Chenin Blanc Grape Analysis

Vagrants camp is a vineyard primarily planted with Chenin blanc grape variation. Chenin blanc is a type of grape which is used to (i) produce white wine or (ii) blend with Sauvignon bland or Chardonnay to create a fresh zesty dry wine. Despite that the grapes were picked at 24.5 Brix, but because these grapes were used to produce cheap wine that was usually blended with other varieties, however this was not a major concern when compared to weight of the fruit. Upon deciding whether or not to pick the grape, the interns should estimate the maturity of the grapes with these criteria: sugar content, acid content, pH level, color, ease of removal from pedicels, texture/skin features, aroma, flavor, chewy character, after taste and tannins. They

It is important to note that when grapes are ripening, they will have equivalent amounts of glucose and fructose. The sugar content will be 18-24 brix/100g of sugar. In addition, during ripening period, the acidity of grapes should lie around pH 3.3 or 0.6-0.8g/100ml, with declination in Malic and tartaric acid as they metabolize which cause dilution to occur. The berries should be dark colored with soft elastic textures that allow it to be easy to be removable from the pedicels. Nonetheless, strong varietal aroma with low to none astringency should also be found within the berries when it is ripe. Another important criterion in helping the intern to assess the ripeness of the fruit is true assessment of the stem composition. When the grapes are ripe, the stem will turn brown, the berry will also soften due to depolymerization and arrest of xylem, thus stop transportation of nutrient, sugar and water to berry. Other than that, interns could also test the grapes before deciding whether or not the grapes clusters are ready to be harvested. When the grapes are matured, it would have optimal flavor, juicy sweet pulp with low acid, intense fruitiness aroma, weak astringent and dark crunchy berry with weak

With rows that reflect the ideal conditions, interns could pay more attention to them and gather berries that grow within that area. In order for them to avoid inaccurate results, intern could also try to concentrate on a specific area within the vineyard and fix the number of berries that would be collected by them eg. collect 3 berries from each bunch (from the top, middle and end of bunch) (Dami, 2014, p.3). This will allow them to improve the process as the berries are statistically relevant. Another critical problem with sample processing and analysis is cold settling the wild yeast. After collecting berries from the valley floor, interns cold settle berries at 8 degrees Celsius for 48 hours. They also cold settle berries harvested from the hillside for 20 hours. However if the temperature is too low, the yeast would be "cold shocked"; although low temperatures may help to preserve the aroma but it will slow the activity rate of yeasts, thus resulting in the lag phase and fermentation activity will be stuck. When fermentation is stuck, microorganism (yeast) growth rate will be reduced and they will minimally consume sugar to convert them to ethanol. To improve and avoid these in the