20 September 2016

Grapes and grass

Still waiting for the grape harvest, les vendanges, to begin. No sign of any activity at this point.


Walt posted a picture of raisins on the vine a little like this one (below) yesterday, but closer-up. He didn't know I had taken a similar shot.


Below, you can see how dry the grass is around the vineyard. It grew up high in June, when we had a lot of rain, and then it completely dried out as July, August, and the first half of September turned so dry.


The weather is still fairly dry, despite the inch of rain we've had over the past 3 or 4 days. The ground is so parched that it's just soaking up every drop it can get, like a sponge. We have company coming for lunch today, so we're pretty busy. I hope it will be warm enough for us to sit out on the terrace at least for our apéritifs, even if we have to eat indoors.

11 comments:

  1. Wow the grass looks parched. But the grapes are probably loving it.

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  2. Will the raisins be harvested along with the grapes?

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    1. E., I'm sure the raisins will be taken in with the grapes. With mechanical harvesting, they can't really choose which grapes or which bunchest to include in the harvest. I'm sure the raisins give the juice a lot of sweetness.

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    2. Actually the mechanical harvesters are sophisticated enough that they should be able to take just the grapes they want from each bunch. They can set the level of shake and suck fairly precisely. The dried grapes are sunburnt. They probably aren't very sweet, having frizzled before the sugar developed. I'd be surprised if they want them or use them.

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    3. Really Susan. I'll let you know if the raisins are still there after the harvesters go through.

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    4. I will be interested to know. When I've talked to growers about mechanical harvesting they all assure me they can set the machines to just take what they want. I do wonder if the machine will knock the frizzled grapes off onto the ground though. I was told yesterday that the harvest at St Georges might start today, btw, but maybe not until Monday. Everyone's holding off as long as possible it seems and watching the weather. Vouvray isn't going to start for another two or three weeks. It was someone from a Vouvray winery who told me about the dried grapes on the vines at the moment being useless.

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    5. I went out and tasted the sun-burned, shriveled grapes this morning. It's true that they are not very sweet, even though they do have some taste. Today we saw some crews doing vendanges manuelles but there is still no sign of the mechanical harvesters.

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    6. Interesting about the shriveled grapes- I was hoping that you would taste one. A true raisin must come from a ripe grape to have the right sugar content.

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