In 2022, our red varieties were coming mature enough to give us a fair amount of fruit to harvest. The cabernet sauvignon came in at around 1300 pounds, the cabernet franc at 1200 pounds and the barbera at 600 pounds.
In 2022 we were able to make a barrel of cabernet sauvignon, a barrel of cabernet franc and a red blend of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and barbera. There was still a little barbera left after making the blend.
We sent the wines to be tested for alcohol level and had a bit left to fill a half bottle of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and barbera.
Recently, we brought out the barbera so that we could taste it. This wine has not been filtered or fined and the color was a clear garnet in the glass. The aromas were muted but the flavor was one of cranberries and sour cherries. It paired perfectly with the classic Margarita pizza that we ordered from one of our favorite pizza places, The Back Door in the Velvet Mill.
Barbera is not a grape that has a lot of phenolics, but it does have a lot of acid. The sugars in the barbera accumulate quickly so that it offsets the acid. Our 2022 barbera had these numbers:
Variety
Harvest Date
Brix
pH
TA g/L
Lbs
Gals
Barbera
10/21/2022
22.5
3.00
10.0
~600
48
We are hoping to bottle this barbera in the coming days. Stay tuned for an email from Passionfruit Estates annoucing the release of this 2022 barbera!
We still have one more harvest to go. It is our late harvest noble rot chenin blanc. We bagged half a row of chenin blanc on October 16 with organza wedding bags and to ensure that the bagged grapes are further protected, we enclosed the bagged grapes in netting. We have been doing this since 2019 when we found out that conditions on our land are conducive to producing noble rot during the fall.
We have two clones of chenin blanc in our vineyard. Only one of our two clones of chenin blanc will be affected with the noble rot. Clone 982, which is an ENTAV clone from France is the one that the Botrytis cinerea infects and not clone FPS-1.
We have been monitoring the sugar levels in the grapes and as of yesterday, November 21, the Brix is a 29 degrees. A comparison of the grapes from November 1 and November 21 shows that the grapes are coming along:
This year, we have been having a problem with some wild animal, most likely raccoons that have been bold enough to make their way into the netting and eating the bagged grapes. On November 1, we came to the vineyard to check on the grapes and found empty bags littering the ground.
Besides raccoons, there may yet be another wild animal eating our grapes. This time, the bags are just gnawed at and left still hanging on the vine.
So, at this point, it is a race between sugar accumulation and wild animal devastation!
A few nights ago, we had our friends over for dinner. Our friends also have a vineyard in East Haddam and they loaned us their crusher/destemmer to destem our red harvest. My husband made his stuffed pork chops and we had side dishes of wild rice and green beans almondine.
To pair with the meal, my husband descended to his cellar and brought up this 1999 Cristom Pinot Noir from the Marjorie Vineyard. The pairing was perfect and we had a wonderful evening. I think that this is the highest calling of wine: a great pairing with food leading to a very memoriable evening with good friends.
Their label was interesting to me. On the back was a map showing the location of Marjorie vineyard where the grapes for this wine came from.
I wanted to learn more about Cristom and went to their website. Cristom Vineyards is located in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. It was established in 1992 by the Gerrie family and has been family-owned for over thirty years.
Here is an interesting factoid: the name 'Cristom' was chosen by Paul Gerrie to honor his children Christine and Tom. The crest on the front of the label was created by the artist, Timothy Tyler and reflects the various items and activities cherished by Paul Gerrie. They farm 90 acres of vines using biodynamic and organic principles.
They consider themselves to be stewards of their east-facing volcanic hillside in the Eola-Amity Hills focused on growing benchmark Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Shortly after we had the Cristom, my husband and I chanced upon this film from Oregon Public TV showing how Oregon became famous for their Pinot Noir. The documentary was very interesting and watching it reminded us of the time that we went to the International Pinot Noir Conference in McMinnville in 2006.
Here is a link to the documentary that we watched:
It was very interesting to us to see how the early grape growers and winemakers in Oregon banded together to make Oregon Pinot noir and Chardonnay world renown! Which lead me to ask my husband "How many more Cristoms do we have?" He said "none!"
We have always been keeping track of our harvest statistics. This lets us compare when we harvested our various grape varieties and how the various harvest numbers were relative to each other.
The 2019 vintage was the first vintage where we had enough fruit to make our wines at Jonathan Edwards with the help of Jon and his crew.
The 2019 vintage is also the first vintage that we were able to sell because it was made at a bonded winery. We were able to get our own winery space in 2022 and were able to bring our wines from Jon's winery to ours in 2022.
Here is a tabulation of the 2019-2025 vintages:
Variety
Harvest Date
Brix
pH
TA g/L
Lbs
Gals
Auxerrois
9/23/2019
19.6
3.23
7.35
636
50
9/17/2020
19.0
3.07
7.5
1670
133
9/28/2021
18.0
3.25
7.5
1638
130
9/25/2022
20.0
3.16
7.1
3097
248
10/2/2023
18.6
3.4
5.6
~500
~40
9/29/2024
19.0
3.5
6.6
1695
135
9/21/2025
21.0
3.24
5.3
1950
160
Chenin Blanc
10/14/2019
21.6
3.15
13.5
3930
305
10/11/2020
23.3
3.09
12.1
8201
655
10/17-18/2021
20.4
3.17
14.6
6200
496
10/16-17/2022
21.0
3.07
8.9
4901
392
10/22/2023
20.0
3.05
8.7
1410
120
10/20/2024 10/27/2024
20.5 21.5
3.15 3.18
9.5 9.8
1980 1760
160 150
10/10/2025 10/19/2025
23.0 24.0
3.02 3.05
8.90 8.1
4375 2125
350 170
Chardonnay
9/28/2019
21.5
3.17
9.4
291
26
9/24/2020
23.5
3.0
10.0
1136
80
10/3/2021
20.4
3.28
8.2
2625
210
10/2/2022
22.5
3.05 - 3.11
7.5 - 8.9
2306
185
10/5/2023
18.8
3.4
9.9
~500
~40
9/29/2024
20.4
3.41
9.8
1562
125
9/28/2025
22.0
3.2
8.0
1950
156
Cabernet Sauvignon
11/3/2019
19
3.25
11.1
332
30
10/22/2020
22.4
3.08
10.7
888
80
10/24/2021
20.1
3.07
10.4
561
45
10/21/2022
21.0
3.26
7.9
~1300
104
10/31/2023
18.8
3.15
10.4
369
30
10/31/2024
22.0
3.30
9.9
120
9.6
10/24/2025
23.0
3.13
7.8
225
18
Cabernet Franc
10/26/2019
23
3.23
11.3
377
32
10/22/2020
23.3
3.27
11.3
872
80
10/24/2021
19.8
3.20
7.4
402
32
10/21/2022
22.0
3.27
6.3
~1200
96
10/31/2023
20.4
3.24
7.9
287
23
10/31/2024
25.0
3.50
8.2
250
20
10/26/2025
25.0
3.16
6.7
300
24
Barbera
10/21/2022
22.5
3.00
10.0
~600
48
10/31/2024
23.4
3.16
19.7
NA
NA
10/26/2025
25.5
3.00
10.2
200
16
The year-by-year comparison is helpful because it let's us understand how the current vintage compares with the other vintages and how the year itself affected the numbers that we monitor such as the Brix, pH and titratable acids. It is also a reflection on how many pounds were were able to harvest which gives us a mental reminder of how the weather conditions affected the harvest.
