08/31/05 Grape harvest

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran and it all begins in the vineyards. The saying that "you can't make good wine from bad grapes" is no wives tale. For without close monitoring and attention to the details of growing grapes we would never have great wines. Harvest is upon us  but let's take a look back at what has been going on. The grape growing season begins in the spring and goes through the harvest in the late summer or fall. The weather during that season is what we attribute to producing a good or a not so good vintage. So when people talk about a good vintage, or year, they are also telling you what the summer weather was like. A wine grape grower hopes for long summers that will allow the grapes to become good and ripe, and they hope that it won't rain around harvest, causing the grapes to fill up with water and dilute the flavors and the chemical make up of the harvested juice. As grapes grow and ripen the sugar levels increase. And as harvest nears, a close watch is kept on the levels of sugar, what is referred to as the brix. The winemakers and oenologists will be in the vineyards measuring the amounts of sugar with an instrument called a refractometer. It tells them the exact level of sugars on any given day. Once the winemakers give the go for picking, yet another series of decisions are made, as trained pickers determine which bunches of grapes to harvest and which ones must be left behind. To make a high quality wine only the best bunches of grapes must be selected. The grapes are loaded in to bins and hurried off to the wineries to begin the next stage in the process of bringing your favorite wine to you. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thanks for joining us on today's Vine to Wine.