Sunday Visits.

Sunday morning we got out and visited a couple vineyards that are getting close to harvest. I only took pictures at one though. After visiting the vineyards, we think both are still 10-14 days away from picking. The weather forecast calls for sunny moderate weather for the next few weeks so we're in no hurry now. In some ways it's reminding me of 2005. That year we had a wild ride through the spring and summer, then in mid September, we just went into a holding pattern of sunny, mild weather for weeks.

The challenge with 2005 though was fighting dilute grapes from all the spring rain and summer green growth. This year I think it will be controlling the tannins and intensity from the small concentrated crop. So the pattern is similar, but the grapes are very different.

This photo is of the Crimson Clover vineyard. You get a good sense of the hills that surround this vineyard site


The plants are 4 years old now, and we're expecting about 2 tons from this 1 1/8 acre site.

It takes a lot of work during the year to end up with plants that look this perfect.

The sugars are almost ready in these grapes, but the tannin and flavors are not just ripe yet, it will be a couple more weeks.

Here you can see the grapes we dropped earlier on the ground, returning their nutrients to the soil.