2007 grape reports?

No one???

Northern Virginia and Maryland are experiencing a Vintage year in 2007. Semi Draught, now warm days and cool nights.

I don;t know of anywhere to get reports, per se. I correspond with a number of other growers, and get weather and crop info from other parts of California to compare with what's happening in my own vineyard (Sierra Foothills). There is also a very good 'continuous thread' on the MArk Squires bulletin board (erobertparker.com) - look for "Weather Thread". Some top notch vineyard managers post there regularly.

I picked up some Central Valley Merlot, Zin, Mixed Black (~75% Syrah and 25% Merlot) and Grenache. The numbers were where they usually are, 1.100 SG, ~4.5 g/l TA. I ignored the SG and bump up the acid with tartaric by 1g/l in that situation. (The acid seems to rise a bit and I really care more about pulling pH down, one of these was at

4.2 which is kind of awful. Those measurements were right after crush, the pH and TA seem to behave better once the pulp gets a little macerated in a day or two.) I try not to over compensate and I remeasure after a few days of activity. It's too cool here right now, I may have to add some heat to get good color out of the grapes.

Regina juices were better but they adjust them. I picked up Syrah, Cab and French Columbard, all had decent pH a gravity of ~ 1.095 and TA around 5g/l.

Joe