Veraison

Even as we seem to be coming to the end of the hot weather, the grapes are still progressing nicely and are becoming riper every day. A crucial stage in the ripening process is veraison - the grape skins change colour, acidity drops and sugar increases in the berries. All grapes start green, hard, and acidic in order to detract birds and other animals from eating them while the seeds are under-developed. The change of colour, from green to black in red varieties and from a dull green to a shiny almost translucent green in white varieties, indicates that the seeds are fully developed. As the vine wants the fruit to be eaten and the seeds distributed, it creates more sugar in the berry to make it more attractive to birds and other animals. For us, it means we are getting close to harvest!

From now we will be regularly testing the grapes until they reach the right level of sugar and acid that we are looking for. Once they reach this point we’ll be picking. This will involve picking all of one variety at a time, by hand, using small crates to transport the grapes to be made into wine. If you would like to know when we’ll be picking, please e-mail our vineyard manager: james@dunesforde.com 

The result of today’s test...