“We’re in the middle of harvest and there’s so much happening! First off, check it out…I started a podcast. 

YES, I’m running around like crazy at the winery-but this has been something I’ve been wanting for a while. 

It’s a podcast called… ‘Vino Frankel – A Taste of Sculpterra.“

I am excited to share that my first episode is now uploaded.

Click here to watch and listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6ctu2QGS_M 

Well, happy first day of October…it really feels like Fall/Autumn now. The weather has suddenly shifted, highs in the daytime are in the mid-70’s and the morning lows are in the low 50’s. With cooler weather it’s going to be harder to “make BRIX,” thus it will take longer for certain varieties to reach proper sugar levels. But, I love this time of year for harvesting! Picking grapes in the cool of the morning is the way to do it! The grapes arrive at the winery at a healthy cold temperature, we save time and energy not needing to chill during our red ferments “cold soaks.” 

Last week was nutty! We did not receive any rain on the day we were supposed to, then on Thursday 9/26 we received 3 downpour events that soaked our vines! I initiated my tractor-spray rig air fan technique to dry out the fruit. That worked well but the vines did absorb water and therefore we did not irrigate ANY vineyards last week. Friday we started our BIG block of Primitivo and brought in 8.1 tons. To my surprise it was 27.0 BRIX, even after getting rained on! The color, the sugar level, the taste, the smell, the seeds..everything indicated that it’s ripe and we need to continue bringing it in! Therefore we harvested another 8 tons this Monday and just now…this morning we brought in another 10 tons. Now all that’s left are 10 rows that I am dedicating for PORT wine production. I will let those rows become SUPER sweet with a target BRIX of 30..we should be there soon, it’s raisin-ing fast. Those tippy top rows are more stressed and see more extended sunlight hours every day. Port is a lot of fun to make and Primitivo is a wonderful choice. 

We checked more vineyards (BRIX Bucket Samples) today and the next vineyard for harvest is Grenache-El Libro. Our Grenache is so breath-takingly beautiful! It’s the best looking vineyard on our property, for sure, the clusters are HUGE, we shoot-thinned, leaf pulled and cluster thinned…and we still have 5-6 tons per acre. It’s holding at 26.0 BRIX right now, it’s time to pick and I scheduled the crew for this Friday. Both Petite Sirah and Mourvedre have BIG crops and are therefore ripening slowly, but they are getting there, just be patient. I checked 2 Cabernet blocks and they look healthy and happy and showing 23.0 BRIX. 

Looks like we have 3 weeks left of harvest. We’re at the 50% mark and it’s been excellent thus far. Thanks for your engagement this year. I’ll be back with more updates next week. I took lots of pictures the last 3 days, enjoy that….and get outside and experience this wonderful Fall weather. 

-Paul W. Frankel (Winemaker, Sculpterra Winery) 10/1/2025