VERASION STARTING NOW

In the past I have mentioned verasion which is the term to describe the turning of the green grapeskins to the "grape" color of red grapes. That usually occurs in late summer and always is a sign that the ripening will begin soon.

Here in NZ we see verasion as sign that we need to start to worry about the birds!! In Matakana we have a low volume of acres of grape vines in proportion to a high number of birds. As we are coastal we also have to worry about sea birds. Gulls love grapes!!!! So, we will be getting ready to put up our bird nettting in a week or two. If you drive this way in a few weeks you will see lots of various types of bird nets covering the grapes.

First we need to bunch thin. As you can see in the close up photo of our Malbec with the most bluish-purple skins there are a lot of buches close to each other. Over time as the grapes grow and increase their sugar levels they will push physically against other adjacent bunches and damage their skins. Ruptured skins + moisture+ increasing sugar levels with ripening=botrytis. That is the kiss death to our harvest. So, we thin bunches to get better growth, lower yield, but better quality grapes harvest. Since we are about quality and not quantity we will do an agressive "bunch thinning" this week. We have to do this before the netting goes on as once the nets are set we really can't easily work directly with the vines or bunchs until they are removed for harvest.

Photos of netting to follow soon.

Meanwhile, we are off to the famous Sat. AM Matakana Village Farmers Market today for some fresh vegies, flowers, and a bit of local yummy edible goodies. My favorite is mussle fritters that are to die for!!! Maybe I will take a shot of those today and post a photo of that gourmet food item on this site:):):):):)

More soon.

Dr JIm and Miss Sandra