Wisconsin’s wine grape harvest is underway, but this year’s unpredictable weather has vineyard managers walking a fine line between patience and risk.
At Bailey’s Run Vineyard in New Glarus, vineyard manager Aimee Arrigoni oversees about six acres and 3,000 vines across five grape varieties. While one early-ripening variety, Edelweiss, was ready for harvest in August, the rest of the crop still needs September warmth to develop properly.
“My sugars are just sitting. They’re not moving up at all because I just don’t have the heat right now,” Arrigoni says of her crop’s sugar content. “So right now we’re playing a little game, right? We want sugars to be coming up. We want pH, acidity, essentially, to be coming down. And we want to do that while the fruit is still healthy enough to hang.”
That delicate timing is part of what makes harvest season a constant calculation. She says every year requires a judgment call of finding the sweet spot where grapes are ripe enough without sacrificing fruit health.
Despite the challenges, Arrigoni is optimistic about both yield and quality this season. Spring weather was cooperative, leading to strong fruit set, and unlike past summers with heavy rainfall that can cause mildew and rot, this year’s precipitation was manageable.
“We’re happy with yield. We’re happy with quality,” she says. “Our reds especially look so good this year. I’m so excited for Marquette and Petite Pearl, which are two of the red varieties that we grow. They are so pretty right now. Those ripen late, so those are like a late September, first of October kind of harvest.”
Want to help with the grape harvest? Reach out to Bailey’s Run: https://baileysrunvineyard.com/
