Sample time!

August 20th, 2011 | Harvest

As we arrive closer to harvest time with every day that passes, so we spend our days collecting and analysing grape samples. Of course the objective of this exercise is quite simple – to decide the optimum time to start picking.

On face value this might appear to be a very simple, straightforward task, but the reality is actually quite different. Apart from calculating the best balance between sugar (potential alcohol), acidity and pH, we have to take into account that that ripening is not necessarily even. The variations do not only appear between different geographical vineyard locations, but also between the different blocks or rows within each vineyard. Every year these subtle differences help us to determine which vineyard we will pick first, and also how we should best approach the picking within that site. It could even be that we will pick only a fraction of one location on a certain day, and then go back for the rest maybe two or three days later.

Of course the other major variable is that if it takes more than a week to gather in our entire harvest, then the fruit will still maturing over that period –  at the very end of the growing cycle the changes in sugar and acidity can be extremely rapid and will evolve on a daily basis.

All these calculations are however, tempered by the weather – hot sun will certainly change the physiology of the fruit, as will rain during the harvest period. So not such a simple calculation after all…..

As we arrive closer to harvest time with every day that passes, so we spend our days collecting and analysing grape samples. Of course the objective of this exercise is quite simple – to decide the optimum time to start picking.

On face value this might appear to be a very simple, straightforward task, but the reality is actually quite different. Apart from calculating the best balance between sugar (potential alcohol), acidity and pH, we have to take into account that that ripening is not necessarily even. The variations do not only appear between different geographical vineyard locations, but also between the different blocks or rows within each vineyard. Every year these subtle differences help us to determine which vineyard we will pick first, and also how we should best approach the picking within that site. It could even be that we will pick only a fraction of one location on a certain day, and then go back for the rest maybe two or three days later.

Of course the other major variable is that if it takes more than a week to gather in our entire harvest, then the fruit will still maturing over that period –  at the very end of the growing cycle the changes in sugar and acidity can be extremely rapid and will evolve on a daily basis.

All these calculations are however, tempered by the weather – hot sun will certainly change the physiology of the fruit, as will rain during the harvest period. So not such a simple calculation after all…..

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