A Tasty Vineyard Walk

This time last year I was already knee deep into Harvest.  This year the grapes need a little more time on the vine.  Today we did a vineyard walk to assess the maturity of the grapes and get an idea of when we will harvest them.

We spent 3 hours walking every block and tasting the berries.  We get the sugar and acid numbers from the lab, but more important for the picking decision are the flavors that we get when out tasting.  When we taste the berries we are asking questions about the texture of the skins: are they gummy, chewy, crunchy, drying, etc.

As we walk down a row we pick berries and then spit the seeds out into our hands and look at their color.  Unripe berries have green seeds and as the berries mature the seeds lignify and become brown.  Here you can still see a few green seeds.

These are a couple of brown, mature seeds.  My winemaker and viticulturalist do this every day this time of year.  I've only made it out once so far.

While walking our blocks, we passed the neighbor's vines.  These were planted in 1945.  Most vines poop out after 20 to 25 years, but occasionally you find a hearty stock that can survive and thrive a lot longer.  Usually you see it for Zinfandel, vines that are 70 years old, etc.  

Side note, the term "Old Vine" is not regulated and can mean anything from vines that are 30 years old to over 100 years old.  Also, it is not synonymous with "Good."      

I like old vines because they are more likely to be head trained like these.  They look so chaotic, like rastafarian plants.  Unless you are planting grapes in your back yard, no modern plantings are done in this style.  This trellising system is too difficult to mechanize and make uniform.  Also notice how far apart they are from each other. This doesn't efficiently use the land.

More on trellising systems another time . . . .

Chaotic good.

Deep in that mess are Sauvignon blanc grapes.

Sauvignon blanc is cropped differently than red wine grapes.  High quality red wine grapes are typically cropped to 1 to 2 clusters per shoot, and a vine can have 10 to 15 shoots.  Which leaves us with 10 to 30 clusters per vine.

Looking closely at this vine you can see a lot of clusters.  I've counted up to 65 clusters on a single vine of Sauvignon blanc.  Granted, it was a different trellis system.  But anyway, a white grape like Sauvignon blanc and a red grape like Cabernet Sauvignon are grown very differently.

From this day's tasting, we're pretty close to bringing the fruit in. I'm excited and nervous!

-L