Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Plucking!

I have been talking about 'plucking' for the last few months, and have recently been asked to clarify the term. Well, OK. It has nothing to do with chooks - that's the first thing. It's all about showing the grapes to the sun and wind. As always, pictures tell a thousand words, so here's a 'before' shot:



And here's the 'after' shot:



In the first image, the grapes are hidden by the leaves. In the second shot we have pulled off all the leaves around the bunches to let air circulate which reduces the risk of mildew and disease and to let sun in; again to reduce disease risk. Both also result in the grapes developing thicker skins, which gives us more to work with when fermenting. Thicker skins allow us to extract more flavours and tannins.

As always, feel free to drop me a note if you have any questions about the foregoing. And, feel free to share my blog link with anyone you think may be interested. It is:
http://birthofawine.blogspot.com/2010/01/plucking.html
On the social media front, I'm getting there!! We purchased a flip camera the other day, so maybe video on the blog soon! Also, our Twitter sites are growing in support. I'm still working on our Facebook presence - will tell you more soon. One key development from our increased exposure has been the jump in contacts from people who like and and have tried our wines - from all over the world. It has been an exciting discovery.

2 comments:

  1. All this makes perfect sense. At least the sun has arrived to speed along their growth.

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  2. And then it get's cold again. Very chilly here today.

    ReplyDelete