Vintage 2026: Auxerrois Harvest

Harvest time is the culmination of months of work in the vineyard. We sent out a call to our harvesters that Sunday, October 4 would be our first harvest, the Auxerrois.
Mother Nature however was having the last word by threatening rainy conditions on Sunday. When Sunday arrived, the weather cooperated and we began the first order of business which is to raise the nets to the trellis wire by using the clothes pins that secured the nets. We began around 8:30 and by 9:30, all 5 rows of Auxerrois were ready for harvest. Our crew began at the north end of the vineyard, working to the south end where the truck was park to unload the first of the filled lugs.

Our friends, Mary and Barry harvested the entire first row of Auxerrois by themselves! The rest of us concentrated our efforts on the other 4 rows. It was a little slow going because the Auxerrois had patches of bad berries that our friends assiduously removed. We typically work 2 rows at a time so the second pass allowed us to harvest the entire crop and with the help of many hands, all the lugs were secured in the truck.

We took a lunch break where our friends were able to catch up with each other about what's been going on since the last harvest. It is always a fun time! As part of the lunch, we served a taste of the wine from the grape we harvest and this year we shared the 2020 Auxerrois which we designated as part of an Ali'i Series indicating that the 2020 vintage was an exceptional year.

The following morning, we took the harvest to Stonington Vineyards, where Mike, Jim and Dakota were there to help us unload the lugs into their press and begin the process of extracting the juice. The entire press cycle took 2-1/2 hours. During that time, we wash the lugs and transfer the juice into the IBC tank that we use to transport the juice back to our winery which is only about 5 miles away from Stonington Vineyards. We took a sample of the juice in order to get the Brix by hydrometer and noted that we had about 170 gallons of juice. My husband thought that the juice smelled like bruised apples.

Variety	Harvest Date	Brix	pH	TA g/L	Lbs	Gals
Auxerrois	October 4, 2026	19.5	3.37	7.7 g/L	2,125	170

The above table summarizes the statistics for the 2026 Auxerrois harvest.
We want to thank all of our friends who came to help us harvest the Auxerrois and to Mike, Jim and Dakota who always make pressing at Stonington Vineyards a smooth operation!

Vintage 2026: Weather Update

It has been a very rainy summer which is continuing into the fall. This is not something that vineyardists want to see during harvest season. The rain has delayed ripening of some grapes and caused some grapes to split in area vineyards.
Mother Nature is still not done with rain since we are currently under a high wind and rain watch this weekend due to the nor'easter spinning in our area. The rain began on Friday, September 25 and is not expected to end until Monday, September 28th.
Before the rains came, my husband and I were able to unfurl the last of our nets on our vines and secure it with clothes pins. During the clothes pinning I came across this mushroom growing on one of our grapevine trunks. Good news, bad news. My husband and I concur that it looks like an oyster mushroom. Unfortunately, if an oyster mushroom grows on a living trunk, it is an indication of internal rot or that part of the tree is dying. After taking the photo I learned that I should look at the gills of the mushroom to get a proper ID. Oyster mushrooms have gills that run partially down the stem. I need to go and check this out when the sun comes out which we are hoping will be soon!

References:
1. Davey: Proven Solutions for a Growing World.
2. Mushroomn Appreciation.

We Spotted our First Spotted Lanternfly in our Vineyard

An article came out in the Hartford Courant on September 7 about the spotted lanternfly and I was going to blog about it and then we saw our first spotted lanternfly in our vineyard.

We've been hearing from customers that come into our winery that they have had spotted lanternfly where they live in Connecticut. One person from Norwich said that she catches the spotted lanternflies with a vacuum cleaner and then uses soapy water to kill them. We had another customer recently whose daughter got married in New Haven. Their wedding venue had spotted lanternfly and one landed on the bride's gown!
The spotted lanternfly is native to China and East Asia. The first occurence of the spotted lanternfly was in Pennsylvannia in 2014. The preferred host of the spotted lanternfly is the tree of heaven where the insect feeds on the sap of the tree of heaven. In the United States, they feed on the sap of more than 70 plant species, especially grape vines. Since the spotted lanternfly is not native to the United States, there is no known predator but wasps such as the yellow jacket like to eat the spotted lanternflies. Praying mantis will also feed on them and birds will occasionally eat them although they don’t taste great to birds.
A few days have passed since I started writing this blogpost. We have been busy in the vineyard racing to get our nets unfurled over all of our rows of grapes. We are finally seeing the end of this task. Today, while working in the vineyard. my husband spotted a jumping spider feeding on a spotted lanternfly. He called me over to take a look and we both took pictures, while trying not to disturb the spider. Here are pictures of what we saw:

It turns out that the jumping spider is a very good thing to have in the vineyard. Almost 10 years ago, in 2017, I blogged about a close encounter that I had with a jumping spider. The jumping spider, has four pairs of eyes, chelicerae, or "jaws", which in the case of the jumping spider contains venom. The venom is injected into it's prey and once immobilized, the spider feasts on the insides of it's prey. I believe that we were witnessing this jumping spider feeding on it's prey. While we really wanted to take a video, we let the spider feast in the privacy and comfort of the grape canopy!
References:
1. Stephen Underwood and Kaitlyn Keegan, "Spotted lanternflies are cause for concern for CT vineyard owners. Here’s how they’re fighting back", Hartford Courant, September 7, 2026.

2005 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Artemis

A few nights ago, our friends invited us for dinner at their home. When we got there, our friend poured us this glass of red wine and asked if we noticed any flaws in the wine. He mentioned that he opened and decanted the wine an hour prior to our arrival and since the cork crumbled, he had to use a funnel and filter to pour us a taste of this wine. Neither my husband nor I noticed any flaws, I did feel, however, that the mid-palate seeemed to drop out and then finish with a punch of tannins. Once our friend heard that we didn't think that there were any flaws, he told us that we were tasting a 2005 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Artemis. It was the first time that my husband and I have tasted a wine made by Warren Winiarski! Warren Winiarski gained notoriety (in a great way) when his 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon was the winner in the 1976 Judgement of Paris.
Our friend made a meal of stuffed eggplant, tzatziki and Greek salad to pair with the wine. The Greek food was an inspired pairing with the Artemis. As the evening progressed the wine opened up and the aroma from the Artemis was like a perfume and the wine became smooth from beginning to end.
We had a wonderful evening. I thought about the role of wine in a gathering and to me, it's really about how a dinner can be transformed into a magical evening that can create a lasting memory!