UK grapes for winemaking.

[clayhill]

Hiya all,

Just following on from a comment I made last year.
We will aim to harvest our grapes on the vineyard early to mid october.
We have Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and some Auxerois (something like that )
We will be looking for pickers and did mention paying in grape.
Anyone interested?

[lockwood1956]

Hi Dale

Hoping to be available, but off on holiday 16-24th Oct..

[clayhill]

Just done a rough Acid/Sugar level check today.

OE - 59 Acid - 23 g/l

Surprisingly very close to last year at this time.

Weather depending, could be a late September or early October harvest.

[solly]

Hiya all,
We will be looking for pickers and did mention paying in grape

Grapes are fine by me Dale.............can only make weekends though, might be able to get someone who lives just round the corner from you in Burnham, and pass'es your place everyday on his way to work......just need to get a small press now

[clayhill]

That's fine.

Most of our pickers like to work the weekend so we will start our harvesting on a weekend.

I'll keep you informed.

[hedgerow]

that sound like a nice weekends play/work any idea of what weekend it is planned for

[fatbloke]

Well, it's almost close enough for me to get too (not sure where you are exactly Dale, but looked up Burnham from Solly's comment). Still might not be able to make it but definitely interested......

regards

jtfb

[solly]

Well, it's almost close enough for me to get too (not sure where you are exactly Dale, but looked up Burnham from Solly's comment). Still might not be able to make it but definitely interested......

John.........my friend says that from the Dartford Crossing to Latchingdon Essex is about 40 mins, so for me the total journey time is only about an hour

But you might straggle with your big lorry along those Country Lanes

[clayhill]

Hiya John,

The more the merrier . . . we are in Althorne, between South Woodham Ferrers and Burnham on Crouch.

It looks as if we may start harvest on the 2nd October, but don't hold me to it . . . I'll know more after checking the grapes OE and Acids in a weeks time.

[clayhill]

Hiya Folks,

I've had a meeting with English Wines Group today (our buyer) and we've decided that we should start picking in a couple of weeks, I'm looking at the weekend of 9th October.

Sugar levels are about 70 oe and the Acids are about 13 g/l, with the weather stuck in this wet period we've decided not to push the sugars any higher than 80 oe because Botrytis is a very serious threat this year.

If anybody is still interested then let me know.

[goldseal]

Aaarrgghh!

Working / tied up all weekend

Sorry.

[kessler]

Hiya Folks,

I've had a meeting with English Wines Group today (our buyer) and we've decided that we should start picking in a couple of weeks, I'm looking at the weekend of 9th October.

Sugar levels are about 70 oe and the Acids are about 13 g/l, with the weather stuck in this wet period we've decided not to push the sugars any higher than 80 oe because Botrytis is a very serious threat this year.

If anybody is still interested then let me know.

What sort of tonnage per acre are you expecting this year Dale?

k

[clayhill]

Hmm, thats a hard one. This will only be our second harvest so we are still a bit green, however, the vines are still young so i hope to get about 2 tonnes per acre. We did restrict the yield this year due to the dry conditions of last year . . . none of that now! Bloody stuff won't stop falling out of the sky!

[Mamgiowl]

You want to try living in Wales!

[clayhill]

lol. . . Yes I expect you have had just a little bit more than us.

Still raining now though!