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| The Rondo grapes are turning red |
One of the most important moments in a grapevine’s annual lifecycle is the onset of ripening of its fruit. In viticulture, the grapes actually visually signal that onset of ripening in a transition called veraison (“verr-ray-zun”). It's when red varietal grapes turn from green to red and begin to sweeten naturally. The term was originally French but has been adopted into English use. The official definition of veraison is a change of colour of grape berries. Veraison also occurs in white grapes but without changing colour – white grapes simply become more translucent.
Veraison typically begins at the end of July in the northern hemisphere. It didn't begin here until the end of August. But we didn't have such great weather this summer.
During veraison, chemical changes take place inside the grapes. The green chlorophyll is replaced by carotenoids in white grapes turning them more golden or purplish anthocyanins in red grapes. They become filled with glucose, fructose and aromatics.
The acidity decreases while sweetness increases until they reach the perfect balance for harvesting. The veraison period also signals to viticulturists when to trim their vines, prepare for pests and birds, and keep an eye on the clusters, as some can change colour unevenly, like ours are doing now.
As it appears that year 5 is not the bumper year we were hoping for, we will watch and learn and set our sights on year 6, when the experts say the really good things begin to happen. Only the Rondo vines produced grapes this year. There are few if any grapes set on the white Solaris grapevines. A bit disappointing after the nice performance last year.
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| They are ripening unevenly |
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| The vineyard is looking vinyardy. |
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| 3-yo Chardonnay vines are looking good |
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| 1-yo Pinot noir |
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| 1-yo Albarino all alive and well |
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