We still have one more harvest to go. It is our late harvest noble rot Chenin blanc. We bagged half a row of Chenin Blanc on October 16 with organza wedding bags and to ensure that the bagged grapes are further protected, we enclosed the bagged grapes in netting. We have been doing this since 2019 when we found out that conditions on our land are conducive to producing noble rot during the fall.
We have two clones of Chenin blanc in our vineyard. Only one of our two clones of Chenin blanc will be affected with the noble rot. Clone 982, which is an ENTAV clone from France is the one that the
Botrytis cinerea infects and not clone FPS-1.
We have been monitoring the sugar levels in the grapes and as of yesterday, November 21, the Brix is a 29 degrees. A comparison of the grapes from November 1 and November 21 shows that the grapes are coming along:
This year, we have been having a problem with some wild animal, most likely raccoons that have been bold enough to make their way into the netting and eating the bagged grapes. On November 1, we came to the vineyard to check on the grapes and found empty bags littering the ground.
Besides raccoons, there may yet be another wild animal eating our grapes. This time, the bags are just gnawed at and left still hanging on the vine.
So, at this point, it is a race between sugar accumulation and wild animal devastation!
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