Recapping Our 2016 Season

2016 is wrapping up, so I thought I would stick with something I did last year, Recapping Our 2015 Season.
Early in 2016, we still had our irrigation to put into the ground, fortunately January was warm enough to allow that and we finished up right before the first major snowfall and winter making it's presence known. In March, we bottled our first vintage from our 2015 harvest of Chenin Blanc. We followed that up with digging 4200 holes with a rented auger and the help of friends. We called on more friends in May to come and help us plant the 4200 vines and put in our irrigation to water the new vines in a very dry summer of 2016. We were too late to order the type of netting that we like, so we went to plan B and bagged our grape clusters with organza wedding bags. We were fortunate to have almost double the harvest that we had in 2015 and our friends came out to help with the harvest and the crushing. That was fun! The wine is resting in our fermentaion chamber waiting to be bottled. Wishing you all the Best in 2017!

A Day at Jonathan Edwards

Michael Schmidt at Spec Trellising invited us to see the unloading of two Albrigi tanks for Tapped Apple Winery at Jonathan Edwards. Here is one example of wineries helping other wineries. Tapped Apple Winery didn't have a way to unload the tanks, and the winemaker, Michael Harney at Jonathan Edwards said that they could use their equipment. How nice is that!
On Tuesday, Michael gave us a heads up that he was going to arrive at Jonathan Edwards around 9:30, so we arrived there about 15 minute before Michael Schmidt and that allowed us to bump into Jonathan Edwards! We met Jonathan Edwards in 2011, when we were in our information gathering phase. Jonathan remembered us and we spent a little time catching up on what we had been up to. While we were speaking with Jonathan, Michael, their winemaker waved to us from the winery below so we met up with him. Soon after that, the Tapped Apple Winery people, showed up and we got to meet John, John's son John, and John's friend Adam.

The unloading of the two Albrigi tanks went smoothly.

After the tanks were safely on the trucks, Michael (winemaker) invited us to taste some of the wines that he was making. We got to taste his Riesling and his Pinot Gris. We had a fun time and met a lot of great people in the business.

Access to Wine Science Online

I have the third edition of Ronald Jackson's book Wine Science. Recently, when I was reading my book, it was so heavy, I decided to see if I could locate it online, and sure enough, the entire Third Edition of the book is publicly available here:
Wine Science
Thank you, Ronald Jackson! This makes reading your book a lot easier.

Coravin---Our Handy New Wine Gadget

One day last week, my husband showed me a video highlighting a new wine tool called a Coravin. We watched a video with Robert Parker and Greg Lambrecht, the owner and inventor of Coravin. We found out that the Coravin is a unique wine access system that enables you to pour wine from a bottle without pulling the cork. As the video went on, it was clear that Robert Parker was effusive in the praises of this new system and the more we watched, the more we thought that we might be able to use the Coravin to taste our bottled wine in micro-doses without opening the bottle and exposing it to air. Nuff said! No more than a day later, my husband decided to order the Coravin and we received it no more than 5 days after we ordered it. We tried it last night on one our our Chardonnay and one of our Auxerrois bottles.
We first tested the system on another wine bottle, just to make sure that we knew how to use it. It is very simple. The Coravin comes with an aluminum cannister filled with Argon that fits into the "handle" part of the Coravin. The Coravin has a hollow needle that pierces the cork and the lever delivers the wine, all without opening the bottle!

1999 Mommessin Clos de Tart Grand Cru

We had this 1999 Mommessin Clos de Tart Grand Cru with our friends as part of Beserker Frank Murray III "Empty My Wallet Challenge". It's very nice when you can drink a good Burgundy and know that it is going to a great cause, in this case, to help stop domestic violence. My husband made roast pork loin with fennel and green olives to pair with the Burgundy.
Here is my husband's excellent tasting notes on this wine:
This 750mL bottle was pulled from cool storage 24 hrs ahead of drinking and stood upright on the kitchen counter. About 2 hrs ahead of dinner I pulled the cork and had a taste. Clearly it was going to need a little air in a decanter before serving. Within 20 minutes of the dinner course I poured it into a decanter and swirled lightly. The cork had a narrow wine soil band from the wine side. In the glass the clean wine color is a medium dark garnet with light bricking at the edges. The aroma had a light floral and leather mix that developed more fully after 1 hr. In the mouth the dark raspberry and sweet cherry fruit integrated well with the acidity and tannins. The tannins were not completely softened at this time. This was a very nice and enjoyable wine that will continue to get better with time as it has the fruit to go on for 5-10 more years. My two remaining soldiers from this vintage will continue to be stored for that latter timeframe. I'm thankful that our friends could make it to dinner and share the food and wine with us....Cheers, Gary

Parts of the Grape Berry

I started off reading an article called "Phenolics and Ripening in Grape Berries"¹ and decided that I needed to take one step back. In reading this article, I found that nomenclature can be a hindrance to understanding what part of the grape berry is being referenced, so I did a little research to learn about the various names that can stand for the same part of the grape berry. This understanding of the grape berry, I found is a necessary prelude to understanding where the various flavor components are located.
The following illustration has been modified from the original² to refer to the grape berry parts:

In simplistic terms, the grape berry can be divided into the outer skin, pulp and the seeds which is obvious to the unaided eye. However the grape berry is comprised of distinct morphological and anatomically divisions.
Parts of the Grape Berry:³

• Epidermis: cuticle covering
• Hypodermis: just under the epidermis comprising several cell layers
• Mesocarp: contains larger vacuoles and comprising 85–87% of the berry’s spherical volume
• Endocarp: consists of crystal-containing cells (druses) and an inner epidermis
• Seeds: contained in locules and composed of an outer seed coat, the endosperm, and the embryo

Not shown in the diagram is the berry vascular system composed of xylem and phloem vessels. With this groundwork laid, I hope to continue in the next blogpost with the chemical constituents that can be found in the various parts of the grape berry.
References:
1. Douglas O. Adams, "Phenolics and Ripening in Grape Berries", Am. J. Enol. Vitic., 57:3 (2006).
2. Dunsford, P.A. and Sneyd, T.N., "Pressing for quality", Proceedings of the Seventh Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference.
3. Fernanda Cosme, Berta Gonçalves, António Inês, António M. Jordão and Alice Vilela, "Grape and Wine Metabolites: Biotechnological Approaches to Improve Wine Quality"

Beserkers: Support Laura's House

My husband is participating in a Beserkers challenge called "Empty My Wallet" started by Frank Murray III, for Laura's House, dedicated to ending the silence of domestic violence. The challenge began on November 21st and will last until November 30th. For every photo that is posted with tasting notes, Frank will donate $10.00 to Laura's house. Here is my husband's contribution to the challenge.

1996 Louis Jadot Beaune 1er Boucherottes:
We had this wine over 2 nights with duck breast with berry-balsamic sauce, wild rice, and salad with tarragon vinaigrette. Color was medium garnet with a touch of bricking at the margins and the wine was crystal clear. The first night there was not much aroma which blossomed slightly to an earthiness on the second night. The flavor came off with a forward hint of oak tannins and a reserved sour cherry flavor lagging behind on night one. This became more balanced the second night with the tannins stepping back in line with the acidity and cherry fruit which was now showing a bit of red raspberry. Overall, this is a good wine and not a great wine. The wine does not taste of an obviously aged wine as the tannin and acidity are there but I think the fruit is not strong enough to last much longer as the other elements mellow further. I have had this wine in the past and the fruit was a bit stronger. I will know if this is a variant bottle as I have more to drink in the future. Thank you Frank for the challenge....Cheers, Gary
On Thanksgiving, we had two other bottles of Pinot Noir with friends. My husband brought over the 2013 Patrick Javillier and our host and hostess provided the 2002 La Pousse d'Or Volnay Premier Cru Clos D'Audignac. The Patrick Javillier seemed a little thin compared to the Clos D'Audignac. Our new friends shown in this photo are from near Reims in France, so they really know their wines. When the Clos D'Audignac was brought out, Alain was delighted!
Here are my husband's tasting notes:
2013 Javillier Savigny les Beaune 1er Les Serpentieres
Talented and well known vintner for white burgundies and less so for red. The Javillier vines in Aux Serpentieres are ~ 30 years old. This was my first experience with a red burgundy from this vineyard. Color was a light garnet color for this clear wine. Not much of an expressive nose at this stage. As the color might suggest this was a light bodied young wine in the mouth. The tannins are in the forefront slightly compared to the good acidity displayed. At this point the fruit comes off as a weaker partner in the trio with a light blend of strawberry and red raspberry. I have one more bottle on hand that I will save for a few years to see if anything emerges but at this point I do not see the fruit depth to warrant additional bottles for this vintage.
2002 La Pousse d’Or Volnay 1er Clos d’Audignac
Monopole vineyard for this estate with vines of ~36 years old at time of harvest. Clean clear wine with dark red color and slight bricking on the edge. A leather and floral nose emanates from the glass. On the mouth this wine exhibits terrific balance with well integrated soft tannins, acidity, and fruit. The fruit comes through as a beautiful blend of sweet cherry and black raspberry over a very slight earthiness. This is a clean and succulent wine that straddles a new and old world style. It seems to me that this wine is peaking now but should be there for a few more years as it has the fruit and acidity to march on.

My husband and I had our friends over for a post-Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday for another round of drinking Pinot Noir. This time, it was a 1999 Clos de Tart.

Drought Stress and Young Vines

This past spring, we planted 4200 vines and then were faced with the need to put in our irrigation system, STAT! Between May 30 and July 29, we had approximately 10 weeks of very little or no rain. This period corresponded to the time between flowering and rapid shoot growth. Severe water stress in grape vines can lead to:¹

• Wilting of leaves
• Drooping of tendrils
• Desiccation followed by abscission of shoot tip leaving behind a brown scar at the shoot apex

Fortunately, we were able to get our irrigation system up on running on July 23rd with the help and dedication of our well guy, Tony!
I found some information regarding irrigation and newly planted vines here:
Drought Stress, Vine Performance, and Grape Quality.
For newly planted and young newly bearing vines:

• Irrigate if necessary to avoid severe stress.
• For newly planted vines, drought stress needs to be avoided – irrigation and weed management are necessary – to maintain good establishment.
• Poor winter survival is a much greater risk in newly planted vines that have been exposed to severe drought stress.
• Pay special attention to new “replants” in existing vineyards as these are sometimes forgotten at this point.
• A very conservative approach should be taken with young vines just beginning their bearing cycle (2-5 years old). Crop should be thinned or even dropped completely under severe drought conditions as it may affect the winter sensitivity (cold damage) and long term survivability of the vines.

References:
1. Bhaskar Bondada, Janani Shutthanandan, "Understanding Differential Responses of Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) Leaf and Fruit to Water Stress and Recovery Following Re-Watering", American Journal of Plant Sciences, 2012, 3, 1232-1240.

2016: Retrospective

There is a slight respite that comes after the hustle and bustle of the year as the grapes slowly turn into wine, I wanted to reflect a little on the year that was.
We couldn't have accomplished all that we had on tap for this year if it wasn't for the labor of our friends.
In mid-April, we began preparation for replanting our vineyard that had suffered a catastrophic loss in the spring of 2014. Our friends came to help us drill 4200 holes with a dingo that we had rented.
Our vineyard began to wake up from the winter sleep in late April. I always feel that it is a magical time when the young leaves tinged with pink start to emerge from what is for all intents and purposes dead looking buds.
In mid-May, we called on a larger group of our friends to help us replant the vineyard. In 6 Days, 30 People, planted 4200 Vines! After the planting was over, there was a sense of relief, but we still had a long to-do list.
Next on tap was to get our irrigation up and running. In late June, Tony and his crew installed our pitless adaptor. Rental of a generator and the installation of the variable frequency motor and pump allowed us to start irrigating the vineyard on July 23rd.
This year, irrigation was critical because of the drought that Connecticut was experiencing and the fact that we had planted 4200 new vines! According to the United States Drought Monitor, our half of the state is still under a severe drought.

This drought situation will impact our vines if it continues into the new year, so I've been reading about the impact to vines during drought. Stay tuned for that post.

2007 Lopez de Heredia Viña Cubillo Crianza

There has been a lot of drinking in the past few days and one of the wines that we had was this 2007 Lopez de Heredia Viña Cubillo. We are fans of Lopez de Heredia wines, having had their 2002 Lopez de Heredia Viña Bosconia and 2001 Lopez de Heredia Gravonia. The Cubillo already has 9 years of age on it but it was drinking like a very youthful wine. The color was intensely purple. It is a blend of the usual 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacho, 5% Graciano and 5% Mazuelo fermented in old oak vats with natural yeasts and matured in barrel for three years.
At a cost of approximately $27.00 it is a fantastic value for an aged Temperanillo.

Bottling Our Chardonnay

We harvested our Chardonnay on September 14th. We harvested a total of 5 pounds 10 ounces of grapes. I know, it is a pathetically small amount of grapes, but we were determined to see what kind of wine we could make. Winemakers can tell you that it is very difficult to make a small amount of wine. We made ours in a glass gallon jug fitted with a fermentation lock. We started our fermentation on September 19th after our usual must clarification step and saw signs of carbon dioxide evolution on September 20th. Although the fermentation began on the 20th, the kinetics of the fermentation were exceedingly slow. On October 6, we took a Brix reading at it was at 12. The fermentation finally ended on November 1st. We put the gallon jug in our refrigerator to cold settle.
Today, we were able to bottle three 375 mL bottles of our very first Chardonnay. We took all the necessary precautions, sanitizing the bottles, nitrogen flushing and minimizing oxygen in the bottling process. Some information:
pH = 2.73
TA = 7.2 g/L
My husband was shocked at how low the pH was and looked on the Internet to see what other beverages have such a low pH. Apparently, lemonade is pH = 2.6. When we took out some of the wine for testing, we also tasted it. This wine has a ways to go to settle down! It was, however, drinkable and the nose was very fragrant. It reminded me of some kind of spice and peaches.

First Harvest Chenin Blanc Update

Yesterday, we moved our first harvested Chenin Blanc that I blogged about as Harvesting Organza Wedding Bags on September 19th, into the holding tank. This is a tricky task that calls for trying to minimize oxygen exposure as much as possible. The first thing we (invoking the royal "we", my husband did everything) did was to sterilize the holding keg and then flush the keg with nitrogen. The next thing that we did was to fit the keg with the fermented juice with a racking wand. The final thing was to hook up the nitrogen gas to the fitting on the keg with the juice.
Here is a YouTube Video of the nitrogen assisted transfer of the wine from one keg to another:

We saved a little of the wine to do some tests:
pH = 3.09
TA = 6.6 g/L
The fermentation began on September 27 and lasted until October 22. The fermentation went to dryness. We did taste the wine:

This year's verdict: It's not tasting searingly acidic like last year's wine, that my husband likes to refer to as jet fuel. It already had a nice floral aroma coming from the glass (imho).

Fall in the Vineyard

Fall has definitely arrived in Connecticut. This photo was taken on October 18th. In 2015, the first frost event, occurred on October 18th. Today, we heard that there might be snow and sleet in northern Connecticut!
Update: We had our first frost event on Halloween evening into the morning of November 1st.

2010 Domaine Huet Le Haut-Lieu

My husband opened up this 2010 Domaine Huet Le Haut-Lieu to pair with a delicious fish in parchment paper that he made with the fresh fish that we scored from our friend "the hunter". One of the reasons that we are growing Chenin Blanc is that we totally fell in love with Domaine Huet. This particular wine comes from the Le Haut-Lieu vineyard. The Haut-Lieu parcel lies on Vouvray’s “Première Côte,” or “first slope,” and is home to virtually all of the appellation’s acknowledged grand cru vineyards. The color of this wine in the glass was a clear gold and the aromas that emanated from the glass was a honeyed lemon. The flavor, yumm, just exquisite and paired so well with the fish.

We have tasted the 2010s from the three vineyards, Le Haut-Lieu, Le Mont and Clos du Bourg. Here is what the Rare Wine Company wrote about Domaine Huet vineyards:
          "Each of Huet’s three iconic vineyards imparts a different signature           to its wine. Le Haut-Lieu’s deep limeston-clay soil produces wines           that typically blossom early. Le Mont has less clay and more stone,           yielding young wines of intense minerality. With age, Le Mont cuvées           develop great length and finesse. And due to its extremely shallow,           stony soils, Clos du Bourg often synthesizes Le Mont’s intense           minerality with Le Haut-Lieu’s generous texture."

Wine Balance

I sometimes drink a Chardonnay that has been aged in oak and taste a bunch of splinters in my mouth. As budding winemakers, we want to understand how that happens and how we can make a wine that is in "balance". So, what are the factors that contribute to a wine being in balance and not overshadowed by one attribute or another?

Source	Attribute	Effect	Masked/Enhanced Flavors
Sugars, glycerin,	Sweetness	Contributes to body and mouthfeel by giving "smoothness and roundness" sensations	Masks acidity and bitterness
Alcohol level	Sweetness	Contributes to body and mouthfeel by giving "smoothness and roundness" sensations; excessive alcohol contributes warmth and heat sensations	High alcohol masks high acidity; High alcohol and low acidity masks high astringency
Primarily tartaric acid	Acidity	Contributes freshness, brightness, crispness; increases impression of astringency and bitterness	Masks sweetness
Tannins	Astringency and bitterness	High tannin levels and high acidity can be perceived as astringent and bitter; Wine balanced with respect to tannins, acidity and alcohol tastes "soft" and "velvety"	Low tannin levels can support higher acidity
Oak		Complexity	Masks fruitiness
	Age	Decreases fresh fruit flavors, astringency and color
	Low Temperature	Decreases the perception of sweetness and acidity and increases the perception of astringency
	High Temperature	Increases the perception of alcohol

As I write this, we have a small amount of our Chardonnay that we harvested this year fermenting in our fermentation chamber. Since it is not in any oak, it won't taste of splinters and it will probably be a very simple wine. I can't wait to taste the outcome.
Reference:
1. Wine Stability and Sensory Analysis (VID254), U.C. Davis Extension, pg. 26-27.

Founder Varieties

My husband and I were talking about Cabernet Franc and what its possible influence would be on the flavor of a wine made from this grape. Our conversation then shifted to talking about Cabernet Sauvignon and the fact that the parents of that noble variety are Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. That got me thinking about grape founder varieties and after a bit of searching on the Internet, I located an article written by Jancis Robinson in the Financial Times on October 2012, called "Where it all began..."
In this article, Robinson provides the names of the founder varieties and a short description:

VARIETY	DESCRIPTION
Pinot	Pinot is perhaps the best known of the founder varieties. It comes in many different-coloured mutations, of which Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris/Grigio and Pinot Blanc are well known. As Pinot Noir it makes hauntingly nuanced, generally light- to medium-bodied fruity reds, most famously in Burgundy but increasingly around the world. As Pinot Grigio, it is often devoid of any attribute other than popularity. Pinot Blanc is grown in Alsace, in south-west Germany as Weissburgunder and in Italy as Pinot Bianco.
Gouais Blanc	Gouais Blanc is an ancient eastern French variety almost forgotten until identified as “the Casanova of grapes” for the sheer number of its progeny. It has been banned for its low quality several times in France and survives there today only in one non-commercial vineyard in Haute-Savoie. The finest and most numerous examples are grown, as Gwäss, over the border in Switzerland although it is also known south of the Alps where several Piemonte growers cultivate it, some of them calling it Liseiret. It is also grown by Chambers in Rutherglen, Australia. It is light in weight and can have attractive citrus flavours.
Savagnin	Savagnin is best known under that name in Jura, eastern France, where its wines have an attractive nuttiness and a particular affinity for producing the local speciality, vin jaune, which tastes a bit like an alpine sherry. A popular synonym for the variety is Traminer, and the famous Gewurztraminer grape is the aromatic, pink-skinned mutation of it. As Traminer it is particularly popular in Austria, Alto Adige in northern Italy (birthplace of the name, not the variety), eastern Europe and Australia. It turned out recently that cuttings sent to Australia from northern Spain, and then disseminated to growers by the quarantine authorities as the fashionable north-west Iberian variety Albariño/Alvarinho, are in fact Savagnin.
Cabernet Franc	Cabernet Franc is more aromatic, graceful and usually lighter-bodied than Cabernet Sauvignon. In Bordeaux it is the third-most-planted red wine grape after its progenies Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, with which it is customarily blended. It is the principal grape of Chinon and Bourgueil in the Loire valley where its wines, usually 100 per cent Cabernet Franc, can be quite leafy and herbaceous, although in recent years the vines have tended to ripen more fully. It is widely planted, often as an ingredient in “Bordeaux blends”, but is valued on its own account in the American states of Virginia, New York and Washington.
Mondeuse Noire	Mondeuse Noire an ancient Savoie variety is either a grandparent or half-sibling of Syrah/Shiraz, which explains why one of its important synonyms is Grosse Syrah. It makes Savoie’s sturdiest, deepest-coloured reds. In California it was long confused with the north Italian Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso, and vine DNA pioneer Professor Carole Meredith may be the only grower of genuine Mondeuse Noire in the state. She reports its wine is deeper and spicier than her Lagier-Meredith Syrah.
Garganega	Garganega is the main grape of Soave and was first mentioned in the 13th century. DNA profiling shows its close relationship to other important Veneto varieties such as Corvina and Rondinella, thereby confirming its local origins. Much more surprisingly, DNA profiling has shown that it is identical to the Sicilian variety Grecanico Dorato and an almost extinct variety as far away as Catalonia. It also turns out to have parent-offspring relationships with at least eight other Italian varieties including the most-planted white wine grapes in Sicily and Tuscany respectively. This is clearly a key grape, whose wines, if yields are restricted, can recall both lemons and almonds.
Nebbiolo	Nebbiolo is the most distinctive northern Italian red wine grape, most famously producing long-lived, scented but not heavy Barolo and Barbaresco on the Langhe hills of Piemonte but resolutely refusing, so far, to perform with much distinction anywhere else. The first mention of it in Piemonte dates from 1266. The succeeding centuries have allowed the development of several distinct clones such as Nebbiolo Lampia, but Nebbiolo Rosé, long thought to be a clone, has been shown by DNA profiling to be a distinct variety. Because Nebbiolo originated so long ago, it is not known whether it did so in Piemonte or in Valtellina to the north (it has so far been shown to have parent-offspring relationships with four varieties in each region). Its parents are almost certainly extinct.
Teroldego	Teroldego from Trentino in the far north of Italy is also extremely well connected. Surprisingly, DNA analysis has shown that Dureza from Ardèche, a parent of Syrah, is a full-sibling of Teroldego, and that both are grandchildren of Pinot. Teroldego is therefore an uncle of Syrah, as well as a grandparent of Refosco dal Pedunculo Rosso. Winemaker Elisabetta Foradori, who almost single-handedly brought Teroldego to international attention, must be delighted by this news. The variety had been in danger of being abandoned on account of the high acidity of its wines. It needs low yields and careful handling to produce fine wine, but the Australian example below managed to win a trophy in the 2010 Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show.
Luglienga	Luglienga is an ancient, pale-skinned table grape that is grown all over Europe, but its wine is rare and not particularly interesting. The variety is more notable for its progeny, which include Prié and, more recently, the modern crossing Regner that was one of many bred by German plant breeders in the early 20th century to achieve high sugar levels.
Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains	Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, the small-berried, pale-skinned Muscat, is the noblest of several Muscat grape varieties (which are the only ones whose wines actually taste like grapes). There is a host of different Muscat, Moscato and Moscatel varieties – in fact we identify 15 different ones in our book. This founder Muscat is grown all over the world, notably in northern Italy where it is responsible for the likes of Asti and other Moscatos, but it is so old and so widespread that we cite no fewer than 64 current synonyms, most of them beginning with M, but a host of them throughout eastern Europe, such as Romania’s Tamaioasa Alba, beginning with T. Muscat Blanc is especially good at making strong, sweet wines in southern France and Greece. It is still not known whether it originated in Italy or Greece.
Cayetana Blanca	Cayetana Blanca is a pretty basic white wine grape also known as Pardina and Jaén Blanco in Spain and Mourisco Branco in Portugal’s Alentejo on the Spanish border. It is closely related to a number of Portuguese varieties, and to the dark-skinned Juan García that is responsible for some fine reds in north-west Spain.
Rèze	Rèze---only a few hectares of this very ancient alpine variety, first mentioned in Switzerland’s Valais region in 1313, are grown commercially today, at one time it was more widely cultivated. DNA profiling suggests that it was once grown in the Savoie and Jura regions of France too – and my co-author José Vouillamoz had established that it has a parent-offspring relationship with at least five Swiss or Italian varieties and may also be related to the Piemonte’s Freisa. The few varietal examples that exist are delicate with green apple aromas.
Tribidrag	Tribidrag is also known as Crljenak Kastelanski and Pribidrag in Croatia, Primitivo in Puglia and, most famously, as Zinfandel in California. This ancient variety migrated across the Adriatic to Puglia and thence to California – probably via nurserymen in Vienna and New England. Since its origins have been definitively identified as Croatian, it has been enthusiastically planted there, with the total number of known vines having mushroomed from 20 to more than 200,000. The Zinfandel connection also halted a widespread decline in the area planted with Primitivo in Italy, particularly in the western Salento peninsula in Puglia. But most of the world’s plantings are to be found in California, where it is the second most popular variety after Cabernet Sauvignon. Some of these vines are 100 years old in some of the world’s oldest vineyards. Wines vary from syrupy pale pink “White” Zinfandel to spicy, long-lived relics of the state’s early Italian immigrants.

All of this information in the above table was used in the book written and researched by Dr. José Vouillamoz, Jancis Robinson, and Julia Harding called Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours. This is a good reference to have.

Forgotten Bag of Chardonnay

We are in the vineyard cleanup phase now, with all of our fruit harvested and fermenting in our fermentation chamber. After our harvest, fall tasks include getting the weeds out of the the vineyard row, tethering loose vines and picking up the fall crop of rocks. We had help today which made the job go by in half the time. We then had some time to inspect our vines. In one of the rows of Chardonnay, we found this forgotten bag of Chardonnay.

Since we harvested all of our Chardonnay on September 14th, I wondered what the Brix was on this bunch which has now been on the vine for another month and was left hanging through at least 2 storms that brought 3 inches of rain. When I checked the Brix with the refractometer, it was at 20. This made me think of an experiment that I could do next year. First, I would need to take the Brix of the grapes that I would leave hanging and then come back to it periodically to take the Brix and see if there is an increase in Brix level. It could be that the Brix level reaches a plateau and no matter what further hangtime the grape sees, there is very little return on the investment, and much that could damage the grape. Right now it's a thought experiment, but may be next year, I can implement it.
Meanwhile, it was nice to see that this forgotten bagged grape bunch was still very much intact.

2014 Bedell Cabernet Franc

My husband purchased this 2014 Bedell Cabernet Franc from our local package store. Bedell Cellars is located on Long Island founded by Kip and Susan Bedell in 1980. Since Long Island is just across the Long Island Sound from us and since we are now trying our hand at growing Cabernet Franc, we were interested in tasting the Long Island expression of Cabernet Franc. Cabernet Franc is used as a blending grape in Bordeaux, but it can be very interesting as a wine on its own merit. We always refer back to the stainless steel fermented Cabernet Franc that we tasted in Ontario many years ago that was so perfumey and sublime, we thought it was Pinot Noir.
This 2014 Bedell Cabernet Franc does not disappoint. It has a medium body with a healthy extraction of color, a nice hint of fruit, tannins that have been tamed and some acids that work well with a meal of wild meat with a topping of cheese.

Fermentation?

We have 3 one-quarter stainless steel kegs in our fermentation chamber that currently holds our Chenin blanc harvest. We harvested our first one-quarter keg on September 17th, allowed it to cold settle the gross soluble solids and kicked off our fermentation on September 25th. We observed the slow start of fermentation 44 hours later. But, like any anxious parent we were holding our breaths until we could see this event.
For our second harvest that occurred on September 26, we followed our typical protocol of settling the gross soluble solids and added our yeast on October 2nd. We waited at least 48 hours to see if we could observe any signs of fermentation on those two kegs and nothing was happening. I looked online to see if I could learn anything about why fermentations can fail and I found an excellent enumeration a la David Letterman called Top 10 Reasons For Fermentation Failure at the E.C. Home Winemaking & Beer Making Supplies Website.

• Fermentation temperature too hot or too cold
• Adding too much sugar at the beginning of fermentation
• Improper yeast starting method
• Sealing up the fermenter after adding sulfites
• Using a wine airlock at the beginning of fermentation
• Lack of nutrients
• Fermentation has already completed
• Yeast has reached its limit
• Using distilled water
• Yeast is too old

Patience can be a virtue, but after 72 hours elapsed, we decided to look into the kegs. We could see foaming on the top of one of the kegs and the beginning of foaming on the other. We took a Brix reading and tasted juice from both of the kegs and on the one with foaming, we could definitely taste a fizziness in the juice, good indications of fermentation. My husband decided to test the fermentation locks and when he switched the fermentation lock from the keg that was fermenting to one of the kegs where the fermentation lock was not giving any indication of fermentation this is what we saw:

So to the list of "Top Ten Reasons For Fermentation Failure" add:

• Defective fermentation locks

Here is a very short video of a fermentation lock in action:

2010 Travaglini Gattinara

This wine is in a bottle that has a very weird shape, so that might be the first thing that catches your eye. But, don't stop there, pick up the bottle, take a risk and buy it.
Gattinara is a wine district (D.O.C.G.) in the northern Piedmont in Italy. This is the area that produces wine from the Nebbiolo grape. I found much more information online at the Travaglini Gattinara Site. In 1920, Clemente Travaglini established the winery that bears his name. Since that time, the winery has been in the family and the fourth generation of Travaglinis, Cinzia Travaglini and her husband Massimo Collauto are the current stewards.
The wine is made in the following way:
Winemaking: crushed and macerated for about 15 days in stain-less steel tanks at controlled temperature. The wine is aged for 3 years, 2 years in Slovenian oak of different origin and size, then rest in the bottle for 3 months.
With 6 years of age, the wine had very soft tannins. The deep color of the wine and the berry notes that create it's bouquet and flavor, makes it a perfect paring for a hearty beef stew.
But, back to the bottle shape, I've extracted this information from their website:
An exceptional wine deserves an exceptional bottle. It was with that in mind that in 1958, Giancarlo Travaglini set out to create a bottle that was also a work of art. This special bottle, exclusive to Travaglini, was designed to grace the most prestigious tables in the world. The shape of this bottle naturally catches sediment during pouring, allowing the wine to be served directly from bottle to the glass without decanting.
We paid around $30.00 for this wine, so while it doesn't qualify for my Wines Under $20 Tab, it is an excellent value for a Nebbiolo.

More From Harvest 2016

We are so thankful that our friends were able to join us on Monday for the harvest of our Chenin blanc. It turned out that we had 1/2 inches of rain on Monday night into Tuesday and then more rain on Wednesday and Friday. So Monday, it turns out was our little window of opportunity.
Here are pictures of some photogenic grape clusters from the harvest:

After stomping on the grapes in the Igloo cooler, the spigot on the cooler makes it the ideal container for gravity assisted transfer. After the glass carboy was filled, it went into the fermentation chamber for cold settling of the gross soluble solids. The fermentation chamber is getting a little full this year.

Harvest 2016

The weather report for this week was not a good one if harvest time is on the horizon. Decisions have to be made and yesterday(actually, Monday morning), we decided that we could not wait to harvest our small crop of Chenin blanc with the upcoming rains on Tuesday morning, followed by more rain in the forecast for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. While we knew that things could change, we couldn't disregard the 1/2-1 inch of rain expected Monday night into Tuesday, so the decision was made to harvest the crop. We emailed our friends in the morning and they were available to come and help pick the wedding bags, so the crew was assembled and the harvest time was set at 1 p.m. It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the 60's all day long. The only complication was that my husband was blowing out the irrigation lines in preparation for winter.
The harvest itself took only 45 minutes and 7 yellow lugs full of wedding bags were harvested.

We brought the harvest home and the first thing was to supply the crew with sustenance for the difficult task of debagging to follow. All hands were busy untying the bags and taking out the booty.

The full lugs were weighed: 118.5 pounds
The next "task" was to juice the grapes. We returned to the method we used last year in which we used our Igloo cooler and foot protection (plastic bags) to stomp our grapes. Barry took it up a notch when he located the sound track for Zorba the Greek. Great fun was had by all!

Vineyard Sightings

Our 2 nano-harvests, a half gallon of Auxerrois and almost a half gallon of Chardonnay are fermenting away in our fermentation chamber (repurposed chest freezer) in the basement. Although it is now technically "fall", the temperatures have been in the 80's until today. We have a week of cooler weather coming up and hope our second harvest of Chenin blanc can reach at least 22 Brix. We have had an extremely dry, hot summer and looking at our test results, the titratable acids of our Chenin blanc seems very low at 7.4 g/L. While we ponder these results, we have been greeted by the site of an adult and juvenile goshawk on the land. Awesome! These blurry pictures has my husband thinking about getting a camera with a telephoto lens.

2011 Monsanto Chianti Classico Riserva

We had this 2011 Monsanto Chianti Reserva with spaghetti. With five years of age on it, the wine was medium-heavy body, yet it was smooth drinking. The label on the back of the bottle explained that this wine was made from 90% Sangiovese and the remainder comprised of Canaiolo and Colorino. We purchased it for around $20.00 and feel that it could be our go to wine for pizzas as well.
I was interested in learning more about Castello di Monsanto located in Tuscany and found an interview conducted by David Lynch:
A Conversation with Laura Bianchi of Castello Monsanto
It is about 10 minutes long, but worth listening to the the daughter of Fabrizio Bianchi who founded the winery after it was presented to him as a wedding gift from his parents in 1962.

Harvesting Organza Wedding Bags

We harvested about 1/3rd of our organza wedding bags on Saturday morning from 7-9:30. For information on how we got there, please read the blogpost: Bird Damage and Wedding Bags in the Vineyard.
The short story is that we were too late to order the type of netting that we wanted and went to plan B---wedding bags.
We simply cut the peduncle, (that is the attachment point of the grape cluster to the shoot) bags and all. When we got home, we had the task of taking the grape clusters out of the bags. We harvested this lot because we noticed that some of the grapes were turning into raisins and some of the clusters Brix readings were headed north of 24 ^oBrix. We counted approximately 300 clusters that were so afflicted and a few others so that we could have a decent amount of volume for fermenting. The raisining possibly can be attributed to the fact that it has been a really dry year in Connecticut, and the United States Drought Monitor Website shows our region of Connecticut to be in the severe drought zone.

Not all of our grape clusters showed this type of raisining, (ironically, kind of an early, late harvest flavor profile). We have about 2/3rds more to harvest. The clusters that constitute this first harvest were already at 20 ^oBrix on September 6th.
We weighed the clusters and determined that we had about 42 pounds of fruit. We juiced the fruit following the protocol we used in 2015, using the same Igloo cooler.
The information on the juice is:

• Brix = 20
• pH = 3.0

We did attempt to take a reading of the titratable acids (TA) with our Vinmetrica SC-300 Pro, but the reagents had expired. (Who knew that 0.13N sodium hydroxide (NaOH) expires!)
Note: Order new reagents every year.
New reagents are on order and we should receive them by Wednesday.
When all was said and done, we had about 4 gallons of juice which we put into our fermentation chamber to settle out the gross suspended soluble solids.
This first harvest is slightly less volume that the total harvest that we had last year (350 clusters, 65 pounds, 5 gallons yielding twenty-four 750 mL bottles). This was a good prelude and practice for the "real" harvest soon to come.

2015 Karl Pfaffmann Spatburgunder

Our son also brought this 2015 Karl Pfaffmann Spatburgunder when he came on Labor Day Weekend, along with the 2015 Julian Haart Riesling 1000L and the 2015 Lauer Riesling Barrel X that he purchased from Federal Wine and Spirits. When he asked what "Spatburgunder" meant, he was told that it meant "late burgundy", in other words, a wine made from Pinot noir. My husband made his delicious duck breast with berry sauce to go along with this German Pinot noir. We thought it would be interesting to compare/contrast the Old World Pinot, with a New World Pinot, a 2002 Kistler Sonoma Coast Pinot noir. It is not a fair comparison because of the difference in age and the Spatburgunder was made in a cool climate, so again, not a very fair comparison. The Spatburgunder was sparkling purple in color. The label said that it was 13% alcohol. Suffice it to say that both Pinots were consumed and no one complained. Since our son paid around $13.00 for the Spatburgunder, I'd say it was a very palatable Pinot for the price.
Note: For more information on how the Germans classify their wines, please check out this blogpost: 1976 Auslese.

Late Bloomer

All of a sudden, the light switch has gone off on summer and we are now in a period of warm, dry days and cool nights.
It is just a joy to walk in the vineyard in this kind of weather, to see the ripening grapes and take Brix readings. Since we've been having a lot of rain, interesting things other than grapes can also be found in the vineyard. Such as this mushroom which I believe to be a puffball. Although, I'm doing my job, my husband, who has been busy weed wacking and mowing the vineyard alleys might call what I am doing, lollygagging.
Not only did I take a picture of this mushroom, I saw a comma butterfly and tried to take it's picture. But, since I had some grape juice on my hand, the butterfly landed on my right hand, preventing me from taking it's picture. A more cooperative subject was found when I saw this inflorescence at the top of some new growth that is occurring on one of our more mature vines.

How does this happen? I thought that vines needed an overwintering cycle? My hypothesis---it may be on a summer lateral and may be the second crop. If so, it is a very late bloomer and the only cluster in our second crop.

Auxerrois Harvest

During the Labor Day weekend, we were constantly checking the track of hurricane Hermine up the East Coast. We had a small amount of Auxerrois that we had been babying to ripeness and decided on Monday afternoon to harvest the grapes. There were approximately 70 clusters so it took no time at all to get the grapes harvested, but we did the harvest while the winds were gusting to at least 20 mph!

When we brought the grapes home, the approximately 70 clusters weighed 8.5 pounds. I know, it is a very small amount. We put the fruit in our refrigerator to cool the grapes in order to preserve as much of the aromatics as we could. We deliberated on the best way to extract the juice.

On September 6, we brought the grapes out of the refrigerator and put them into the nylon bag and placed the bag in a food grade container. We began to squeeze the grapes by hand to extract the juice. Once we had enough juice, we strained the juice into a glass container that could hold a gallon of juice.

We marked the container at various levels so that we would know how much juice was extracted. We also put in approximately 50 ppm of potassium metabisulfite, (this is a very small amount: 1/4 teaspoon in 6 gallons of juice equals about 50 ppm, so 1/10th of this amount was used) to take care of any yeast or bacteria that could begin fermention and also to deactivate the polyphenol oxidase that could turn the juice brown. When all was said and done, we had a little over half a gallon of juice. About 10 milliliters of juice was removed before we moved the gallon jug into our temperature controlled fermentation chamber for the first cold settling to remove the gross soluble solids.
Several measurements were taken on the juice which gave the following starting information:

• Brix = 20
• pH = 3.25
• TA = 6.8 grams/Liter

Next step, fermentation.

Perseverance in the Vineyard

We thought we were very clever this year in bagging our grape clusters with organza wedding bags. However, we have been seeing a handful of bags with what we can only surmise are bird peckings. They are such tiny holes, but it must have taken a lot of perseverance for a bird to make these holes. Where do they perch? How long does it take to make the hole? What do they encounter when they reach the grape? Is the sugar content so low that they are repulsed? I wondered.

Since there was no damage to the cluster. I just made a mental note of the pecking until I discovered the following on Friday, September 2, when I was doing a walk though of the vineyard.
Yikes! Where is the bag!!! Since I was one row over, I had to peer through the grape branches and I saw the bag. I made my way to the row and found the bag in the following condition.

There was a large tear in the bag, along with small pecking holes. I showed my husband and he thought that it might be a badger until he realized that it might have been that he mowed over the bag and created the hole. Nonetheless, it was a disturbing site. We will have to be more vigilant and ensure that further midsadventures and perseverance of the bird kind will not happen. No, not in our vineyard!

2015 Lauer Riesling Barrel X

Another wine that Brett and Laura brought over the Labor Day weekend was this 2015 Lauer Riesling Barrel X. This is another wine that Brett procured from Federal Wine and Spirits in Boston, MA. This is the third wine that we tried along with the 2015 Julian Haart Riesling 1000L, with our Asian meal. Brett told us that it might be a little fizzy (petillant or sparkling are other words that can be used for intentional fizz). Indeed, there were a few bubbles that emanated from the pour. Like the Julian Haart Riesling, this Saar Riesling was made dry. There were a lot of aromatics in the nose and the finish reminded me somewhat of a Gewürztraminer, so I wonder is there a bit of Gewürztraminer in the wine? This is another wine under $20.00 and a good value.

Refractometry: Checking for the Brix Level

We have been walking our vineyard to check on the Brix, or the sugar content of our Chenin blanc with our handheld refractometer. Although we have a few outlier Chenin blanc clusters whose Brix are already at 20^o, the majority of the Chenin blanc are between 10-14 ^oBrix. The cluster shown at the left is at 14 ^oBrix.
We had our friend Bob come and help us in the vineyard and I showed Bob how we took a reading with the refractometer. Since he is a retired ER physician, he wanted to know how the refractometer worked to measure the sugar. I was kind of at a loss to explain the physics of the refractometer, so I thought I would look into it and blog about it here.

The first thing to understand about how a handheld refractometer works is to define refractive index (RI):
Refractive Index: is the ratio of the speed of light traveling through a vacuum to the speed of light in the material being tested.
The physics of light is such that when it passes from a medium of one refractive index to one with a different refractive index, the light bends (refracts) at the interface, rather than passing straight through. The amount it bends or, in technical jargon, the angle of refraction, depends on the difference in the two media's refractive indices. This is easily demonstrated by putting a chopstick in a glass of water. I found a really nice schematic of a handheld refractometer in Reefkeeping.

How does it work?

• Light enters from the left and passes through the liquid sample
• The light hits the prism at the bottom of the liquid, it is slowed more than in the liquid because the prism has a higher refractive index
• As the light then travels down the refractometer, it passes through several lenses and lands on a scale
• The optical wedge that is mounted on the bi-metallic strip moves the lenses in response to temperature changes, ensuring that the readings are accurate regardless of temperature

• The bending of the light at the liquid/prism interface (this is where refractive index plays a role) sends the light higher or lower on the scale's grid
• The light covers a portion of the scale, and the remainder is dark
• Look through the viewfinder on the other end and read where the light is falling on the scale

In grapes, the refractometer scale (in degrees Brix) will measure the sugar content, in reality, it is measuring the amount of soluble solids but since sugar is the major component in the soluble solids, the scale is a good approximation of the sugar content in the grapes.
References:
1. Reefkeeping.
2. Refractometry; Savitribai phule pune UNIVERSITY SEMINAAR ON Miss. SNEHAL K. DHOBALE M-PHARMACY – SEMESTER-1 YEAR 2014-15 Padm. Dr. D.Y.PATIL COLLEGE OF PHARMACY,AKURDI, PUNE. GUIDED BY, PROF. M.T. MOHITE.
3. Hand Held Refractometer.

2015 Julian Haart Riesling 1000L

Our son, Brett and his wife, Laura are visiting us this Labor Day weekend and they brought with them a few wines from Federal Wine and Spirits in Boston, MA.
A few weeks ago Brett brought us a Gamay that he purchased from Federal Wine and Spirits at a wine tasting that he attended and we liked it. He is introducing us to some wines that we would not have known about, and that's a good thing.
This weekend, he brought 3 wines, this is the first wine that I'll be writing about. It is a 2015 Julian Haart Riesling that we drank with Asian style lettuce cups and Japchae. We thought that it was a very well made Riesling evincing the typicity of a dry style which really suits our palate.
Later, our son brought out the tasting notes that he got when he went to Federal Wine and Spirits. We wondered what 1000L meant, the explanation is that the wine is named after the traditional 1000 liter barrel used in the Mosel. According to the tasting notes, Julian Haart's estate is slightly larger than 4 hectacres. Julian's joy in winemaking is doing everything by himself, or with his wife Nadine and a few friends. We heartily subscribe to his joy in winemaking philosophy. But will add one more---the joy in winemaking is preceded by hard work and care in the vineyard.
This wine is an exceptional value at below $20.00 and will go under my Wines Under $20 Tab.

Rain at Harvest: Finishing the End Game

I located an excellent, if long article written by Mark Chien of Penn State Cooperative Extension titled Rain at Harvest: Finishing the End Game. This seems especially relevant to our situation this year where we are finding our grapes reaching maturity sooner than last year which was in late September. Looking into the weather forecast, we are seeing the remnants of hurricane Hermine headed our way during the Labor Day weekend. This is what Mark Chien has to say about what to do when faced with rain at harvest:

• Rain is only one factor that forces growers to pick fruit before it is fully mature. Others include disease, birds, and frost. All will compromise wine quality if they shut down the vintage early. Keep fruit protected and clean, i.e. use nets and keep spraying even after veraison.
• Too much moisture on the fruit can be as bad as in the soil. Pick the grapes when they are dry. That may be difficult in our humid conditions with morning dew. If it rained at night, wait for the fruit to dry. Leaf blowesr can be used to blow moisture from the clusters and canopy prior to harvest.
• Do not let rain accumulate in grape bins. If it starts raining, bins need to be covered or moved under cover. Should macrobins have drain holes or not? That is a perennial question. Some varieties juice more than others and that juice is lost. But if it rains, it is certainly helpful to allow the water to drain. Some growers have used holes with plugs.
• Manage your yields carefully. This has to do with getting the grapes in the barn as soon as possible. Over-cropping will delay ripening and expose the fruit to more risk on the vine.
• Harvest fast. In some situations a machine harvester is the most expedient tool (and expensive). But if it is an option it should be in the decision loop. If not a machine, then a large enough, skilled crew of pickers (i.e. not friends, family, Kelly girls, etc.).
• Sorting fruit is really, really important, not just for stinkbugs and lady beetles but also rot and unripe fruit. I can think of few vintages in the past dozen that would not have benefited from fruit sorting, even the dry ones. Sort as often as can be tolerated - in the field and on the crush pad (if possible before and after the destemmer). Good wine can only be made from good grapes so get the bad stuff out.
• I used to think gadgets like concentrators and rotary fermenters were a form of cheating in the cellar. Now I believe they are no worse than using irrigation in an arid region. A few years ago Parker gave these wine making gizmos his stamp of approval. They are widely used in Bordeaux as a tool, but the wise vigneron does not depend on them as a crutch. I have been told that if used properly, they may help raise a declassified wine to a second label, but never a second to first. They can just as easily ruin a wine as help it if used improperly. I have tasted some 2009 red wines that were made using a rotary fermenter and they clearly have more depth and concentration than other reds from this difficult vintage. Gino Razzi at Penns Wood Winery told me that he think 75% of all wines would benefit from the proper use of a rotary fermenter. Saignée is the traditional method for dealing with grapes that have been diluted by rain and can work well if done correctly.

New Temperature Controlled Fermentation Chamber

Last year, my husband took our refrigerator and turned it into a dedicated temperature controlled fermentation chamber. Earlier this year, old faithful refrigerator-cum-fermentation-chamber bit the dust. What can I say, it was about 30 years old. We postponed getting a replacement but NOW is the time. My husband looked on line and found HomeBrewTalk.com where they had all the specifications for Sizing Your Corny Kegs for Fermentation.
After cluster counting and bagging our grapes, we feel that we will at least have twice as much juice as we had last year. (Last year, we had 70 pounds of grapes that yielded 5 gallons of juice). This presented a problem regarding what type of fermentation vessel we should invest in. There was no question about using stainless steel again, but the question was what size?

We already have two one-sixth barrels that can hold approximately 5 gallons each. We feel that we may have about 12 gallons of juice this year. We want to give enough head space for the fermenting must to allow for the initial foaming, so we went with two slim-quarters to hold our juice. Once we decided on the type of keg, the following layout plan from HomeBrewTalk helped us decide what kind of chest freezer would work to hold our kegs.

We got lucky. Even though all of this necessary equipment is being purchased at the eleventh hour, we were able to get the chest freezer on sale with delivery on Thursday, September 1st and our two one-quarter stainless steel Sanke kegs are arriving today.
References:
1. Barrel Sizes photo from: Wort-O-Matic.com.

Late-season fungicide sprays in grapes and potential effects on fermentation

My husband shared this article with me from Michigan State University called Late-season fungicide sprays in grapes and potential effects on fermentation. I thought about one of the questions that I had to answer when I took the U.C. Davis Enology and Viticulture Certification course. The question consisted of a very long scenario which included the fact that the original fruit was in excellent condition and then "Why was there the odor of sulfides emanating from a tank of fermenting Chenin blanc." I answered the question as best as I could but totally missed the mark. The key is "original fruit was in excellent condition". At that time, I couldn't connect the fact that fruit in excellent condition may be the result of a well executed spray schedule that included sulfur as a fungicide.
The above article is all about late season use of fungicide sprays and the pre-harvest interval or PHI timing of sprays and its effects on fermentation.
Here is my summary:

Fungicide	Pre-Harvest Interval (PHI)	Effect on Fermentation
Oxidate	Day of harvest	No issues
Biofungicide Serenade	Day of harvest	No issues
Sulfur	5-6 weeks	H2S (hydrogen sulfide) or rotten egg smell
Copper	Late season usage	Copper is toxic to yeast and even non-lethal doses of copper can cause stress on the yeast, potentially leading to incomplete fermentation and release of undesirable metabolites, all leading to wine aroma defects
Captan	Late season usage	Can delay the start of alcoholic fermentation, captan-treated grapes retained a definite cloudiness after six months of storage
Manzate	66 days before harvest	Preventing chemical residue and degradation product left on fruit; not necessarily affecting fermentation
Ridomil MZ	66 days before harvest	Preventing chemical residue and degradation product left on fruit; not necessarily affecting fermentation
potassium bicarbonate (Kaligreen, Armicarb, Milstop)	Late season usage	Contains potassium so best to avoid a heavy application shortly before harvest
Botryticides Elevate, Vangard and Scala	Late season usage	Safe for both alcoholic and malolactic fermentation
strobilurins (i.e., Sovran, Abound)	Late season usage	No effect on fermentation but late-season use of strobilurins is not recommended due to possible fungicide resistance issues
sterol inhibitors (i.e., Elite, Rally)	Late season usage	No effect on fermentation
powdery mildew fungicide Quintec	Late season usage	No effect on fermentation
JMS Stylet Oil	Good late-season spray to reduce powdery mildew and European red mite	Some evidence that late applications depress Brix (sugar) accumulation due to a temporary reduction in photosynthesis; other California studies show no effect on fermentation