Continued maturation and observation

The test plot continues to grow. Only one scare balloon is needed, due to the small harvest.

Birds are causing some damage, but we are hanging fairly well in petit verdot.

I don't know if I will cluster thin as aggressively next year. The deer and birds thinned my clusters exhaustively. At this point, I am hoping to avoid hurricanes and further animals. Petit verdot grapes are prone to split with excessive moisture, so a tropical system could rock my world. Animals are certainly taking their share already. Pretty soon, I will start checking brix and acid to plot harvest. Here's to hoping that we have something to harvest! 

Free the grapes! (eventually)

Usually, "free the grapes" refers to direct wine shipment laws. http://www.freethegrapes.org/
I encourage you to visit this website, and learn about winery-to-consumer shipping. 


However, in our little vineyard, the grapes are now caged. In effort to preserve petit verdot for 2011 crush, deer fence covers the vineyard. After a few days, our efforts appear to be paying off with grape preservation. If everything else goes according to plan, our grapes will likely be freed in October :)

Deer fence protects the petit verdot.

Petit verdot cluster.

August 4th, 2011. Day of highs and lows.

Admittedly, I needed a few days to post these pictures. The 2011 growing season was impacted tremendously this week. 

A couple years ago, Carrington King asked how I would keep deer away from the grapes. He advised that deer could wipe out entire rows at veraison. I had been monitoring closely for veraison, and planned bird/deer cover immediately at color change. Just a couple days before, I tasted the green grapes, trying to acquire a feel for veraison proximity.

On August 4th, I discovered petit verdot veraison. I also noticed that some of my petit verdot had disappeared. Oh DEER! However, there was just a small amount of damage, so I was relieved. Initially. 

Petit verdot veraison, August 4, 2011.

Then, I checked out the petit manseng. Oh my.
Veraison is easy to identify with red wine grapes. It is not so easy in white grapes. The deer, however, are quite skilled at determining this period of change (with marked sugar increase).

No more grapes. Petit manseng, on August 4, 2011.

95% of my petit manseng was gone. I felt no need to protect the dregs. In the next two days, all had been eaten.
Needless to say, the petit verdot is now protected with fencing. Lesson learned. Future harvests will benefit from this tough teaching.