Vintage 2026: Chenin Blanc Harvest

We took a two week break between the Chardonnay harvest and our Chenin Blanc harvest. Our friend Mary helped us to get a representative sampling of grapes from our 17 rows of Chenin Blanc on October 14. We learned that for rows 1 through 6 the Brix was at 18.8, rows 7-12 at 17.5 and our FPS-1 clone was at 17. These numbers are too low to make a good still wine. So we had a few decisions to make.

We decided that we should go through the first 8 rows of Chenin Blanc to see if we could do anything to raise the Brix a few degrees. This is what we decided to do. Beginning on October 20, my husband and I went through our Chenin Blanc, tasting the green grapes and determining if they should be cut off.
In the photo above, there is a bin of the green grapes as well as rotten grapes that we removed. It did take us until Friday, October 23 to go through all 8 row, cutting off the green clusters and the clusters affected with sour rot and botrytis. We hauled the culled grapes to our compost pile. Here is what nearly a ton of grapes looks like on the ground in the photo on the right.
Since the weather on Sunday, October 25 looked to be a promising one for harvest, my husband sent out a call to our friends. Initially a handful of people responded but as the harvest date approached we had a good crew of harvesters. We started with raising the nets at 8 and at 9, people were assembled to begin harvesting. All of us were focused on bringing in the 8 rows of Chenin. Sad to say, neither my husband nor I stopped to take any pictures!
When all was said and done, we had 88 filled lugs to bring to Stonington Vineyards on Monday morning. The crew at Stonington Vineyards, Mike, Jim and Dakota were also busy destemming the rest of their Carbernet Franc that they began harvesting on Sunday. But since processing red grapes is different from processing white grapes the two were done simultaneously on their loading dock. We were able to get our pressed juice by 12:30! We brought the juice back to our facility at Taugwonk Spur and took some measurements of the juice.

The Brix as measured by the hydrometer method came in at 22! We had about 170 gallons of juice in our transport tank.
Here are the statistics for our Chenin Blanc harvest:

Variety	Harvest Date	Brix	pH	TA g/L	Lbs	Gals
Chwnin Blanc	October 25, 2026	22.0	3.05	8.30 g/L	2,125	170

We want to thank all of our friends who turned up to make our Chenin Blanc harvest a successful one! A big thank you to those who stayed late to help get the lugs into the truck!

Vintage 2026: Chardonnay Harvest

On Sunday, October 11, a week after our first harvest of Auxerrois, we sent out a call for help to our friends that we would be harvesting our Chardonnay. The weather again was a factor, in fact this Sunday, another rain storm was coming in, the remnants of hurricane Isaias. We moved the net raising from 8:30 to 7:30 and many people came early to help us raise 8 rows of nets in one hour! The harvest began soon after that. Impending rain is a huge motivator, so our friends rose to the occasion to harvest 8 rows of Chardonnay by 11:20!

The Chardonnay grapes were in good condition, having miraculously survived all the rain events with little to no rot. The clusters were small and loose which probably helped with preventing rot from happening.

After harvest, we still had some time before the rains would come into southeastern Connecticut so we were able to enjoy lunch with our friends.

It rained all of Sunday afternoon and evening, not ending until very early Monday morning. On Monday, October 12, we brought the harvest to Stonington Vineyards where Mike, Jim and Dakota were waiting for us. The press was loaded with the Chardonnay as whole clusters and the cycle was started at 8:30. By the time the press cycle ended at 10:30, the sun was out and the skies were blue! The juice was pumped into our transport tank and we brought it back to our winery on Taugwonk Spur road.

We removed some of the juice and checked for Brix, pH and titratable acids:

Variety	Harvest Date	Brix	pH	TA g/L	Lbs	Gals
Chardonnay	October 11, 2026	22.0	3.30	7.6 g/L	1,750	140

We were surprised and happy that the Chardonnay was at 22 Brix. We could not have done this without the help from all of our friends! We want to thank our friends as well as the crew at Stonington Vineyards, Mike, Jim and Dakota for helping us with a successful Chardonnay harvest!

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 parked 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.