Golubok clusters are now almost entirely black. From now on I will use taste and other tricks to try to determine full ripeness. One good indicator that we're really close is when a gentle finger and thumb squeeze causes a slight deformation of the grape, which still bounces back to the spherical shape. Think the squeeze of a kickball, not the firmness of a "superball".
Labelle grapes are ripening startlingly fast. The darkest colored berries are close to plausible as juice grapes, though still a little tart even for that. The Leon Millot, which started the season, is progressing slower, perhaps because it is relatively over cropped vs the Labelle. In the picture above, if
Golubok and LaBelle are showing the first signs of the grapes turning color. That means harvest is expected by Mid September, maybe earlier.
I'm seeing these pretty butterflies in the vineyard lately. Over the weekend I was able to get feedback from several friends on the Sangiovese. Despite its youth, it is shaping up pretty nicely and has plenty of yummy berry fruitiness and rich red wine lushness. The muscats and
Monastery Muscat has a pretty fuzzy underside of the leaf. This woolcarder bee decided it's worthy nest material.
