Heavy rain forces local winemakers to pick grapes early

wineries are left with difficult decisions over an early harvest — picking grapes sooner than planned. as 47 abc’s dani bozzini explains — the alternative — would run the risk of losing the whole harvest. track one tom shelton – is the owner and winemaker for bordeleau winery in eden – maryland – a veteran when it comes to wine making – shelton says grapes don’t like a lot of water close to harvest time – so when there’s too much rainfall – like the heavy rain from last weekend – the fruit suffers – what happens if you get too much rain, the grapes swell, they pick up moisture it dilutes the sugars and flavors and actually we’ve had a lot of problems with grapes splitting track two shelton explains that when the grapes split – it opens up the fruit for predators – like fruit flies, bees, and deer – or worse rotting and fungal diseases- so when the grapes start to split – shelton and his staff have no choice but to pick them – even if its earlier than wanted – we made the decision monday of this week to bring it all in even though some of it is not perfect as far as the amount of ripeness you like the sugars to be about twenty-two percent and some of the fruit coming in is less than that track three agriculture educator – jarrod miller – from the university of maryland extension – says grapes aren’t the only crops endangered by too much rain. any crops that are close to the ground right now like pumpkins if there’s any watermelons left out there or crops like lettuce or cabbage would definitely be more likely to pick up a fungus track four as for the grapes – shelton says although they may not be perfect – the picking had to be done – and he expects other wineries in the area will be doing the same thing – dani bozzini, 47 abc shelton tells 47 abc he’s had to do this before in the past – but not since 2011 – fortunately he is able to blend various harvests – in hopes that this harvest’s lack of ripeness – won’t affect their future wines. here’s a look at