When the vines wake up from their winter rest, they first try to develop their herbaceous organs (branches, leaves, flowers and small bunches). Then, suddenly, there's a turning point and all their attention turns to their bunches.

It's a magical moment in the vineyards and an important stage because it allows us to know the date of the harvest.

"Pintor" (the Painter), the Portuguese word for “Veraison”, this is a French viticulture term meaning the start of ripening, is a phase characterized by the change in color of the grape berries as the vines begin to show the color of the fruit.

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 painting, the color change of the grapes will transform the color of the white grapes and turn them yellowish and translucent, while our red grapes become visually more dramatic, turning from green to red and purple.

But the change in the color of the grapes is only part of the story. June and July offer our vineyards an abundance of long days and bright sunshine. This sunlight, captured by the luscious and diligent foliage, gives the plant energy. In fact, the herbaceous organs that have accumulated this energy will deplete in favor of the grapes due to an intense migration of sugars to the berries, resulting in a rapid increase in sugar that will eventually reach an average of around 200g/L.

At the same time as the sugars accumulate, the organic acids break down and the taste of the fruit changes from very acidic to a more fruity and complex flavor. At the same time, aromatic compounds also start to develop. In addition, the change in color (anthocyanins) and the development of other polyphenols act as protectors for the grapes against the sun, wind and other stress factors.

Now it's "just" a matter of building up reserves to ripen the grapes and soon we'll be going around the vineyards tasting the grapes to determine whether they're ready to pick or whether they'd benefit from staying on the vines longer.

See for yourself! Come to our vineyard in the summer! "The Painter" starts in mid-July in the northern hemisphere!