2013 crop

It's been 3 years since I posted here. Much water under the bridge and at one point I thought I might be forced to give up. No grapes in 2011 as July rain made the berries split, and no grapes in 2012 as it was too wet and cold at all the wrong times. 2013 started a month late but we caught up a good part of that with the hot summer down here in Southampton. Flowering happened in ideal conditions - dry, warm and a bit of a breeze to spread the pollen about. Thinking the season would be short I was pretty ruthless about removing bunches, probably half the crop, to maximise the chance of a modest ripe crop rather than a huge green one. That turned out to be a good plan as wasps and falling temperatures meant I harvested a couple of days ago, which is earlier than I would like. Here's the result:

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That turned out to be just under 100kg at 19.5Brix/1.075 or so, pH 3.1 and Ta just under 10ppt. The acid is on the high side but I'll see what happens as ferment continues. It's now bubbling away happily in 4 25l fermenters in the hallway courtesy of Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast. I say to visitors "it might smell like a winery here, that's because it is a winery..."

So 5 years after planting, this is the first year I've managed to get a decent crop. Now it's down to the wimemaking dept (that's me) not to screw up!!

I will have to give some serious thought to the wasp problem. I destroyed all the nests on the allotment site and set traps around the vines which many liked (Aldi's jam and diluted fruit juice, a splosh of Tesco value lager and some baking yeast to get it frothing and smelling nice). But still they came and I could see them flying in from outside the site where I'd have little chance of access. The not-so-bad news is that wasps tend to stick with a food source until they exhausted it and they would concentrate on some berries in some bunches and clean the middle out leaving a dry shell - nothing for moulds to grow on.