2022 Chardonnay Harvest

Our second harvest occurred on October 2, 2022, but we first had to get through the wet weather that came our way from the remnants of Hurricane Ian. It rained all day on Saturday with the forecast for harvest on Sunday looking less than promising. I called my mother, a Buddhist minister who has a direct line to the Almighty and asked her to pray for no rain. When Sunday came around, the skies were grey but there was no rain!
Our friends began showing up at 8 a.m. to help us raise the nets and a small but motivated crew assembled at 9:00 a.m. and began harvesting the Chardonnay. This year, our daughter and her family from Worcester also came to help us harvest so that we were done with harvesting the 8 rows of Chardonnay at 12:30!
Our neighbor helped my husband to pull in the filled lugs and our stalwart (definition=loyal, reliable, dedicated) friends who have a trailer stayed until we could take the palettes to Jonathan Edwards Winery to spend the night.

When Monday morning came around, we went to the winery to begin cleaning the stainless steel barrels for holding the pressed juice and made sure that the press was clean. Jonathan weighed the palettes for us and his crew (Josh and Dan, thank you both!) helped to put the harvest as whole clusters into the press. The press cycle began around 1:45 and by 3:45 it was over.

The hydrometer reading of the juice showed that the Brix of our harvested Chardonnay was 22.5^o. We tested the juice for barrels 1 and 2 separately since barrel 1 was mostly the free run juice and barrel 2 had the pressed fraction. Here is how this year's harvest numbers compare with other years.

Variety	Harvest Date	Brix	pH	TA	Lbs	Gals
Chardonnay
	September 28, 2019	21.5	3.17	9.4 g/L	291	26
	September 24, 2020	23.5	3.0	10.0 g/L	1136	80
	October 3, 2021	20.4	3.28	8.2 g/L	2625	210
Barrel 1	October 2, 2022	22.5	3.05	8.9 g/L
Barrel 2	October 2, 2022	22.5	3.11	7.5 g/L
					2306	185

What we did notice about the harvest was that the clusters were small and loose. The upside to that was that the grapes were the most pristine Chardonnay that we have ever grown!
Before closing this blog, we want to thank all of the people who came to brave the blustery, cold conditions to help us harvest the Chardonnay! Next time, when I put in my request to my mother, I need to ask her to pray for no rain and no wind and if it's not asking too much, just a little sunshine!