Schweiger Vineyards News

“Purple haze all in my brain, lately things just don’t seem the same, Actin funny, but I don’t know why, scuse me while I kiss the sky, Purple haze all around.”
–Jimi Hendrix

Today we hit a significant benchmark in the life of the vine, veraison.  Veraison is that magical time when the berries begin to soften and turn color.  This marks the shift in the grapevine metabolism from berry growth to berry ripening.  We spotted the first of the Cabernet just starting today.  Out of curiosity, I went a little further out and found that it has also started on some of our new Malbec plantings. On any given cluster, about 2-3 berries were suddenly purple-ish, about 8 green/purple.  Over the next few days, they will rapidly all turn deep purple/black as the sugar now begins to accumulate in the fruit and the acidity starts to metabolize out.  According to textbooks…harvest is typically 45 days after the completion of veraison (which, depending on weather, will take 4-10 days after onset)…so…if that is true, based on averages (and those “oh so accurate” textbooks), we will begin harvest in the Gate block, right next to the road on September 9th.  Place yer bets ladies and gentlemen. –Andrew Schweiger