2008 Palisade Grape Harvest LargerThan Ever

It's bigger and better than ever before, if somewhat tardy. We're talking about the 2008 Palisade grape harvest. It's been a common sight during September and October: the grape varietals are being loaded into overflowing plastic bins and carted around on flatbeds behind chugging tractors all over Orchard Mesa. This blogger was privileged enough to taste fresh Semillon juice right off the press, warm and sweet, with small grape leaves swirling around inside the mug. Amazing!

Under the headline, "Grape Harvest Starts Late, Up 11.44 Percent," the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel staff wrote:

"Mirroring a season that started two weeks behind, the wine grape harvest in western Colorado finally is off and running.

“It’s going full-blown right now,” said Horst Caspari, state viticulturist at the Colorado State University research station on Orchard Mesa.

“Winemakers have been playing catch-up the last couple of weeks,” Caspari said late last week. “But most of the varieties are ready to go.”

Chardonnay and merlot should be finished by this weekend with some viognier and early sangiovese coming in next.

"Cabernet sauvignon might be another week or so off, but the syrah is nearly ready, Caspari said.

"A stop Saturday for some syrah grapes at Pat Brennan’s vineyard on Orchard Mesa found Brennan and his workers going full speed to keep up the mixed harvest of grapes and apples.

“'We have some cabernet sauvignon, merlot and riesling still hanging along with a couple other varietals,' Brennan said, standing in a shed surrounded by boxes of Golden Delicious apples while bags of MacIntosh and Galas were stacked nearby. 'We’ll pick them when (the winemaker) wants us to.'

"At this stage in the grapes’ development, growers and winemakers now are watching sugar and acid levels."

You can read the rest of the column here. And what are your harvest time experience with fresh off the vine grapes? Please tell us; we're dying to know!

Expect Later Than Usual Colorado Grape Harvest

A cool spring in the Grand Valley means that the grape harvest will be a few weeks later, this year. Or so says the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. Under the headline, "Harvest Close but Grapes Not Quite Ready for Picking," Sentinel reporter Dave Buchanan writes:

"Remember wearing that comfy fleece pullover -- the one you usually dropped back into the closet by the first of May -- well into the month?

"The cool weather last spring did more than change your fashionista stylings. It offered notice to wine makers that this summer wasn't going to be like recent years.

"Now, with grape harvest at least a week later than last year and maybe getting a bit later every day, wine makers are gearing up for a harvest tantalizingly out of reach.

"'We'll probably start picking sauvignon blanc (this) week, ' said Jenne Baldwin-Eaton, winemaker at Plum Creek Vineyards, during a conversation Friday. 'It's a couple weeks behind; usually I have sauvignon blanc in the last week in August.'

"Most produce and fruit across the valley is running two to several weeks late this summer after getting a late start in the spring, said Horst Caspari, viticulturist at the Colorado State University Research Station on Orchard Mesa.

"'It's probably two weeks late compared to the past few years,' Caspari said. 'It may actually be more than that; the last few days of cool temperatures haven't helped.'"

You can read the rest of the article here.