When the vine enters a new stage in its cycle
Discreet yet essential, flowering marks a decisive stage in the vine’s cycle. Every year, between late May and early June depending on the terroir and weather conditions, the first flowers appear on the bunches. It is a moment that is as technical as it is symbolic for winegrowers.
🌼 Unlike other spectacular crops, the flowering of the vine remains very subtle. The small white flowers open for just a few days, releasing a characteristic vegetal fragrance across the vineyards. Yet it is at this precise moment that much of the future vintage is determined.
A uniform and rapid flowering is often synonymous with good harvest potential. Conversely, unstable weather conditions — rain, wind or excessive coolness — can disrupt this phase and cause coulure or millerandage, reducing the number of berries on the bunches.
📅 Wine professionals also use the flowering date as a natural benchmark: it allows them to roughly anticipate the harvest period, generally a hundred days later.
In the vineyards of the Rhône Valley, as elsewhere, this period requires particular attention. It also symbolises the transition to summer and the promise of the new vintage to come.
At Vignobles & Compagnie, flowering is always a time we watch closely: it’s when the work in the vineyard begins to reveal its future potential. 🍇
To know more : Onivins – Vine life
Team V&Co
