Did you keep records on the Brix and acid levels of the grape musts from each selection? That would be interesting especially if oyu can correlate that with rain and sun conditions that may have been outliers in that period?

Hi All,

I did measure the juice density at each date, but unfortunately not the pH – which reminds me that I should buy a pH meter. For what it’s worth the densities were: 1085, 1087, 1090, 1090, 1091, 1090, 1093.
It’s too early to say much about the flavours, but my first impression was that the difference isn’t as big as I expected. Certainly the later samples have deeper colours and also some reduction aromas. I wonder if the reduction in the later samples is due to reducing nitrogen levels as the grapes ripen?
Probably worth noting the period was generally sunny, but rather cold so ripening was quite slow.

Pre-harvest most people talk about dégré potentiel (potential alcohol) and indeed refractometers and hydrometers sold here are usually calibrated directly with that scale. Dégré potentiel is normally defined as the concentration of sugar (in g/l) divided by 16.83. For some reason Brix is never used.

Once fermentation has started everybody talks about density (in kg/m3).