September 7th, 2010

HARVEST has begun !!

Late last week we started pulling grapes in from the vineyard. We started with the cinsault – about 3 tons. That took most of Thursday morning. Friday we continued with the grenache from the vines along-side the cinsault. We brought in about 4 tons. The rose will be a combo of the two – to be blended after fermentation is complete (each ‘wine’ will be fermented seperately). Looks like we’ll get about 1500 bottles again this year.

Had planned to continue the harvest the end of this week – Thurs / Fri – but we got RAIN last night and this morning, so we will delay until the first of next week. But, longer hang-time on the vine is better for the maturity of the grapes, and the rain will keep the sugar levels under control. We’ll keep testing and tasting the grapes in the vineyard and make the final “Pick” decision later in the week.