Keeping Up in the Vineyard with Jesse

It's August, and we are counting down to harvest! 

We started to see signs of veraison in the vineyard almost two weeks ago, but as you can see, the black grape clusters are developing more and more color, the green grapes start to take on a translucent quality. What, exactly, is veraison? The official definition of veraison is the "change of color of the grape berries," however, when we talk about veraison, we are also talking about the onset of ripeness in the berries as well. 

This week, the viticulture team is moving through the vineyards and dropping fruit. What does it mean to "drop fruit?"  It is a vineyard practice where some of the fruit is cut away from the vine so that it can focus its energy on ripening grapes and maintain optimum concentration of flavor in the grapes. Let our winemaker, Jesse Plautz, take you on a little tour of the vineyard for an explanation of the process and why it is so important.

Let us hope that mother nature continues to offer us favorable weather as we press on toward harvest!