The rewards and frustrations of home winemaking

Tag archive: harvest

Harvest Not So Late After All

Just got an update from Live Oak Vineyard on the syrah progress, it’s up to 22 brix already. Harvest should be in about a week, which is actually the same time as last year.  So, even though the weather this year has been very strange and is definitely affecting harvest around California, looks like we’re […]

Cold Summer Means Later Harvest for 2010

This “summer” has been unusually cold.  Record-setting coolest high temperatures cold.  Temperatures were below 70 degrees F on the coast, and mid-70’s inland throughout July.  This weird weather is delaying ripening of the grapes, so harvest will be a little later this year, barring another heat wave like last year. Mike Hoffman just sent me […]

Getting Ready for Syrah Harvest

I got an email today from Mike Hoffman that the syrah started veraison and harvest should be around the first week of September.  Hopefully there won’t be a last-minute heat wave like last year, which raisined a lot of the grapes before we could pick them for wine. I’ll need to start thinking about what […]

Picking up Jacks at Primitivo Crush

My friend Ray emailed me on Tuesday that the Zin at BellaGrace Vineyards slowed down in ripening, and would not be ready for harvest until next week.  This would not normally had been a problem, but Ray was going to South Bend to cheer on the Irish against Michigan State.  The grower told him that […]

Syrah Harvest

A group of my friends (some that also blog) agreed to get up and meet at our house at 6 am on Saturday to pick grapes.  Amazingly, they all showed up early, and had some breakfast then headed out to Fallbrook.  Most of the rest of the gang were already there, so we spent a […]

Zinfandel Grapes for the Home Winery

Ray Schnorr (he let me use his basket press last year) is picking up zinfandel grapes from Amador county this year, and asked if I was interested in getting some as well.  I wanted to make some zin from grapes this year, so it seemed like a great opportunity.  He sent an update today from […]

Syrah Ripening Fast!

Got an email from Mike Hoffman this morning about the syrah – they’re at 23% brix and pH of 3.29 already!  He said next weekend will be harvest time!!!!!