Vintage 2022: Annual Cycle of Growth

The year is quickly coming to a close so I need to post this final Annual Cycle of Growth. It's a good thing to look back on to see how each year progressed with the six varieties of Vitus vinifera that we have planted in the vineyard.

It is good to see trends emerging that will help us prepare for next year!

Pre-Christmas Celebration

'Twas two days before Christmas and a winter storm was bearing down on the east coast. On Thursday evening, the system brought rain and gale force winds and when we woke up on Friday morning, it was still raining. We chose a time between the deluge and an impending 30 degree drop in temperature to drive 2 hours north to Massachusetts to visit our son and his family. They relocated from Seattle in March and this would be the first time we would visit them in their abode. Needless to say, while the roads were crowded we didn't run into any traffic slow downs due to the weather. (Most people had chosen to drive on Thursday or hold off to Saturday when better weather was forecast). We did get to our destination and were able to spend some quality time with our son and his family.
Our son scored a porchetta from a bona fide butcher shop and he also knew that it would take 5 hours to cook the trussed pork. When 5 p.m. rolled around, my husband began shucking the oysters that we had been gifted from our hunter. We paired the oysters with this Laherte Freres Ultradition Extra Brut that my husband had sourced. Laherte Freres is a grower-producer and was founded in 1889 by Jean-Baptiste Laherte and is now in the hands of Aurélien Laherte who took over in 2005. The label on the back of the bottle indicated that it had 4.5 g/L of dosage and the composition was 60% Pinot Meunier, 30% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Noir. The Ultradition lineup consists of Brut, Extra Brut and Rosé Champagnes.
After consuming 2 dozen oysters and imbibing the Laherte which was a terrific pairing, we moved on to the porchetta with baked potatoes and salad. The porchetta was paired with our 2019 Cabernet Franc (extremely limited production of 8 cases) which paired very well with the pork and evolved throughout the meal.

Last but not least, dessert was a gingerbread cake topped with whipped creme! We are still recovering from our slight overindulgence.
References:
1. Laherte Freres, Polaner Selections.

Victorine de Chastenay Crémant de Bourgogne

The holidays are coming up and a good sparkling wine from Burgundy is the Victorine de Chastenay. This crémant (the name of a sparkling wine made outside of the Champagne region) went into one of the gift baskets that was part of the drawing that we had for our harvest party. It is imported by Skurnik. The crémant is made from 75% Pinot Noir, 10% Gamay, 10% Aligoté, and 5% Chardonnay. The fruit comes from 40 year old vines from the Côtes de Nuits and Côtes De Beaune in Burgundy. The complex and refreshing Brut Blanc is made completely in tank to preserve the minerality and freshness of the Côte d’Or fruit and are aged on the lees for 20 months before release (the minimum for the appellation is 12 months!).
This crémant retails for under $20.00 and is a good bubbly to serve at Christmas or New Years! (or really at any time, IMHO).

2022 Annual Harvest Party

We had our annual (second year in our industrial space) harvest party where we get our crew together to thank them for all of the work they did to help us with bringing in the grapes. Last year we were organized enough to take pictures of all the food we made and served but this year, we just plain forgot.
However, instead of one prize for our drawing, we came up with 3 prizes. The grand prize had an Aubry Champagne, the second prize had a sparkling bourgogne, and the third prize had a lambrusco and other goodies were included in each prize.
This year, we decided that the food we would make would have a Hawaiian/Asian theme. So here we is what we served:

We would like to thank everyone who helped us to make the harvest a success! You are the best!

Vintage 2022: December Recap of this Vintage

It's been a while since I have written a blogpost. We have had a tolerably warm fall into winter here in southeastern Connecticut which has allowed us to do some buttoning up in the vineyard. The major task is rolling up the netting in preparation for winter. We are almost done with that!
So, here is a recap of what our year was like. We began work in the vineyard in mid-February with pre-pruning activities which included freeing last year's canes from wires, tendrils and Agfast (a branch locking device). Once that was done, the first pass of pruning could proceed and those tasks took us into mid-April. The warm spring brought budswell in the vineyard earlier than we expected and we were still pruning the Chenin Blanc, being careful not to knock of the buds!
Before budbreak, we were able to lay down this vintage's canes just in time. Budbreak for all of our varieties occurred in May. Once this happens, so many things have to take place at the same time! Disbudding quickly turns into shoot removal.

Shoot removal which could be done without any pruners becomes shoot removal with pruners. The vines are growing! The weeds are also growing! My husband weed wacked most of the vineyard before our major purchase of the year arrived on June 17th, when Doug from Oesco brought our new weeder. The weeder worked very well and made short work of weed removal. We are hoping that next year, the weeder will make my husband's manual weed wacking a thing of the past.

Our hedging duties began at the end of June since the spring brought many days of rain (June 8, 9, 13, 17, 19, and 27) and the shoots reached the top of the trellis wire. We learned that hedging is an important activity because if there is any mildew that will happen, it will be on the young leaves of the growing vine. Hedging took the entire month of July to do. Fortunately, our family from Hawaii and Worcester came to help us in the vineyard and that put us in a very good place. Meanwhile, fruitset was also happening in the vineyard. Fruitset is a tenuous time for the young grapes because shaking of the cluster at the wrong time will lead to shatter! July also brought a heat wave, the first one beginning on July 19th. We also began leaf pulling and shoot tucking, once we were certain that fruitset had occurred.
August brought veraison in the Auxerrois and for the first time, we were able to bring the netting down on the ripening grapes. A month later, on September 17, we had the entire vineyard netted, prior to harvest. That was a first for us! We learned that what is really helpful in accomplishing this task is to have the netting on the lowest possible notch on the linepost so that the growing shoots don't have a chance to entwine their tendrils into the netting.
A week after all the netting was in place, we harvested the Auxerrois, on September 25. The Chardonnay was harvested on October 2, the Chenin Blanc on October 16 and 17, and then the red varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Barbera on October 21.
With the exception of the Chenin Blanc, all of our varieties were in pristine condition when they were harvested. Our Chenin Blanc, especially, the clone 982 suffered botrytis damage. But with the help of our excellent crew, we did manage to harvest 4900 pounds of good quality Chenin Blanc.

Next Steps for our Red Wines: Pressing and Malolactic Fermentation

On November 6, I wrote about the Details of Our Red Grape Fermentation, beginning with harvest on October 21 and ending on November 4 with the hydrometer reading which indicated that our wines had fermented to dryness.
The three varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Barbera spent the next few days, until November 8 in the half ton bin for the next step which was pressing the juice from the grapes.
Unlike making white wines where the grapes are pressed and the juice is fermented, the red wines are fermented with the berries intact in order to extract the color from the skins. It is a bit tricky getting out the juice and berries from a half ton bin, but the crew at Jonathan Edwards have this down to a science. Initially, the juice is removed from the half ton bin, leaving only the skins in the bin.

Then the skins are put into the press where the wine was then pressed and put into totes.

The wine spent from November 8 to November 16 in the totes. On November 16, Zak, whom you see in the above photos cleaned some oak barrels for us and the wines were transferred into the barrels.
When all was said and done, we have one barrel of Cabernet Sauvignon, one barrel of Cabernet Franc and a barrel of a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (25 gallons), Cabernet Franc (20 gallons), and Barbera (14 gallons). On November 17, we inoculated the barrels with our bacteria, VP41 using the MBR method. Each barrel received 2.5 grams of VP41 hydrated in 15 mL of water at 68 degrees F.
Now it is another waiting period, while the VP41 transforms malic acid into the mellower lactic acid.

Gratien and Meyer Cremant de Loire for the Holidays

We have now had this Gratien and Meyer Cremant de Loire Brut Rose twice. It is a sparkling wine made from 100% Cabernet Franc grapes using the traditional champagne method. The color is a salmon pink and the flavors are of strawberries and raspberries. We had this with antipasto appetizers and it paired very well.
It is a very nice sparkling wine and perfect for Thanksgiving and at a price point of $16.99 you will not break the bank purchasing this for the holidays.

Vineyard Cleanup

Harvest is over and that is a huge relief but there are still many things to do in the vineyard. One of our major concerns was bringing in the botrytized and rotten Chenin Blanc that was left in the vineyard after harvest.
Although we brought in our last varieties, our red grapes on October 21, our Chenin Blanc fell victim to the rains that came before harvest and every bout of rain brought more degradation in the quality of the grapes such that when harvest time came around on October 17 and 18, we asked our crew to pick only the best clusters and clean the slightly flawed clusters. They did that to perfection and we ended up with 2-1/2 tons of quality grapes. However, that meant that the Chenin Blanc that were not harvested were still hanging in the vineyard.
Yesterday, marked the milestone when all of the botrytized grapes were removed and the grapes that were not too affected were bagged with organza wedding bags for a late harvest dessert wine.

A little historical background: We have been using organza bags to protect our ripening grapes since our first crop of Chenin Blanc in 2016. Now that we have a fully producing vineyard, we do not bag the entire vineyard and use side netting, but we do try to dedicate a few clusters to producing a late harvest dessert wine. This year, we have a bit more than a few clusters so it will be exciting to do a final harvest of wedding bags later this year.

Details of Our Red Grape Fermentation

We harvested our red varieties, Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc on Friday, October 21, 2022. We brought the grapes to Jonathan Edwards Winery where it was destemmed and the must was put into half ton bins. The must was allowed to macerate until Monday, October 24, 2022 when it was inoculated with yeast.
On November 4, 2022, we took hydrometer readings for the Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc and verified that the fermentation went to completion.

The pre- and post-fermentation values for the reds are:

Variety		Brix	pH	TA
Barbera	Pre-fermentation	22.5	3.0	NA g/L
Barbera	Post-fermentation	-1.5	3.11	9.1 g/L
Variety		Brix	pH	TA
Cabernet Sauvignon	Pre-fermentation	21.0	3.26	NA g/L
Cabernet Sauvignon	Post-fermentation	-1.0	3.34	8.4 g/L
Variety		Brix	pH	TA
Cabernet Franc	Pre-fermentation	22.0	3.27	NA g/L
Cabernet Franc	Post-fermentation	-1.5 - -2.0	3.34	6.5 g/L

Next steps, pressing! Stay tuned.

Vintage 2022: Summary of Our Yearly Harvest Statistics

The 2022 vintage is in and it is time to sumarize the statistics of that harvest and append it to the harvest of the previous years. Here are the yearly numbers at harvest for comparison:

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
Chenin Blanc
	October 14, 2019	21.6	3.15	13.5 g/L	3930	305
	October 11, 2020	23.3	3.09	12.1 g/L	8201	655
	October 17-18, 2021	20.4	3.17	14.6 g/L	6200	496
	October 16-17, 2022	21.0	3.07	8.9 g/L	4901	392
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
	October 2, 2022	22.5	3.05 - 3.11	7.5 - 8.9 g/L	2306	185
Cabernet Sauvignon
	November 3, 2019	19	3.25	11.1 g/L	332	30
	October 22, 2020	22.4	3.08	10.7 g/L	888	80
	October 24, 2021	20.1	3.07	10.4 g/L	561	45
	October 21, 2022	21.0	3.26	- g/L	~1300	104
Cabernet Franc
	October 26, 2019	23	3.23	11.3 g/L	377	32
	October 22, 2020	23.3	3.27	11.3 g/L	872	80
	October 24, 2021	19.8	3.20	7.4 g/L	402	32
	October 21, 2022	22.0	3.27	- g/L	~1200	96
Barbera
	October 21, 2022	22.5	3.00	- g/L	~600	48

For this year, the table includes Barbera for the first time. The table does not include the titratable acids (TA) for the Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Barbera. We ran out of reagents to do this test. The post fermentation will have the TA values. The table also contains approximate values for the weight of the Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Barbera. The approximate weight will be back calculated from the number of gallons at press time.
The table also contains a range of values for the Chardonnay to reflect the values that came from the two stainless steel barrels that the must went in to.
All in all, we feel that with the exception of the Chenin Blanc, our crew brought in very clean grapes with the Auxerrois, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Barbera giving us the best yields so far.

2005 Rene LeClerc Gevrey Chambertin

We are already in November! The harvest is in and fermenting away. We have had a chance to exhale a little and have friends over for food and wine. This past Saturday, my husband made his duck with berry sauce with a side of wild rice. To pair with the meal, he brought out this 2005 Rene LeClerc Gevrey Chambertin. Duck and Pinot Noir go together so well and this pairing was no exception. I truly enjoyed drinking this wine, it opened up with soft berry fruit and had such a silky finish.
We had a wonderful evening with our friends, eating and drinking made the time pass! Our friends enjoyed the wine as well so I decided to dig a little deeper into the wine that my husband pulled up from his cellar.
I found this page, Domaine Rene Leclerc – Pas de Chêne Pour Moi s’il Vous Plaît written in January 20, 2013 by Christopher Massie. On that post, I learned that there are two brothers, Philippe and Rene. They maintained the same domaine until in 1976, they split the domaine located in Gevrey due to their adherence to stylistic differences in their winemaking. Philippe uses new oak and ages his wines from 18 to 24 months and Rene eschews the use of new oak. Rene believes in long cool fermentations with minimal handling of the wine. In 2002, Rene's son, Francois joined the team and began using 100% used oak barrels. What did this do to the wines? It is laden with fruit!
I told my husband how much I liked this wine and he said that it was a village wine! If a village wine can taste this good, what must a premier cru taste like?

2022 Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Barbera Harvest

Not even a week after our 2022 Chenin Blanc Harvest we were back in the vineyard, harvesting our Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Barbera. How did this happen, you ask? Mother Nature was dealing rain on Sunday and Monday and Jonathan Edwards was going to harvest his Cabernet Franc on Friday. Originally, the plan was to harvest on Sunday but things can change on a dime. We were able to around up a crew on very short notice and we had around 16 people willing to come early and harvest. It was a beautiful fall day, net lifting began around 7:30 and harvest began around 8:30.

The first grapes, two rows of Cabernet Sauvignon was brought in and filled two bins. The bins were loaded onto trucks to make the trip to Jonathan Edwards winery.

Meanwhile, the crew continued to harvest the Cabernet Franc and the Barbera. The filled lugs of Cabernet Franc were picked up and the Barbera was done before noon! Simply amazing! The crew took a break for lunch and we picked up the Barbera and put the grapes into the lugs for transport to the winery.
Due to circumstances beyond anyone's control, we were not able to get the weight of the grapes, we hope to back calculate from the number of gallons to have an approximation of the weight.
Here are the statistics with a little historical context for our Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc with the first entry for the Barbera.

Variety	Harvest Date	Brix	pH	TA	Lbs	Gals
Cabernet Sauvignon
	November 3, 2019	19	3.25	11.1 g/L	332	30
	October 22, 2020	22.4	3.08	10.7 g/L	888	80
	October 24, 2021	20.1	3.07	10.4 g/L	561	45
	October 21, 2022	21.0	3.26	- g/L	1300	104
Cabernet Franc
	October 26, 2019	23	3.23	11.3 g/L	377	32
	October 22, 2020	23.3	3.27	11.3 g/L	872	80
	October 24, 2021	19.8	3.20	7.4 g/L	402	32
	October 21, 2022	22.0	3.27	- g/L	1200	96
Barbera
	October 21, 2022	22.5	3.00	- g/L	600	48

Once again, we owe a debt of gratitude to all the people who came on such short notice to help us bring in our red grapes. We also want to thank the crew at Jonathan Edwards for their help in our 2022 harvest!

2022 Chenin Blanc Harvest

Our Chenin Blanc harvest occurred on Sunday, October 16 and Monday, October 17. Before harvest could occur however, we had one more round of rainfall from Thursday, October 13 into Friday October 14 that we had to deal with. Wet weather just degrades grape quality in a big way. Although we didn't have the flooding conditions that some forecasters called for, we did have a steady rain that lasted for approximately 12 hours.
When Sunday came around, we had a hard working crew of approximately 35 people who helped us select only the best grapes to put into our yellow lugs. We have 17 rows of Chenin Blanc so on Sunday, the crew helped us to harvest the first 11 rows of Chenin Blanc. On Monday, we harvested the rest of the best grapes from the remaining rows.
On Monday, we had 6-1/2 bins of good quality Chenin Blanc that were at Jonathan Edwards winery. Unfortunately, it was raining again on Monday and Jon opined that he thought the grapes were in good shape and advised us come back first thing Tuesday morning to begin the destemming and pressing. It was very good advice! We went back yesterday and the destemming and pressing commenced from 10 a.m. and ended at 1:10 p.m.

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

Variety	Harvest Date	Brix	pH	TA	Lbs	Gals
Chenin Blanc
	October 14, 2019	21.6	3.15	13.5 g/L	3930	305
	October 11, 2020	23.3	3.09	12.1 g/L	8201	655
	October 17-18, 2021	20.4	3.17	14.6 g/L	6200	496
	October 16-17, 2022	21.0	3.07	8.9 g/L	4901	392

Again, we do want to thank all of our dedicated crew for helping us to harvest just the best of the Chenin Blanc.

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.

Update on the Brix and pH for Our Vineyard

We now have our Auxerrois and Chardonnay harvested, but it has now been 4 weeks since we last took our Brix, pH and titratable acid numbers for the remaining grape varieties that we grow. We were able to do this on October 6. Here is what we are currently seeing which will help us guide when and what we harvest next. From previous experience, we know that the next up is our Chenin Blanc. The numbers there look promising. Now all we need is for Mother Nature to provide us with some benevolent sunshine.

Variety	Sample Date/ Harvest Date	Brix	pH	TA
Auxerrois	September 15	19	3.02	12.2 g/L
Auxerrois Harvest	September 25	20.0	3.16	7.1 g/L

Variety	Sample Date/ Harvest Date	Brix	pH	TA
Chenin Blanc 982	September 16	18.8	2.82	13.80 g/L
Chenin Blanc 982	October 6	20.8	2.95	11.7 g/L
Chenin Blanc FPS-1	September 16	18	2.79	10.3 g/L
Chenin Blanc FPS-1	October 6	20.2	2.90	8.0 g/L

Variety	Sample Date/ Harvest Date	Brix	pH	TA
Chardonnay	September 15	20.6	2.88	12.1 g/L
Chardonnay Harvest	October 2	22.5	3.1-3.2	7-9 g/L

Variety	Sample Date/ Harvest Date	Brix	pH	TA
Cabernet Sauvignon	September 16	18	2.80	12.8 g/L
Cabernet Sauvignon	October 6	20.0	2.90	11.1 g/L

Variety	Sample Date/ Harvest Date	Brix	pH	TA
Cabernet Franc	September 16	18.6	2.85	12.3 g/L
Cabernet Franc	October 6	20.8	2.95	8.4 g/L

Variety	Sample Date/ Harvest Date	Brix	pH	TA
Barbera	September 18	18.6	2.64	17.2 g/L
Barbera	October 6	21.0	2.72	11.0 g/L

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!

Vintage 2022: October

We have one harvest in the books and 5 more to go. The next scheduled harvest is for tomorrow, Sunday, October 2, 2022. However, we have to get through this weather system that is the remnants of Hurricane Ian which hit the west coast of Florida with such force and devastation (thinking of you in Florida!).
Our son, who lives in Massachusetts sent us a photo of the rains that we should expect to come our way.

That was really thoughtful of him, but with a harvest coming up, the weather was foremost on our minds. The problem is, Mother Nature is really hard to pin down and the forecast went from bad to good, to bad then not so bad, etc., if you do any kind of farming you know what I am talking about.
So far, the rain has been light but steady and instead of the 1.5 inches forecast, we have 0.45 inch so far.

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.

Vineyard Nursery

On July 17, while working in the Chardonnay, my husband came across this well camouflaged bird's nest and took photos of it. I thought that it was a beautiful nest, so tightly constructed but it had nothing in it.

We forgot about the bird's nest until we found ourselves working in the Chardonnay again and came across the nest. This time when we took photos, this is what we saw:

In the photo above, the one on the left was taken on August 18 and the one on the right was taken on August 19. When we initially saw the birds on August 18th, we were unsure weather the birds were newly hatched or if the heat wave that we have been having was affecting them. We were relieved on the following day, when we saw an opened beak waiting to be fed! Phew!
At that time, we didn't know what kind of baby birds they were but we had a hunch that they were goldfinch because we had what appeared to be a goldfinch nest in the vineyard last year.
We soon found out:

Those photos were taken on August 26, so within a span on 8 days, the newly hatched birds could indeed be identified as goldfinch! We absolutely love that these birds have made our vineyard their nursery.

Red Varieties are Now at Veraison

We went to the vineyard this weekend and the red varieties were at véraison! Here are some photos I took on Sunday, Augut 21 and then on Tuesday, August 23, 2022.

It has taken me three days to get this blog post written and in that time, our Barbera has entered véraison!

On Monday, we had the first rain since August 17. It was a good soaker that gave the vineyard around 1 inch of rain. And then, we had a bonus rain event on Tuesday evening, August 23 that brought another 1/2 inch of rain. The vineyard definitely could use the rain but the vines are hanging in there.
The Connecticut Drought map for our regions shows that we are currently in an extreme drought situation.

Meanwhile, we are working as quickly as we can to deploy our nets to protect the ripening grapes from every from of predator!

Annual Cycle of Growth - Véraison

On Saturday, August 13, we took the Brix of the Auxerrois and it was 11 degrees. Yesterday, we sampled a few more berries and in the span of 5 days it went from 11 to between 13 and 15 degrees Brix! The Auxerrois are definitely on their tragectory to ripening. All the nets are secured around the ripening grapes so it was time to turn our attention to the Chardonnay. The Chardonnay was also softening and when we tested the Brix it was at 10 Brix!
We have been keeping a chart of the annual cycle of growth for our varieties so it is time again to begin to fill the chart to indicate véraison for 2022.

Keeping a chart of this sort allows us to see if our varieties are on track with previous years and helps us to plan for harvest. If this chart is any indication, the next varieties to enter véraison would be the Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. The red varieties are easy to check for véraison because the skins will turn from green to red.
Looks like the grapes are following their internal clocks!

Vintage 2022: Véraison in the Auxerrois

On Friday, August 12, my husband informed me that the Auxerrois grapes were softening, one of the indications that véraison is approaching. I took the hand held refractometer to the vineyard on Saturday and sampled one of the softest of the berries that I could find and the Brix (or sugar content) was at 11 degrees. Then I tasted it and it was still very acidic.
Nevertheless, we began to net the grapes so that they will not be such an attraction for the Baltimore Orioles who really want to have a sugar load before they migrate south for the winter. We began netting the Auxerrois on August 12 and finished the fifth row on August 15.

We use clothespins as a netting closure because we find that it is an easy and effective means of closing the nets. It is also relatively simple to remove the clothes pins for taking samples for monitoring the Brix, pH and titratable acids and when it comes time to harvest, we simply raise the netting and use the clothes pins to secure it to the trellis wire.
We know that the next grapes to reach véraison is the Chardonnay so we will be lowering the nets in that variety in the days to come.

2015 La Hermana Liquid Farm Chardonnay and 2005 Selleck Calera Pinot Noir

I blogged about How to Open and Taste an Old Wine in July. Recently, we had an opportunity to drink two rather old, (not ancient) wines, a 2015 La Hermana Liquid Farm Chardonnay and 2005 Selleck Calera Pinot Noir. The Chardonnay is now 7 years old and the Pinot Noir is 17 years old.

We drank the Chardonnay with some appetizers of cheese, Marcona almonds and soppresata. The Liquid Farm Chardonnay was fresh with well integrated oak and went very well with the appetizers. We had the Pinot Noir with baked salmon and wild rice. The Calera was drinking very well, with nice red berry flavors, a hint of tobacco and a smooth finish.
We enjoyed these old wines, they are aging very well!

2017 Domaine Dirler-Cade Riesling Spiegel

The hot weather has been continuing---we are into day 8 of the second heat wave this year. One of the meals that we have in the evening is melon with prosciutto. My husband chose a perfectly ripe honeydew melon and prosciutto was the perfect match with a little bit of balsamic glaze. It's easy to make and is a very cool dinner. Doesn't this look good!

On the evening that we had this meal, we paired it with a 2017 Domaine Dirler-Cade Riesling Spiegel, a Grand Cru from the Alsace. We were tasting a few Alsatian wines that were a little heavy on the residual sugar and was a bit sweet for our palate, so it was nice to have a drier style Riesling, which this Domaine Dirler-Cade was. It was the perfect foil for the melon with the balsamic and fatty prosciutto.

On the back of the bottle, the label indicated that this wine was made from biodynamically grown grapes on Buntsandstein soil (please see my blog on The Geology of the Alsace if you are interested in what the Buntsandstein soil is). I like the fact that they hand harvest their grapes. I did taste the minerality of the Riesling!

Vintage 2022: August Update

It's already the 5th of August and this is my first blogpost for the month! Our attention during the first few days of this month was to shoot tuck our Chenin Blanc so that the last of the shoots that are in the alleys and beginning to entwine around each other have been lifted into the canopy or removed.

Once we did that, we moved on to the Chardonnay, raising the netting to the proper slot on the linepost so that it can be unfurled hopefully before véraison attracts the birds and the yellow jackets intent on getting their sugar fix. We were able to raise 8 rows of netting in 2 hours. After getting that done, we remarked that we really need to do this for the entire vineyard.
We are currently working in the Cabernet Sauvignon (our neglected children), shoot tucking, leaf pulling and making sure that the netting is free of tendrils.

In the above photo, you can see all of the shoots that have grown outside of the netting. This netting needs to be freed of those shoots and tucket into the trellis wires. The Cabernet Sauvignon is very interesting because it likes to flower late in the season and have some tiny bunches of fruit. We are seeing this on many of the secondary shoots (summer laterals) that the Cabernet Sauvignon is sending out now.

Yesterday, we were able to free up half a row of Cabernet Sauvignon so that it looks like this:

Today we hope to continue on the Cabernet Sauvignon freeing up more of the netting and leaf pulling on the east side so that the grapes can get the cooler morning sun.

August has brought another round of heat wave and yesterday, in some areas of Connecticut the feel like temperatures soared above 100 degrees. You can be sure that yesterday was what we call a "one shifter" since we did not go back to the vineyard for our afternoon shift. Today will be another one shifter!