Our Late Harvest Chenin Blanc

We have been trying our hand at creating a late harvest botrytized Chenin Blanc since 2019. Initially, we were bagging the grapes that our harvesters missed during the harvest. In 2022, we were delinquent with our harvest and didn't get to the organza bags until it was too late. In 2023, we tried to be more proactive in bagging the Chenin and were able to bag 750 bunches. In 2024, we dedicated half a row of Chenin to our late harvest efforts.
Here is a snapshot of the statistics associated with the vintage:

Year	Harvest date	#Pounds	Volume	Brix	pH	TA	# Bottles
2019	11/19/2019	50 lbs	4 gal	25	3.52	11.2 g/L	12
2020	12/11/2020	5 lbs	375 mL	39	-	-	0
2021	12/15/2021	20 lbs	1 gal	31.5	3.52	14.2 g/L	6
2023	12/1/2023	80 lbs	4 gal	44.0	3.62	14.8 g/L	37
2024	12/72024	50 lbs	2.5 gal	26.8	3.56	10.0 g/L	NA

What is true is that it takes a lot more pounds of grapes to have a small amount of juice from these raisin-like grapes. We have also learned that the final sugar content is very important in the flavor profile of the finished wine. We liken it to the German wine pyramid of sweetness:

1. Kabinett the lightest style of Riesling, made from grapes that have a sweetness level of 67-82 Oechsle (148–188 g/L sugar) at harvest. . Kabinett wines range in style from dry to off-dry¹
2. Spätlese means “late harvest” and grapes have a sweetness level of 76-90 Oechsle (172–209 g/L sugar) when harvested
3. Auslese meaning “select harvest”, Auslese is even sweeter picked at 83–110 Oechsle (191–260 g/l sugar) where the grapes are hand-selected and have noble rot
4. Beerenauslese meaning “berry select harvest”, these grapes are basically raisinated noble rot grapes picked at 110-128 Oechsle (260+ g/l sugar)
5. Trockenbeerenauslese Meaning “dry berry select harvest” the most rare wine of the group made from raisinated grapes that dried out on the vine picked at 150-154 Oechsle (350+ g/l sugar)
Based on the German categorization, our wines can be categorized as:

• 2019     25.0 Brix     Auslese
• 2020     39.0 Brix     Trockenbeerenauslese
• 2021     31.5 Brix     Trockenbeerenauslese
• 2023     44.0 Brix     Trockenbeerenauslese
• 2024     26.8 Brix     Beerenauslese

For noble rot to occur in the vineyard, the conditions have to be just right.
In looking back, our first attempt in 2019, was harvested on November 19 and though there was noble rot infection the grapes were not given the time necessary to dessicate and concentrate the sugars. For the 2024 harvest, while we bagged our grapes and harvested it on December 7, our Brix is at the Beerenauslese level. Though the grapes were shriveled when picked not all the grapes had been infected with noble rot.
This year is another year to try our hand at growing a noble rot infected Chenin!
References:
1. Schlink Haus.