When the vines wake up from their winter rest, first of all, they endeavour to develop their herbaceous organs (twigs, leaves, flowers and green clusters). Then, all of a sudden, there is a tipping point and all its attention is focused on its bunches.

It’s a magical time in the vineyards and an important stage because it allows us to understand the harvest date.

“Pintor” (the Painter), the Portuguese word for “Veraison”, this is a French viticulture term meaning the start of ripening, and it is a stage characterized by the change in colour of grape berries as the vineyards begin to explode with fruit colour.

Before veraison, wine grapes are small, hard, highly acidic, and green-colored from the presence chlorophyll .It’s around this time that, when necessary, we weed the bunches (green harvest), where we remove some of the excess production from the vines so that they can concentrate their energy on the remaining grapes.

During the “pintor”, change in grapes transforms white grapes in to a soft, translucent, golden yellow colour, while our red grapes are visually more dramatic, transitioning from a similar green colour to red and purple.

But the change in the colour of the grapes is only part of the story. June and July offer our vines an abundance of long days and bright sunshine. That sunlight, collected by the lustful and diligent foliage, gives the plant energy. Indeed, the herbaceous organs that have accumulated that energy will become poorer in favor of the grapes due to an intense migration of sugars to the berries resulting in a rapid sugar increase that, in the end, will reach in average 200g/L.

At the same time that sugars accumulate, organic acids break down and berries change from being very acidic to tasting fruitier and more complex because they also start to develop aroma compounds. Also, the changing colour (anthocyanin) and development of other polyphenols acts as a protector to the grapes from sun, wind and other stresses.

It is now a question of accumulating reserves in order to ripen the grapes and soon, we will be walking the vineyards rows tasting grapes to determine if they are ready to pick, or if they will benefit from more hang time on the vines.

See it for yourself! Come to our vineyard in the summer!  Veraison starts in mid-July in the Northern Hemisphere!!