Mid Harvest

It's the half way point.  34 rows picked, 30 to go.The rains of early March have gone and a week and a half of sunny days and cool evenings has raised the Baume' readings across the vineyard. Tomorrow we'll hand pick one row for delivery and machine pick another 12 rows for our own use. This will almost finish the SA1654 (2004) and start on the First irrigation block with the BOB and SA 1654 (2002).  I say almost because we'll leave 3 rows for an order for a boutique winery that wants a Baume' of 14.5 -15. We'll hand pick that on the weekend.
Of the rest about half of it is sold. Which still leaves a bit available for sale. This block has been slow to ripen, but has good canopy and the fruit is sound. We'll let it run it's course till late next week. Once we press off tomorrows crush and clean out the fermenters, we'll pick any unsold fruit and make up a third and final batch of wine.
So the message is, if you have been thinking about ordering grapes, now is the time to do so.
In other news I have been studying a Diploma of Logistics through Goulburn Ovens TAFE (Innoven). It's been a very interesting course with a focus on "lean" philosophy. Today was the final class day and I presented some of the supply chain issues and improvements we have been implementing as we try to get grapes from vine to vat in the shortest time. Anyway I'm off to bed. It will be an early morning and a busy day tomorrow.