Journal | September 6, 2021
Picking Decisions
Linden will start harvest later this week. Making this decision has been particularly difficult this year due to extreme fluctuations between drought and rain. The vines are confused. Lately the weather has settled down nicely. And we hope that continues.
The decision as to when to pick any given parcel of vines is by far the single most important and consequential winemaking decision. It dictates the style, balance, and quality of the resulting wine. It is made in real time. There is no second chance. We use any and all tools and knowledge available. Intuition and gut feel also play a role.
For each block, every three or four days, 150 individual grape berries are systematically collected. They are then squeezed to extract juice. Lab tests are conducted for sugar content, pH, and titratable acidity. The juice is then tasted and evaluated “organoleptically." The condition of the clusters and vines is noted. Weather is checked and checked and checked.
This year the lab tests indicated early on that we could start picking. But the flavors were diluted from the rains of Ida. We knew that the resulting wines would be dilute and wan. Fortunately, because of the dry spell we had in midsummer, the berries were small with thick skins. They remained resilient to rot and degradation from the rains of late August. This allowed us to gamble and let the sun and wind slowly draw out the excess water in the grapes and give the vines' leaves the ability to produce more flavor. So we have been not-so-patiently waiting for this string of sunny, dry days and cool nights to work their magic.
Let the harvest begin.
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Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Journal: September 6, 2021