Projecting a 5 Year Harvest---Part 1

Although we have been harvesting small amounts of Chenin Blanc since 2015, we haven't approached anything near a full vineyard harvest until 2019. So, as of last year, we have two data points regarding the harvest numbers for our varieties. Based on those numbers we can set up some projection of how future harvests might transpire.

Variety	2019		2020		2021		2022		2023
	Lbs	Gal	Lbs	Gal	Lbs	Gal	Lbs	Gal	Lbs	Gal
Auxerrois	636	50	1670	120
Chenin Blanc	3930	280	8201	655
Chardonnay	291	26	1136	75
Cabernet Sauvignon	332	25	888	70
Cabernet Franc	377	30	872	70
Barbera			110	9

Here is a chart of when we planted (re-planted) our different varieties that are in the vineyard. For historical reasons, we always think of the Auxerrois as row 1. The Auxerrois is planted on the west side of the vineyard and each successive row takes us to the east side of the vineyard. All vines were planted in the row from the south end of the vineyard to the north end.

Auxerrois
Although we have only 5 rows of Auxerrois, the chart above shows that it was the most variable planting, meaning that in any given row, the vines come to maturity at different times. Auxerrois row 1 is a mixture of vines planted in 2019 and 2020. Auxerrois row 2 was planted in 2017, 2019 and 2020. Axuerrois row 3 was planted in 2019 and 2020. Auxerrois row 4 was planted in 2017 and Auxerrois row 5 is the most advanced, being planted in 2016.
In 2019, the Auxerrois from rows 2, 4 and 5 gave us fruit that we harvested. The same is true for the harvest that occured in 2020.
Chenin Blanc
From the above chart, most of the Chenin Blanc clone 982, rows 6-16 was planted in 2016. The south half of row 17 was planted in Chenin Blanc clone 982 in 2016. The north half of Chenin Blanc row 17 and rows 18-22 was planted in 2017 with Chenin Blanc clone FPS-1. Our first major harvest of Chenin Blanc occured in 2019 from fruit in rows 6-16, the 982 clone planted in 2016. Last year in 2020, we harvested fruit from the entire Chenin Blanc plantings from rows 6-22.
Chardonnay
The 8 rows of Chardonnay rows 23 - 30 was planted in 2016 and although we had a small harvest in 2019, our first major harvest occurred in 2020.
Cabernet Sauvignon
The two rows of Cabernet Sauvignon clone 412 rows 31 and 32 was planted in 2016. Our first harvest occurred in 2019 and we had an increase in the harvest in 2020.
Cabernet Franc
The two rows of Cabernet Franc are planted with two different clones. Row 33 is planted with clone 214 and row 34 is planted with clone 327. We had our first harvest in 2019 and we had an increase in the harvest in 2020.
Barbera
We have 2 rows of Barbera. With the Barbera, we are trying a very close spacing so instead of approximately 189 vines per row, we have 300 vines per row. Row 36 was planted in 2017 and row 35 was planted in 2019. In 2020, there was a bit of filling in that occured at the north end of the vineyard. We had a very small harvest from row 36 of the Barbera in 2020.
This sets the stage of how I plan to make a projection of what the harvest might be in 2021 under ideal conditions. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog.

Vintage 2021: Ground Hog Day

It appears that Punxsutawney Phil's prediction for 2021 is that we will have 6 more weeks of winter. Looking outside yesterday, one couldn't disagree with Phil. This past weekend we saw temperatures dip into the negative region with the wind chill and there were blizzard conditions last night.

We might have gotten an accumulation of approximately 6-inches of snow. Although, to be honest, the snow removers are doing a great job and our street is well plowed. We are still hunkering down and visions of a nice hot soup is permeating the air this morning.

2019 Passionfruit Estate Chardonnay

We bottled our 2019 Chardonnay on December 12, 2020. When we harvested our 2019 Chardonnay, we had approximately 26 gallons of juice so we split the harvest into 3 lots and inoculated it with 3 different yeasts, X16, D47 and CH9, all fermented in stainless steel. After fermentation, the wine sat on lees for 15 months before bottling.
On January 9, 2021, we tasted a 375 mL bottled of the Chardonnay fermented with X16. We thought that there was an aroma of orange blossoms but it was still searingly acidic. While we are not afraid of acid, we know that the typical Chardonnay consumer may not be used to this level of acidity.
Last night, we tried another bottle of our 2019 Chardonnay, this time fermented with D47. The aroma was one of white peaches and apricot. I thought the acidity on the D47 fermented Chardonnay was not as assertive as the Chardonnay fermented with X16. It could also be the result of being in the bottle just a bit longer than when we tasted the X16 fermented Chardonnay.
We paired the Chardonnay with gnocchi. I love gnocchi and when I read somewhere that there are good varieties of pre-made gnocchi, I couldn't resist. My husband cooked the gnocchi in sage browned butter with peas. It was a delicious pairing with the Chardonnay. After dinner, we agreed that to send the gnocchi over the top, my husband could also have put in some pancetta!

Farm Winery Layout

We are hoping to build something up on our property in the near future (we have been saying that for a few years now) so I thought that I would spend this down time researching how a Farm Winery can be laid out.
The design criteria for a farm winery differs from that of an industrial winery so when I came upon these two studies done in the Emilia-Romagna Region of Italy, focused on wineries, which are likely to be farms mainly processing their own grapes it piqued my curiosity and interest.

• 2011 article written by Tassinari, et. al titled The Built Environment of Farm Wineries an Analysis Methodology for Defining Meta-Design Requirements
• 2014 article by Torreggiani, et. al titled "Farm winery layout design: Size analysis of base spatial units in an Italian study area"

In the first article, the authors were seeking to define the meta-design requirements of a small farm winery, with their goal being to translate the functional needs of the investigated production processes into a preliminary design solution.
The functional needs that the authors identified were the following:¹

1. grapes receipt (covered area)
2. wine-making, further subdivided into must production sector and wine tanks storage sector
3. additives and adjuvants storage
4. workers’toilet
5. dressingroom
6. showers
7. bottling
8. bottlesstorage
9. aging
10. commercialization
11. guests’ toilet
12. tasting

In the 2014 article, the authors continued their research and gathered data from sampling 131 farm wineries, with annual average production capacities up to 5000 hl/year (approimately 55,000 cases).²
Although the definition of a Farm Winery in Emilia-Romagna is much larger than what we will be in full production (2,000 cases) there are lessons that can be learned from this study since it is much easier to work from an existing concept than to generate one's own.
In small wineries, the production lines are characterized by high flexibility, given the necessity to switch between different wine-making techniques. Such flexibility is mainly achieved through movable equipment, highly adaptable plans, and the ability of each worker to perform different operations.
When all the data was gathered, the authors carried out a proximity analysis of the different spatial units of the sampled wineries, based on the Systematic Layout Planning approach which has been acknowledged as one of the most frequently used methodology for plant layout design.

• Spatial units 1, 2A, and 2B represent the heart of the winemaking process
• Spatial units 3, 4+6, 5, 11, and 12 have an overall low variability and show no significant correlation with production capacity
• Spatial units 3 (additives and adjuvants storage), 4+6 (workers' toilet, including showers), and 5 (dressing room) will vary when the production capacity and number and of employees (family unit, fixed or occasional workers) rise above the maximum values of the production sector under study
• Sizes of spatial units 11 (guests' toilet) and 12 (tasting) are mainly influenced by the various business, commercialization, and marketing choices

The authors provided a beginning layout, emphasizing the tasks that needed to be proximal to each other. This should be a good beginning and template for us to work off of. I will update the blog with the ideas that we come up with.
References:
1. Patrizia Tassinari, Sergio Galassi, Stefano Benni, Daniele Torreggiani, The Built Environment of Farm Wineries an Analysis Methodology for Defining Meta-Design Requirements, J. of Ag. Eng. - Riv. di Ing. Agr., (2011), 2, 25-31.
2. Daniele Torreggiani, Stefano Benni, Ana García, Francisco Ayuga, Patrizia Tassinari, Farm winery layout design: Size analysis of base spatial units in an Italian study area, Transactions of the ASABE, 2014, 57, 625-633, 10.13031/trans.57.10267.