Color Anyone?

Sometimes I think folks get burned out on the vintage thread so I’m just posing this simple question. Last year we saw first color in Pinot on 7/21. I’m thinking we’re a week ahead of that, but we’ll see.

You?

No color on any Zinfandel in the foothills when I checked a few days ago

saw this on FB
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The Krupps posted a FB photo also the other day showing veraison has started. (It wasn’t cab and it wasn’t Pritchard Hill where our cab block is.)

. duplicate post

I will be watching my tomatoes very closely. They usually start veraison at least a week before our Pommard block of PN. No color in the maters as of yesterday.

Saw a bit today in Malbec and in just a couple of clusters on struggling Cab shoots about a mile north of Napa proper.

Saw some down the street at Kenefick Ranch. I am not certain of the varietal, but it is often the first to show in the neighborhood, at least visually from the street. Tight clusters that color very quickly, deep and dark.

Saw my first pink berries this morning - I did not get out to the vineyard yesterday, but there they were this morning! I’m going to use a date of July 5, which would be one week earlier than 2013.

Without a picture, it didn’t happen. :wink:

Nervo Ranch Zinfandel Geyserville on Thursday
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Pato Mataro Contra Costa this morning
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Nothing here yet. I just went for a serious search. Happy to NOT see any!

Nice pictures, Brian. What a ton of color in that second photo.

I’ll be checking out our PN blocks down at Hudson on Wednesday. Was informed of Verasion on June 30. Also some pink berries in old vine PS in Calistoga. But then again, some of those oldies have a crazy mind of their own!

Ok, I’ll snap one and send it to you and you can post. My one vine of Thompson Seedless table grapes is already being attacked by birds. Going to be a tough haul, here.

I visited four Zinfandel vineyards Im sourcing from in El Dorado county today and all had some random pink berries.

Two recent shots from Merrill’s vineyard:

Thanks, Andy. I took these this morning. The first one is of a cluster on St. George rootstock. Those clusters are characteristically loosely formed - typical of this block on this rootstock. The second is of a vine on 110R rootstock. This cluster is way ahead of the majority of clusters out there, but it is there, nonetheless. There are still many vines without any clusters with color, but this is the start, and always (to me) exciting.

Tablas creek has some whole red clusters of Syrah.
Further down Vineyard Dr. , nothing yet

I went down to Hudson vineyards to check out our PN blocks on Wednesday.
They range goes from 100% full color clusters in the 777 to still green in the 5. (The blocks are right next to each other. The pictures are only a couple rows apart.)
Overall, the 777 is ~85% through veraison while the 5 is maybe 15%.
On a sidenote, I stopped by Blankiet on Thursday. Veraison has just begun in the merlot. I was seeing 1-2 grapes per cluster begining to turn.
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