It is winter now, and the vines in half of the world are sleeping.
From California to Canada, and France to Hungary, and all the way over to China, vines are sort of hibernating. I can’t blame them — I didn’t exactly bound out of bed this morning, either. There’s something about winter that puts up a little more resistance than the rest of the year. Even in places where it’s not exactly cold, winter is winter. Light hangs in the sky a little differently, and the feeling of moving toward something picks up momentum slowly, measured in months at first and then in weeks. What we are moving toward, of course, is spring. New life.
At this point we should recognize our fellow humans and terrific winegrowing regions below us in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s winter here but down there it is the height of summer so to anyone reading this in Santiago, Cape Town or Adelaide, don’t forget to wear your sunscreen. What a big, beautiful world it is. The vines down there are thriving, heavy with plump, ripening grapes — much closer to being turned into wine. Knowing a little bit about that life cycle can only boost your appreciation for the wine you will drink this year. Collect yourself — this isn’t a botany lecture. There will be no talk of stamens and there will not be a quiz. Let’s just get in touch with the rhythm of the grapes.
The one disclaimer is that the milestone events I am about to connect to the vineyard stages are approximate. Weather can throw the timing out of whack but in general, vines follow a reliable yearly pattern. The stages occur six months later (or is it six months earlier?) below the equator but we’re here, in the North (as you know), and our vines are currently in their first stage of the year: dormancy. They are chilling — or perhaps more precisely, chillin’ — and actual grapes are but a twinkle in Mother Nature’s eye. Some vines are standing naked in the cold. Others have been shrouded in snow.
WINTER
Round about March, as you’re gearing up for, or recovering from, St. Patrick’s Day, vines will be offering their first shades of green. Like someone waking up slowly, just barely blinking her eyes, little green shoots will break out from buds on the vines, sprouting leaves and curly tendrils throughout the vineyard. This stage is called budbreak.
SPRING
About the time you are officially honoring your mother, and handing her flowers on that special day in May, so too will those lengthening shoots be producing flowers. These aren’t the kind of flowers you would give as a gift, though. Pollination and fertilization will occur next, sometime before Father’s Day, in a stage called fruit set, which turns flowers into tiny, hard, green grape berries. Grapes’ ability to self-fertilize makes them both father and mother in the same organism. If grapes had holidays, one of them would be Parents’ Day, where they would write themselves a thoughtful card and then have a cookout or go to brunch.
While many of us are on summer vacation, up at the lake or wherever, grapes will be entering a stage called veraison. This is when they will start to ripen. Their skin tone will change, and they will plump up and soften — unlike us, if we can help it. Veraison is when berries go from the universal baby green to the teenage and adult colors of their developing selves: gold, green, gray, pink, purple, blue or something close to black. Call it a smart and versatile navy.
SUMMER
When the grapes are nearing their optimal ripeness, a winemaker must monitor them constantly for sugar and acidity levels, among other things. Modern winemaking technology makes this testing scientifically precise but that doesn’t stop winemakers from popping grapes into their mouths for some good ol’ traditional analysis as they walk the rows. Picking a sweet, ripe grape from a vine and eating it in a vineyard is a pleasure that anyone who loves wine should experience at least once in a lifetime.
Harvest occurs anywhere from September through October and usually by the time you are handing out candy to costumed kids, a vineyard has been cleared of its fruit. Those leaves that appeared in the spring will drop to the ground in November and December and once again, the vines will go to sleep. There are no holiday parties for vines — just a well deserved nap after another productive year.
FALL
Depending on the grape variety, it takes 600 to 800 grapes, weighing about 21/2 pounds, to make a bottle of wine. That’s 750 milliliters, or about 25 ounces of wine. At harvest time, wineries process tons of grapes in the colloquial sense, but also literally. A ton of grapes, 2,000 pounds of fruit, produces a mere 750 bottles of wine, give or take. Think about that the next time you raise a glass to your lips.
That wasn’t so bad, was it? For anyone who flashed back to a troubling biology, chemistry or earth science class just now, I apologize. I was only trying to give you an overview of the process — dormant vine to delicious wine — that magically returns to us every year, unlike those classes and quizzes that are behind us forever.
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