Controle de Maturité - Checking the Ripeness

Yesterday we did our first "controle de maturité"  in order to see how the grapes are ripening, how much sugar there is, and where we are in terms of acidity this year.  First, I went to each vineyard and gathered grapes (just two berries from each bunch, not the whole bunch).  In order to do this I must zig-zag thoughout the vineyard and randomly collect samples.  It's hard because you are most likely to pick the nicest looking, blackest grapes, but that is a no-no because then your sample won't reflect the true ripeness of the entire vineyard.  What I do is look away while I'm pulling them off, trying to increase the chances of getting a good mix.  The rule of thumb is to collect 100 grapes.  When I was younger and doing harvest at wineries here in France and also in California, I used to try to count to 100. I gave that up and just criss-crossed the vineyard several times. Surely I have many more than 100 in each bag. 

Our enologist, M. Alméras, came just after lunch and we crushed the grapes in a plastic bowl trying to get each and every grape to break. He swished the bowl around to homogenize the juice.  Then M. Alméras sucks some of the juice into his pipette and squirts it on a device called a refractometer, holds it up to the sun and looks through the view-finder to read the potential alcohol.

Things are quite different this year as compared to last.  On the same day, 1 year ago, the grenache from the Lauzettes vineyard was at 12 degrees potential alcohol, yesterday it was at 10.6.  The acidity is lower, which is too bad, but that's the beauty of making wine, every year is different.   This means we are about 10 days to 2 weeks from harvest.  More time for us to get everything ready! Phew!

Comments

[Rob Cole]

Do you test the acidity with both a pH meter and titrets or just the pH meter?

I love my refractometer! It's my coolest new toy!