Leaf Pulling

Aaron leaf pulling the Guwertztraminer

Leaf pulling the Guwertztraminer at Harwood, done by hand.  We pull off all the leaves around the grapes to uncover them for better sun exposure and better spray coverage.  We pulled leaves a little bit late in the season this year because the sun has been quite hot for the last 6 weeks or so.  We have seen some sunburn damage at other vineyards and we wanted to keep our grapes covered a bit longer to prevent this.  But now they can be exposed for ripening and sweetening.  Next, the nets get installed right after the leaf pulling to protect the grapes from birds.  Seems like this season the birds are getting into the vineyards early.  Even though the fruit isn’t that sweet yet they are starting to eat them anyway.

After, the grapes are exposed