What is “Veraison”?
Each summer, our grapes begin to change colour from green to red. This event is known as “veraison” in French, and marks the beginning of our crop’s ripening. At around this time “veraison” becomes a hot topic of conversation between winemakers.
At Fancrest Estate “veraison” usually begins in around early February, although the actual dates may vary by two to three weeks depending on the warmth of the season. “Veraison” pretty much sets the timer for harvest which will occur roughly 6 weeks thereafter.
In cool seasons like 2023, “veraison” or colour change can stretch out over several weeks and result in grape bunches that ripen unevenly.
From this point on the berries stop increasing in size, and focus on accumulating sugars. The berries also become less harshly acidic.
The uniformity of "veriason" affects quality
The degree of ripeness affects the flavour profile of each and every berry. Uniform colouring therefore equates in a way to uniform flavours. While a small variation in berry ripeness within bunches can add complexity, extreme variation, with very underripe and very overripe berries can negatively impact quality. Overripe berries can add a raisin-like character, that reminds me of Christmas pudding, and underripe berries can leave a sour, sappy character.
The warmer the season, the more likely it is that uniformity in colour-change will be achieved,
Do Pinot Noir clones change colour at different times?
While thin-skinned grape varieties go through colour-change before thicker skinned varieties like Merlot and Syrah, there is significant variation between the various Pinot Noir clones.
At Fancrest Estate there can be as much as a week’s difference between the harvest dates of the earliest and the latest clones, providing us with the time to pace our harvesting with a small team of pickers.
The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.
Harvest 2023 @ Fancrest
2023 turned out to be a strangely cool and wet season with some great sunny and warm periods over summer. As might have been predicted, both flowering and “veraison” were affected, becoming unusually long drawn-out affairs.
Rather than resigning ourselves to a variably-ripe harvest, we decided to let the birds take the first-to-ripen berries before netting the vineyard, leaving us with smaller but more evenly ripe bunches.
A high-quality hand harvest also triaged out all the bunches showing significant signs of raisining or disease.
This call has paid off handsomely with few bunches showing signs of overripeness or underipeness. The later clones like Abel progressed through veraison during a warm period and gave us an immaculate crop at perfect physiological ripeness.
