Auxerrois in Our Vineyard

Our Auxerrois is beginning to ripen. We have learned that these grapes are very susceptible to too much sun. In past years, we have had a lot of sun burnt grapes so this year we tried a new tactic and left the leaves on the west side of the canopy. Still, there were bunches that were exposed to this year's record number of heat waves. Here is what the Auxerrois grapes look like.

Yesterday we took the first of our numbers to determine how far along it is. It takes a while to get a statistical sampling because the Auxerrois is netted, but fortunately, we use clothes pins so although it is a bit of an impediment, what needs to be undone, needs to be done. We gathered 80 berries from 3 rows of Auxerrois, picking berries from the top, middle and bottom of the cluster as well as berries that seemed to be more advanced in ripening and some from clusters that appeared to be behind the ripening curve. After picking the berries, we did the following tests and here are the numbers we came up with. We also took the juice and sampled the juice for the flavors. It's coming along. Harvest could occur perhaps within the next 10 days.