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Grape leaves are like finger prints. Each varietal has a different variation on the basic grape leaf shape. If you google the variety of grape you thing you have, you should be able to see the an image of the grape leaf and compare it to what you see on the vine.
The grape harvest in Oregon is on track that is unless we get rain in September like we did last year. it has been consistent warm, with a couple of e day hot spells where temperatures approached 100 degrees.
I'm told by my contacts in California that the harvest is going to be early. But then it has been getting earlier every year do to climate change.
Robert, are you monitoring the ripeness of you grapes?
The bitterness you tasted in the grape skins are from tannin. The barrel and bottle aging will moderate the bitterness with time.
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Nice crop, verasion seems to be progressing nicely. Think about harvesting when the titratable acidity reaches 6g/L. This should bring thepH of your finished wine in at somewhere between 3.3 and 3.8. At harvest you Brix should be at about 24 degrees. A higher Brix, say 26 or more results in a higher alcohol wine. Ideally you want your alcohol to be no less than 12 or 13% and ideally no greater than 14.5. When I make wine for my personal consumption I shoot for 14% with a finished pH at about 3.4. The last red wine I made for personal consumption hit its peak at 8 years. One was a Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot, and the other a Loire style Cabernet Franc.
Assuming that we purchase house sometime before the 2021 harvest. I'll purchase about a 500 lbs of Pinot Noir and make some wine. I have never vinted Pinot Noir so it will be a learning experience. Pinot Noir is notoriously difficult to produce.
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First, to answer Dan's question. Fire smoke contains chemicals, phenols to be specific, that can affect wine. Phenols contained in smoke particles that land on grape skins, while the grapes are on the vine, may pass through the grape skin and be absorbed into the grape. Wine made from these grapes will have a smokiness component the flavor. Smoke taint, as it is referred to, is a fault or defect in wine. Smoke taint can be removed from wine, but the process also impacts the wine flavor in other ways. I've tasted smoke tainted wine and wine which has been cleaned up and didn't care for either.
Wine grape growers in California all have crop insurance for things like smoke taint and crop loss due to fire so there isn't much of an incentive to go through a process that may alter the wine flavor in other ways. There is a substantial amount of wine in storage from the last couple of bumper crops, so a wine maker with no fruit can purchase wine and market it under his own label if need be.
Robert, most commercial winemakers use barrels for three years and then sell them off. a barrel is said to be neutral after three fills. In fact they are not, you just have to leave the wine in the barrel for a longer period of time to impart the oak influence you are looking for. It is a matter of economics, if you use older barrels your wine is in residence in the winery barrel house for a longer period of time. The extended storage is expensive because of the space required. The best Cabernet Sauvignon we made at Longevity during my tenure there was in 2011 when I filled an 8 year old Francois Freres barrel and then let the wine age for 4 years. The result was a Best in Class award at the San Francisco International Wine Competition.
As your present crop ripens, pay close attention to the sugar levels. Iy don't want a wine high n alcohol, consider harvesting your fruit when the sugar level is 24 or 25 degrees Brix. Also make sure your acid levels are in the proper range.
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California's experience with wine country fires is that large vineyards are actually effective fire breaks because they are wetter than the surrounding land. You will get some perimeter vine scorching which the vines may or may not survive.
There was a time when vine grape vineyards were not irrigated, but these old school dry farmed vineyards have mostly disappeared. Almost all vineyards have some form of irrigation brought on by global climate change. California is becoming hotter and dryer. A vineyard irrigation system could be called upon to raise the moisture level in a vineyard making it somewhat more fire resistant.
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Robert, one of things I have always enjoyed about the winemaking community is the universality of it all. Winemakers all over the world share their ideas, successes and failures. The big commercial wines in this county try to design wine labels that will catch your eye. The small boutique wineries, like the one I worked at in California often design labels featuring art, scenery, and in the case of Longevity, the winery dog. The winery produces bottle of wine every year. I decided it should be a right bank Bordeaux blend, predominantly Merlot, Cabernet Franc and a splash of Petit Verdot. The label was a painting of the dog.
Chris Vais
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