*The values shown are the mean of two independent samples from the whole primitivo or barbera field.

**Chemistry of separate clones of remaining barbera with over 80% picked.  M2=Montevina clone, rows 36-37; 1B=clone 02; rows 21-27.

Comments:

We got hit with some unexpected and measurable rainfall on Monday, which may have partially undone our efforts to not irrigate our remaining grapes in the last week.  However, we still saw a general rise in brix in the face of that, which was welcome if unexplained.  We’re still waiting for the day that the data makes perfect sense…

Most of the barbera was picked in the last week, so the apparent rise in TA in the remainder we’d have to attribute to some combination of 1) the fact that we picked what we assumed to be the ripest fruit first, thus biasing this week’s sample with the less ripe balance; 2) net dehydration since the big rain of the prior week, which would tend to inflate brix and TA.  What is clear is that the 02 clone sample had notably higher brix and slightly lower TA than the Montevina clone sample, which is typical of what we observe when we have looked at the two clones separately.  The pH of the samples was similar and slightly higher than last week’s whole vineyard sampling. We generally try to get our clients a blend of the two clones, though with the remaining rows at the current time, the 02 looks riper. 

The Quinta touriga nacional gave us a pleasant surprise on brix, making back the lost ground of the prior week and adding more to just reach 25.0.  The TA ticked up slightly, while the pH made progress to 3.30–a similar pattern as the barbera.  The brix progress could not have come at a better time, as this fruit should make up the backbone of the Quinta harvest on Saturday. 

We did some berry sampling (~15 berries) of the supporting cast of varietals in the Quinta, with the following outcome on brix as measured by refractometry:

Tempranillo:  22.4 +/- 1.7

Tinto Cao:  24.7 +/- 1.0

Tinta Amarella:  23.2 +/- 2.1

Souzao:  22.4 +/- 1.3

Particularly surprised by the tempranillo, which had registered higher before, we did our first and only cluster sampling of this fruit given the limited quantities, with results as shown in the table above.  The 23.5 brix reading as measured by hydrometer was a little more like it, and the TA low (0.38) and the pH high (3.60) as we’d expect at this late juncture for tempranillo. 

The touriga (09) added 1 brix of sugar with practically no change in TA or pH.  This represents progress, but we’re still going to need help from Mother Nature in the form of some warm, dry weather in the next few weeks to get the brix where we want.