Late Harvest Vidal

   Here are pictures from some of the clusters of Late Harvest Vidal Blanc that I picked yesterday evening.  You can see the dark grapes on several of the clusters that have begun to sweeten due to Botritis.  The Noble Rot infects the skin of the grape and allows the skin to give up moisture while it concentrates the sugars.  Unfortunately, the yellow jackets figured all of this out on their own 2 or 3 weeks ago and started drinking the sweet nectar. Thanks to the very cold temperatures the last several nights we are now rid of the yellow jackets and we can begin to concentrate the flavors for our final picking this weekend.  Hopefully all the numbers will be great and we can complete the crush and press of our first Vidal Late Harvest Dessert wine.