Second set removal…

March 3rd, 2010 | Posted by Kirk

Another task in the vineyard at this time of year is to remove all the SECOND SET fruit. Basically the vine in its natural vigorous state is prone to producing additonal bunches of fruit at a later stage than the orignial time of fruit-set. Being later they therefore do not ripen to the same extent. At harvest time they will be underripe with low sugar levels and too high levels of acidity. We dont want them ending up in the wine. The problem is that to the untrained eye (and due to labour issues at harvest we often use such pickers) the bunches look very similar to the good stuff and could easily end up in the picking bin. We get rid of them at this time of year because they realatively undeveloped and are easy to spot. The good fruit, naturally larger, is going through veraison where colour changes and berry softening occur. The bad stuff is still green and hard and usually higher up in the canopy. A quick snip and its off.