The 2011 harvest season is coming upon Northern Michigan – our grapes have been ripening nicely in the warm summer weather, tempered by cool evenings of late.
Verasion – the beginning of the ripening process is well under way. Here’s a shot of our Estate Pinot Noir – you can see some clusters turning purple while other still need more time.
The other item we’re keeping an eye on right now are growing degree days. Growing degree days (GDD) are a measure of heat accumulation used by horticulturists, gardeners, and farmers to predict plant and pest development rates such as the date that a flower will bloom or a crop reach maturity. We can see by the chart below this varies much depending on the season and how much heat gain we obtain per day. 2011 is represented with the white line which ends September 1st as that is how far we are in the growing season. We had a slower start than most years, but have caught up to a mid-level year.
There is still about another month of ripening to go, we expect harvest to begin the first of October. The vineyard crew is busily working to put up nets on some vines to protect them from hungry birds, prepping the harvest machine, and hoping for continued good weather.
Check in with us during our Harvest Day on Sat. October 1st for an update – we’ll be having an open house from 12-4pm, including the option to get in a barrel and stomp some grapes!
