I live about 20 miles northeast of Baltimore, Maryland. We had record
cold and snow last winter and record heat with little rain this
summer, a very abnormal year for weather in every regard.

When I was out in the vineyard this evening, I noticed that the
Marechal Foch grapes were fairly along in the ripening process. I
thought this was unusual for July 28, so I checked my wine log from
last year and found that I harvested the Foch grapes on August 30 last
year. It will probably take them another couple of weeks to ripen
fully, but it still seems rather early.

Only the Foch are ripening; the Concords are still hard and green.

Any ideas of what's going on? Anyone have a similar situation in their
vineyards?


Paul

In article
,
Pavel314 wrote:

I live about 20 miles northeast of Baltimore, Maryland. We had record
cold and snow last winter and record heat with little rain this
summer, a very abnormal year for weather in every regard.

When I was out in the vineyard this evening, I noticed that the
Marechal Foch grapes were fairly along in the ripening process. I
thought this was unusual for July 28, so I checked my wine log from
last year and found that I harvested the Foch grapes on August 30 last
year. It will probably take them another couple of weeks to ripen
fully, but it still seems rather early.

Only the Foch are ripening; the Concords are still hard and green.

Any ideas of what's going on? Anyone have a similar situation in their
vineyards?


Paul

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article...29523/1033/new
s?Title=Grape-harvest-lagging
Cool summer has vintners fretting about late harvest
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/2/maude
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/2...al_crime_scene

Grapes need full sunlight and high temperatures to ripen. Marechal Foch is a vigorous, early-ripening variety, with good winter hardiness. This French hybrid grape is the most widely grown variety in Minnesota and has frequently produced some good quality red wines and Foch is one of the hardiest French hybrids.

These were really great information given by you, I personally like all these information, well according to my point of view, I think that Marechal Foch (pronounced "mar-esh-shall-fosh"), is an inter-specific hybrid red wine grape variety. The quality of wine produced by Marechal Foch vines is highly dependent upon vine age, and the flavor profile associated with many new-world.