The harvest season is slowly finishing up and it looks to be another good one. This is not surprising as it has been a good grape-growing season with lots of sun and hot temperatures. Plenty of heat and sunlight, combined with timely rains are required for great quality grapes, and we had all three this year. During these past two weeks, however, we have seen some signs of drought-stress. This stress though, has progressed the grape wood maturity at an impressive rate and from that perspective, we are points ahead as we head into winter.
At Euro, our grape harvest started
at the end of August with the Auxerois variety.
Our Auxerois had a Brix reading of almost 20, T.A. at 0.7 and
yielded approximately 3.5 tons per acre. After the Auxerois harvest,
we harvested the Gm 318. 1999 proved to be a
good year for our Gm 318 as it came off with a measured Brix over
19, a TA of 0.86 and to our surprise, a yield of 8.2
tons per acre. Quite impressive for vineyard that is just
five years old! About a week after this, the Gm 311 was
ready to be picked and two weeks after that the Gm 322, or
Hibernal was. All of these varieties had similar analytical
data to the Gm 318, but none of them could match its excellent
yield.
The early red hybrids were harvested during the first week of
September, and both the Foch and Leon Millot harvested
with a Brix of 22. We had to harvest these two when we did as
the birds took such a liking to them. We estimated that
approximately 40% of our Foch and Leon Millot crop were
harvested (without our authorization) by Robins, Starlings and
Blackbirds.
On September 9th, the Baco and the Pinot Noir were
harvested, their Brix of 23, and 21.6 respectively. One grower
reported a machine-harvested Pinot Noir with a Brix of 25 !
Our Gamay Noir had a Brix of 20.3
and the Cabernet Sauvignon, 20.7. Both the Gamay Noir
and the Cabernet Sauvignon varieties were harvested within
a week of the Pinot Noir. Our Scheurebe variety had Brix
of 19.2 and TA of 9.2 and our Pinot Gris a Brix of 20.1.
The Riesling variety, a later maturing vinifera, was harvested
on September the 20th. It's Brix measuring 19.8 and TA 0.8.
The 1999 year certainly was an interesting one. It started with
a late spring frost followed by a good grape growing season and
overall, was an even earlier year than last year. The varieties
that survived the March 8th frost with enough primary buds performed
well, but the more susceptible varieties that had frost-injured
buds…well, I guess there is always the new millennium...
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