【Wine Sharing】Grape Growing Cycle
Today we can get a bottle of wine easily. Do you know how the wine is made? Let's go back to the vineyard and find the origin of the wine together.
Most of the wine grapes harvest only once throughout the year (the table grapes we eat can do multiple harvests per year). Wine grapes need a long time to develop its characters, eg: flavour, sugar, acid, tannin... It takes a lot of effort in the vineyard. Let’s check out how the grapes are grown before they enter the winery.
Winter - dormancy
Like most of the animals and plants. The vine will be dormant in winter to save its strength.
Spring - Budding
Budding starts in spring when the temperature in warm enough, marks the beginning of new grapes.
Spring - Leaf and shoot growing
After budding, the shoots and leaves started to grow
Spring - Flowering and fruit set
If you look closely, you’ll see lots of tiny white flowers appearing on the vine. Each flower that pollinates successfully is destined to become a grape.
Summer - Fruit growth
The grapes will grow bigger and bigger. The skin colour will change too.
Autumn - Harvest
When the grape is ripe enough, it’s time to harvest.
Autumn and Winter - Leaf fall and dormancy
After harvest time, the vine leaves will start to fall in autumn to save its strength and prepare for winter dormancy.
The vine cycle will continue to repeat year after year until it becomes too old and replace by a new vine.
Next time when you have a glass of wine, you can try to think about hardwork of the vine and feel the beauty of nature from it.
If you want to know more about wines, check out our WSET courses and discover the beauty of this wine world together.