trimming cabernet vines around clusters

[ibglowin]

Mike,

Do you have bird problems? Do you net?

June 20th and we're changing colors already. How long do grapes generally hang once they start verasion. It seems like September is a long way off for these guys to last.
Mike

 

[balatonwine]

How long do grapes generally hang once they start verasion.

Six to eight weeks depending on weather, grape variety and the type of wine you want to make. Longer hang times can be done in the cooler fall months. But I expect you will have harvested by early August. You harvest your grapes when your grapes are ready to be harvested, not by a calendar (i.e. September) or when other areas harvest. Normally I harvest in September. But some hot, dry years I have had to harvest in late August because the grapes were ripe and were not going to improve much more leaving them on the vines.

"Normal" verasion time in many established wine regions is around about mid July (Northern Hemisphere). But that has been creeping to earlier dates in some recent years.

 

[dwhill40]

Do you have an external source of heat near your vines? I just looked at my record from last year and my verasion didn't begin until mid July and it was a hot, sunny, and somewhat dry year.

 

[Kraffty]

I plan on netting for the first time this year, thanks for the reminder, I need to order the material. Don't need no Stinking external heat source, we're in Southern California, I think we're just closer to the sun than the rest of you!
Guess I'll plan on plugging the deep freezer in this year, store the grapes once they ripen and pull back out whenever Northern Cal grapes ship.

Mike

 

[dwhill40]

When I say external heat source I mean nearby rocks or a reflective wall or maybe a building protecting from winter winds. I'm at a lower latitude such as yourself but have chilly winters so probably have a later budbreak for that reason. I'm still learning the development cycle so I'm curious. What date do you typically have bud break? Last year(my year four harvest) I harvested the last of August and it was too early. It was my first harvest due to birds eating every frickin' grape on year three.