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Columbia Valley summer ends with whimper

Autumn begins today - officially - but it arrived a couple of days early when a rainy Saturday greeted Washington's Columbia Valley. It was the rainiest day we've had since June, and temperatures never rose above 65.

Sunday was better with partly sunny skies and temperatures that just got into the 70s, but today is another cool day. This isn't helping grapes that still need to gather sugar and ripeness.

I checked the sugar levels on my humble backyard vineyard Sunday. My Sangiovese sample showed a brix level of 18.5, a solid improvement over the 16 brix I had Sept. 7.

Plans are to harvest our grapes on or around Oct. 25, so the grapes have plenty of time to accumulate more sugar.

By aperdue at Sep 22 2008 - 9:14am | harvest | Washington | aperdue's blog | 682 reads

Come on harvest

I am in the midst of harvest. (What's the Brix, pH and TA on those barrels?) Lets keep the Brix reasonable. Perhaps lower alcohol wines are a 2008 vintage blessing.

By dvolmut at Sat, 10/04/2008 - 9:04pm | login or register to post comments

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