After Harvest
See also: Harvest (wine)In the vineyard, the antepenultimate event is the harvest in which the grapes are removed from the vine and transported to the winery to begin the wine making process. In the Northern Hemisphere this is generally between September and October while in the Southern Hemisphere it is generally between February and April. The time of harvest depends on a variety of factors-most notably the subjective determination of ripeness. As the grape ripens on the vines, sugars and pH increase as acids (such as malic acid) decrease. Tannins and other phenolics also develop which can affect the flavors and aromas in the resulting wine. The threat of detrimental weather and vine diseases (such as grey rot) can also play a role in the time table. The balance of all these factors contributes to when a winemaker or vineyard manager decides that it is time to harvest.
Following the harvest, the vines continues the process of photosynthesis, creating carbohydrate reserves to store in the vine's roots and trunks. It will continue doing this until an appropriate level of reserves have been stored. At that point the chlorophyll in the leaves begin to break down and the leaves change color from green to yellow. Following the first frost the leaves begin to fall as the vine starts to enter its winter dormancy period. The following spring, the cycle begins again.
Read more about this topic: Annual Growth Cycle Of Grapevines
Famous quotes containing the word harvest:
“It is in these acts called trivialities that the seeds of joy are forever wasted, until men and women look round with haggard faces at the devastation their own waste has made, and say, the earth bears no harvest of sweetness—calling their denial knowledge.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
With silver claws and silver eye;
And moveless fish in the water gleam,
By silver reeds in a silver stream.”
—Walter De La Mare (1873–1956)