Tuesday, November 19, 2024

2022 Clos Des Rochers Pinot Blanc

We have been toying with the idea of having a tasting of Auxerrois from various locations to have along side the Auxerrois that we make. The original reason we planted Auxerrois was because of the Clos de Rochers Auxerrois that we tasted many years ago. My husband looked on the internet and though it was difficult to find, the Clos de Rochers Auxerrois was being offered by Yankee Spirits! Not only that, they had a store in Swansea, MA that was close enough to us to make it a morning drive.
It's been quite a while since we ventured more than 15 miles away from where we live. It was a very pleasant drive and we got to our destination, Yankee Spirits. We looked around at what they had and saw this 2022 Clos Des Rochers Pinot Blanc. We were intrigued and purchased it.
On Saturday, we opened it up and it was delightful! Easy to drink and went with the Greek cheese pies (tiropita) that was our appetizer. Now, I am anxious to try the Clos Des Rochers Auxerrois, to see if it is still as delicious as when we first tasted it! When we do, I will blog about it!

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Vintage 2024: Recap of the Year -- Part 2

A few days ago, I wrote the Part 1 of Vintage 2024: Recap of the Year and today, I am following it up by updating the 2019-2024 harvest numbers for our varieties:
Auxerrois
Auxerrois Harvest Date Weight/
Lbs
Volume
of Juice/
Gallons
Brix pH TA
2019 September 23, 2019 636 50 19.6 3.23 7.35 g/L
2020 September 27, 2020 1670 133 19.0 3.07 7.5 g/L
2021 September 28, 2021 1638 130 18.0 3.25 7.2 g/L
2022 September 25, 2022 3097 248 20.0 3.16 7.1 g/L
2023 October 1, 2023 500 40 18.8 3.36 6.5 g/L
2024 September 29, 2024 1695 135 19.0 3.5 6.6 g/L
Chenin Blanc
Chenin Blanc Harvest Date Weight/
Lbs
Volume
of Juice/
Gallons
Brix pH TA
2019 October 14, 2019 3920 305 21.6 3.15 13.5 g/L
2020 October 11, 2020 8201 655 23.3 3.09 12.1 g/L
2021 October 17-18, 2021 6200 496 20.4 3.17 14.6 g/L
2022 October 16-17, 2022 4901 392 21.0 3.07 8.9 g/L
2023 October 22, 2023 1410 120 20.0 3.05 8.7 g/L
2024 October 20, 2024
October 27, 2024
1980
1875
160
150
20.5
21.5
3.15
3.18
9.5 g/L
9.8 g/L
Chardonnay
Chardonnay Harvest Date Weight/
Lbs
Volume
of Juice/
Gallons
Brix pH TA
2019 September 28, 2019 291 26 21.5 3.17 9.4 g/L
2020 September 24, 2020 1136 80 23.5 3.0 10 g/L
2021 October 3, 2020 2625 210 20.4 3.28 8.2 g/L
2022 October 2, 2022 2306 185 22.5 3.11 8-11 g/L
2023 October 5, 2023 500 40 18.8 3.4 10.0 g/L
2024 September 29, 2024 1562 125 20.4 3.41 9.8 g/L
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet
Sauvignon
Harvest Date Weight/
Lbs
Volume
of Juice/
Gallons
Brix pH TA
2019 November 3, 2019 332 30 19.0 3.25 11.1 g/L
2020 October 22, 2020 888 80 22.4 3.08 10.7 g/L
2021 October 24, 2021 561 45 20.1 3.07 10.4 g/L
2022 October 21, 2022 1300 104 21.0 3.26 NA
2023 October 31, 2023 369 30 18.8 3.15 10.4 g/L
2024 October 31, 2024 80 6.4 23.0 3.26 10.4 g/L
Cabernet Franc
Cabernet
Franc
Harvest Date Weight/
Lbs
Volume
of Juice/
Gallons
Brix pH TA
2019 October 26, 2019 377 32 23.0 3.23 11.3 g/L
2020 October 22, 2020 872 80 23.3 3.27 11.3 g/L
2021 October 24, 2021 402 32 19.8 3.2 7.4 g/L
2022 October 21, 2022 1200 96 22.0 3.27 NA
2023 October 31, 2023 369 30 20.4 3.24 7.9 g/L
2024 October 31, 2024 250 20 25.0 3.5 8.2 g/L
Barbera
Barbera Harvest Date Weight/
Lbs
Volume
of Juice/
Gallons
Brix pH TA
2022 October 21, 2022 600 48 22.5 3.0 NA
2024 October 31, 2024 40 3.2 23.4 3.16 19.9 g/L
We have been having some beautiful weather so we have been taking in our clothes pins, rolling up the netting and dropping the net to the irrigation wire and attaching it with the Velcro. We hope to get more work in the vineyard done before the cold weather sets in.
We are also talking about what we can do better next year, given that we were not able to keep the downy mildew off of our leaves. In our retrospective analysis, my husband thinks that we need a sprayer with a fan to get better coverage on the leaves. I think that we need to aggressively bud thin as soon as the buds appear. This way, we are getting rid of the primary, secondary and tertiary buds when we remove a bud.
Now it is a waiting game for the 2025 vintage!

Thursday, November 7, 2024

Vintage 2024: Recap of the Year

The red varieties were harvested on Halloween and are now fermenting in our winery space. We go there twice a day to do the daily punch downs. It's a good time to review what the 2024 season was like.
We had the third wettest January on record here in Connecticut. Typically, January and February is a time when we can exhale and catch up on the many things that we kicked down the road.
We began pruning duties in early March when the weather was amenable enough for us to go outdoors. Pruning begins with the removal of Agfast, the black ties that hold the shoots in place. There are literally thousands of Agfast in the vineyard. Next we cut the wire that holds the fruiting cane to the fruiting wire and then begin cutting the tops of the canes in preparation for selecting the two canes that will be laid down this year as the fruiting cane. At the same time that the fruiting canes are selected and cut, they can be tied to the fruiting wire. The cut canes are neatly piled at each line post which makes it easier to remove from the vineyard with our expedition sled.
April brought the beginning of budbreak in the vineyard with the Chardonnay being the first to bud. This year, during March and April, we lowered the bird netting to the level of the irrigation hose and secured the netting with Velcro at each trellis wire. This was an immeasurable time saver as the canopy grew.
We had bud swell in all of our varieties at the end of April and the beginning of May. During May, we begin disbudding the excess buds that were on the fruiting cane and never quite made it through all the varieties before disbudding turned to shoot thinning.
In June, we shoot thinned our vines, going as fast as we could, but not fast enough before the shoots reached the top of the trellis wire and we knew that it was time to hedge. During summer, we had an abundance of rain as well as good weather, leading to the shoots reaching the top trellis wire in record time and becoming unmanageable.
July is frenetic: shoot tuck, hedge, mow, cut overhanging shoots, spray, rinse and repeat!
It seemed that we were going to escape the wet weather without the curse of downy mildew on our leaves, but the beginning of August brought the mildew, first to our Chardonnay and then to our red varieties to the east. West of the Chardonnay, the Auxerrois and the Chenin Blanc didn't seem to be that affected with downy and managed to keep their leaves to ripen the grapes. During the second week in August, we began unfurling our nets to protect the ripening grapes beginning in the Auxerrois and Chardonnay.
September brought more netting activities which was made very easy by the fact that since the netting was lowered to the level of the irrigation hose, we did not have the problem of removing the tendrils from the netting that we had before when we left the net in the developing canopy.
Our first harvest of Auxerrois and Chardonnay occurred on September 29. Our friends managed to harvest 13 rows of grapes by lunch time! We were able to take the harvest to Stonington Vineyards on Monday where Mike and his crew pressed the grapes for us. We did bring the pressed juice back to our Taugwonk facility where we racked the juice from the heavy lees and began fermentation.
Our next harvest was our Chenin Blanc which we split into two harvest dates, the first on October 20 and the second on October 27. Both harvests were done before 11! Once again, the grapes were taken to Stonington Vineyards, Mike and his crew helped with the pressing. We brought the juice back to Taugwonk where it was settled, racked and inoculated to begin fermentation. On Halloween, a few of our friends came to harvest 5 rows of red grapes which we brought back to Taugwonk on the same day and our friends foot stomped the grapes for us.
And now we are here! November!

Saturday, November 2, 2024

Happy Halloween Harvest

Our penultimate harvest occurred on Halloween! We had a skeleton crew of friends that came to help us harvest our red varieties. Since the red harvest was a small one and there were only 5 rows, we were confident that our friends would rise to the challenge. We began taking in the clothespins around 8:30 and the nets were raised. The crew was divided between the two rows of Cabernet Sauvignon and the one row of Barbera which we harvested, working from the south end to the north end. Once at the north end, the Cabernet Sauvignon (16 lugs) and Barbera (2 lugs) were loaded on to our truck and we worked our way from the north end to the south end harvesting Cabernet Franc (28 lugs). This harvest with our crew was done at 11!
A smaller group headed to our Taugwonk facility where we set up to stomp the harvest. The Cabernet Franc grapes went into a large tub, the one we used when we had our first harvests of Chenin Blanc. Mary showed Geoff and Bob how we put on the food grade plastic booties, got into the tub and stomped away!
Our first volunteer was Bob, who got bootied up and went into the Cabernet Franc to stomp! After doing a bit of stomping in the Cabernet Franc, he ceded his duty to Geoff and got into the gray tub with the small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon and Barbera.
It was now Geoff's turn and he did a great job of getting the juice out of the Cabernet Franc!
Here is photo of what the stomping looked like on a beautiful, Halloween day. After the stomping was done, we took some of the juice and took a hydrometer reading. We also sampled the juice and the Cabernet Franc at 25 degrees Brix was the sweetest grape juice ever!
Variety Weight Volume
of Juice
Brix pH TA
Cabernet Sauvignon - Barbera Mix 120 lbs 9.6 gal 22.0 3.3 9.90 g/L
Cabernet Fanc 250 lbs 20 gal 25.0 3.5 8.20 g/L
Once again, a big thank you to everyone who came out to help us with our red harvest. Halloween was indeed a happy one for us and not scary at all!