In 2015, I took the Vital Statistics of two of our clusters of Chenin Blanc from the first year that we had grapes. For us, this is a good reference because it tells us the dimensions as well as the Brix level of the grapes in September, so I frequently refer to it when harvest time nears.
One of the tasks in the vineyard is to count clusters so that we can get a good representation of what the harvest might be. This has a bearing on what my husband will order for tanks as well as how we might best juice and store the must during fermentation. Our friend, Mary did a count of the clusters before she and her husband Barry left for their overseas trip, along with our other friends who frequently give us help in the vineyard. (Sad)
In addition to cluster counting, another task we do at this time of the year is cluster cleaning using tweezers. I was doing that yesterday, when, perhaps, but don't tell my husband, I might have been a little overzealous and tore one of the wings at it's peduncle. What to do? I had to drop the bunch. But, I did bring it home to take the vital statistics for this bunch. In general, the Chenin Blanc clusters look much larger than they have looked in the past. We thought that the clusters might be around 4 ounces and that is what we were basing our calculations on. Here is what this cluster's vital statistics are:
Weight:
Dimensions:
The berries are very green and quite hard so it was a little difficult to juice it and take the Brix level, but when I did, it was about 4.5 degrees, so very, very far from veraison. This is a good thing since we still have to put up the netting.
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