Dropped another 10% of the grapes 3 days ago to the dammed oidio! 10% is now what I hope to be left with. That's still enough to make some wine, maybe 80 bottles. Meanwhile, we are eating our first garden melons and pears and lots of tomatoes and lots of mustard, arugula, broccoli, and other sprouts from the Fall/Summer garden.
And the clean up of the construction work site continues. This was the view out our back door, at the southwest corner of the vineyard, yesterday.
Here is the same view today!
At last, I am done with the basic heavy lifting around the house! The chaos of big stones, earth, broken brick and other construction debris, wood scraps and firewood! Finally, I can walk around the house outside and not trip over things or step on nails or get stung by wasps or spook vipers! Finally, I see order when I look out a window! Finally, I can sit down and write. Well, almost. There's still a lot to do.
Today, I bought a 230 liter food grade plastic vat as a back up vessel to start the red wine in if things happen faster than I expect. Certain reds grapes (Ciliegiolo) are already at 15 Brix (That's a measure of the sugar in the grape) and certain whites (Malvasia) are at 18 Brix. Ideally, I want to harvest the reds around 22 to 24 Brix and the whites a little lower. The time is fast approaching! Now I need to organize and build the wine cellar and production area in our underground garage. I need to build a work bench and storage racks and make sure everything is sanitary. But that is pleasant construction in cave cool conditions. I'm out of the hot Tuscan sun at last!
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