{"id":3786,"date":"2026-07-30T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/terredeicavalieri.it\/?p=3786"},"modified":"2026-07-30T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T07:00:00","slug":"july-at-castello-di-magione-the-vineyard-through-veraison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terredeicavalieri.it\/en\/july-at-castello-di-magione-the-vineyard-through-veraison\/","title":{"rendered":"July at Castello di Magione: the vineyard through veraison"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a moment, every summer, when the vineyard changes face. It is not harvest, not yet the moment of picking: it is veraison<\/strong>, the stage when the berries move from the compact green of growth to the first colours of ripening. At Castello di Magione<\/strong>, the Umbrian estate of Terre dei Cavalieri<\/strong> on the Colli del Trasimeno<\/strong>, this passage is watched bunch by bunch, walking through the rows. It is a moment that can be observed but not hurried: the vineyard keeps its own pace, and those who tend it soon learn to respect it.<\/p>\n

What veraison is<\/h2>\n

In the first weeks of July the berries are still hard and green. Then, within a few days, they begin to change: they soften, accumulate sugars and \u2014 in red varieties \u2014 turn toward violet, while white varieties become paler and more translucent. It is not a process that affects a whole bunch at once: berries next to each other, on the same plant, can be at different stages, and it is precisely this unevenness \u2014 visible to the naked eye \u2014 that shows the cycle has truly begun.<\/p>\n

Walking through the rows these days, the eye learns to catch the shades: a single bunch can show berries still green, others already pink, others nearly violet. It is a palette that shifts hour by hour, especially in the early morning, when the low light makes the colour of the berries stand out most clearly.<\/p>\n

Agronomically, veraison marks the start of the final stage of the grape’s cycle: from this point the berry no longer grows significantly in volume, but sugars concentrate, acids decrease and the aromatic and colouring compounds that will define the wine begin to form. This is why the period from veraison to harvest \u2014 usually six to eight weeks, depending on the season \u2014 is among the most delicate of the whole year.<\/p>\n

\"Berries<\/p>\n

The work in the vineyard never stops<\/h2>\n

From this point on, checking the rows becomes a daily task. Every shoot is watched, every bunch is touched: the state of the skins is checked, sun exposure is assessed, and on the hottest days steps are taken to protect the berries from sunburn. Checks are best done in the coolest hours of the day, when raking light makes the first signs of change easier to spot and the heat spares both the plant and those working it. It is still hand work, bunch by bunch \u2014 not a stylistic choice, but the only way to truly know the state of the vineyard before harvest.<\/p>\n

\"Checking<\/p>\n

The varieties grown at Castello di Magione \u2014 including Grechetto<\/strong> and Sangiovese<\/strong>, at the base of the Colli del Trasimeno DOC<\/strong> wines \u2014 do not ripen at the same pace: each variety has its own timing, which means veraison, on the estate, is observed in different waves across the central weeks of summer.<\/p>\n

In the following weeks, attention shifts to the canopy too: excess leaves around the bunches are thinned to improve airflow and encourage more even ripening, reducing the risk of mould in wetter vintages. These are minor operations, almost invisible in the overall story of the vintage, but decisive for the final quality of the wine.<\/p>\n

One estate, a wider project<\/h2>\n

Castello di Magione is one of the estates that make up Terre dei Cavalieri: more estates, more regions, one single project<\/strong> that runs from the Friuli of Rocca Bernarda to the Umbria of the Colli del Trasimeno. Each estate keeps its own character and its own agronomic calendar \u2014 at Magione, these July days, the calendar says veraison.<\/p>\n

A landscape between vineyard and lake<\/h2>\n

The estate lies just minutes from Lake Trasimeno<\/strong>, in a landscape where the vine rows slope gently down toward the water. The castle, whose origins date back to the 12th century, was born as a place of welcome for pilgrims and has been tied for centuries to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta<\/strong>: around its walls, the vine has accompanied the life of the community ever since. It is no coincidence that vineyard and lake share the same horizon: the same balance of water and climate shapes the character of the grapes that ripen here.<\/p>\n

\"Backlit<\/p>\n

From vine to bottle<\/h2>\n

Veraison is not just a moment to picture: it is the most reliable indicator of how far harvest still is, and it guides every decision in the following weeks, from bunch thinning to choosing the picking date. Work that rarely shows from the outside, and precisely for that reason is worth telling.<\/p>\n

The wine begins long before the cellar \u2014 it begins here, in these July days when the berries, one by one, change colour.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To tell this moment and the daily work on the estate up close, Fabrizio Leoni, director of Castello di Magione, has followed the vineyard in words and images: a story you can also follow on the social channels of Terre dei Cavalieri.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Castello di Magione, the Umbrian estate of Terre dei Cavalieri on the Colli del Trasimeno, veraison marks the start of the grapes’ final ripening stage: the story of daily work in the vineyard this July 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_fp_seo_title":"July at Castello di Magione: Veraison in the Vineyard","_fp_seo_meta_description":"Follow veraison at Castello di Magione, Umbria: the July stage when Grechetto and Sangiovese grapes change colour before harvest.","_fp_seo_focus_keyword":"","_fp_seo_meta_canonical":"","_fp_seo_meta_robots":"","_fp_seo_geo_claims":"","_fp_seo_geo_expose":"","_fp_seo_geo_no_ai_reuse":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"July at Castello di Magione: Veraison in the Vineyard","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Follow veraison at Castello di Magione, Umbria: the July stage when Grechetto and Sangiovese grapes change colour before harvest.","_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_product_cat":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[692,580,542,543,415,655],"class_list":{"0":"post-3786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-events","8":"tag-veraison","9":"tag-colli-del-trasimeno","10":"tag-grechetto-umbria-en","11":"tag-sangiovese-umbria-en","12":"tag-castello-di-magione-en","13":"tag-vigneto-en"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terredeicavalieri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terredeicavalieri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terredeicavalieri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terredeicavalieri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terredeicavalieri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/terredeicavalieri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3788,"href":"https:\/\/terredeicavalieri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3786\/revisions\/3788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terredeicavalieri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terredeicavalieri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terredeicavalieri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terredeicavalieri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}