Fall Harvest 2008

Fall Harvest 2008

Oct. 14, 2008

It has been a very late harvest here in Idaho. Last year we started checking the sugar levels in the grapes, especially the whites, in late August. This year, we didn't even start checking sugars until mid September. We were off to a good start with the white wine grapes and a few red wine grapes were coming in steadily from about September 22th until early last week. Then a cold Artic low came through 3 weeks earlier than usual. Idaho actually had snow in the upper elevations, the earliest snow fall in 100 years!

3 Horse Ranch Vineyards did not suffer from the associated frost as much as it could have. Last fall we placed two huge fans to effectively plow warmer upper level air down to keep the vines frost free. On Thursday, October 9th, the fans powered on at 6:30am and ran until approximately 8:30am. They are powered by Chevrolet 454 Industrial Propane Engines and sound like helicopters hovering overhead.

Light frost this time of year can be expected, and it doesn't really hurt the fruit. The frost does damage the leaves and thus effectively shuts down photosynthesis. Without photosynthesis, the grapes can't ripen any further. Without fans we would have lost most of our red grape crop.