June 25th, 2006 - Flowers in the Vineyard

Earlier in the month our grapevines began to bloom. That’s right – like any other fruit, grapes begin life as flowers that need to be pollinated. During this time, dozens of tiny flowers open up or ‘bloom’ on each (potential) cluster of grapes, and each flower has the potential to ripen into a grape. This is an interesting period in the development of every vintage for several reasons.

 

Firstly, we can pinpoint fairly accurately when harvest will begin based on the bloom dates. Depending on the grape variety, we know that we will begin our harvest between 100-120 days after flowering. 

 

Secondly (and more importantly for quality conscious wineries like Medlock Ames) is the impact of bloom on wine quality. Normally the process of flowering takes about 14 days, which means that at harvest we could have some berries that are 14 days riper than others. This range of maturity can result in a spectrum of flavors - some too ripe and others not ripe enough – but we want balance and even ripeness across our crop. A shorter or tighter bloom window helps our grapes ripen and evolve more evenly resulting in more focused and pure flavors.

 

This year’s flowering is remarkable in that it only took five days to complete, an indication that we will have uniform ripening, and rich full flavors, without excessive alcohol. Vintage 2006 is off to a great start.