When to harvest...

[Ardon]

With all this rain my grapes are not hitting 20 brix yet. Before the hurricane and the subsequent 10 inches of rain I was almost at 18 and now I'm down to almost 15... Do I keep waiting are should I just plan on adding sugar? Decisions... decisions....

 

[Rocky]

What variety of grape do you have? How much do you have? Are the grapes showing any sign of drying out? I would imagine that in the normal case, you would have until the first or second week of October in Maryland to make the decision. As far as adding sugar, you always have that option.

 

[JohnT]

Any idea of what the acid levels are?

 

[winemaker_3352]

I would also be concerned about the PH levels as well. Make sure those are inline before harvesting.

 

[grapeman]

You could also run into the situation I have been confronted with. With all the rains, all the tight bunched varieties had some berry splitting. This opened them up to bees, wasps and hornets as well as disease pathogens such as botrytis. We have been forced to begin harvest even with less than ideal brix levels. I would rather add a bit of sugar or even adjust acid if need be than not get any harvest. We dropped about one third of the Marquette crop on the ground yesterday- that hurt.

 

[Runningwolf]

Rich I agree with you. The rain has been tough on the harvest. Pick now and make your adjustments.

 

[AKsarben]

Your vines have had an "uptake" of water and it dilluted your berries a bit. Leave them alone for a while and watch them. The brix will come up and the flavor is what you are looking for. Pick on maturity and flavor. However, keep fruit condition in mind.