September rain is the kind of thing that separates a good vintage from a story you tell at the bar. This year the Midwest got both.
In southern Michigan, growers picked fast and picked early, chasing sugar while dodging rot. In the Finger Lakes, a dry window in the last week of the month saved the whites. In Missouri, the story was heat, not water.
The acid question
Cool, wet seasons often preserve acidity, which is the thing good white wine needs most. The risk is dilution and disease pressure. The growers who came out ahead were the ones with good canopy management and the nerve to wait.
“We picked in three passes,” one winemaker told us. “The first pass was insurance. The third pass was the wine.”