Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Wine Country Activity: First Efforts for 2015

      It's getting toward the end of the grape growing season in northern California.  The Mayor went north to Santa Rosa to look in on some conditions in a friend's vineyard.  The vines looked good: robust color in about 70% of the clusters of Pinot grapes.  The berries(grapes) looked small generally, but because of scant water in the ground and dry-farmed conditions, they looked fine.  The Mayor pruned a bit on the tops of the vines, pruning a few vigorous canes running down the wires.  About 2pm, a shower rolled through the Santa Rosa plain, getting the ground wet.  It didn't last long, but kept things cool.  10 small clusters were cut off for the first brix measurement of 2015 for the vines.  Just enough were taken to provide at least a cup of juice.   After throwing a few nets over the vines, the mayor turned things over to the owner, Nate, who seemed ready to finish with the netting operation.  Birds were definitely on site, indicating the sugar aroma was getting out there.
     Back at the house, the instruments were brought out; the grapes squeezed of their juice; and the juice poured into the vial.  Now the moment of truth: measuring the sugar content. The hydrometer drops in and bounces back; settles and a reading is observed: see photos.

                                                                                                                                                  

hydrometer in vial
brix @ 20+/-

take the reading



















     So here we are: 20 Brix +/-.  Good place to be in early August, but now close and continuous monitoring must be the rule.  The brix could rise swiftly in the next few weeks.  We would pick close to 24 Brix, like last season.  This would place our crush in good position for fermentation after the crush.   The decision: do we put the juice in oak again this year or not?   First we'll do a barrel tasting of 2014 and see what we've accomplished after aging in French Oak for the last 10 months(with 6 more to go).   results will be posted in the next few days.

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