A Challenging Year

We finished our harvest on October 10 in cool wet weather and we got a -2c frost overnight Oct14/15. So we harvested as late as we could. Thematically, that was the summer,...well it was cool at least. From May on through to August each month was at or below our normal temperatures and everything was late going into harvest and the numbers were lower all around. Even the above normal heat in September wasn't enough to correct the time lost to cool weather at the beginning of the season. Seems to be on par for a year like 2020.

We dropped about 20-25% of the fruit in early September to help get the Foch to ripen on time and even with that we managed 18brix where we usually have 20brix. Even at harvest we culled more fruit that was still on the vine.

The cool weather in the first 2 weeks of July including the fruit set period was not helpful either and there were far more shot grapes in both Foch and Castel that a normal year.

Here is the numbers.

 

Grape Harvest 2020

Harvest was a week later than normal and a good thing. The grapes we late so the extra week gave them time to ripen some more. Even at that they we lower in sugars than most years and that was with dropping about 20-25% of the crop on early September to focus and force ripening on less grapes.

This was a transition year in the move to hanging curtain trellis from VSP. It seemed tobeork good for Foch, Millot and Petite Milo and next year that will be completed.

Here is some of the Foch at 18 brix in hanging curtain with nice size clusters of 100-150grms.