Vintage 2022: October Update

I thought that I knew what New England fall was like. Beautiful humidity free days with abundant sunshine at just the perfect temperature with a backdrop of trees changing color.
As for our fall harvest, it is really like clockwork so we shouldn't be surprised. After the Chardonnay harvest, we harvest the Chenin Blanc which is the variety that is the most abundant in our vineyard growing in 17 of the 36 rows. On October 1, the day before our Chardonnay harvest, the remnants of Hurricane Ian brought rain to our region. In fact, it was also supposed to rain on Sunday, when we harvested the Chardonnay, but the rain held off although the day was raw with strong gusts of wind.
It rained overnight from October 5 to October 6, as well as from October 7 to October 8. Currently, we are looking at wet weather today into Friday, expected to bring 2-inches of rain to our region.

Why all this concern about rain, you ask? Here is what our Chenin Blanc looked like in September. Pristine, ripening grapes.

With all of the rains that we have been having, here is what the Chenin Blanc looks like now:

The rot you see is botrytis and in some areas it has formed a fibrous mat. Not the thing you want to see in the vineyard so we have been working diligently to remove the most affected grapes. So far, I believe that we have taken out about 500 pounds of rot from 9 rows of Chenin Blanc. We have a few more days until harvest comes around on Sunday, October 16. You will find us tryng our best to remove as much rot as we possibly can.
While removing the rot, we wonder if we could have done something to prevent this botrytis from spreading. One thing we could do is to makes two passes of leaf removal, once before veraison, when the weather is extremely hot and then once after veraison when the sun is not so intense. The later leaf removal will give the grapes more air flow and possibly prevent any rot from spreading.
What I would like to ask, "Where is the Indian summer that New England is known for?"
Postscript: Just in case I painted too dire a picture, there are still many beautiful clusters of Chenin Blanc waiting to be harvested on Sunday.