The Vine Development
 A Delicate Bud  Flower of vine |
After the dormancy period of winter, buds appear when temperatures are gowing up. In the vineyard facing the Garonne River, where temperatures are smoother due to the river, the bud burst starts in early spring. This steps really depends on the climate of each year, but also on the grape variety, on the pruning date and on the age of the vine. This is a very important moment where every frost would damage the delicate buds holding the future grapes. The flowering step follows 8 to 12 weeks after the bud burst and lasts 7 to 15 days. Small flowers are pollinated to give fruits or leaves. Strong winds or cold and humid climate can detract the flowering, so the coming crop. In July, these flowers let appear small grapes. This step is the setting of the vine for the year. Leaves and branches grow very fast at that time to increase the photosynthesis to feed the berries in sugar. In early August, the small green and sturdy berries get bigger and more supple. Début Août, les petites perles vertes et dures que sont les raisins se transforment en baies juteuses plus souples. This the beginning of the slow maturing process, acidity in berries is gowing down while sugar content increases. Usually, we say that the harvest will start 40 days after this step. |
 Setting of the vine |
 Development of berries |
 Maturation |
Focus on a grape
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The stalk is the vegetal part which holds the berries and links them to the plant. With more than 80% of water, this part must be thrown away because it brings very bad flavours, this is why we use a destalker, which is for us, on the harvesting machine. The berry is composed of three parts: the skin, the seed and the pulp. The skin provides the colour and the flavours to the wine. We can deepen the colour and the tannins heating the berries at 75°C. We call this process thermo-vinification. Seeds hold 10 to 12% of oil, so we avoid crushing them because they would bring astringency. The pulp represents 80% to 85% of the grape weight. After being crushed, we got a must that will be fermented to become wine. The pulp is mainly composed of sugar and organic acids. |
