Erm, the industrious honey bees are eating my Cabernet sauvignon grapes. I can't really blame them because the grapes are very sweet. However, the bees should be wincing due to the high acidity - if only I could see their little, squinting eyes.
The numbers are in; °Brix 24.2, pH 3.38 and TA 8.75. Sugars have been driven up due to nearly a week of mid to high 90s temperatures. Time to water.
Sunday, October 05, 2014
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6 comments:
VG: Will this be another vintage of 'high' alcohol Cabs from Napa?
Oh, good photo which tells the tale; we've had a swarm of honey bees on the hummingbird feeders; at least they just ignore the birds, whereas the wasps will chase our feathered friends away.
Great photo.
Is that TA normal or the sign of a sunless season?
Get a pan of scouse on and we will be over to get em in.
NHW: Yes, it probably will, unless winemakers add a lot of water.
Got up very close to the honey bees, but kept my distance from the wasps (which there are not many of this year).
Tomasso: Thanks.
Nope, we have had a fantastic summer with not a lot of San Francisco Bay fog. As you know, changes in pH are complex and the °Brix are not an indication of berry maturity. Sugar being driven up by dessication, grapes have still not reached optimal maturity.
Thud: Way too hot for scouse this week. Maybe next :)
VG:
TA is related, but movements in pH or in Brix don't necessarily correlate completely with TA movements. That's a hard lesson learned during anomalous years.
Tomasso: A winemaker in the neighbourhood picks fruit on pH numbers alone. I'm waiting for the seeds to go brown and the acid to come down.
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