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Cab grapes at 19 Brix

Hello All, I have about 1.25 acres of ~35 year old Cab Sauvignon vines in the Sonoma Valley that I took over tending and this is my first harvest. Been checking the Brix roughly each week for the last 3 weeks and it seems to be hovering around 19 Brix. I want to harvest this before November if possible (when the rain might start coming) and was wondering if perhaps grapes reach a certain Brix and stop (because they are old or whatever). I don't mind waiting but just wondering if the Sugar Fairy will come soon....Some more info: they are dry farmed, head pruned, and some of the grapes are showing signs of dimpling and there are some vines with raisining due to sun exposure I imagine.

Any info would be appreciated. I would like them to reach 24 or a little higher if possible. Don't know much about the farming aspect though. Patience?

Thanks, Joe

Reply to
Joe Giller
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It got cool here in Sonoma Valley recently. I'm watching some Zin doing similarly. May not get much higher Brix... jes more complex. Do you need help harvesting when the first rain hits?

Regards, Gene

Reply to
gene

Gene, I don't think so...got my wifes whole family that wants to experience the romanticism of picking grapes. I'll let you know though if we need some hands. When do you suspect you might just say "well, this is as high as its gonna get" and pick the zin?

Thanks, Joe

Reply to
Joe Giller

checking the seeds for light tan and crunchiness... tasting the grapes. May add some sweet Zin raisins to push the Brix a little. Don't want to add too much or I get Zin-port flavor. BTW... I'm harvesting 2nd growth. Get what's left now that the commercially viable harvest is over. Plenty of med size bunches remain; some starting to wrinkle... others raisining. Since i'm only making 5 gal, I can do severe grape sorting, and may do several small batches to use for blending later.

Gene

Reply to
gene

There is more to "maturity" than brix. Look at the stems and seeds - are they brown or green? How do they grapes taste? Do you have a pH meter? What is the pH?

Reply to
Paul E. Lehmann

Dumb question maybe, but don't you vinifera growers chaptalize if need be?

Reply to
Ken Anderson

Not a dumb question, but California does not allow chaptalization of commercial wines. Lum Del Mar, California, USA

Reply to
Lum

Rather not chaptalize. might do it as a last resort. Must be the purist in me. Sonoma Valley in most parts is usually warm enuf to coax 22-23 Brix in the 2nd growth Zin (first growth Zin from the vineyard had plenty of natural sugars... but I get the leftovers). Gene

Reply to
gene

Tom S, et al., You might be right Tom, My sampling procedure was this: Pick a berry from random vines across the plot (about 15 total), crush them all in a sandwich bag, take a reading with a refractometer.

The grapes taste fine to me. Not too sweet nor too tart.

So I guess I need to pick a bunch of clusters from say 10-12 vines, crush and let soak overnight and then take a reading?

I'll check on the color of the seeds and stems as well.

Thanks for all the input.

Joe

Reply to
Joe Giller

I suspected as much. Individual berry sampling _can_ give good results, but you have to have a much larger sample (~200 or more) and be sure to pick berries that are randomly representative - not just the ones that look nice. IOW, pick both sides of the vines, each vine, high and low on the trellis, big and small, and high and low on the clusters.

It's far easier to just pick whole clusters, using similar parameters. Of course this will _not_ impact your final yield, since you'll ferment the samples in advance of the actual picking and add them into the fermenters.

Tom S

Reply to
Tom S

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