‘Fruit Set’ or meet the new Stars of the ‘09 Vintage!

Following the heady days in early May, when the vines were fully focused during flowering with their ardous lovemaking task of pollination – we can now report that one month later, ‘fruit set’ is complete!  The emerging grape bunches of the 2009 harvest are here!  Meet Vintage ‘09, out there hanging on the vines!

Those sucessfully fertilized berries, the lucky ones with 2 or more fertilized seeds, are in there for the long haul – a growing season typically lasting 110-120 days, while the other unfertilized berries have fallen off.  (Overheard grape conversation: “Ha,Ha! Loosers!”)

Now, it’s up to the fertilized fruit to hang on in there and grow!  They are still in the early stage of grape development - cell division, which will soon come to an end and be followed by cell enlargment, as the grapes swell.  Now and in the period up to veraison, they are busy acquiring both malic and tartaric acid as well as tannins, to protect themselves from the birds. (Overheard bird conversation: “Yuck! These grapes taste terrible! Got to wait for the sugar before we start eatting them!”)

But, it’s not just about fruit, so we will talk about the shoots and leaves in our next post…