Time for harvest

 

The Brix reading for the Rondo clusters tested ranged from 19 to 22, with 20 being ideal for reds. It will be time to harvest in the next day or so. We'll end up with two harvests again as some of the bunches have not started turning yet. 

The Solaris tested at 15 so it has a way to go. The Chardonnay is not close yet but the Pint Noir has started veraison. Very interesting. The leaves on the vines are turning brown and dropping as the heat and lack of rain continue. 

We are tracking hurricanes, Danielle and Earl, in fear of potential arrival here this coming weekend and next. Danielle has just been downgraded to a tropical storm but two new depressions have formed off the Cape Verdes with a high likelihood of strengthening. 

Chardonnay

Solaris

Solaris

Pinot Noir

TS Danielle and Hurricane Earl

Social Media

I finally managed to get the account up on Instagram. I really should have had a ten-year-old do it. Would have been much faster and easier and done professionally. It took me the entire morning and lots of revisions. I almost deleted the account and started over, but it would take a month for it to be deleted. So I persevered. 

This is a QR code that will get you to the page easily they say. First I need to populate it with content. And I cannot get dlvr.it to work. Pshaw!

Climbing high for climate change

The new vineyard in Sant Sebastià dels Gorgs, Spain. Credit: Gemma Sànchez

An interesting article in Decanter profiles a vine nursery in Spain that is growing grape varietals grafted onto tall rootstock vines to elevate them high off the ground. It looks to like they form palm-tree-like tall vines. The article also talks about the overhead trellises used in Galicia. 

They claim that the roots of any vine top out at 37 cm. This newly planted unique vineyard has trunks at 80cm in height. They claim many benefits including: ‘…better resistance to drought, faster forming of the vines in trellises, keeping fruit away from animals that would eat it, not needing trunk protectors when cleaning up vegetative growth and eliminating excess secondary shoots.’

In earlier experiments, they found that height did indeed make a difference with 90cm vines pushing out maturation by four days over those at 60cm. They also have lower planting density. We've done all this by instinct. How curious! 

I would think that taller vines would lead to deeper roots and less need for water, more resilience to drought. As they have just planted the vineyard in 2022, it will be a few years before we see the real results in yield and quality. We'll have to see. 

Carbon footprint of winemaking

 

Source: https://www.decanter.com/magazine/climate-change-rethinking-your-drinking-467605/

Viticulture is not always an environmentally friendly proposition. There’s been more focus recently on making wine production less energy intensive, sustainable and environmentally responsible. There has been a movement to reduce fuel, water and nutrient consumption in the vineyard by introducing sustainable biodynamic practices. In the winery, efforts are underway to reduce fuel and electricity consumption, to find more environmentally friendly packaging, and improve the carbon footprint of transport.

Glass bottles are heavy, take a lot of energy to produce and use a lot a fuel to transport. They are also not recycled or reused as often as they should be. So, many people are looking at alternatives, including natural fibers like hemp, corrugated and paper with food-safe PET liners. That doesn't sound terribly good for the environment either. Yes, they are much lighter than glass and would save a lot of costs on transport. 

Garçon Wines’ Eco Flat bottle is made from recycled PET and their Flaca wine is shipped in a box that is shaped to fit in a letterbox for gift giving. Seems like a lot of waste to me, but at least it's all recyclable. 

My goal will be to make our wine bottles fully reusable, with labels that can be very easily removed. In fact, our production will be small enough to remain local so that we don't ship far and wide, we promote the local economy, and customers return the bottle to our site for refill. Kind of like milk bottles were in my childhood. I like that idea. Of course, it has to be good wine for customers to come back. 

Hens and chicks in the vineyard

I found this fun fact when I was searching for information about keeping hens in the vineyard to minimize weeds and pests. It was a different type of hens and chicks I learned about. 

I thought hens and chicks (large and small grapes on the same cluster) were problematic but apparently with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and perhaps some other varieties, they are actually a benefit. Pisoni Vineyards says the higher ratio of skin to juice adds to the flavour. You learn something every day. 

But back to hens, it's all about sustainability. Some sustainable winegrowers employ chickens to graze on cover crops, insects and worms while helping to fertilize the soil. It's interesting that one farmer keeps them out of the vineyard in the Autumn so they don't eat all the grapes. It's even more interesting that chickens in the vineyard will take care of vine weevils. That's sustainability. 

So it's either Dexter cattle and hens or Alpacas and hens. I'm leaning toward the Alpacas. 

I've just found a wheely henhouse that can be rolled around the vineyard. Cool. And it's on sale. You can just lift it up and roll it to a new spot every few days. I think that would be the beez nees. 

Brix at 19!

The Rondo is getting close to harvest. The grape juice Brix tested at 19 today so the sugar content is almost there. My pH measuring device has arrived, but I didn't measure that yet. I will in the next two days. Alex hung CDs in the vineyard today to ward off the grape-thieving birds.

We had fog yesterday morning and heavy rain overnight. We have weather advisories in place for thunderstorms, and we had thunder yesterday evening but I did not see lightning. Weather conditions conducive to the spread of potato blight will develop in many areas Tuesday through to Thursday (September 6th to 8th). I suppose that means the grape crop can be affected as well. 

The apple crop this year is the best we've ever had. Pressing apple juice will be a priority for this week. So far I've made apple concentrate from the early fallen apples -- delicious, crabapple and rose hip jelly, and apple sauce. I made tomato sauce and tomato soup and need to make more sauce. The blackberries are ripe and blackberry jam will be in the making. But I need to find time to make lots of apple stuff. Plyatsok is next on the list.  But the eating apples off the big tree are the best apples I've ever eaten; their skin is dark red in colour. Beautiful!

Not the same old

It seems that grape farmers are experimenting with new techniques. Take this Napa Valley grower who stacks red wine grapevines over white vines to provide shade for the lower tier. It seems that white grapes are susceptible to sunburn and the red vines produce shade. It's one way of tackling climate change. 

The next thing you know, growing them on overhead trellises will become commonplace. 

By the way, it has finally cooled down and is raining here today. The earth sighs.