September Brix Readings - Part 2

The Birds are coming! Pretty much every row we did not net became food for the Birds - they are very efficient pickers too. Luckily they did leave enough fruit to allow me to do more Brix readings. Brix were measured by testing 3 to 4 grapes at various locations on each row. So as of September 19:


WHITES

Siegerrebbe: 20.5 

Muscat harvested  Sept. 24 at 20.5 Brix

L'Acadia Blanc: 21.5

Osceolo Muscat: 19.5

Epicure: 19

Petit Milo: 21

48-05-49: 20.5

Leon Millot harvested Sept. 24 at 21.5 Brix

RED

48-05-83: 17.5

Labelle: 21

Baco Noir: 16

Zweigelt: 20

Leon Millot: 20.5

Pinot Noir:17.5

Regent: 18




Let the wine making begin! A few members selected varieties to make wine from and harvest on L'Acadia Blanc (46lbs), Petiti Milot (34lbs), Leon Millot (108 lbs, with a bit of Pinot Noir) and Osceolo Muscat (125 lbs) was done on Sept. 24. 

48-05-83 and Baco Noir are also slated for the carboy, but they need a bit more time on the vine to ripen up still.

Pretty low yield on the L'Acadia as the bunches were very loose and not very populated. This is likely from poor weather in late spring during bloom. Hopefully it will improve next year. The yield on the Petit Milo was very good, but as it was not netted, there was not much fruit left by the time it was harvested. The two types were mixed into one batch of wine and with final Brix of 23 it should make a very nice wine.

September Brix readings

As of September 4 most of the hanging fruit is looking nice.  Varieties that members are hoping to make wine from have al been covered with bird and insect netting. good job all! 

A quick walk through with the refractometer provided the following sugar content numbers.  Brix were measured by testing 3 to 4 grapes at various locations on each row. 2015 measurements were gathered on September 7 and are shown in brackets. A few are progressing very nicely. but we will need a pretty good September to get the other numbers up. 

WHITES

Siegerrebbe at 19 Brix

Siegerrebbe: 19 (2015 17 brix)

L'Acadia Blanc: 18 (2015 15 brix)

Chardonnay: fruit removed due to powdery mildew

Osceolo Muscat: 18 (2015 19 brix)

Auxerrois: fruit removed due to powdery mildew

Madeliene fruit removed due to powdery mildew

Madeliene fruit removed due to powdery mildew

Netting on L'Acadia Blanc

Epicure: 15.5 (2015 19 brix)

Petit Milo: 19.5 (2015 21 brix)

48-05-49: 16 (2015 19 brix)

Leon Millot at 19 Brix

RED

48-05-83: 15.5 (2015 19 brix)

Drape netting on Leon Millot

Labelle: 16 (2015 18 brix)

Baco Noir: 15 (2015 20 brix)

Zweigelt: 16.5 (2015 20 brix)

Leon Millot: 19 (2015 20 brix)

Pinot Noir:17 (2015 17 brix)

Regent: 15 (2015 14 brix)

Summer Update - Reds

As mentioned in the previous blog, an update on the Red status is below. The data for this post is from August 14 2016 so I am a bit slow in posting. I will do an update soon with some Brix numbers now that we are into September.

Blattner

48-05-83: small-med berries in fairly loose bunches.  No signs of powdery mildew (PM) or other issues. Veraison is present on most vines (about 70%)

Labelle: Small berries in loose bunches.  About 80% of the fruit is showing veraison.  The vines look good, no signs of PM and not overly vigorous.

Cab Libra: This was an under performing vine that was removed in the Spring of 2016.

Remaining Varieties

Baco Noir: small-medium berries in loose bunches.   It still struggles a bit with low vigor. No PM visible and vines look healthy. About 80% of the fruit is showing veraison.

Zweigelt

Zweigelt: medium sized berries in tight(ish) bunches.  About 60% have achieved veraison.  Overall vines look healthy but low vigour. No PM visible, but many leaves have turned bright red. 

Leon Millot: Small berries and semi-tight bunches.  100% have achieved veraison.  Note this was achieved by August 7.

Leon Millot

Pinot Noir: Small berries in tight bunches.  No PM visible and vines look healthy. About 50% are showing veraison.

Regent: Small-medium berries in loose bunches. No PM visible and vines look healthy. About 50% are showing veraison.

Baltica: This was an under performing vine that was removed in the Spring of 2016.

Marquette: This was an under performing vine that was removed in the Spring of 2016.