Two or three weeks before harvest you pick a sample of bunches, measure sugar with a refractometer and often acidity and pH as well. Consecutive samples show how fast each variety is ripening - and that is what the harvest date decision rests on. The Ripeness samples screen keeps those measurements in one place and draws a ripening curve from them.
Where: VineyardElf menu → Ripeness samples
Adding a sample
The form is built for a phone in the vineyard - it starts with only what you always measure: date, block, variety and sugar.
- Leave the entry type as Sample (the other type, Harvested, is described below).
- Check the date - today is filled in by default.
- Pick the block. If only one variety grows there, Elf fills it in for you; with several varieties the field suggests those planted in that block’s rows.
- Enter the sugar reading and pick your unit: °Bx, °Blg, °Bé, °Oe or °KMW. Elf stores the reading in the unit you entered and converts it for display, so an old refractometer on a different scale is not a problem.
- Choose the sample scope: whole block, selected rows, or a point in a row.
- Save. For a series of measurements use Save and add another - the form keeps the date, block and scope.
Sample scope
- Whole block - bunches from across the block, one reading.
- Selected rows - the most common case: you walk a few rows, collect bunches into one bag, crush them and measure once.
- Point in a row - start, middle and end of a single row measured separately, to see how much ripeness varies within the row.
The ripening curve
Each variety has its own line. When several samples of one variety share a date, the chart shows one averaged point with a vertical bar for the spread between the lowest and highest reading.
Below the chart each variety shows its latest reading and the daily sugar gain calculated from the last two samples. For example: 21.4 °Bx with +0.3 °Bx per day means roughly five days to 23 °Bx.
Filters above the chart narrow it to a block or a variety, select a vintage and overlay another vintage - which immediately shows whether this year is running earlier than the last. The Chart series switch changes the view from “by variety” to “by sample scope”, showing which part of the vineyard ripens faster.
Harvest closes the curve
Once a block is picked, add a Harvested entry for it - fastest from the button next to the variety below the chart. A vertical marker appears on the harvest date, and the sugar reading from the last sample or from the harvest itself is suggested later in the batch card, so you do not retype it.
A variety’s curve ends when harvest has been recorded for every block you sampled it from.