#92 All The Vineyard is a "Stage"
Birth, growth, ripening, harvest, decline, dormancy, rebirth.
The growth and maturation process for grapes occurs in three stages. Stage I starts at bloom (See Substack #88). And the primary development during this first Stage is plain to see: the berries get bigger.
Stage I can last up to 60 days, and growing conditions during this period can affect the size of the final harvest.
For instance, in 2020, we had an extended drought during Stage I. Under those kinds of persistent dry conditions, vines typically “shut down” to preserve resources. In other words, in 2020, during the period when the berries were supposed to be growing in size, the vines were limiting their expenditure of energy. The berries grew to a less-than-normal size that year.
As it turned out, this was a “bad news/good news” development. Smaller berries yield less wine. But because the juice in these berries is more concentrated, the finished wine delivers more intense flavor. The timing of the drought in Stage I meant that the quality of the wine in 2020 was exceptional, even though the total volume produced that year was small.
This year, we have had plenty of rain. The Cab Franc berries pictured above are progressing nicely.
When exactly Stage II begins is not always clear. We believe the brief, two-week “Lag Phase” (see the chart above) occurs sometime between now and the end of the July.
It is during Stage II that we try to predict the size of the upcoming harvest.
We believe we need 100 tons of Riesling to make the amount of wine that we plan to sell.
If we do not have 100 tons of Riesling growing in our own vineyards, we will have to purchase additional grapes. On the other hand, if we have more than 100 tons, we would be in a position to sell some. But how many?
So, like most of our colleagues who grow grapes or make wine, we are out in the vineyards doing “crop estimates.” The goal of that exercise is to predict how many tons of fruit we are likely to harvest at the end of this growing season.
Next week, I’ll describe that process.
For further interest.
After Hamlet’s speech that begins, “To be or not to be,” one of Shakespeare’s most-often-quoted passages comes from As You Like It, written more than 400 years ago.
