Rain At Harvest

Monday Sep 14th, 2009 34 Views Vine to Wine

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran and as many of you are aware it is that time of year again. Time for the grape harvest, of course! Recently a friend asked why would a grape grower or a winemaker fear rain at harvest time?

Rain is not always the grape grower’s friend. In fact managing the amount of water a grapevine receives is a big part of growing grapes. The effort of actually stressing the vines with lack of water; forcing their roots go deep into the earth in search of it - is highly desirable. When a grapevine is growing and producing fruit the goal is to direct as much energy as possible to the grape cluster. If lack of water causes the grape vine to fears for it’s continued growth it will put all of its’ energy into producing seeds, which are encased in the grapes. This being the case the vine will probably produce some very fine grape clusters. After an entire summer of forcing all of its goodness into its grape clusters - the vine is very thirsty. If for some crazy reason it rains at harvest time the vines will drink up and send it to the grapes. This will dilute the grape’s juice and sugars. It’s like when you make orange juice from frozen concentrate and the package says to use only three cans of water but you loose track and use four – and the result is very thin watery tasting juice. And as I always tell you; you can’t make great wine with lousy grapes. That’s just one good reason that we don’t want it to rain at harvest time in the vineyards! Galileo claimed, “Wine is sunlight, held together by a little bit of water.” And thanks for joining me on today’s Vine to Wine.