4:30pm. The intrepid heat of the summer sun has driven me inside for a couple of hours to cool down, rehydrate and get some paper work done. I can't believe it's August! But the vines can---in fact, since the first hint of color appeared in the clusters on July 15th- maybe one berry out of 1,000---by now the majority of the Zin and Cab grapes have not only colored up and softened up but are actually starting to taste like something. Pretty cool.
It's actually a miracle of sorts. The vines flip a switch: the growing, leafing, vigorously entwining "circuit" shuts down and a new energy revs into being. Showtime! Veraison, in Rutherford, U.S.A. The ringmaster (aka Madam Nature) strides across the vineyard, flourishing her cape, a spotlight on her animated face as she shouts with glee: "now let the ripening begin".
So, with one of the trusty hounds beside me I've been walking the vine-rows myself—but certainly in less ethereal dress (more like an old shirt, tank top, baseball hat, pants and Keens) and the job at had is crucial. This is the time of the year that each individual vine reveals its true health and indeed, gives one an idea of its stamina as it prepares for the home stretch. We've already reduced the crop once (third clusters, if present, come off of everything, shoulders come off of most, shorter shoots get taken down to one cluster, etc. etc.).
Now, the idea is to get each vine to ripen fairly evenly. So, any cluster lagging behind the ripening process—i.e. still mostly or party green when the rest of the clusters on the vine are say 70-80% through veraison has to be lopped off as well. Shoots have to be repositioned again to give just the right amount of shade protection to the clusters on the west side, on the east side we cull the laterals we missed the first time round and open the clusters up to the morning light. The entire (sneaky) second crop has to come off—at least in the greater fruit zone.
Uncle Roy (you'll hear more about this nonagenarian as time goes on) always used to say, "look at each vine like it's someone carrying two buckets of water back from the well". Some can carry more water, some less—but the job is to be balanced and to get back to the village in all good time. It's a Libra thing, I guess. It's definitely part of a meticulous, subjective rite of passage for our vineyard and our work is to help balance it and prepare it for the harvest to come and one does believe—now—that it really is coming.
That's it! That's the day. |
