Marquette Grape Ripening February To Present

The summer has flown by and we can’t believe it is already mid August and harvest time!
This week we wanted to take a moment to look at how the grapes have progressed up until this
point to show you how far they’ve come since February. Below is one of our Marquette vines,
starting in #1 with budbreak. Here you can see exactly where the shoots and later the fruit will
be. In #2, we jump to bloom where flowering is occurring. The caps begin to fall, the clusters are
pollinating, and develop into small berries which you can start to see in #3. This occurs in late
May and only lasts for about a week until we reach #4, fruitset. This is the first time we are
seeing a developed cluster and overall what we can expect to ripen in the summer. After fruitset
we reach #5, the beginning of berry touch. This year we had a lot of rain during this period
which caused some early berry splitting. Lastly, we approach Veraison #6. This is when the
berries begin softening and changing color. This is the last stage before harvest and where we
have been since the beginning of July. We are nearing harvest for Marquette and continue to
watch and wait for each variety on property to reach its optimal ripening.