In the Vineyard - Fruit Setting & Vineyard Management

Our Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and Riesling vines are in the “pea berry stage”, while our red varieties, alongside Viognier and Petit Manseng, trail about a week behind.  In the past weeks, flower blooms have become fruit, a process that commences only after the flowers have been pollinated and the fruit has set. While early grapes develop, our team busies themselves cleaning trunks, shoot positioning, shoot thinning, and leaf pulling. Trunk cleaning, shoot positioning and shoot thinning address how the vines grow - (in order) removing sucker shoots from the trunk, arranging desired shoots into neat vertical positions, and removing extra shoots to promote airflow and reduce crop load to ideal numbers. With leaf pulling, or canopy management, we remove additional leaves in the fruiting zone to better expose the fruit to the sun. This practice helps to control how much energy the vines are pulling into the fruit versus the leaves and encourages additional airflow to protect the fruit against mold and mildew. These tasks keep our team busy for the whole of June and July when, with early signs of verasion, we will begin netting the vineyard.