grape harvest 2005....
 

Hi....does anyone know anything about the harvest from the central
valley area this year....I have heard reports that some parts of
california has recieved some challenging weather. It would be great to
know if it is worth ordering wine grapes from this region at all this
fall.,,,does anyone have any links to information at all?....andy jones

Peter Brehm at Brehm Vineyards usually posts some good commentary on
the current year's crop on his web site. See
http://www.brehmvineyards.com He tends to concentrate on the premium
growing areas, though.

Doug

Try this link. for Central vally CA 2005 croe report
http://www.alliedgrapegrowers.org/crop.html

Hi....thanks that is a great link......not really sure where
Fresno,Calif. is in relation to the Central Valley grape growing region
,but I see that it is 101 F degrees today.....Man O' Man thats a warm
day by my standards......exactly what do prolonged temps of this kind
do to the grape quality aside from high brix?....andy j.

Fresno is a bit below the middle of the Central Valley. It's the hotter
portion of the valley; an ancient desert.

I remember stopping at an apple juice stand along Highway 99 just south
of Fresno one hot summer day. The all-day sucker candies (wheel of
candy on a stick) had drooped... and they were in the shade!!

Gene


wrote:
> Hi....thanks that is a great link......not really sure where
> Fresno,Calif. is in relation to the Central Valley grape growing region
> ,but I see that it is 101 F degrees today.....Man O' Man thats a warm
> day by my standards......exactly what do prolonged temps of this kind
> do to the grape quality aside from high brix?....andy j.
>

wrote:
> Hi....thanks that is a great link......not really sure where
> Fresno,Calif. is in relation to the Central Valley grape growing region
> ,but I see that it is 101 F degrees today.....Man O' Man thats a warm
> day by my standards......exactly what do prolonged temps of this kind
> do to the grape quality aside from high brix?....andy j.

Sun burned grapes,desicated grapes, very low acid, high brix before the
grape are really mature.

The thing is, the brix may not be high because the vines can shut down.
The grapes may still consume the acid with out much sugar production
going on, resulting in normal brix at harvest but very low acid and
frankly, the grapes from there aren't usually known for their good acid
profile to begin with.

Andy

Those sites show the harvest will be close to normal time this year.

Last year was my first time ordering grapes from California - which I
guess was an early season.

What is considered an average season that I could see grapes in the
Chicago area?

2nd week of September?

hombrewdude > wrote:
> Those sites show the harvest will be close to normal time this year.
>
> Last year was my first time ordering grapes from California - which I
> guess was an early season.
>
> What is considered an average season that I could see grapes in the
> Chicago area?
>
> 2nd week of September?
>

Sounds about right. Contact North Side Grapes.

--Lee