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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us September 6, 2005 Off The Vine Technology can’t change the weather Lorn Razzano Every time the fall starts creeping in with morning crispness, I begin thinking about my years harvesting grapes during “autumn madness.” This is the time of year that grape growers begin to get excited on just about every level — from lining up pickers to worrying about the unpredictable weather patterns that can devastate vineyards in the flash of an eye. With hungry birds, yellow jackets and bears, the vineyards in these parts are very exposed to a variety of problems just before harvest. The trick is to let the grapes hang long enough to bring those succulent sugar levels to ripening form. The higher the sugar, the higher the alcohol content and the overall maturity of the tastes in the wine. Letting fruit hang to ripen is very risky business on a variety of levels. Besides hungry critters, rain, frost and hail can take out a year’s worth of promise in a matter of minutes. There are typically two types of growers in the wine business, those who are risk takers and those who are not. The more cautious growers will cash in early and not wait for the optimum ripening levels. These folks will look up at the sky and make a few phone calls to get the pickers out in the vineyard as soon as they are comfortable with the sugars they have. The other grower will wait until the bitter end and pray for no frost or that sudden hail thunderstorm that will take out even the most hardy set of grapes. Those folks in the grape growing business for the romance of it soon find out the simple truth about winegrowing; it is farming, with all of its mud and risks. The other risk facing the grape grower is the very slow pay they receive from wineries. The often untold truth of the matter is that small, family owned wineries are unable or do not have the land to grow enough grapes for their own production and must buy grapes from other sources. These other sources are, ironically, small family growers. Little wineries many times have to sell wine before they can pay off the grape grower! This can be quite a lag time between the harvest and payment to the grower. Fortunately, this is not very common but it does happen and causes real friction between some growers and winemakers. When things click in with great yields and lovely ripe fruit, everyone makes out well, from the grower to the winery and from the winery to the restaurants and retailers. Good yields and fair market prices ultimately make for a happy and well-served consumer which benefits the entire operation from the ground up. I will be letting you know what is in store for this harvest as soon as things get under way, which should be in a few weeks or less. Until then you should be tasting the rich 2003 Oregon reds from a fat and warm vintage year. The best bet are the rich, opulent, pinot noirs from the Willamette Valley. We are seeing higher-than-usual alcohol levels in these wines, but there are some beauties with good acid levels to make them balanced and delicious! See you next time! DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams