In article ,
songbird wrote:

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.

can't they sell that off to the juice makers
anyways?

Juice is cheaper from Thompson seedless growers in the Central Valley.
These grapes cost $2 to $4 thousand/ton. Some wineries are experimenting
with "white Zinfandel" type wines, that don't require skin contact. To
be sure, no one is going to pour the separated juice down a drain.


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.

what? no, noble rot?
"Noble Rot" has specific requirements including very warm, dry days, and
grapes that haven't cracked. Once they crack, you are looking at "common
rot".



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".



feast or famine farming...
Wineries are having problems of not enough work for their pickers, and
cellar crews to keep them busy. They can't afford to let them go,
because they may lose them for when they need them.


songbird

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