The heavy rain has wine makers in the Valley scrambling to get their grapes picked before the rain damages their crops.

September is harvest season for some of the wine making grapes and when it rains during harvest season, the water can dilute the sugar and acids in the grapes which can reduce the flavors.

So you can image how concerned grape growers in the Valley were when several inches of rain were forecasted to fall in our area this week.
Curt Hartman ownes Blue Stone Vineyards in Bridgewater and says, "We scrambled, we found every employee, volunteer, friend, relative, everybody we could bring out to pick and we just started picking all day long, from morning to night and we got most of what we needed to in. We check the chemistry every day, and as long as the grapes hold up and they've been holding up very well, we continue to pick whenever it's not raining."

Hartman says they expect the sugar and P-H levels in the grapes to drop in the next several days.

So they will be out in full force picking all that they can before any more rain can do damage.

He also says that there are some grapes still weeks away from harvesting, and those will continue to improve after the rain stops.

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