Veraison marks the coming of harvest. But, what is veraison and how do vineyard managers use this period to ensure only the best grapes are used? Warren Burton of Grist Vineyard shows how crops are thinned during veraison.

Video Transcription

[Music Playing] Allan: Hey! Allan Baker from CRUSHPAD here and here we are on bread for Mountain Bright Creek valley. We are in the most beautiful places on earth. I am here with Warren Burton we are in block 6 of the Grist vineyard, warm at the beautiful day the grapes looks amazing, where are we at this point here, It is August 15. Warren: We are dropping fruit and a block six Cero block and we been through this in and basically this is what my guys are taking off. We are taking a full this tank and green and half colored bunches which we called this bunch right now is going through Veraison as what everybody calls it. And going through Veraison means is basically its process that the vine goes through this time of the year instead of pushing all its carbohydrates into the leaves for growth its pulling that back and putting it into the fruit. And in that process the carbohydrates is getting converted to sugar which is the color change and the softening of the fruit getting ready for rotting. So basically, we are about two and a half moths away from harvest when you start seeing this. You should not eat this. It is horrible. It is high in acid. It is really does not have any sweetness in it or until its fully change color, fully red is when you can actually start eating it even dinners to get a backlight of acid in it and can give you some pretty good upset stomach if you eat too much. So, at this point you start to see the color. That is where you can narrow the pick windows so that you know really because you start planning for harvest arranging your cruise. How close can you come once you say I am x%, 90% through Veraison, how close that you can nail that pick window? Probably within the week depending on the long range full cast and add about 90% Veraison we can go through and where the goal is they got through and get it at hundred percent Veraison and then pretty much you can gave yourself 6-7 weeks and you know that there in a week it will be perfect for harvesting. So, in that is a really important and critical time of the year, dropping all of these fruit. You can see all the fruit on the ground just were probably taken off I would imagine 45-50% of the crop right now and that is a lot of money here on the ground but it needs to be done for high end quality. It just needs to be done and all seem the guys through, through the Cero and the Zin. Last year we went through five times and we started from probably early August we went through and we drop everything it was totally green, it was just that. And basically in early August sort of 2-3 weeks ago everything look like this and I seen the guy through the drop and I think it was totally green that they do not have a hint of color and hen two weeks later we go through him in drop more green stuff that they missed door that just has not till it up and then we go we go through redeem two weeks. It seems to be a two-week period and then I remember at this stage here we are shooting for a hundred percent Veraison and what we get is probably that 95%, 96%. So, then in another 3-4 days I have seen the creature again and we will be at a hundred percent Veraison. Allan: So grapes, the grape vine is ultimately very optimistic plant. It is trying to spread its seed. It tries to pull as much crop as possible. You are dropping so much fruit on the ground it is kilometer watch why do you have to drop so much fruit? Warren: Well, I Allan withdraw thing tons of fruit and beyond the reason were dropping it is basically because fruit quality we will enhance the fruit quality, get the best quality we can get out of the vines and this is -- that they slightly doing, come and I will show you. Allan: Okay, go. [Music Playing] Warren: So, here we have a short shoot that at least in 12 inches long the fruit is off it and you have one barely 24 inches long and it is a small shape and the guys who is taking the fruit off this is well. And then he come over here so this one here, this is probably a medium tank and it has one vine to it and you know this is ultimately what we want to