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Today, amidst wildly changeable weather, we started the winemaking process. The Solaris grapes went into the destemmer/crusher first. Then, the must went into the hydropress for juicing. The sugar content is ideal with a Brix of 21.7 (SG 1.090). I mixed the yeast with nutrient and distilled water to wake it up. Alex poured the the yeast mixture into the juice and poured it into demijohns. We had about 6 litres of juice.
Next, the Rondo went through the destemmer/Crusher, which worked brilliantly this time. I prepared the yeast similarly, enough for about 15 litres of must. The must went into a vat with the yeast. The Brix of the must is 20.1 (SG 1.085). We were shooting for between 20 and 24.
I am disappointed by the yield this year. I expected much more. But the Solaris succumbed to poor set and Botrytis, while the Rondo suffered from mildew, and we discarded probably about 1/4 or more of the grapes. Interestingly, the new Rondo did not contract the downy mildew. We'll have to see what happens next year.
It was raining this morning when we awoke, making the remaining harvest slightly problematic. But at 10 am, just after we finished up breakfast, the sun shone brightly and we were up and away into the vineyard, raincoats ready. As we finished up around noon, the skies opened up, and minutes later, the promised gale blew in. It is now gusting over 40 knots. Harvest complete in the nick of time.
The extremely high tides dumped seaweed on the road, which Alex delivered to the vineyard as the first load of fertiliser for the winter. It will decompose and provide slow-release nutrients to the vines. Seaweed, Ascophyllum nodosum, provides the following essential elements:
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It was our first dry, sunny day in ages. We were out in the vineyard at 10:30, just after the Dvorskyi left, having removed our flyscreen to accommodate the replacement of the doors later this week. We picked Solaris first until 2:00, stopping for a quick lunch outdoors. We then continued to finish the Solaris and onto the Rondo. We didn't quite finish the Rondo, have 1.5 vines to complete in the morning. It will be drizzling in the morning, but that's okay.
So what does our harvest look like? We had a relatively small yield of Solaris given the number of vines and their maturity. There were two issues. The first is missing grapes on many of the bunches, the second is a mild case of Botrytis. Missing grapes on a bunch are often caused by poor pollination due to weather, or a condition called "hens and chicks", where some berries are small and undeveloped. Other reasons include pest infestations, insufficient sunlight, excessive nitrogen fertiliser, improper pruning, and nutrient deficiencies, such as magnesium deficiency. I know we have magnesium deficient soil, so we'll work on correcting that.
The Botrytis, is a different story. Botrytis, or grey mold, is a fungal disease that affects grapes, causing yield loss and poor quality. It appears as a grey, moldy rot on infected berries and stems, but can also result in "Noble Rot" if the conditions are specific. Noble rot increases the flavour of the grape, and the grapes that were turning brown tasted amazing! It wasn't that serious and we removed some of the worst grapes, but we will see how the wine turns out this year. Our yield was certainly better than last year, with at least two bushels picked.
The Rondo, unfortunately, was pretty seriously affected by powdery mildew, which took its toll in the last week. We had to pick out a lot of grapes that shrivelled into hard nodules. We will have about a bushel and a half of Rondo.
Two extraordinary findings were noted: 1) two separate bird nests were spotted in the vines, and 2) the new Rondo vines produced grapes that did not have powdery mildew. We also noted that the kites were definitely protecting the vineyard. Our carefully conducted experiment (BS), in which we bagged some of the Rondo clusters and left some of them unbagged, showed that the unbagged grape clusters were still intact. Ergo, the bags are surplus to requirements from now on, yippee! Too much work. They also produced several bags with slugs, multiple bags with mosquitoes, and multiple bags with flies. Curiously, there were no bees in the vineyard, and the few wasps were on the exposed red grapes, not on the white. Empiric observation. Not valid.
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| Standing by the baby Rondo with its grape cluster. |
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| Baby Rondo vine yield in the first year |
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| Solaris |
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| Alex picking |
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| A bird's nest - there were lots of grapes around it. |
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| One of the pretty Solaris clusters |
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| Hens and chicks |
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| Another bird nest |
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| Rondo yield, with 1.5 vines still to pick. |
The US Federal Report on alcohol consumption has been withdrawn. Whereas the report stated that no amount of alcohol consumption is safe, the new guidelines will side with industry in that moderate consumption is better for us than no consumption. My my. The teetotaler President and his MAHA healthcare conspiracy theorist have sided with industry. Who would have guessed?
Alex had a chance to sample grapes yesterday. These are his Brix readings:
Rondo
