Veraison – the Grapes are Ripening!

Veraison has occurred – What an exciting time of year! Everyone loves veraison because that means the grapes are ripening!

From now through harvest (and especially harvest itself) we really see and enjoy the fruits of our labor   😉

Veraison

You may have never heard of veraison and to put it simply, the grapes begin to change color which shows they are beginning to ripen.

According to  Wikipedia, veraison is:

 a viticulture (grape-growing) term meaning “the onset of ripening”. It is originally French, but has been adopted into English use. The official definition of veraison is “change of color of the grape berries.” Veraison represents the transition from berry growth to berry ripening, and many changes in berry development occur at veraison.

For us, it means we can eat ripe grapes again – no more green sour berries for us!  Since everyone else is also scouring the vines for the ripening grapes and quickly gobbling them down, the challenge at this point is to find the berries going through veraison before anyone else does!

Veraison has occurred in all our varieties as you can see in the following pictures:

Montepulciano Going Through Veraison

Montepulciano planted in 2013. If you compare this photo to the ones following,  you can see there are many more berries that have changed colors – normally, younger more immature plants go through veraison earlier than older vines and this is a good example:

Montepulciano planted in 2009. Being 6th leaf plants (the official way we grape growers talk about the vines age), they are going through veraison a bit more slowly than their immature neighbors:

Aglianico Going Through Veraison

Those blue/purple berries look so tasty especially compared to the green ones! Aglianico planted in 2008:

Roussanne Going Through Veraison

Roussanne planted in 2008 and 2009. The white varieties do not have the significant color change that the red wine varieties do but there is a definite difference in the appearance of the berries – they change from a deep solid green to a clear green color.

This week is filled with temperatures near and over 100F. While we would prefer cooler temperatures, heat is needed for the vines to ripen the grapes and the heat also kills any mold that could be developing as a result of the rain we have had.

Hopefully, everyone will leave enough grapes on the vines to harvest!