Field Blend of Red Grapes Updated 8/14/11

8/9/11 

This morning, shortly after 8:00, twelve people arrived to pick grapes.  This was pretty much a Tom Sawyer kind of deal.  They were convinced it would be fun.  The amazing thing is that they still felt the same way when they left two and a half hours later.

We had great weather:  cloudy and dry.   

Here are the numbers:

Merlot    125 pounds

Brix 26

Acid  .6

Ph 3.7

We picked the Merlot first so Stanley was able to get the specific numbers for the Merlot.  We added the Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon as they were picked.

Cabernet Sauvignon - Lower Vineyard 64 pounds

Cabernet Franc 156 pounds

The following are the numbers for the blend.

Total Red Grapes  345 pounds

Brix 26

Acid .525

Ph 3.8

The grapes started fermenting spontaneously in spite of the SO2 which Stanley always sprinkles on the grapes as they go into the crusher/destemmer.

He added Red Yeast.

8/10/11

The Red Grape Blend is fermenting quite nicely.

8/12/11

Stanley picked a 20# box of Cabernet Sauvignon.  Whole berries were added to the fermenter.

8/13/11

Stanley picked a 20# box of Cabernet Sauvignon.  Whole berries were added to the fermenter.

8/14/11

It was not easy to get this morning after the vendimia last night, but we knew the grape harvest finale had to be done today in order to be able to leave Mexico on schedule.  Off we went.

Stanley picked a total of 11 boxes of Cabernet for a total of 183 pounds.  The boxes weighed an average just shy of 16.5 pounds each.

Here are the numbers for the Cabernet Sauvignon:

Brix 25

Acid .60

Ph 3.7

Then, we went to Narro's house to pick up the grapes that were used for decoration last night.  There weren't as many as I had thought, but we were able to salvage 15 pounds.  That brings our total weight in the Red Grape Blend to 583 pounds.  That should produce about 48 1/2 gallons of fermented juice. 

This concludes the 2011 harvest.  In spite of two hard rains, we had good weather when we needed it.  Our only weather related difficulties were 1) the ripe rot that developed in both the Sauvignon Blanc and the Zinfandel and 2) the hail that stripped many of the leaves in the vineyard.  On the bright side, we lost very few grapes to the rot due to Stanley's vigilance and we lost no grapes to the hail. 

The following is a picture of the last box of grapes that came out of the vineyard this year . . .   a box of Cabernet from the vertical cordons at the end of the vineyard.

The crusher/destemmer has been washed and put away.