Winemaking 101 with Julie Johnson: Veraison

The summer travel season may be in full swing for most folks but for winemakers and grape growers there is no rest for the weary. Now is the time when the grapes start to show their true colors and come to life. On July 26, 2013, I headed back to Tres Sabores Winery in St. Helena to continue my video series on How to make wine with Julie Johnson.

In our first video, How to Make Wine with Julie Johnson: Bloom, the grapes were in bloom now they are in veraison. Veraison might be hard to say but it’s pretty easy to explain, it’s a grape-growing term that means “the onset of ripening.” The exact definition of the originally French word is: “change of color of the grape berries.” In this wine video, Julie Johnson shows me (Monique Soltani :)) where we are at in the grape growing process as we continue our winemaking journey going from grape to glass!

If you don’t know Julie Johnson, she is the owner and winemaker of Tres Sabores Winery in St. Helena, and this is far from her first time at the rodeo. Julie Johnson, along with John Williams, and Larry Turley, founded Frog’s Leap Winery. Then Julie teamed up with Michaela Rodeno, former CEO at St. Supery Winery, and started “Women for Wine Sense”, the ongoing national organization whose vision it is to support the appreciation for, and responsible consumption of wine.

While this is an in depth and lengthy look at the winemaking process, my goal is to help keep it as viewer and consumer friendly as possible. I don’t have a degree in Viticulture or Enology and I’m guessing most of you don’t either. But you don’t need a Master’s Degree to master the art of loving wine and wanting to learn what really goes on behind the bottle. What does it truly take to transform a budding vine into an amazing bottle of wine? That is the million dollar question we look to answer and I hope you will take this journey with Julie and I. Our first video begins with bloom, then our winemaking video series will continue as the grapes ripen into berries, then harvest, fermentation, then it’s off to the barrel and eventually the bottle.

***Special thank you to Jo Diaz thinking of me for this educational and meaningful project***