Ripeness samples
AvailableRecord the grape samples you take before harvest: sugar, acidity, pH. Elf draws a ripening curve for every variety and overlays the previous vintage, so you can see the daily sugar gain and whether a variety is ahead or behind this season. You pick the harvest date yourself.
What the module gives you
- ✓ Ripening curve: sugar over time, one line per variety, in the same colour as the dot next to the variety on the sample list
- ✓ Daily sugar gain calculated from the last two samples, so you can see how many days are left to your target reading
- ✓ Previous vintage overlaid as a dashed line, on the same calendar days
- ✓ Sugar in the unit of your own instrument: °Bx, °Blg, °Bé, °Oe or °KMW. The reading is stored exactly as entered, conversion happens only on screen
- ✓ Sample scope: a whole parcel, a set of rows or a point in a single row (start, middle, end), with the spread of one day's readings
- ✓ A harvest entry closes the curve for that parcel, and a variety picked in stages shows a badge such as 1 of 2 parcels harvested
- Solaris 21,8 °Bx +0.3 °Bx per day
- Riesling 19,1 °Bx +0.2 °Bx per day
Sample data. The dashed line is the same Solaris a year earlier, the vertical line marks the harvest day.
What one sample looks like
You fill the form in the vineyard, on your phone: Ripeness samples › Add sample. Four fields are on screen from the start, the ones you always fill in: date, parcel, variety and sugar. If only one variety grows on the parcel, Elf enters it for you; with several it suggests the ones planted in its rows. A comma and a full stop work the same way.
Total acidity, pH, the weight of 100 berries and a note about the sample open under the More measurements button. When you measure several varieties in one walk, use Save and add another: the date, parcel and sample scope stay in place and you only enter the next variety and reading.
Harvest closes the curve
Once a parcel is picked, you add a Harvested entry. A vertical line in the colour of the variety appears on the chart, and later samples from that parcel leave the curve while staying in the table. A variety picked parcel by parcel, a few days apart, counts as harvested only when every parcel with its samples has its own harvest entry.
The last sugar reading for that variety and vintage is then suggested in the fermentation record, under the Starting gravity field. If you recorded the must sugar on harvest day, the suggestion uses that reading. Nothing is filled in automatically, the value goes into the record only after you click.
What the module does not do
Elf does not set the harvest date and does not send notifications telling you to pick. It shows the readings, the daily gain and the comparison with the previous vintage; the decision is yours, based on the curve and on what you see in the vineyard. It is not a substitute for a laboratory either: the chart shows what your refractometer and your titration measured.