Happy Wednesday,
We are at the tail end of what has been our second heat event this growing season. The weather has bumped sugars up a bit and quickened the ripening process. Many of the skins still have a chalky grittiness to them but I’ve noticed that the green flavors have disappeared from all of the different blocks that we bring in for Round Pond wine. Now is the time of year when I am in the vineyard everyday checking to make sure all of the fruit remains sound as well as tasting for flavor development which will trigger my decision to pick.
Today we harvested our first lots of Nebbiolo and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Nebbiolo got hit pretty hard by the first heat event earlier in the season and as such we lost a significant portion of the crop. The fruit that made it to the winery this morning does look good and although we will have a smaller volume of wine I think that what we do make will be pretty tasty.
The crew is performing a selective pick in the Cabernet block this morning. I’m having the guys harvest only part of the fruit off of each vine. Their instructions are to pick any clusters with dimpling berries or any signs of sunburn. What they are leaving behind are visually perfect clusters. I am doing this because the clusters that are starting to dimple are finished ripening and will only dehydrate from this point forward so they are as good as they will ever get. If I let them dry on the vine any longer then we will have “pruney” flavored wine which I find unappealing. The fruit that I left on the vine will have longer to ripen and the vine now has fewer clusters, so more of the vine’s energy will be focused on those clusters that are still hanging. I’m hoping that the longer hang time will translate into some Reserve quality wine.
Cheers,
Brian Brown
Winemaker
No comments:
Post a Comment