The harvesting of wine grapes is one of the most crucial steps in the process of winemaking. The time of harvest is determined primarily by the ripeness of the grape as measured by sugar, acid and tannin levels with winemakers basing their decision to pick based on the style of wine they wish to produce. The weather can also shape the timetable of harvesting with the threat of heat, rain, hail, and frost which can damage the grapes and bring about various vine diseases.
This year, Sonny is making the decision to harvest the Seyval Blanc about 2 weeks earlier than previous years. This can probably be contributed to the fact that he didn’t do the “green” pruning this year.
Here the Seyval Blanc
grapes are harvested by hand. The decision to harvest grapes is typically made by the winemaker and informed by the level of sugar (called Brix). Early winemakers would taste the grape to get this gauge but more modern winemaking would use a refractometer (see picture) to get a measure of the sugar levels. Based on the refractometer reading, the Brix level of the Seyval Blanc sample that we picked, was around 21/22.
White wine production:
