With early bud break, early flowering & fruit set, and early veraison, is it any surprise that the grapes are ready for harvest?  In fact, this is the earliest harvest this region has ever seen!

On August 26th we brought in a little over four tons of hand-picked Pinot Noir grapes for our sparkling program (Blanc de Noir & Brut Rosé).  The Blanc de Noir grapes are hand-sorted, destemmed and then immediately pressed to eliminate drawing out colors and flavors from extended skin contact.  The Brut Rosé is also hand-sorted, but we allow it to spend a little time on the skins to draw out some fresh strawberry and cherry components from the skins.  This year, we allowed the juice to be in contact with the skins for 20 hours before pressing.

Both styles of bubbles will ferment until dryness and then we will allow the wine to rest over the winter before bottling in the spring.  If the fermentation esters are any indicator of the flavors in the finished wine, these bottlings will be quite exciting - everything from candied strawberries to bananas, and fresh bowls of cherries.  I'm sure Susan is salivating as she passes by the tanks, so I'm quick to remind her that winemaking is about patience.

It has been way too long since my last post - but I have good reason.  Since the dramatic change in color with our Pinot Noir fruit, there has been an increase in the bird population on the property and much more pressure to get some netting out rather than get another diary post out.

So here is what has been going on:

Rolling Out The Nets

Once veraison started, it was time to minimize the damage to the fruit.  Birds of all types can contribute to a myriad of problems including higher disease pressure or turning a cluster to vinegar.  To avoid this, we have to protect the fruit:  especially red varieties, and especially those that ripen early such as Pinot Noir.  There are several different types of nets that can be deployed - nets that cover multiple rows, cover one row, or nets that cover the fruit zone.  We selected the type of nets that cover the fruit zone which will allow us to continue driving the tractor down the rows without issue.  Also, we will be able to simply roll up the netting and connect it to the trellis wire at the end of the season - so that in years to come, we can simply release the nets and drop them into place.

Leaf Removal In The Fruit Zone

Another critical step for the success of a tight cluster variety like Pinot Noir is the removal of leaves in the fruit zone.  This step allows for proper air drainage along with sunlight penetration to dry the fruit out more rapidly when we have either rain or morning dew.  However, we must be careful of the quantity of leaves removed along with the side of the canopy from which the leaves are pulled.  Typically, when rows run South to North, we would only want to remove leaves on the Eastern side of the row in order to avoid having the grapes be damaged with sunburn from the more intense afternoon sun.  Pictured is our assistant, Conor, removing the Eastern leaves from the fruit zone on the middle block of our vineyard.

Prepping For Harvest

There are a number of little things that need to be cleaned up, oiled up, and double checked to make sure they are still in working condition.  Most of our harvest equipment is used in a span of 6 weeks, so now is a good time to start cleaning out the cobwebs and testing it out.  It should only be a few weeks before the first fruit arrives so the pressure is on!

Pinot Noir Clusters 7/27/12

Pinot Noir Clusters 8/15/12

It looks like the Pinot vines are enjoying the season we are having - so much so that they decided to start going through veraison over the past couple of days.  The first vines to make this transition seem to be Clone 777 in all the blocks.

Veraison represents the transition from vine growth into berry development.  Thus, the vine (ideally) will slow down the growth of the shoots and begin accumulating sugars in the berries.  This is also a sign to others in the animal kingdom that the fruit is ripening and is much tastier than earlier samples.  Therefore, our next move over the next week will be to apply netting to the fruit zone of these vines to protect them from predators like birds, turkeys, and deer.

Normally in the Finger Lakes, veraison occurs a little later in August - so we were fairly surprised to stumble upon these clusters in the last couple of days.... Harvest will be just around the corner!

As summer progresses, we now have beautiful, full vineyard canopies.  The abundance of shoots and leaves provide the perfect cover to camouflage the a bird nest. Our lower block has been graced with the presence of two sets of robin nests which are each bearing two eggs. As a child, I was always reminded to let nature be unless it is negatively impacting you.

As you might imagine, having birds this close to the grapes could be a serious nuisance.    However, robins are not our greatest predator (starlings are quite another story!).

Later this season, we will put up netting in the fruit zone to protect the grapes from animal pressures. With the location of these nest, we would be "netting in" the robin family instead of keeping them out.

As a result, I have marked the locations of these nests and we will wait for the young birds to hatch and take flight before discarding the nests.

Next on the lineup in the vineyard:  shoot tucking, leaf removal, and weed removal.

Shoot Tucking:

Both sides of the trellis now have three catch wires for the shoots to climb up into the canopy. More frequently than not, the shoots miss the next catch wire and begin making their way into the row middles. It is our job to remedy the situation by "tucking" the shoots between the catch wires so they can continue to progress upward.  The longer you let them grow outside of the trellis, the worse it can get.  Thus, it is important to address this issue as soon as possible and as frequently as possible.

Leaf Removal:

Pinot Noir, a tightly clustered grape variety can be a bit more susceptible to disease pressure, especially after the normal rainfall that we receive in the Finger Lakes.  Thus, removing the leaves in the fruit zone is advantageous for better spray protection, better sunlight penetration to ripen and dry the fruit, and better air drainage to keep moisture accumulation to a minimum.

Weed Removal:

While we are working this close to the ground, we will also remove the weeds that would be competing for the same nutrients.  We don't use herbicides, so this is quite a manual process.  We want to eliminate them as quickly as possible - the longer we let the weeds go, the greater the chance that they would grow into the canopy and block out the fruit from the appropriate amount of sunlight.