Journal | September 4, 2017
Hardscrabble Journal
Off and Running
Today marks the beginning of the big push. Cool, wet weather has slowed ripening, so it has been a week since we last picked. Today we start with young vine Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. We will pick over the next two days, chill the grapes in our cooler, then crush on Wednesday (predicted to be a rainy day). We will probably resume harvest on Thursday or Friday. Hurricane Irma has me very concerned as the tracking in not in our favor. I’m preparing for a massive ‘hurricane pick’ later in the week if it looks like we will get tropical rains from Irma. These warm, constant rains can be devastating, especially to SB, Riesling, and Chardonnay which are at a very rot susceptible stage.
Fortunately the remnants of Harvey had little impact on the fruit as we only received 4/10 of an inch under very cool temperatures. This has confirmed my theory that temperature has a major impact on rot susceptibility under rainy or damp conditions. The predicted rain on Wednesday will also be cool.
While the weather conditions have made harvest decisions somewhat stressful this year, flavors and balance in the grapes are really coming together. A few weeks ago I was concerned that we would experience another hot harvest period that produces healthy grapes, but less complexity in the whites. That will not be the case for 2017.
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