The Vineyard in February

Verasion

During February the bunches of Pinot Noir grapes change colour from green to black over the period of about 3 weeks.The time of harvest is approaching where all your work during the season will be rewarded with high quality fruit of optimum ripeness.During this month you can monitor the sugar and acid levels in your fruit and plot these to determine the time of optimum ripeness.

Netting

Once verasion has started, you will need to net your grapes to keep interested birds away from the ripening fruit.I usually do this in the first week or two of February.

Determining Ripeness

Ripe grapes suitable for premium table wines need a balance of sugar level,titratable Acids & pH.
For consistently good wine, you need to measure these 3 factors accurately.
Taste the grapes weekly so you can learn to associate certain tastes with changing levels in the measured factors.
Nobody interested in making excellent wine walks into the vineyard and by taste alone determines when their grapes are ready for harvest.
They are interested in knowing the numbers. See here for full instructions.