|
Veraison! |
|
We had our first color last week and now we’re starting to see purple throughout the vineyard. I’m going to call this the Labor Day veraison, in keeping with the theme of this year - i.e., Cinco de Mayo bud break and Fourth of July bloom. What this means is we’re looking at a Columbus Day harvest, assuming we get some warm and sunny weather in September. Otherwise we hope for a warm October and harvest at Halloween! |
|
With this year’s cool, wet spring we knew we were looking at a challenging year. We’ve done everything we can to promote ripening - we hedged earlier than usual to refocus the vine on fruit development rather than shoot growth and we dropped a lot of fruit in July so the vine would channel energy to the remaining clusters. |
|
|
|
With all the bud and bunch stem necrosis this year, yields are going to be down. Unfortunately, the necrosis exhibited a pattern of hitting an entire vine rather than lightly hitting the whole vineyard. So instead of serving as a natural thinning aide it was a most unwelcome event, effectively reducing productive acreage. |
|
© 2008 Lia’s Vineyard PO Box 414 Newberg, OR 97132 |
