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