Pollination half failed and 3 months of cold and rain made sure the remaining grape bunches had little chance of proper development.
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| Triomphe d'Alsace grapes in front of the house 16 Sept 2012. It is clear to see which bunch has been thinned for unwanted green grapes |
The result was tragic to watch.
I might have been able to support grape development through the recommended artificial "bee-action", i.e. fondling all the flower-bunches with the hand, but decided to let nature take it's course. That's something I shall definitely remember in the future.
As bees are not involved in the pollination of vine flowers, grape bunch development is totally dependant on the weather - probably equal amounts of sun and wind - but no one says you can't help it on the way. This is good to know when it concerns Triomphe d'Alsace, as this varietal otherwise tends to produce lots of underdeveloped green grapes.
By the way, the bees - or those that are left of a dwindling population - were out late as well and we had no wasps at all this year, which saved me the usual production of wasp-traps.
Nature seems to keep everything in balance.
Having now thinned the leaves to allow the sun caressing the grapes for just a few more days and removed a good portion of the green and useless grapes, the final crop doesn't look as bad as I feared.
There could probably have been at least 50% more, but such is life for us 'viticulteurs'!!
My Brant vine decided to give it a rest this year. Virtually no grape bunches developed and the few that survived are small, un-ripe and utterly useless.
That's the end of the Brant vine as far as I am concerned!!
Vusschh - as we say in the family (even the cats understand what it means).
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| Triomphe d'Alsace 'roof' in the patio. |
The two other Triomphe d'Alsace winegrowers in the street are also complaining. For one it is a total failure - almost no grapes at all. The other has decided to wait and see.
I have checked the weather forecast and decided to harvest Thursday 20 Sept., 3 weeks later than last year, as they promise it will remain dry and half sunny till then. Checkpoint Wednesday!
Once the grapes are picked, de-stemmed and lightly hand crushed, I shall verify the sugar content with my refractometer and determine the level of chaptalisation. Until then I will let it remain a surprise - or perhaps it is the same as receiving a letter from the bank: until you have opened and read it, the information is at least not bad!
I have also decided to crush the grapes less than last year, allowing carbonic maceration like in Beaujolais and leave the juice and pulp in the maceration vat for 6-7 days instead of 3-4.
This should extract maximum fruit from the grapes, although there is a danger in doing so, as the chance of developing unwanted molds increases. Pressing down the cap of grapes and shells regular will hopefully keep this under control.
Once all grapes are in the maceration vat and sugar has been added (if required), a layer of proper wine-yeast will be sprayed on top, left to develop for 15-25 min and then stirred into the fruit. This way the mostly unwanted natural yeasts will be suppressed and the wine will get a chance to develop the way I want it. .
