*The values for 9-9-11 are the mean of two independent samples from the whole primitivo field.

Comments:

The primitivo showed incremental progress in sugar, pH, and TA, though the decrease in acidity has been stubborn and is taking longer than expected.  Qualitiatively, juice color and flavor made incremental progress, but we think not quite there.  We had backed off irrigation this past week, which coupled with the recent heat, might account for some of the increase in brix, and would tend to inflate the TA as well.  However, the ratio of brix to TA continues to rise.  We would now suggest end of September/early October for harvest depending on personal and logistical preferences, which in either case would be our latest ever (for a dry style) for primitivo.

The barbera showed very nice progress across the board.  We think this is due to a good week of ripening, coupled with a complete pass of selective fruit dropping that we recently finished in this vineyard.  The goals of the fruit dropping were to decrease crop load in a small minority of plants that were overcropped and to selectively remove less ripe clusters, including “seconds”, from any vines needing this.  This operation should result in a more homogenously ripe crop at harvest in a few weeks.  The 2-brix increase from last week was achieved in the face of increased irrigation, which we are undertaking through at least this current heat wave to stave off raisining.  We remain in great shape for harvest by mid-October.

The touriga nacional from the Quinta also showed very nice ripening progress across the board.  We backed off on irrigation somewhat in this vineyard and will likely continue to do so, as the relatively thick-skinned port varietals can handle this without excessive raisining.  In addition to the touriga nacional cluster sampling results shown above, we did random berry sampling with refractometry to gauge brix levels for the supporting cast of port varietals, with the following results:

Tempranillo:    22.4 +/- 1.9 brix

Tinto Cao:  23.0 +/- 0.7 brix

Tinta Amarela:  24.1 +/- 2.5 brix

Souzao:  21.2 +/- 1.5 brix

Based on these results, we are looking at October 8, 9, 15, or 16 as the harvest date for the Quinta.  A final date will be announced to Quinta shareholders as soon as possible to facilitate planning.

The first touriga nacional sample from our 2009 touriga vineyard suggests that it is behind the Quinta in ripening by about 2 weeks.  Fruit has been dropped, the vines are netted to protect from birds, and we will decrease irrigation to facilitate concentration of this fruit.  It now looks like a mid- to late-October harvest for this field.