Fresno Grape Harvest

Normally, the harvest of Fresno wine grapes is only of interest to Earnest&Julio & FredFranzia. Not something that floats my boat. But a FSU Prof is just now harvesting grapes at an experimental vnyd down in Fresno...in late Nov fer gawd's sake.
FresnoGrapeHarvest

He does it by totally dropping the first crop of grapes in June, forcing the vines to set another crop in July when normally they'd be approaching veraison. He got the idea from fruit growers in the tropics. He found the grape chemistry was in much better balance than the grapes normally harvested in Aug in Fresno.
Interesting piece of work. It would be interesting to see what the wine tastes like. I've had a few Zins made from 2'nd crop grapes (Zin is notorious for setting a 2'nd crop) and then can be kinda weird...soft, lacking structure, atypically varietal character.
Of course, the important question for Alice is if this wine could be made "natural". Methinks not.
Tom

Saw an article about that in the Press Democrat.
It was pretty interesting - especially because the Fresno guy made no bones about this being possibly better, but not top grade.
I wonder if Fred or E&J paid for some of his research?
Second crop, or raisined, Zins can make interesting sips, but what little I've tasted doesn't make me think of them as hits.

John

Interesting and thanks for posting. I can see where this would have some benefit in places like Fresno. Lots of work still to do to determine the best process. As the first crop, consumes some of the vines energy I see croping levels being an area of research as would be the best time to drop the first crop.

there goes the neighborhood!