Thirsty

These are Syrah grapes. We should be about a fortnight off harvesting them but the recent spell of over 35 degree temperatures has brought our vendangeforward.

I tested the grapes yesterday. You have to take a random sample of 100 grapes from a parcel containing the same variety. I picked grapes from the top, middle, back, front of bunches, from different parts of the parcel, taking care not to just go for the fattest and ripest. Once I had my sample I took them home and crushed the grapes with the end of a rolling pin. (All very hi-tech.) Then, using a pipette, I drew off some juice and placed it on a refractometer. It gave me a reading which I converted into potential alcohol. I'm trying to find a balance between sugars and acid at the moment. Too much sugar results in highly alcoholic wines which aren't too pleasant, but too much acid is equally unpleasant. I'm also looking at the maturity of the grapes and the state of the pips is a good guide. Mature grapes have dark brown pips that crack when you bite them and taste deliciously nutty.

Anyway, it looks as though we may have to start our harvest this weekend. I saw the first machine harvester out this morning, although I suspect they were gathering the earlier ripening white grapes. Our reds are always ahead of the game. Our south facing furnace of an amphitheatre leads to earlier ripening.

You can see the effect of no rain and high temperatures on these Syrah. The berries are shrinking and the leaves drying. We aren't allowed to water them so we wouldn't mind a bit of sustained gentle overnight rain. But no hailstorms thank you.