India’s very own home-grown wine brand, Sula Vineyards is prepares to begin harvesting grapes after the year’s warm, dry summer and good rainfall – an advantageous indicator of wine production.
Veraison is a vital stage in a grapevine’s lifecycle; it’s the beginning of ripening when the grapes change the color underscoring the point where sugar accumulation and ripening starts. The black grapes transform from green to red. The white grapes start becoming extra translucent.
For winegrowers, veraison is a crucial period because it points towards an alteration in the way they care for their vines. Each region and each kind of wine variant needs slightly contrasting care to accomplish complete ripening. Sula has been taking thoughtful measure to adjust well to climatic modifications and it has been pruning the vines earlier than usual since2016 which have led to an ahead of schedule harvest.
Karan Vasani, senior vice-president and chief wine maker at Sula Vineyards stated- “We have been keeping an eye on the weather and anticipating for the first signals of colour in the grapes. The weather has been fine till now. Only the premium-quality grapes with lavish colour and ripeness are utilized by us to our production units. It is among one of my preferred times of the year, as the vineyards begin to explode with alluring colors. We are hoping for another splendid year for our harvest.”
Fascinatingly, the time gap from veraison to harvest is distinct for each variety and is majorly based upon the factors such as heat accumulation and crop size.
For instance, for red variants such as Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon – from pruning to veraison it takes about 80 days and from veraison to harvest approximately 75 days. For white variants such as Chenin, Sauvignon, and Riesling, it takes about 75 days from pruning to veraison and approximately 65 days from veraison to harvest.
We anticipate this year to be marvellous for wine quality owing to the favourable climatic conditions. The company not only provides farmers an assured income but it also supports them through the entire process. This economic boost has aided farmers with a finer quality of life. In the same manner, the company’s endeavour to teach the country about wine and advocate wine tourism taking it to where it is at present is also yielding success.