I am so excited. They were on  the younger of the two trees. Go figure. 

We have loads of Rondo grapes on the 5 vines we planted early on. Better start learning how to make wine. 

California woes

February heat wave in California

The drought in California continues and now includes a rare winter heat wave. It was in the 80Fs this weekend in LA during the Super Bowl. The second week of February offered a preview of summer for southern Californians as unusually early heat set records from San Diego to San Francisco. Temperatures 15-20F above normal were seen in southern California from Wednesday through Sunday. Hot and dry conditions mean greater fire hazard. People are saying there is no more fire season as the fire hazard continues all year round these days. They are now praying for rain and no frost. 

California saw major storms in December that pushed parts of the state out of the most severe categories of drought. The storms brought record rainfall and snow – some areas received more than 122in of snow over seven days and reached 159% of normal for the time period. 

Meanwhile, in Northern California, vintners reported the smallest harvest in 10 years. As in other places, they report the quality of the grapes is outstanding even if there is so much less available. 

Getting creative when labour is in short supply

When our vineyard is in full production, we will no longer be able to harvest or prune everything ourselves. We will need help. I found this article about Britain's labour shortages post-Brexit quite interesting. Particularly the bit about people getting creative about what constitutes labour. At first, they were panicking about not being able to pick the crops in time. Then they started to think outside the norms. 

I especially found the idea of inviting neighbours and friends to help in exchange for a bottle of wine here and there quite lovely. You work the fields with your pals, you teach kids about growing things and harvesting, and you give them what they want - not money but the product. I love this idea. It could be the beginning of the cooperative winery concept. 

Our neighbours are all quite keen to learn something new and experience it first hand. We'll have to give it some thought. 

D-Day for Harvest

17 Sep 2021, grape harvest

Yesterday was harvest day. We celebrated Alex's mom's 88th birthday in the morning, then got to work in the vineyard in the afternoon. It took several hours of persistent snipping but we ended up with a laundry basket plus a tote basket full of red Rondo grapes and half a laundry basket full of white Solaris. That's far more than last year. 

There was very little indication of disease and almost no mould. The Solaris leaves are already turning yellow and dropping. The Rondo are still green. Many of the 4-year-old Solaris had at least one bunch of grapes and a few had multiple bunches of very sweet and tasty nuggets.

There was no indication of any grapes on the newest vines (Pinot Noir and Albarino) but there is one bunch on a Chardonnay vine that is not yet ready to sample. 

I sterilised the equipment when we finished picking. We then started de-stemming on the porch until a cold wind came and forced us indoors. It will take another day to destem the red grapes, but I managed to finish the white grapes last night. We even got a harvest moon rising in the evening. 

Now for the winemaking. 

Lovely bunch

Lazy helper

Some were not ready and will be picked later

Heavy load

Juicy little morsels

Filled the RTV

Not a bad harvest

Hanging CDs helped with the birds

Destemming is hard work