Hardscrabble Journal

O.M.G. What Just Happened?

I’m sure records were broken as to the shear quantity (not to mention quality!) of grapes we picked yesterday. The rain teased us from the very beginning, but a good part of the day was rain free until the very end when we all got soaking wet.

We packed the cooler with towering pallets of yellow plastic baskets (AKA lugs) until there was no space available. Some pallets had to spend the night outside (undercover), which I don’t like, but the alternative of not picking is much worse.

All the “A” blocks were picked, along with some of the “B” blocks. We have the core foundations to make outstanding Boisseau, Avenius and Hardscrabble Reds for 2016. We are very satisfied. This fact helps mitigate the anxiety of knowing that the grapes still on the vines will suffer badly over the next few rainy days. These remaining blocks historically go into Claret. 2016 will be no exception.

We cannot process all these tons (about 15) in one day. Actually, we could, but not well. Its the hand sorting that take time. That’s why it is helpful to have a cooler.

We haven’t yet wrapped our heads around where we are going to put all the fermenters and how we are going to organize and conduct fermentation, but having so much ripe, healthy fruit will make the job easy and rewarding.

Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Journal: September 29, 2016