Cab Franc Harvest

This weekend as the harvest season starts to wind down we were picking Cab Franc at Whitecliff Vineyards. The Cab Franc grapes at Whitecliff are the best in New Yorks State according to Cornell Cooperative Extension. They sample grapes from various vineyards across New York and compare the ph level, acid & sugar levels to collect data on the different growing regions. Within the next two years there should be some fantastic Cab Franc being released at their tasting room.

Interesting fact, while we were collecting the bins of grapes, Michael pointed out to us the beautiful leaf color on one of the Cab Franc vines. He informed us that the beautiful red color the leaves had turned meant the vine had a disease and would mostly die in a few years. This vine was the only vine in the row that had turned color.


After we collected all the bins I tossed the grapes into the destemmer/crusher as seen here. I'll tell you, it's not an easy job. Those bins are heavy! We picked about 1 1/2 tons of Cab Franc yesterday.

I do have some movies of the harvest I would like to post. They are huge files, so once I figure out how to compress them I will post them.