Harvest time is exciting time. Its where the buck starts and stops. Beyond the role nature has already played, there are a few measures we at Wedderwill take to ensure our harvest is of the highest quality. Its in the last six weeks leading up to harvest where we apply these measures, or tools.
Tool 1:The ‘Pressure Bomb’. Measures the ‘stem water potential’ or plant moisture content. We first cover a vine leaf per sample at 5 leaves per hectare, then ‘milk’ it in a thick walled vacuum chamber under up to 20 bars of pressure. The moisture content reading then determines the plants immediate watering requirements. Our ‘need to water’ science.
Tool 2: The Berry Pipette. Used to accurately measure the growth of our grape berries. We take an average weight, size, sugar content and acidity progress reading from a 600 berry sample taken from each block a few times a week, then relate those figures to our watering regime and ultimately to determine our harvest dates.
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