What's in a harvest?
Harvest is always the most exciting time of the year at any winery. It's when the fruit of the entire year's labor, literally, is turned into the product that coaxed us all into this business in the first place. But what happens during harvest and crush? Here is a peek into the stages at our family winery: SAMPLING Winemaker Joe tests berries for sugar and acidity We need to know when the grapes will be ripe, so we "sample" each block - picking either 100 berries (approx.) or a number of whole clusters. We then test sugar, total acidity and pH. Some of these things we test in-house, and some we send out to a winery lab to test for us. We also taste berries for flavor, taste stems (yes, taste) for tannin -- an important structural component in wines -- and watch the weather. All of these items will help inform us when to pick. We believe we have an advantage that we only work with one vineyard. This allows us the time and focus to pinpoint the best day to harvest our