Seasons in the Vineyard
This week marked the final stages of the 2024 harvest, bringing our vineyard’s growing season to a close for the year. Up ahead, our vines will enjoy a few months of rest and dormancy, with leaves turning into the bright autumn hues we love before dropping. We are enchanted by the beauty of changing seasons, so we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the year with pictures of the vineyard taken over the last 10 months. Scroll along!
The growing season starts with clear skies, drizzly days, and bare vines. Our vines have been pruned back from the previous season to start fresh.
The first sign of life on the vines appears at bud break, when tiny little buds begin to sprout from the vine. This milestone came in March and April this year.
Soon the buds are joined by the cutest little leaves, and the vines finally don’t look so bare.
By the end of April, you can see the beginning of the cluster-shaped buds that will soon blossom.
Slowly but surely, the canopy of leaves grows and stretches out and these clusters mature.
By June, we saw the flowering blossoms with the promise of healthy berries.
Soon after, we arrive at “fruit set” which brings us from the flowering stage to the berry stage. This can tell us a lot about how the vines are doing and even what yields might be like come harvest.
The berries grow quickly into beautiful clusters. Every varietal starts out green and opaque.
Once the summer sun has some time to work on the fruit, you will begin to see color emerging in the vineyard, called veraison.
During veraison, the grapes take on their mature hues and become more transparent, ripening each day.
As the fruit ripens, Jesse, our winemaker keeps a close eye on each block of fruit, monitoring sugar levels and predicting the best pick date.
Harvest always starts off with our white wine fruit. This year the Sauvignon Blanc was the first to be picked, marking the official start of the harvest season at the beginning of September.
Meanwhile, our red fruit like this Cabernet Sauvignon cluster was continuing to mature out in the vineyard.
Our healthy and vibrant vines endured the heatwaves of this season well, but it did compress the harvest schedule since the heat encourages ripeness.
A multitude of factors will influence the perfect date to pick fruit, requiring our winemaker to make strategic choices about what gets picked and when.
Even before all the fruit had been harvested, the vines started to show the Autumn colors we know and love. This smattering of color makes this season that much more exciting!
As our fruit comes in, we take care to ensure the quality of what goes into our wines. It’s a labor of love!
This picture, captured earlier this week, shows the final press of the year. Our team crushed it (literally)!
As the leaves bid their colorful adieu and the vines enjoy some well-deserved rest, we hope you’ll come visit the estate and drink in the beauty of the season. Happy November!