Vintage 2020: Chenin Blanc Pressing at Jonathan Edwards Winery

We went to Jonathan Edwards Winery at 10:30 on Monday morning, October 12, 2020. We were involved in the cleaning of the press. Then the weighing of the bins, destemming and pressing of the grapes began.

Bin Order #	Row #	Weight	Tare	Final Weight
Bin 1	Rows 5-6	849	93	756
Bin 2	Rows 8-9	836	91	745
Bin 3	Rows 4-5	799	93	706
Bin 4	Rows 15-16	733	93	640
Bin 5	Rows 2-3	808	93	715
Bin 6	Rows 10-11	866	93	773
Bin 7	Rows 7-8	816	91	725
Bin 8	Row 3-4	821	93	728
Bin 9	Rows 12-13	846	93	753
Bin 10	Rows 16-17	429	91	338
Bin 11	Rows 1-2	825	91	734
Bin 12	Rows 13-14	679	91	588

After the first six bins were loaded into the press, we took a break. The free run juice from the first six bins was put into the first stainless steel tank. Then after the break, the free run juice from the second six bins was put into the second stainless steel tank.
During the pressing the pressed juice was put into both the first and the second stainless steel tanks. The pressing was over around 3:30 and thankfully, the anticipated rain held off. We helped the crew clean the press and helped them to put their Chardonnay into the press. When this was done, it was 5 p.m. and the Monday torrential rain forecast did not occur during this process. Phew!
For our purposes, we wanted to know how much weight in grapes came from each of our rows:

Row #	1-2	2-3	3-4	4-5	5-6	7-8	8-9	10-11	12-13	13-14	15-16	16-17
Final Weight	734	715	728	706	756	725	745	773	753	588	640	338

Since the grapes that came from each row was not enough to fill each bin, some from the next row was added so that the bin was topped off. Row 1-12 and half of row 13 is our Chenin Blanc clone 982 and half of row 13 to row 17 is our Chenin Blanc clone FPS-1. For the rows that are planted in clone 982, those vines have been producing grapes since 2017. This is the first year that clone FPS-1 is producing grapes. You can tell by the above table that the production from this clone was less than that for the 982.
We want to extend our thanks to the crew at Jonathan Edwards Winery and Jonathan Edwards himself that put the pressing of our harvest before his and helped us to press our Chenin Blanc!

Vintage 2020: Chenin Blanc Harvest

My last post was called Vintage 2020: Getting Ready for Chenin Blanc Harvest written on October 8. Already 9 days have passed and much has happened. We prepared for harvest on Saturday, October 10, 2020 and put out a call to all of our friends for help on Sunday with the Chenin Blanc harvest. Most of our vineyard, that is 17 of the 36 rows is planted to Chenin Blanc so this is our largest harvest in any given year. This year, we anticipated harvesting between 5-6 tons of fruit.
Our friends came at 8 a.m. to help with the raising of the netting.

Harvest commenced around 10 a.m.

The lunch bell rang at 1 p.m. Everyone was ready for a break!

Our harvesters found creative ways to rest their weary bodies for the lunch break. Note to owners: get more picnic tables!

It was time to pick up the filled lugs and transfer the grapes into the 1/2-ton bins.

We were able to fill twelve of these 1/2-ton bins, with the twelfth bin being half full.

The day wasn't quite over. Our stalwart friends hurried to get in the remaining rows of Chenin Blanc before darkness fell and the threat of rain on Monday made harvesting on Sunday an imperative. The remaining filled lugs were picked up from the vineyard, our friend Bill, the owner of a flatbed truck arrived around 6 p.m. and the 12 bins were loaded onto his truck.

It was 7 p.m. when the last bins were loaded onto the truck in darkness.

Bill drove the flatbed truck and we followed behind to Jonathan Edwards Winery. By the time we reached there it was 7:30. Jonathan Edwards and his crew were still working to destem their harvest of Chardonnay. Like us, they were rushing to pull in their grapes before the rain on Monday. Jonathan Edwards stacked our bins three high and moved the 4 stacks into his winery.
With that done, our day was over.
We want to thank all of our friends who came to help with the harvest! You are the best! More posts regarding the Chenin Blanc harvest to follow.

Vintage 2020: Getting Ready for Chenin Blanc Harvest

Two of our varieties have been harvested. The Auxerrois was first on 2020 First Harvest Auxerrois September 17, followed by the Chardonnay 2020 Chardonnay Harvest, a week later on September 24, 2020.
We are now preparing for the Chenin Blanc harvest on Sunday October 11, 2020. The majority of our vineyard is dedicated to Chenin Blanc but we have two clones, 982 and FPS-1. This is the first year that we will be harvesting Chenin Blanc clone FPS-1.
Here is what the FPS-1 looks like:

The FPS-1 clone is a looser cluster than the 982 and the berries are bigger. We love seeing these grapes as the sunlight shines through them. It is a beautiful yellow!
We have two data points for our two clones of Chenin Blanc:

Variety - Clone	Date of Sample	Weight	Volume of Juice	Brix	pH	TA
Chenin Blanc - Clone 982	9/26/2020 10/4/2020	281 g 211 g	135 mL 100 mL	20.6 21.4	2.76 2.96	11.8 g/L 9.9 g/L
Chenin Blanc - Clone FPS-1	9/26/2020 10/4/2020	207 g 264 g	100 mL 125 mL	19 20.5	2.66 2.90	16.8 g/L 10.4 g/L

2016 Agetha Bursin Lutzeltal Pinot Noir

This is the second Agathe Bursin Pinot Noir that we have had. The first one was her 2016 Agathe Bursin Strangenburg Pinot Noir which we tasted in February of this year. It's unusual to find a Pinot Noir that comes in an Alsatian wine bottle, but this it a great find. The color was dark purple and medium to heavy body. There was enough fruit and acidity to make this a wine that will age wonderfully. We had this wine with roast chicken thighs, green beans and smashed potatoes that my husband has honed to perfection.

References:
1. Wood Winters Wines and Whiskies, Agathe Bursin Pinot Noir Lutzeltal 2015.