tonyhibbett
Landlord.
It's 2 years since I first inspected the derelict vineyard with its handful of mouldy grapes and the time has finally come for a decent harvest. I was hoping that the pinot noirs would reach a sugar level of 20%, but it's clear that's not going to happen as grapes are starting to shrivel and rot, but most bunches are sound. I harvested 1 row and from 178 bunches I got 15 kilos. Running this lot through the grape mill took just a few minutes. Fishing out the stems took somewhat longer. This left me with 12.5 litres, including skins and pips, to which I added 3 crushed campden tablets and 2 teaspoons of pectolase. The juice gravity was 1070, so I added 425g of brewing sugar to bring it up to 1090. The pH is 3.3, which is perfectly acceptable at this stage. I will leave it for a day then add the yeast, then 2 more days for the colour extraction before pressing. After settling, racking, fermentation and fining, I would expect about 12 bottles of wine from this batch. There are 4 more rows to harvest, so the total yield would be around 60 bottles.
I thought my first harvest would be a joyous experience but in reality it was tedious hard work and only 20% complete!
I thought my first harvest would be a joyous experience but in reality it was tedious hard work and only 20% complete!