Harvest this year has been a little rough. The season was one month late getting started, and the heat and sun didn't last long. Luckily for me, I cut back the vines to one cluster-per-shoot, so the carbs going through the plant could concentrate on just those clusters. The result was a brix of about 19-20 around the first week of October. The other vineyards in the valley were at about 15-16 brix, by contrast. Now it's Oct 21, and I'm at 21-22 brix. The rains are coming, but no one knows when. My guess is Halloween. The sun is supposed to come out today....we'll see.
My plan is to bet that the sun stays out until Oct 29th. I will let the grapes ripen until Oct 26th, and start picking my new block, aptly named Block 13. I'll pick the rest Oct 27th. It's a gamble, yes, but that's the way it works when you're guessing "what the weather might do," as the Grateful Dead song says.
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