Saturday, August 29, 2009

Leaf pulling time.

I had decided that my vineyard operation for the day would be pulling leaves on the east side of the Syrah vines. Any methoxypyrazines present were to be banished from Vinoland. That was until Mother Nature decided to raise the mercury to 105F. I had only gotten through five rows of vines when the heat got to me and I had to scurry off to the relative coolness of the house. But not before I grabbed a couple of leaves for 'show and tell'.
Look at the size of the leaf from one of our table grapes, Crimson Seedless, compared to an average sized Cabernet sauvignon leaf. Can we say sugar factory? There is a lot of surface area there that one would think would produce more sugar in table grapes than wine grapes...but think again. Can we say alcohol? Yea, baby!

4 comments:

blessingsgoddess said...

105F sounds rather hot !

Vinogirl said...

It was extremely hot!
A little bit of San Francisco bay fog is rolling in, as I type, and it is only forcast to be about 90 today.

Weston said...

ugh 90F is like heat way temp in Vancouver hah. I should send you to my grandpas neighbor and talk to him about his grapes for his homemade Italian "wine" all those leafs covering those beautiful grapes

Thud said...

30% more rain here the last 3 months according to met office...so you can imagine sun has been at a premium.