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Vineyards in Bloom: How Vineyards Come to Life in the Spring Season
The grapevines lifecycle
The balmy breeze of spring brings with it the beginning of the grapevines’ annual lifecycle. As temperatures rise and frost melts away, buds will begin to appear on the branches of the grapevines, swelling and bursting open with life. These delicate shoots will become the grapes of the following fall’s harvest.
To give these soft little shoots the best chance at life, winegrowers must dedicate their time to carefully pruning and tending to the vines to prepare them for new life.
Read on to learn more about the ways the vineyard comes to life with the warmer weather, and the journey vineyards undergo throughout the spring season.
Preparing for New Life
Green Pruning
Winegrowers must carefully select which shoots to keep and discard to ensure each shoot has adequate room to grow and receives enough air, sunlight, and nutrients. Once the healthiest shoots have been selected, the vines themselves must be well nourished and hydrated to create the ideal environment for the shoots to grow.
Weed Control
As grapevines are prone to weeds, winegrowers must keep on top of weed control to avoid these sprouts competing with the vines for soil nutrients and water, as well as airflow and sunlight. The finest vineyards will be checked for weeds daily to ensure the vines always receive what they need and that their growth is never compromised.
Flowering Vines
The soft buds and shoots on the grapevines will begin to bloom and flower at the onset of the spring season, appearing as tiny green buds with delicate white pollen receptors. Named after the Greek god Hermaphroditus, the child of Aphrodite and Hermes, grape flowers are hermaphroditic, meaning they possess both male and female parts and can transform into berries entirely independently.
Winegrowers must pay close attention to the vineyard’s humidity and temperatures during flowering, as any slight variation in weather conditions can damage the grape flowers and have a devastating impact on the quality and quantity of the harvest.
Pollinators
Though grape flowers are botanically capable of self-pollination, bees and other pollinators are still critical to the winegrowing process. The plants that grow around vines, such as cover crops, are crucial for maintaining a healthy vine environment and do need bees to pollinate them. These surrounding crops are essential to maintaining nitrogen levels in the vineyard, increasing the organic content in the soil, improving the soil’s water retention capacity, and so much more.
Winegrowers must maintain a strict balance between the needs of the grapes and the needs of the bees and other pollinators. One significant way that winegrowers protect pollinators in the vineyard is by abstaining from the use of any harmful pesticides or other chemicals that can cause harm to essential vineyard insects.
The Fruits of Our Labor
The intricate winegrowing process carries on into summer, culminating in their harvest in the fall. Our Xinomavro grapes are typically harvested at full maturity in October once their vibrant acidity and full-bodied tannins have finished developing. After undergoing the traditional winemaking method, what results is nothing short of magic in a bottle.
To taste the fruits of our labor, order now to indulge in your very own bottle of Aphrodise Sparkling Rosé. Every cuvée has been expertly produced from the Xinomavro grapes of our specially selected family vineyards in Northwestern Greece.
