Pressing

Grapes pressed lightly after around 20 hours on the skins, approx. 150 litres of juice, measured again at 22 Brix

Many thanks to Mary and Graham for their help again !

Vendemmia

we picked the grapes today, Mary Graham Duncan and me.

Its a hot day, maybe 30 degrees, the grapes were in fine condition.

Rows 1 and 2 measured 23 Brix, Rows 3 and 4 22 Brix.

Weights as follows

Row 1  68.4 Kgs
Row 2  44.8 Kgs
Row 3  46.7 Kgs
Row 4  71.5 Kgs

Total Pick 231.4 Kgs

Crush was completed by 1pm, grape must sulphited and left on skins for pressing tomorrow morning.

Brix Update

Monday 9th September

row 1+2, 21 Brix 

row 3+4, 22 Brix

Brix Update

Thursday 5th September

Brix taken by Claudia

row 1+2, 21 Brix

row 3+4, 22 Brix 

Brix Update

Sunday 1st September

Brix taken by Claudia, recorded as

row 1+2, 17 Brix 

row 3+4, 18 Brix 

Brix Update

Crop looks great, maybe 250Kgs ? 

Measured Brix today, the newly grafted rows with the biggest crop coming in at 15, the original 2 rows with smaller crop measuring 12.5

Brix Update

The grafted vines are looking very good;  looks like a bumper crop, probably 3 or 4 times the quantity on the old vines.

Brix measured today at 14.5.

Slow Fermentation

The fermentation has started very slowly, after 4 days there is a very small amount of very small bubbles only.  Measured the must yesterday at specific gravity of 1.106 which is very high, suggesting Brix of 25 and finishing alcohol content of almost 15%.

Last years white is looking good, altho still smelling off slightly too much Sulphur.

Vendemmia

Very nice harvest last night.   Jodie Jade Steve and Julie joined us for the Harvest.

We picked at 6pm, 92 Kgs from the original 2 rows of Pecorino, and 15 Kgs from the grafted rows for a total of 107 Kgs.

Grapes were left to soak on skins for 18 hours, gently pressed at 12 Noon today.

The juice was tested at 24 Brix.

Pecorino Update

We have had an unbelievably hot and dry summer.  A brief rain shower yesterday was only the 2nd drop of rain since we arrived on the 16th July.  The summer has been incredibly hot with temperatures at Orchidea in the high 30's for over a month.

Temperatures have dropped in the last couple of days, but it is still dry; and in the high 20's.

As a result, the grapes are ripening very early;  they were measuring already 20 Brix yesterday, so it is likely we will be picking in the next week or so.  The crop looks good, although the berries are very small.

Sangiovese

We have had the worse summer of weather that we have ever seen at Orchidea, and as a result the red grapes have really struggled to ripen.

The Sangiovese were being very badly attacked by wasps, so on the 8th October they were picked at only just over 20 Brix.  Total amount picked of 60 Kgs,.

The Montepulciano are still at around 20 Brix and these will be picked in the next day or two.

Very strange that the Brix could be so low for Sangiovese already into October.

The grapes were crushed, and left to soak on the skins for 48 hours, then gently pressed to make around 35 litres of juice.

Grape Harvest

Andrew Helen and Claudia picked the Pecorino today at 16:00.   4 baskets which must have weighed around 80 Kgs,.  Brix of Juice measured at 23.0  Grapes soaked for 24 hours, approx.45 litres.

Wine & Grapes Update

Last years Sangiovese Rose is poor, I think we picked at too low Brix.  The grapes are looking really good this year, my plan is to pick at around 24 Brix, and to soak on skins for 48 hours.

We have had a lot of problems with something eating the grapes again, I am convinced it is deer,.  We have hung bars of soap and this seems to have solved the problem.

Last years Pecorino has been bottled, and I am really pleased it is the by far the best wine we have made yet, so this year I am targeting to pick again at 24.5 Brix.

As of today Briox levels are

Pecorino;  20
Sangiovese; 16
Montepulciano ; 15

Still a way to go so fingers crossed for some sunny days

Sangiovese

Picked the Sangiovese today.  Its a little early as its showing Brix at 21.5, but I am hoping to make a light fresh Rose not too high in alcohol.  Total weight picked was 96 Kgs, the grapes were in great condition, big clean bunches with large grapes.

Pecorino Harvest

Saturday 5th September

Rain in the morning, after a couple of hours of lunchtime sun, we picked 87 kgs of Pecorino.  Much better harvest than last year.  These were crushed, left overnight on the skins, and pressed gently next day to make around 50 litres of juice.  The Juice was measured at 24.5 Brix.

Grape Update

Its rainy and cold today in Italy, not at all what we want for the 19th August.

However we have had some fine and hot weather for a while now, and the grapes are looking better than they ever looked.

Last night I tested the Brix and we have 17 on the Sangiovese and 18 on the Pecorino, so looking like they will be ready early September.

Pruning Update

Grapes looking very tidy, 3 vines at top of Sangiovese row have black spots on leaves, Duncan has taken photos.  Otherwise looking good;

2013 Wines

I tasted the wines from last years harvest today.  All 3 are looking fine, clear, with good clean flavours and aroma.

Summer Pruning

Omi, Isis and I arrived at Orchidea on the 8th May, what a great time of the year to be in Le Marche.  We had 23 degrees and sunshine for 3 or 4 days with signs of summer starting all around.  No signs of fireflies yet though!

The grapes have started growing with plentiful shoots of between 3 to 9 inches growth already, I spent about 4 hours taking out a large number of shoots, and leaving around 6 shoots only evenly placed on each cordon.

On the vines that have not yet converted to Guyot, I tried where possible to make sure I left a few shoots near the crowns that can be converted into next years canes.

The vines have a great deal less shoots than previous years, although almost all shoots are already showing signs of forming grape clusters.  I am excited about our new pruning methods....I can see that we will probably get less yield, but that the grapes should be more consistent and healthy.

Pruning and Wine Update

Myself, Graham, Mary were joined for this Pruning trip by Mike Whitehead.  We arrived at Casa Orchidea on Friday 28th March 2014 to prune the grapes, to take a look at last years wine, and to meet our new helper, winemaker Giuseppe Morelli.

Giuseppe is the young winemaker at Casalis Douhet, and has offered to help us going forward with our winemaking efforts.

We are extremely excited to have Giuseppe on board helping us.  During the weekend we actually got to taste 3 of Giuseppe's wines;  a Passerina, Ribona and a Passito.  All 3 were really excellent, so we now have a benchmark to aim at.

Giuseppe arrived at Casa Orchidea on Saturday morning together with his friend and colleague Francesco, and our friend Claudia.

Francesco is an Agronomist who has worked with several vineyards, and after some discussion we decided to change our method of pruning going forward from cordon cane to Guyot.

We tasted last years wines;  2 Roses and a Pecorino;  all looking good.  The Pecorino was slightly frizzante and Giuseppe explained it was going thru a Malolactic fermentation; we added 4 grams of Potassium Suplhite to try and stop this in its tracks.

Pruning was completed within about a day and a half, and as it was 18 degrees and sunny we took the chance to relax on Sunday afternoon with a Barbecue and some more wine tasting.