First Harvest.

The Phoenix and the few Madeleine Angevine grapes were picked yesterday. It's always a difficult decision when exactly to harvest grapes for wine but as it was sunny yesterday but rain is forecast for the next two days the decision was made for harvesting yesterday.

The Phoenix last year was harvested on the 11th of september and on the 20th the previous year so this year is around two weeks later than average, as predicted earlier.

The total weight yesterday was 13.5 pounds. Enough to contribute four or five bottles of wine to this years blend.

Despite only producing a few bunches the Madeleine Angevine has proved yet again to be the latest in flower and one of the first to ripen.

The Chardonnay grapes are finally beginning to soften but I don't expect them to be ready to harvest until the end of october or even early november.

When Are Wine Grapes Ready?

How can you tell when your wine grapes are ready to harvest.

There is no exact answer to this question, much of it is subjective but the short answer is probably later than you think. Commercial vineyards use a refractometer to measure sugar levels but the expense of getting one for home grape growing is hardly worth it.

So what physiological clues can be used to indicate the potential date of harvest.

1. Know your variety. Different varieties display the potential indicators differently so knowing when your variety usually ripens (early, mid season or late) is the best guideline. Of course this knowledge can only be gained over a number of growing seasons.

2. Stems turning woody. Lignification of the stems is a good indicator that the grapes are getting near to harvest.

3. Rachis turning woody. If the stalk joining the bunch to the stem is turning woody this too is pretty good indicator of ripeness.

4 Pedicels turning woody. If the little stalks joining individual grapes are turning woody this in itself can indicate that the seeds inside the grapes are hardening, therefore the grapes are getting ready to pick

5. Seeds getting hard/woody. You will have to bite into a grape to test this but if the seeds are getting hard or woody this can be the best indicator of all.

I reckon these Phoenix grapes have a week or ten days to go.

Brant - The Usual Story.

As mentioned earlier a good number of the Brant clusters showed only partial setting. While after fruit set a cluster may look fully set it soon becomes obvious some individual berries are swelling and others not.
Those immature berries will never swell or ripen.

Here we can see a cluster showing the phenonomon called "hen and chickens" or "shot berries" in britain, "millerandage" in france.

The main drawback with Brant that can also be seen in the photo is uneven ripening. You can see how one cluster is ripening, one a little behind, one with the first berry changing colour and another cluster still green. This results in an extended harvest, sometimes over a month, going over the vine every week to harvest the ripe clusters.

The leaves have wonderful autumn colour though.

Easy Calculation

All the signs point to this season being behind by two or three weeks. Yet growing grapes on a wall or against a fence can bring ripening forward by a similar time.

From these two facts we can easily calculate that these Phoenix grapes should ripen against the fence at the time they would usually ripen in an open vineyard situation in early october.

Likewise these Chardonnay should ripen but harvest will almost certainly be late october or even early november again as the time open grown Chardonnay is picked.

Regent Ripeness And Harvest Planning.

Table grapes can begin to be harvested earlier and over a longer period than wine grapes. This longer cropping season is one of the advantages of growing eating grapes. Tasting the grapes as they ripen will determine when the first bunches can be picked, when they taste good to you. Unpicked bunches can be left to sweeten further and picked a little later.

If you have a glut you can use them for juice, jelly, freeze them or make raisins if you have a seedless variety.

Wine grapes on the other hand generally need to be harvested when the grapes are fully and consistently ripe since good wine can only be made from good grapes.

These Regent grapes, although on a sparse bunch are fully coloured but a long way from being ripe. Grapes do not ripen further after picking so evaluating ripeness is very important.

In previous years Regent begins veraision just after mid august and are harvested around 3rd october. This year they are about two or three weeks late so harvest could be as late as the third or fourth week of october.

Madeleine Angevine Ripeness And Harvest Planning.

Once grapes go soft and either begin to become translucent for white grapes or colour up for red varieties they tend to begin to look ready to pick.However they are generally far from ripe despite them looking ever more delicious.

This year Madeleine Angevine was the last in flower, the last to set fruit but yet again looks like it will be the first to ripen. They have gone from hard immature fruits to soft, translucent and soon to be harvested grapes in about a month. This is why they are a good choice for growers in the north.

So what about harvesting them. The few bunches I have will be part of a wine blend so will be picked for wine. They are usually ready for picking at toward the end of september but because of the late season harvest will likely be in early october.

Allotment Progress.

I have been concentrating on the grape vines in the garden for most of the year but what progress is there from those planted on the allotment?

While the Brant vine at home is due for removal it won't be the end of the road for that variety. There will still be the ones on the allotment.

These are looking like real vine rows. It's a shame there are only two grape clusters amongst all that foliage. But that sums up this years weather as far as grape vines go.

This Rondo vine look like it will produce fruiting wood for next year. I may even see a bunch of Rondo grapes if I'm lucky.