How much is out there?

How cool is it watching our grapes growing bigger every day! Terry has been right on with the spraying schedule. This morning he spray for the second time, for the dreaded phylloxera. A disease that almost wiped out all the grapes in Europe in the 1800's. But the grapes we grow are reasonably resistant to that disease. But is still needs to be monitored. We are now starting to concentrate on making a list of the equipment we will need to start the wine making process. But how much equipment, for how much wine? First we will try to estimate out how many bottles of wine are in the upper field. Here is a rough average to work with. One pound of grapes equals 4.5 clusters. One cluster equals 40 to 60 grapes. One bottle equals 2.75 pounds of grapes, or 11 clusters or 440-660 grapes. From what we are reading, most vineyards get between 2 to 3.5 tons per acre. But not this vineyard, this year. We have just left a small amount of grapes just to play with the wine making process. This evening we will go out and take a rough count of our clusters.