It has been a good season, to date, for our vines. The outside grapes (for eating and juicing) are turning from green to pink to red; the inside (green grapes) are slower to ripen and provide a lesson in patience.
Most days I go to our larger greenhouse and sample a grape. It looks soft, sweet and juicy but is bitter. If I were a real connoiseur, a wine buff for example, I would be able to describe the precise gradations of bitterness, how each sour bunch is slowly sweetening day by day until perfect ripeness is attained. As it is, I pick a grape and grimace.
There is one visual indicator, however, which I had forgotten. I should not be sampling the grapes but examining the stem. When they are ready it will turn from green to a more brittle brown. As soon as this happens it is time to harvest.
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