Getting Ready to Harvest

Getting Ready to Harvest

Getting Ready to Harvest. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. The wine grape harvest is anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks late across the northwest with many growers culling their berries to get better flavor from what is left. Washington Association Wine Grape Growers Executive Director, Vicky Scharlau says leaving the grapes on the vine longer really doesn't help the quality. SCHARLAU: It's not necessarily that longer is better because there's so many factors that take place while that grape is hanging. So you need temperature, you need maturity, you need all the environmental components to be nearly perfect to make sure that grape is ready to harvest so that it will bring about a flavor that the winemakers really try to target for his or her particular style of wine. But even though the overall tonnage may be down Scharlau is still very positive. SCHARLAU: This cooler weather has really elongated that process so I think people are a little bit anxious but overall I think we're looking at a great, great vintage. Good new though...some harvesting is going on. SCHARLAU: We're starting to see some specific varieties starting to be picked. Last week actually started picking and this week we'll see it in a little more earnest although the rain over the weekend slowed things down a little bit so we'll have to dry out before we can get back and jump into the middle of harvest. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
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