Another harvest update from Clos LaChance:

The weather has cooled significantly. We had a number of dramatic heat spikes in the early part of the month. The cooling trend has slowed things down, which is perfect. The sugars can catch up with the flavor development of the grapes. The tonnage is still looking pretty light, but from what we hear, that is the story with most wineries around the state due to the Winter/Spring growing conditions. But low yields can often mean more concentrated, robust wines. Things are tasting that way thus far.

More details straight from winemaker Stephen Tebb: 

 And this video is proof that no matter what our winemaker says, he is always working very hard. We recorded this today, September 24, despite what Stephen says in the video.

Another update from our winemaker Stephen Tebb on the 2008 harvest. It was hot last week, so we expect things to start coming in fast.

At this time of year, our vineyard manager Ben Scorsur is very concerned about the birds. Birds love to eat sweet grapes. So when the sugars get high enough, the birds flock, ready for a feast of a lifetime.

For many of our small vineyards, Clos LaChance uses bird nets. The Estate Vineyard is much too large for nets. They are expensive, take a lot of labor to put on and take off, and birds do get caught in them from time to time. Last year, Ben looked into more sustainable bird control options. He came up with what I like to call the Squawk Box.

The Squawk Box is a series of distress calls from different types of birds, on tape. A horror movie for birds, if you will. Turn your volume way up and check out this video.  The device is located up in the tree.

 And voila...no birds!  It seems to be working. It replays every 30 seconds or so. Although the birds do get smart, so Ben and his team move the box around the vineyard from time to time.