When we talk about how one can know whether their vineyard grapes are ready for harvest, we usually end up with one answer- there is no one sure indicator that would tell you when to pick the grapes. You could have a training yard for your small vineyard or acres of land flourishing with vineyard grapes. Following are the top tips when it comes to knowing the right time to harvest.
Do You Know The Sweetness Level?
Picking Vineyard grapes differs slightly then the way you would want your table grapes to be like. Vineyard grapes are always better than your regular grapes. This is because of the sucrose present in the grapes that you measure through the value of Brix. There are many methods and tools that can help you measure Brix. It is the sweetness level of grapes that determines the alcohol level.
Hydrometer is the most tradition and popular tool that helps you measure Brix. Part of managing an entire vineyard is that you also take care of the record of Brix each week or each mounts up to. Therefore, it is imperative that you keep up the practice of checking the sweetness level at these intervals. Also remember that the Brix won’t keep on getting better as time goes by, in unfortunate circumstances rain leads to the grapes swelling and basically being ruined due to the misbalancing of sweetness and acidity that is caused.
Ripe Grapes
However only the sweetness level and ultimately the Brix do not determine whether the grape is ready to be picked or not. The Grape needs to be physically ripe too. We are talking seeds, skin and stems. A ripe vineyard grape is one where the color changes from your ordinary grape green to yellowish and the seeds will taste relatively less bitter. This aspect of ripeness is what makes the resulting wine tannin taste sweeter. Tannin is supposed to affect a wine’s aftertaste or what is commonly referred to as the wine’s finish.
Try Your Hand At It
If this is your first time tending to a vineyard and you want to avoid any beginner’s blunders that you are afraid of then you might want to get a taste of the experience. You can always visit a vineyard harvest. There are tons of wineries that are understaffed during the time of their vineyard harvest. Hand harvesting is one of the many things that you will experience doing if you volunteer and as a bonus you can also see or ask questions on all that you are concerned about.
In order to make sure that you are managing the vineyard right you need to be able to equip your land with the right vineyard supplies and equipment. One of the quality places you can look up and buy the best ranch and vineyard supplies at Cameron & Cameron Inc.
