On Monday, September 24, 2012 12:02:11 PM UTC-4, Billy wrote:
It is an odd grape harvest, here in Sonoma County, this year. Vineyards are producing large grapes, and large clusters. The flavors being in the skin, some wineries are "bleeding off" some of the juice to increase the skin to juice ratio, and concentrate the flavor. Unlike recent years, nature has been mild this year. There haven't been any heatwaves to burn the grapes, or rain to dilute their sugar, and set mildew. Sugars aren't going up very fast, but the acidity is plunging. The acidity is important for the fruitiness of the wine, and the suppression of some micro-organisms during fermentation. We probably will be using a lot of tartaric acid this year. The long hang time (more than 100 days) for the grapes is good for developing flavor, but because of a number of foggy mornings, and the large size of the grapes we are at risk of an outbreak of powdery mildew, which would be a disaster for those grapes still in the vineyards. For us workers, this season, with its slow ripening means that we aren't being confronted with large amounts of grapes to process in a short time, and the grapes are coming in at a leisurely pace, which has cut into our overtime. All this could change with the arrival of storm clouds, but so far there are none on the horizon. If rain does start to come soon, everyone will try to save their harvest by picking everything that they can, and we will return to our normal "bedlam". -- Welcome to the New America. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg or E Pluribus Unum Green Party Nominee Jill Stein & Running Mate, Cheri Honkala http://www.democracynow.org/2012/7/13/green_party_nominee_jill_stein_running

Nice report. Years ago I was in the South Land in September when harvest was coming in. I recall a bad raisin problem due to rain as apparently grapes are sun dried on paper and rain can splash dirt on them. I also recall seeing large trucks full of grapes.