August 4th, 2011. Day of highs and lows.

Admittedly, I needed a few days to post these pictures. The 2011 growing season was impacted tremendously this week. 

A couple years ago, Carrington King asked how I would keep deer away from the grapes. He advised that deer could wipe out entire rows at veraison. I had been monitoring closely for veraison, and planned bird/deer cover immediately at color change. Just a couple days before, I tasted the green grapes, trying to acquire a feel for veraison proximity.

On August 4th, I discovered petit verdot veraison. I also noticed that some of my petit verdot had disappeared. Oh DEER! However, there was just a small amount of damage, so I was relieved. Initially. 

Petit verdot veraison, August 4, 2011.

Then, I checked out the petit manseng. Oh my.
Veraison is easy to identify with red wine grapes. It is not so easy in white grapes. The deer, however, are quite skilled at determining this period of change (with marked sugar increase).

No more grapes. Petit manseng, on August 4, 2011.

95% of my petit manseng was gone. I felt no need to protect the dregs. In the next two days, all had been eaten.
Needless to say, the petit verdot is now protected with fencing. Lesson learned. Future harvests will benefit from this tough teaching.