Véraison

Véraison is the vine development stage that signals the beginning of ripening. The berries start to sweeten up. You can taste varietal flavors. Most dramatically, there is also a color change. It is very evident in the reds, but the white fruited varieties also shift from deep green to yellow.

This year véraison was a bit late in starting, but then it seemed as if the change happened almost overnight. This is good news as we are looking at very uniform ripening which is critical for wine quality. The soils remain dry which attributes for the fast veraison. (An inch of rain on Monday was welcome, but did not put a dent in our rain deficit). The lack of water ended vine vegetative growth several weeks ago. Now they can put all their energy into ripening the grapes.

Véraison is also our cue to head back to the cellar as harvest is just around the corner. We bottled most of the 2022 white wines this week. Now all the crush equipment (presses, sorting tables, destemmer) get put in place, turned on, cleaned, greased and ready for action.

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Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Journal/Field Notes: August 11, 2023