"It is an exciting start of Harvest 2010 as we picked 3.2 tons of Chardonnay to be used for sparkling wine. Absolutely zero problems...the grapes look great, no disease. It is conceivable with this heat to be picking riesling at the end of next week," reports John Kaiser, Vineyard Manager at Fox Run Vineyards.
Fox Run Vineyards is located on the west side of Seneca Lake in norhern Yates County.
It was a busy day Monday as the winemaking staff cooled off through the evening and into the night by crushing the first grapes of the vintage. Aug. 30 is the earliest harvest ever seen at Fox Run Vineyards. Earlier that day, the viticultural team hand-picked the chardonnay grapes they would be pressing so that they could be as gentle as possible for the 2010 vintage of Fox Run's Sparkling Blanc de Blancs.
With the grapes picked as whole clusters, the team was ready to load them into the press. Compared to making other wines, one can see that the amount of physical labor that goes into making sparkling wine is rather high. Not only have the whole clusters been picked by hand, John Kaiser, Vineyard Manager - and Peter Howe, Assistant Vineyard Manager load these individual bins into the press by hand as well.
By pressing the grapes as whole clusters instead of crushed berries they can only fit in about 50% of the normal weight of grapes into the press, which means they had two press loads instead of one. Nevertheless, this is best for treating the grapes as carefully as possible and the juice they got was fantastic.
There is no doubt; the first day of Harvest was a great day. Everyone at Fox Run loves vintage and the first day of harvest brought smiles to everyone's face. It may have been one of the hottest days they've ever harvested, but no complaints about the weather this year from Fox Run's winery!
