‘Veraison’The Next step in the growing season

Hello All!

We have reached that first major milestone in the ripening process that you always hear about—Veraison​.  This week (July 7) at the Afton vineyard some of our hilltop blocks of Merlot and Blaufrankisch have begun the versaison process or simply put 'a change in color of the berries'.  The process takes a few weeks, but in some time the white varietal fruit will go from deep green to pale green to yellow and red varietal fruit will go from deep green to yellow-pink and on to purple and black.  We generally know the timing of the onset of veraison, as the vines will give us other visual cues.  In particular, the hardening or lignification of this year's cane growth. As canes add lignin to the stem, their color will also change from a soft green to banana yellow to ultimately a wooden brown.    This lignification process normally signs the end of the growth phase for the vine and the structural strengthening of the plant for the end of the year.  Veraison is normally a week behind this process depending on varietal and thankfully each varietal is on its own timeline.

Blaufrankisch cluster beginning veraison

 At this time of year, it's exciting and stressful at the same time in the vineyard.  We know we are heading down the homestretch, but we also know the berries become softer and sweeter and more prone to our adversaries of wildlife, insects and fungi.  Over the course of the next few weeks, we will raise the netting in the vineyard to protect the softening fruit.  We have about 6 more weeks before harvest begins with Albariño at Afton and harvest will be upon us fast if the current drought conditions continue.  With harvest lurking around the corner, we've been bottling down wines from the 2022 and 2023 vintages and going through our equipment pre-checks down at the production building.  The hard part begins now and we hope that we will see you around the tasting room to share the vintage experience.  Talk to you soon!

cabernet Franc, not in veraison, but canes changing color.

Cheers!

Jason