We Have Berries!

As of the final week of June, the flowers on our vines have turned into fruit. In the wine business, when talking about these early stage grapes, we typically (and for unknown reason) call them "berries". At this point, the farmer can get an idea of the success the vines have had getting through any struggles during the flowering and pollination phase. Some problems that can occur are poor vine health, lack of nutrients and cold and/or drizzle during the flowering. This year our vines saw some cool days and a few hot ones during flowering and fruit set was good. The timing of the fruit set is similar to last year, which was a good vintage for Griffin Hill. At this point, the activities in the vineyard involve continued spraying of sulfur to prevent mildew, pulling of random weeds, pushing errant canes up into the support wires and knocking off any late-setting canes that try to crowd the canopy.