wrote:

On Apr 26, 2:48 pm, "Paul E. Lehmann"
wrote:
I picked up my Malbec grapes today from mdcrush
in Mt. Airy Maryland - about 30 miles from
where I
live. They were in a refrigerated cooler he
had on location.

I bought 5 lugs at 22 pounds (10 Kilos each)
each for a total of 110 pounds or 50 kilos.
The price was $142.50

The grapes were of good quality and no mold or
rot.

The price is a little high - but local growers
are charging almost the same thing here in
Central Maryland and Northern Virginia - and
you don't get a reusable lug.

The lugs are plastic and are reusable and
stackable. I am going to use them when I
harvest from my backyard vineyard this fall.

They had a stemmer crusher on location for use
for free but I have one at home so I brought
them home.

Here are the chemistries that I measured at
home after crush.

Brix 23.0
pH 3.5
TA 0.063

I think this will make an excellent wine.

The distributor may have made a mistake but I
thought I heard him say the brix was 26. I
like 23 a LOT better than 26 Brix. If I wanted
26 or higher, I could get Central Valley
California grapes and for less money.

I have found that some growers and distributors
error on the high side when it comes to talking
about the amount of sex they get and the Brix
of their grapes

There are other locations located around the US
that sell South American grapes. There was a
list in I believe it was last month's "Wine
Maker" Magazine - it may have been two issues
ago.

the grapes may have been 26 before shipping.

I doubt it. I can't think of a mechanism that
would cause a decrease in brix - except for
grapes hanging on the vine during a rainy spell.

The distributor said, after I told him my
readings, that my readings were more accurate
because he just checked a couple individual
grapes on a cluster which is not a very reliable
way to check brix.