Wines I'm Making: Harvest 2019—Not Quite Yet

Thinking our backyard grapes might be ready to harvest, I did my first full testing of their ripeness today. A sample from the Cabernet vines showed brix at 23.5, which is very close to ideal (24 brix is where I normally like to pick), but with the pH a bit on the low side (pH 3.34). PH squared x brix = 262, which, according to Jeff Cox's From Vines to Wines (Storey Books, 1999), means they are ready for picking (the goal by this measure is 260 for a red wine), but the seeds in many of the grapes are still a touch green and another week on the vines will be perfect, I suspect. The problem is the raccoons—or whatever it is that steals grapes in the night. Ideal ripeness has to be balanced against potential animal losses. Happily, this year, almost none of the grapes will be lost to mildew, so I feel like waiting another week is the way to go. Thus, harvest 2019 is projected for October 5.

The Sangiovese, from which we normally make rosé (and last year used to make a little sparking wine, even), tested at only 19 brix and a pH of 3.31—on the low side (pH squared x brix = 208, again, within the acceptable range, according to Cox's measure (for whites and rosé 200 is the goal), but I think we can get a little more ripeness). I like to pick the Sangiovese for rosé at 22 brix. Although 19 brix would probably be just right for sparkling wine, I'm not equipped with enough of the right kind of bottles to make the whole Sangiovese harvest into sparkling wine, so I will wait to pick the Sangiovese as well. Today, I will check the integrity of the nets and make sure the electric fence is working and hope the animals are deterred as much as possible....

Grapes So Far Unmolested (August 30, 2012)

It's almost September. We haven't lost a single grape yet. So far my strategy has worked. In past years I've usually protected the grapes in the back yard in response to the first depredations of the season, when the grapes have taken on color but are still far from ripe. This year, I determined to net the grapes and turn on the electric fence that surrounds them before the grapes started to turn purple, and the idea seems to have worked. My aim was to make the grapes inaccessible before they became attractive to raccoons etc. Still about six weeks to harvest, if we harvest on a typical date (usually around the second week of October). The summer has been so cool, though, that harvest may be later than usual. We'll see.

Wines I'm Making: The Critters Are at it again (September 8, 2011)

I had hoped this year to completely foil the critters (probably raccoons--although I've never been able to catch anyone in the act), but I looked at the grapes this morning and found about 25 clusters of Sangiovese mostly stripped of grapes and the Cabernet disturbed in a few places as well. It's so discouraging.....

That said, it's my own fault. While I netted the grapes a couple of weeks ago, I hadn't finished completely securing all the possible entry points, particularly at the top of the vines, and I hadn't yet turned on the electric fence. Needless to say, I'll be doing both today, securing things (I hope) before nightfall.

I checked some of the fallen grapes with my refractometer. They tested between 15.5 and 17 brix. I aim to harvest at about 24.5 brix, so we still have about a month to go, I'm guessing, but the grapes are (obviously) already ripe enough to attract animals. Past experience has taught me that about 14 brix is sweet enough for a raccoon to find a grape attractive.

Looking back at old posts about the ongoing fight with the various animals that want my grapes as much as I do, I see that I've put the nets on as early as August 12th in the past. I think I need a new rule--ALWAYS get the electric fence on and the nets secure (including the top nets that cover the seam in the nets that run lengthwise along the rows) by August 1. That way (one hopes) all access is denied long before the animals have any reason to pay attention to the fruit. I'll try it next year. The problem with winemaking is that you do it all only once a year. It's easy to forget from year to year what works and what doesn't.

Wines I'm making: Shoring up the Electric Fence

In 2005, I made only six bottles of wine from the grapes in the back yard. I was determined not to be defeated by critters--but I was. Normally, the harvest is big enough to make about 100 bottles each year, but raccoons (or was it skunks, or wild turkeys, or possums, or foxes?) made off with most of the fruit--in total, nearly 250 pounds of it.

Each night another vine was stripped bare. I tried everything--inflatable snakes, plastic owls with rotating heads and motion sensors (the birds hoot at anything that moves), bright lights, and nets, all to little effect. And whatever was eating the grapes (I do think it was raccoons) had the gall to leave droppings here and there full of grape seeds. Finally, I built a four-foot-high electric horse fence around the two rows of vines and began to put the nets on the outside of the fence, so that animals can't push up against the plants and steal berries through the nets--but that was in 2006. The wine from 2005 was mostly made from under-ripe grapes, some of them damaged berries gleaned from the ground where the raccoons left them. The wine is sour and virtually undrinkable, but I will let it sit. Who knows? Five years from now, it may be palatable. Since building the electric fence, the fruit has been relatively unmolested, and, happily, the wine has been better with each harvest since 2005.

Because the wires are under tension and in part because of the heavy rains this year, the poles that support the electric fence have been gradually leaning inward, which allows the wires to sag and touch each other, causing short circuits. Yesterday, I got out there and drilled holes through the six-inch wood posts that support the trellises and, using nuts and large washers, created stays that push the end-posts of the electric fence out from the wooden posts, restoring tension. There's a particular satisfaction to be derived from solving a problem simply and well. Sadly, not all problems are so easily solved.

Wines I'm Making: Electric Fence On

Turned on the electric fence around the grapes yesterday. Will try to put on the nets today, to keep away the various varmints that eat the fruit. Looking at the grapes yesterday, the crop will be small. Fruit set was pretty poor because of the cool, wet weather we had around flowering. The Sangiovese has done better than the Cabernet. In fact, I should drop some of the fruit on the Sangiovese vines.

[Update] Got the nets on yesterday, the 13th. Already lost some fruit, despite the electric fence. I'm hoping the nets and the fence together will protect the rest. I tested a few berries for ripeness. I was surprised to find them already at 17 brix.