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