Getting ready for harvest starts with getting harvest equipment cleaned, lubricated, and ready to process grapes. We move the cellar harvest equipment (hopper-elevator, destemmer-crusher, must pump and prefeed) from the warehouse to the crush pad. We also get the scales ready for harvest.
Usually, our first grape to harvest is Brianna and we’ll be sampling, testing, and tasting Brianna this week. We will also finish removing grow tubes from newly planted vines this week as time allows. We’ll get the vineyard building at the Winery all swept out and we’ll clean all of the grape Macrobins. Finally, we will water our new LaCrosse vines if we don’t get any rain.
Speaking of rain, this is the time of year that we don’t welcome rain. Rain gets transported from the leaves and the roots of the vine directly to the grapes and the result is watered-down juice. We would rather have the rain wait until after harvest and then we will need rain to make sure our grapevines are able to grow buds for next year. If it does rain a significant amount, we will probably delay harvest by anywhere from a day or so to a week.
