Finger Lakes Wine Grape Harvest

Quick Visit

October 22, 2009

A severe frost / freeze hit the Finger Lakes Sunday night October 18 /

Monday morning October 19 bringing an early end to the ripening of the grape crop

in what was a difficult growing year for vineyards all across New York State.

Frost damaged canopy -- vines already hilled up.   Dresden, NY

Sugar delivery.

Carnage in a low lying area north of Dresden -- survivors at the top of the hill.

Red Tail Ridge press pad -- ready to process a truck load of Chardonnay.

Red Tail Ridge's press and conveyor.

Red Tail Ridge's tank room.

Red Tail Ridge  -- deer fence surrounds entire property.

Miles Wine Cellars, LLC -- modern Gregoire mechanical grape harvester.

Cabernet Franc destined for Brotherhood Winery after processing in Hammondsport.

Through the machine...

...nothing left this year -- frozen petioles and the leaves shake free with the grapes.

Riesling on the hand sorting table at Hermann J. Wiemer / Frost Wines, LLC.

The prized end product -- clusters completely infected with botrytis for making TBA style Riesling.

Botrytized clusters developing in the vineyard -- these will be selectively picked as the infection matures.

I hand planted this vineyard for Hermann over 30 years ago.

Pomace being composted

Finished compost

Purple Aster's survive a hard freeze

Frost damage at Lamoreaux Landing Wine Cellars.

Selective damage at Lamoreaux Landing's vineyards -- elevation and variety seem to be at play here.

Lamoreaux Landing press pad -- my personal preference is to do this work under cover.