Veraison is here in Temecula!!

Veraison represents the transition from berry growth to berry ripening. An important milestone for grape growers.

The young green berries are still high in acidity, and hard to the touch. When the color of the berry changes, multiple changes start taking place. The skin becomes thinner, the color turns to purple, and the composition of the acids changes. Also, important for the alcohol level of the future wine, the berry sugar content increases. We're about two months from harvest now. Time to prepare for crush season.

Our goal for this season is to save 25% water and provide data for other growers helping with their irrigation decisions. By managing irrigation depth to percolate water only into the active root zone, we saved 50% irrigation water thus far this season vs. the two previous years. This is based on data we get from the water district.

We monitor soil moisture in and below the root zone, using our home-grown Vinduino system, to make sure that the vines have enough water to stay healthy and productive. After all we are growers!

Apart from damage from excessive heat that affected many vineyards in the area a few weeks ago, the vineyard looks good.

Below is a picture of the Vinduino gateway, which relays data from the remote sensor stations on the LoRa network via WiFi to the Internet.