After a year of new innovations, the grapes are picked at Backyard Vineyard and ready for conversion to grape juice. We added a new Leafbox device which measures leaf pigments, providing quantitative levels of chlorophyll and carotenoids. This provided early reassurance that additional macro and micro nutrients were unnecessary and that the vine leaves were efficiently converting solar energy into flowers, fruit and sugars. 

Backyard Vineyard had no incidences of mildew or other diseases and no preventative interventions were used at all, guided by daily microclimate reports.

September ended with a yearly cummulative total of just over 1000 hours Growing Degree Days, which is fairly typical for the south of the United Kingdom. Although the summer ripening period was not particularly hot overall, individual weeks of hot weather in May and July got flowering and grape growth off to a good start. Rain at the end of August and the beginning of September was just what was need to swell the grapes.