A very important time in the vineyard - just when the grapes are changing colour and starting to develop their final flavour. Matt from Henry of Pelham explains what is going on inside the grape and the vine.

Video Transcription

Okay. Were at the point of veraison. Were into veraison with this variety which is Cabernet Sauvignon and this is the point of the season when the vine is now shifting gears instead of producing the volume of fruit or the size of the berries in the canopy. It’s now into flavor and sugar production modes. So, it has shifted its whole physiology to ripening the fruit. Veraison literally means the turning of color. So as this one, green grapes , white grapes go to that sort of golden color and red grapes like these Cabernet Sauvignon going from being green, they look like little peas, to turning red. In this case, as sort of a dark purple color. So we use this point of the seed as the time to adjust the crop depending on the type of wine that we’re making. That’s what we’re doing right now, it’s called green harvesting or bunch thinning. We’re going through and reducing the crop load on each given plant to create a more intense flavorful wine. What he’s doing is he’s going through. And based on the amount of canopy that each plant has and what the spacing of the clusters are, we’re cutting out anywhere from 30% to 50% of the grapes in reducing the crop load. So he’s just physically going through cutting off those berries or bunches that we feel are in excess to what we think the plant can ripen well and throwing those on the ground. But the really, the goal is what you’re doing is you’re trying to create a balance. All season, we’ve been growing the leaf area or the canopy of the plant and we spent all season managing that canopy, trellising it, getting those leaves positioned to capture as much sun as possible. Now, we’re starting to look at the fruit load, the crop load on the plant, and we know it’s giving this—what the sun, the type of season that we’re having, how much leaf area we have. Basically, those leaves can only capture so much sun and produce only so much flavors. So, and you have a root mask that can only produce so much character. So if that character spread out over 30 clusters of grapes, they’re going to have excellent amount of flavor. If you reduce that to 20 clusters with the same amount of leaf and root space, you’re going to get those remaining 20 clusters that’s much more intense and more concentrated. And so in a way, you’re kind of checking the plant. The plant has been growing all season expecting that it’s going to have to ripen, say 30 clusters. In this case, we will move that down to 20 clusters so the plant has all that stored energy, and it’s all geared up physiologically to try and ripen 30 clusters. You reduce it to 20 and you just get that more intensive flavor in those remaining clusters.