From the beginning of veraison and when the vines bear too much fruit, we select the most beautiful clusters that will reach maturity. This corresponds to Harvest in green. These are made on vintage years where the vines have had good cluster growth and are too busy.
The risks of this overload are numerous:
- Decrease in the gustatory quality of grapes.
- With water stress in summer, maturities will not be good because of the difficulty of the vine to nourish all its clusters.
- With the autumn rains, fungi and therefore rot between the clusters may develop.
In conclusion, the green harvest allows the maturity to be extended further, especially for the red ones.
What happens to cut grapes?
“Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed” - Lavoisier
Cut grapes can have different new lives:
- At Domaine de MasLauris, we leave them on the ground, allowing the vine to eat. In fact, the organic matter of the cluster is returned to the soil, making it possible to supplement the diet of our vines.
- There are also a lot of ways to use it in cooking.
In pickles, in salt or in verjus, green grapes are cut at the beginning of summer to make winter recipes. In sauces, syrups or even in mustard, these grapes will bring beautiful acidity to these preparations.
The most curious can go to Arkhé Restaurant in Vaugines this winter, to discover forgotten recipes based on verjus, made with bunches of Serine from Domaine de MasLauris.
