Ideally, Spring should start out cool. During bouts of warm weather, the buds tend to swell prematurely and are then unable to withstand night frosts. The beginning of the season is one of the rare times that heavy rains are beneficial to the vine. They will be much less welcome later in the season. Leaf break occurs towards the beginning of May. Flowering takes place in June. From then until the harvest, hail will be the vine's worst enemy. |
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 Light rains are welcome at the beginning of summer because they help to bring volume to the berries, helping them to attain the right size. A fresh, dry breeze is a blessing if it comes while the grapes are ripening as it helps keep disease at bay. Fruit set comes just after flowering. After fertilization, the fruit is either aborted and drops off (coulure) or remains solidly attached to the pedicel and can begin its growth cycle.
The grapes begin to change colour at the end of August, they then lose their chlorophyll and start to deepen in colour. This signals the onset of the ripening process; the grapes accumulate sugar, colour and aromatic compounds whilst their acidity decreases. |
September makes or breaks the wine. Cold, wet weather will ruin an otherwise perfect growth period. In an ideal world it would not rain at all in September. Forecasts of storms presents the grower with a cruel dilemma: harvest a few days before the berries are completely ripe or pick grapes swollen with water after the rains and risk them rotting. |
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 As winter sets in, the vine's vegetative cycle is normally coming to an end. The harvest is over, signaling a resting period for the vine. This is the time when the wine is made in the cellars. Winter frosts are good for the vine because they kill off any parasites left inside the bark. |
