We picked two full 10-gallon Igloo coolers of good grapes. About 25 lbs from upstairs, and about 25 lbs from downstairs and the front yard together. We left about another 20 lbs on the vine, still a little green.
We harvested about 2 weeks early, because I have a long work trip coming up, and the Texas heat will likely dry them out entirely by then. Target date to harvest would ideally be July 18th.
So we harvested yesterday in order to handle fermentation week punch down. We had very few rejects, maybe less than 20 bunches, or about 2 lbs.
We harvested on a Wednesday afternoon, after school, with help from the girls, who had a blast. Camille came home from school today and said that she wanted to pick more blueberries :-)
We filled a 10 gal cooler with grapes, then stomped those in the crawfish pot, drained, then put the must into the press. We did 2 batches of these. Yielded about 3.25 gal of juice. (Last year we did 1 gallon from 29 lbs of grapes, so we nearly doubled the fruit output, but over tripled the juice using the grape press this year.)
Original Gravity was 15 brix, or 1.061. Per calculator, added 2 lbs of corn sugar to raise to 1.081. The original pH was 3.21. Added 1 packaet of Bentonite and 1 packet of dry Champagne yeast. No meta bisulphite yet. Will do that later.
We also tasted last year's wine, which is still aging on oak for another few weeks. Way better than our first year's! Slightly tart, good acidity, oak showing through nicely, mouth feel is slightly thin, but a powerful fruit flavor, a little earthy, some charcoal on the nose. We'll bottle it soon.
Cheers!
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