Early Morning Mists and Nightime Harvest

    With the warm, dry, Fall days, we have nothing to complain about in the vineyard.  However we do have to modify our picking strategies to keep the grapes in the best possible condition for winemaking.  This is another advantage we have over all the local wineries that buy their grapes from in-state and out-of-state growers.  

    This weekend we plan to pick our Chardonnay grapes early in the morning, like you see in the picture, while they are still cool from the, fog and low nightime temperatures.  It serves us well to keep the white grapes cool before crushing and pressing in order to minimize oxidization and the associated dark colors we see in other wines.  

     After this weekend, we get a short break before we change over to picking the Vidal Blanc on October 11.  For the Vidal we are planning to do another night pick with headlamps as the sun goes down.  The last time we did the nightime picking, people had a fantastic time. 

     Then we can turn our attention to the Chambourcin and Cab Frac which should be ready in late October or eArly November.  If anyone wants to help, this weekend we will start at 8 on Sat. and 9 on Sunday.  The Vidal picking will begin at 6:00 on Oct. 11 th.  Come out and join us if you want to have some fun in the vineyard!