Harvest dates set… again.

One of the weirdest things about becoming a farmer later in life is that you have to start considering the weather in things beyond the question of whether or not to carry an umbrella. When it’s this close to harvest, watching the weather and tasting the grapes is a daily thing. Decisions are made, harvest dates are set and reset. It’s all a gamble. Harvest now? Avoid the different risks of heat or rain. Wait? Perhaps get even more ripeness but heat will dehydrate the grapes and cause the sugars to shoot up beyond manageable levels. Rain could spoil everything. Eventually, if you do nothing, the vines will shut down and stop ripening the grapes anyway. Good thing I have some great partners who better understand these things. Cary Gott, Barbour Vineyards, and Pina Vineyard Management increase our odds come harvest time.
We always try at least “pencil in” harvest a couple of weeks out. This gives Barbour, Pina, and Rombauer (where we crush our grapes) a heads up in scheduling their workload. However, this year, like last year, has been very mild. With the exception of July’s heat, the season has been long and mild with no late season heat storms to dehydrate grapes and cause a rush to harvest. Basically we’ve just been waiting, keeping one eye on the weather to make sure there are no big swings in the forecast. Harvests have been predicted, set, and set back.
What will this mean? Of course, it’s too early to tell much about the wine we’ll make, but we’re encouraged that with long hang time, the grapes will be wonderful with as much ripeness as possible. Also, no excessive heat means we won’t end up with overripeness. The mild temps also mean that crops will be pretty big as we’ve lost little due to dehydration. In fact, Cary commented the other day that the clusters as Baconbrook look just perfect.
Harvest dates are set.
Baconbrook will be Saturday 10/21.
Butterdragon will be Tuesday 10/24.
‘Course, all that can change.