Vintage 2026: Chardonnay Harvest

On Sunday, October 11, a week after our first harvest of Auxerrois, we sent out a call for help to our friends that we would be harvesting our Chardonnay. The weather again was a factor, in fact this Sunday, another rain storm was coming in, the remnants of hurricane Isaias. We moved the net raising from 8:30 to 7:30 and many people came early to help us raise 8 rows of nets in one hour! The harvest began soon after that. Impending rain is a huge motivator, so our friends rose to the occasion to harvest 8 rows of Chardonnay by 11:20!

The Chardonnay grapes were in good condition, having miraculously survived all the rain events with little to no rot. The clusters were small and loose which probably helped with preventing rot from happening.

After harvest, we still had some time before the rains would come into southeastern Connecticut so we were able to enjoy lunch with our friends.

It rained all of Sunday afternoon and evening, not ending until very early Monday morning. On Monday, October 12, we brought the harvest to Stonington Vineyards where Mike, Jim and Dakota were waiting for us. The press was loaded with the Chardonnay as whole clusters and the cycle was started at 8:30. By the time the press cycle ended at 10:30, the sun was out and the skies were blue! The juice was pumped into our transport tank and we brought it back to our winery on Taugwonk Spur road.

We removed some of the juice and checked for Brix, pH and titratable acids:

Variety	Harvest Date	Brix	pH	TA g/L	Lbs	Gals
Chardonnay	October 11, 2026	22.0	3.30	7.6 g/L	1,750	140

We were surprised and happy that the Chardonnay was at 22 Brix. We could not have done this without the help from all of our friends! We want to thank our friends as well as the crew at Stonington Vineyards, Mike, Jim and Dakota for helping us with a successful Chardonnay harvest!