2022 Auxerrois Harvest

Our first harvest of this year, our Auxerrois was held on Sunday, September 25. We had 11 friends who came to lend us a hand and in 5 hours our friends harvested the entire crop. The crop fit into 126 yellow lugs which were stacked on 4 palettes. The palettes were taken over to Jonathan Edwards Winery where the harvested grapes spent an uneventful evening while at midnight, a thunder and lightning storm rolled through our region.

We took the numbers for the harvest and it was the best so far! Here is the information from 2019 - 2022:

Variety	Harvest Date	Brix	pH	TA	Lbs	Gals
Auxerrois
	September 23, 2019	19.6	3.23	7.35 g/L	636	50
	September 17, 2020	19.0	3.07	7.5 g/L	1670	133
	September 28, 2021	18.0	3.25	7.5 g/L	1638	130
	September 25, 2022	20.0	3.16	7.1 g/L	3097	248

On Monday, September 26, the harvest was pressed as whole clusters and the juice ended up in four 75-gallon stainless steel barrels to cold settle. The next few days will see us racking the juice and inoculating it.

1995 Mazis-Chambertin Domaine Maume Grand Cru

Harvest is coming up and for the first time ever, we have been able to deploy all our nets over our ripening grapes to protect them.
We had to celebrate! My husband brought up this 1995 Mazis-Chambertin Domaine Maume Grand Cru from the cellar and it did not disappoint. The aroma was full of red cherries and black raspberries and the flavor matched it with a backbone of acidity that belied it's almost 30 year age. It was still youthful with the promise of even more longevity. We drank this wine with leftovers, definitely not doing the pairing justice it deserved, but then really showcasing the beauty of this wine.

Some Statistics on our Varieties

We have been monitoring our varieties to see what the sugar content, pH and titratable acids are. Here is the information for our first pass:

Variety	Sample Date	Brix	pH	TA
Auxerrois	September 15	19	3.02	12.2 g/L
Chenin Blanc 982	September 16	18.8	2.82	13.80 g/L
Chenin Blanc FPS-1	September 16	18	2.79	10.3 g/L
Chardonnay	September 15	20.6	2.88	12.1 g/L
Cabernet Sauvignon	September 16	18	2.80	12.8 g/L
Cabernet Franc	September 16	18.6	2.85	12.3 g/L
Barbera	September 18	18.6	2.64	17.2 g/L

This is kind of typical of what we see in our vineyard. We often see a low pH and high titratable acid (TA) levels even when we harvest. We are looking for a balance between the Brix, pH and to determine harvest time. Of course, Mother Nature also has a huge say in this.

Milestone in the Vineyard

This past week, we achieved a milestone in the vineyard. We were able to net all 36 rows of our grapes before harvest! You have no idea what a feat this is. Here is a panoramic view of the vineyard.

What we have come to realize is that if we were able to get the netting on the grapes sooner, we would not have to contend with the raccoons, turkeys, deer and birds that see the ripening grapes as part of their diet.
We want to thank all our friends who came to help us throughout this season from pruning in the spring to now: HH, LA, RH, MS, BH, MG and her friend A. We also want to thank our family for providing needed help at the right time to achieve this first time event: JS, ST, MT, DT, MT, AS, and WS.
Next up, harvest!

2021 Bieler Pere and Fils Coteaux D'Aix-en-Provence

Are the days of drinking rosé wines coming to a close with the end of summer? We had this 2021 Bieler Coteaux D'Aix-en-Provence recently with sun kissed tomatoes from our local farmstand, over arugula, topped with burata and wreathed with toasted olive oil and garlic bread. We totally stole this salad from one that we had with friends who treated us to a dinner at the Lake of Isles. This is a wonderful and refreshing salad, just as good as a Caprese salad, but better in some ways because you are not hunting around for fresh basil.
The rosé was the perfect pairing with the salad. The wine was made from 33% G18% Cinsault, renache, 25% Syrah, 14% Cabernet Sauvignon and 9% Rolle.

Labor Day Activities

We had help from our daughter and her family during Labor Day and they put us in a really good place. On Sunday, our family helped us clothes pin the nets on 9 rows of Chenin Blanc, that is the equivalent to one-fourth of our entire vineyard, in one day! That is so amazing!
On Monday, the weather forecast was for rain, but the rains held off and our family helped us to gather a sample of grapes from the Auxerrois, Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay so that the first test of the season could be done.
Here are the Brix, pH and titratable acids for the white varieties so far:

Variety	Brix	pH	TA
Auxerrois	18	2.91	13 g/L
Chenin Blanc	17	2.65	14.7 g/L
Chardonnay	19.2	2.86	12.1 g/L

Here is a comparison to previous year' numbers at harvest:

Variety	Harvest Date	Brix	pH	TA
Auxerrois
	September 23, 2019	19.6	3.23	7.35 g/L
	September 17, 2020	19.0	3.07	7.5 g/L
	September 28, 2021	18.0	3.25	7.5 g/L
Chenin Blanc
	October 14, 2019	21.6	3.15	13.5 g/L
	October 11, 2020	23.3	3.09	12.1 g/L
	October 17-18, 2021	20.4	3.17	14.6 g/L
Chardonnay
	September 28, 2019	21.5	3.17	9.4 g/L
	September 24, 2020	23.5	3.0	10.0 g/L
	October 3, 2021	20.4	3.28	8.2 g/L

It's interesting to look at the Brix, pH and titratable acids and speculate that we could have more sugar accumulation before our pH and titratable acids are at a reasonable number. Since we are still in early September, harvest for the Auxerrois and the Chardonnay might be earlier this year.

Vintage 2022: It's September

It is already September! We have been busy in the vineyard unfurling our nets as fast a humanly possible. During the month of August, we worked for 28 out of the 31 days, taking a break on August 7, August 16 and August 17. On August 16 and 17, we had rain. Our local news said that we had 13 days of over 90 degree temperatures in August!
Since we made a huge push in August to get our netting on the ripening grapes, we are on the last third of the vineyard, working in the Chenin Blanc, leaf pulling and unfurling the netting. Here is a photo showing the trail of leaves in the Chenin Blanc.

Leaf pulling is like exposing hidden treasures, in this case, our Chenin Blanc, clone FPS-1. We have two clones planted in our vineyard, 982 and FPS-1. We noticed that the FPS-1 has a looser cluster.

We also had timely help from our friends who want to see us get to the finish line. Today is another day of leaf pulling, shoot tucking and unfurling the netting. It will truly be a labor day weekend.