It was March of 2020 when we first planted 140 grapevines in the Gibbons Creek Vineyard on the hill behind our ranch house. Between raccoons with a fondness for grapes, and 100+ degree temps for weeks on end, last year turned into a meager harvest of mostly raisins. But we learned from our mistakes. A new, fully electrified 6′ fence across the front of the vineyard, and lots of steel spikes installed below ground level around the rest of the vineyard allowed us to almost eliminate the loss of loss of grapes to the critters. Watering the drip irrigation for 3 hours every 3 days kept the grapes nice and plump.
Last week the sugar content of the grapes surpassed 20 brix, so it was time to schedule a grape harvest. Our friends Mike and Cathy Rape, Jennifer Deering, and our ranch hand Taren Parker met us at the vineyard at sunrise this morning. Temp were a pleasant 75 degrees (at least for the first 5 minutes) as the bird netting was removed from the 7 rows of vines. By 10:30am, we had harvested and crushed 820 lbs of Lenoire grapes.
Mike and Cathy have a wine making operation and were able to supply the grape crushing equipment and take the grapes. The crushing operation produced almost 100 gallons of juice and skins, which will now go through a couple of weeks of fermentation. We are hopeful that this will produce about 300 bottles of wine.
Looking forward to the tasting of this vintage next year.