During the summer months we just wait, cross our fingers for good weather and enjoy that our beautiful grapes get a bit riper each day. All the vineyard work done so far to ensure a perfect and even ripening now pays off. The perfect number of clusters, all protected from sunburn under the leaves, now ripen in two different ways. What we call the phenolic ripening, which concerns the flavour compounds and tannins of the skin and seeds, and the physical ripening, which is the concentration of sugar (potential alcohol) and the level of acidity. We want these two to follow each other in order to reach harvest with optimal ripening of both and at the same time.
