Regent Harvest and Crush

2010 Regent Harvest at Raven's Call Vineyard - 23 pounds of grapes.

Although we've had very cool weather, so not much ripening of the Regent grapes here at Raven's Call Vineyard, it has also been rainy, and more predicted, with continuing cool temperatures. There do not seem to be any berries splitting yet, even though Brix by refractometer shows 12-15% sugar. Close inspection of the vineyard shows some clusters have fallen off, a few berries are shriveling or rotting (not many, though), and the birds are getting a few where they found some accessible under the netting. So time harvest, I decided.

Regent crop on best 3rd-year plants

 A nice Regent cluster.

 My field assitant harvesting.

 Total crop - 23 lbs off of about 20 plants vigorous enough to fruit.

 Mysterious "floating-grapes" photo.

 Cleaning clusters and crushing.

 De-stemmed.

 Primary fermenter - just under 2 gallons must.

The Brix, by refractometer, on the free-run juice only tests at 14%, so I chapalitized up to 23. I also warmed the must up to about 80 degrees F to get the fermentation off to a better start (since low 80s are recommended for reds, and my batch is too small to generate enough warmth on it's own to keep the temperature up there). Sure smells good once the fermentation kicked in!

COOL... literally

2010 Grape Growing Degree Days



It’s been a pretty dismal grape growing season here in Puget Sound, and apparently all across the state (and up and down the west coast, so I hear). This chart from the WSU Viticulture site shows that 2010 is about as bad as it has ever been (in 18 years of recorded history, of course..). (The WSU-IAREC headquarters are in Prosser, WA.)

 

Remember that Puget Sound AVA is pretty pitiful, historically, compared to eastern WA AVAs.

And then (at least at Mt. Vernon, which is the reported reference station for Puget Sound on the WSU site), this year has been equally below the long-term average.

But when I download the raw data from the station close to our vineyard (WSU Puyallup station – only 0.90 miles from our place), and compare to Mt. Vernon, it shows we are doing considerably better here than Mt. Vernon.

We are just below 1,600 GDD, and not likely to gain too much more. Unfortunately I have not yet found where to download the long-term average for the WSU Puyallup station, so cannot say specifically how this year compares with average at this location, but I am certain it is proportionally as bad as other locations have been.

Still, after all the charts, it's good to remember that it's all about the fruit:

Pinot noir at Raven's Call Vineyard

 

Madeleine Angevine Crushed!

Time to harvest.

 

Yes, Mad Ang was picked and crushed. I have been chagrined at how rapidly the fruit quality is declining. While they were nicely cropped:

Madeleine Angevine 2010 Crop

 as shown below, with the recent rains, many berries were splitting, then they rapidly rotted. Even though last year I vowed to let them hang longer to get the sugar content up (last year we hit 16.5 Brix),  I decided I had better pick if I was going to salvage anything.

About 10 to 20% of the fruit is rotting on the vine.

 First we picked the 8 vigorous plants that had no cluster thinning. The yield was 24 pounds of fruit. For 3rd year crop, 3 pounds per plant is not bad. Even steady-state mature plants should probably only give about 4 pounds per plant, given what I've read.

24 pounds Mad Ang from 8 unthinned 3-year plants

 Then we picked 12 more plants of similar vigor, but for which I thinned each shoot to just the one main cluster per shoot. This yielded 28 pounds (shown in opening photo), or 2.3 pounds per plant. Logically, less. However, I could detect no difference in size, amount of rot, nor sugar content. Both these first two batches were crushed and measured separately, and they were the same Brix... 16.5, just like last year.  With the 17 pounds more from the straggler plants, the total 2010 harvest was 69 pounds. The rotten berries were tediously picked out by hand, then we crushed.

The crush

Not having a de-stemmer, we did it the old-fashioned way, by hand.

Stems on left, crush in center, must on left.

 The must was left on the skins overnight, then pressed the next morning. This supposedly give enzymes a chance to break down some of the cells, releasing more juice on the crush, but without giving time for bitter components to come of of the skins. The newly-built press worked like a charm! Guess building a prototype was a worthwhile effort.

The press

 All done - must ready to ferment on the right. Just over 4 gallons. Pressed skins on the left go on the compost pile.

4 gallons 2010 Madeleine Angevine must ready to ferment

 The vineyard looks sad without fruits.

Naked vineyard.

 But the Regents are still hanging in there. Should be a couple more weeks before we pick them. They show no signs of splitting, even though the sugar content has been nearly as high as the Mad Ang. Must have thicker skins.

Regent

 The Mad Ang must was pretty high in acid, and low in sugar content. It was chaptalized up to 21.5 Brix, but no adjustment to acidity. We'll see.

Getting close to harvest time!

Amazing how quickly the grapes are progressing. In just the last week, sugar levels have risen quite a bit, and the birds have found the Madeleine Angevine grapes (they are mostly about 15 Brix now). Last year (supposedly a far warmer summer with more degree days) I picked these the 27th of Sep, and they had 16.5 Brix, so these are pretty darn close to that.

Bird and rain damage

After noting the bird damage I decided we better cover all of them with bird netting.

The netted Madeleine Angevine Crop

 

The Regent grapes are turning rapidly, but are about a week behind the Mad Ang. But much more attractive!

 Regent grape crop

Regent Grapes

It's pretty easy to see why the varieties selected by WSU at Mt. Vernon for this area are preferred. Compare the two above with the Pinot noir from Willamette Valley.

Pinot noir 

 

Pinot blanc 

 Several of the grafted varieties that I have in test plantings had fruit this year.

Zweigelt rebe (a red, obviously)

 Pinot noir 71 (about the same as Pinot noir)

 Pinot noir Precoce (very much earlier - birds have really decimated this bunch)

 If the Madeleine Angevines keep splitting in the rain, I may decide to harvest them soon!

Turn, turn, turn...

Wow - the grapes are moving along quickly. The Regents in particular are turning color fast.

Regent Grapes

But the real beauties are the Madeleine Angevines:

The row shown above had no cluster thinning. Compare to the row I thinned to one cluster per shoot:

I intend to harvest and weigh separately to determine yield, and measure Brix to see if thinning produced more advanced ripening. I don't know if I'll have enough to vint separately to determine quality.

Even the Pinot noir are starting to show some color:

But they are clearly weeks behind the Regent. My grafted Pinot noir 77 clone is similar:

But the grafted clone Pinot noir Precoce is clearly way ahead of the others:

and the Pinot Blanc, while beautiful clusters, don't look very ripe..

I tested a few Mad Ang and Regent berries today and they were in the 12 to 15 Brix range. Need a couple more weeks!

Véraison

Véraison is a French term for "onset of ripening" in wine grapes. This is really the first year I can readily observe and appreciate the process with sufficient grape berries -- on our 3-year plants. First, the vineyard status on 3-Sep-10. (click any photo for high-res version).

Vineyard Overview

Madeleine Angevine heavy with fruit

Madeleine Angevine

The Mad Ang have a very nice crop - maybe even over-cropped for third year plants. One row (the one pictured above) had no cluster thinning, while the adjacent row was thinned to the best cluster per shoot. I intend to weigh and test resulting must from these two rows separately to see if I detect any notable differences in sugar, acidity or pH. As I say, the Mad Ang, (a white grape) are starting to turn translucent and in the sun you can see the seeds inside each berry.
Mad Ang cluster

Many clusters have nice-sized berries. The Regents (red grape) are not far behind, although the plant vigor, number of vigorous plants, and clusters per plant are all short of the Mad Ang - we will still have a decent crop. I'm guessing there might be 40 to 50 lbs of Regent.

Regent cluster turning

The Pinot noir and Pinot blanc at 3 years are still, for the most part, pretty pitiful compared to the Mad Ang and Regent. I did finally get a full trellis and drip irrigation installed, so that should help considerably. Only 3 or 4 plants of each set fruit this year, so I'll get a sample, but not enough for vinting.

Pinot noir and Pinot blanc

On the right side are second-year Pinot gris, and on the left (barely visible) are the second-year Siegerrebe. They really need better irrigation, as they are not even going to get large enough to reach a first trellis wire this year. Always something...

Growing great

Wow - ten days can really make a difference. Many grape vines are 3 or 4 feet over the top wire. The grape berries are filling out fast. Some are pea-sized already.

Vineyard Overview

Madeleine Angevine unthinned clusters

and a close-up

 

Madeleine Angevine Rows

Regent Rows

If we can get some more warm weather we will have our best crop ever!