Vintage is just around the corner!!

Vintage is nearly upon us and we have started grape maturity testing. Most of our 8 varieties are past 50% veraison (where the grapes begin to soften and reds start to develop colour). This is also when sugars start to accumulate in the berries. To measure these sugar levels we take a representative sample from the vineyard block (say 30 random bunches), crush the grapes and strain off the juice. I then test the Baumé (measure of density using a hydrometer to indicate sugar levels), pH and TA (measure of acid level), to give us an idea of how they are ripening and how close to harvest they may be.
The samples we have tested so far are Sangiovese, Barbera, and Lagrein and from their results we still have a couple of weeks before we will need to pick for our Rosato. So, a bit more time to get organised in the winery before that one, but we just have to cross our fingers for good weather and hope the predicted rain doesn’t eventuate.

Baumé- a word often used but not always explained...
The Baumé (often represented as Bé) scale was developed by a French pharmacist Antoine Baumé. In the wine industry it is used to indicate how ripe the grapes are getting. It translates (by simple calculation) to a sugar level in the juice. In very approximate terms it also gives us an idea of the potential alcohol that can be produced in the end wine. So fruit picked at 11Bé would have the potential to produce a wine with a finished alcohol of approximately 11% (assuming the juice is fully fermented through to dryness, ie, no residual sugar).

Julia