First Color

'Saw the first signs of color on Tuesday.  Multiple vines, rows, and clones coloring by today.  A few days to a week behind last year.

Lag - Seeds Hard and Endless Clear, Dry August Days in the 80s

Seeds started becoming too hard to slice through around the 13th of August, signaling Lag.  Usually this is the earliest that most growers start dropping fruit.  But given the likelihood of the latest harvest ever, some dropped fruit while stripping basal leaves at the end of bloom.

Three weeks ago I drove around Ribbon Ridge and Worden Hill Road and the most eager growers had already stripped the first several nodes of leaves, mostly on the east sides of the rows; some had stripped both sides leaving 12-18" of bare shoots and clusters between the fruiting cane and the remaining leaves.  By last week, most vineyards had removed more leaves on the east sides of rows than I've seen before at this point in the season.  If we get any sunburn this year, it'll likely be tomorrow (when Portland is expected to hit 90 for the first time this summer), or next week when another heat spike is expected.

The owner of our local vineyard supply company is urging growers to keep spraying into September for mildew in order to protect the younger leaves that will ripen the grapes through Halloween and beyond.  He's also advising upping applications of Potassium based sprays to help boost sugar production.  And just for good measure, in his own vineyard, he thinned fruit to 1 cluster per shoot shortly after bloom. 

Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture is forecasting dry, slightly warmer than average weather through October; with the big rains that normally start at the end of Sebtember/beginning of October holding off until the last week of October.

What's a grower to do?  Especially when it looks like this...day after day.

We've already pulled laterals and leaves on the east side to just above the second cluster.  We've let the vines grow a  few extra inches taller this year, having anticipated pulling leaves earlier and heavier than normal.  Today we are dropping wings, 3rd clusters, clusters on short/damaged shoots, and thinning the remaining clusters to each winery's specs.  On our own rows, we're estimating that we'll end up somewhere between 1.25 and 1.5 tons/acre - what a bummer, after a near perfect set this year; but even if we get perfect ripening conditions, October heat and sunlight isn't likely to ripen a full crop.

I'm hoping for first signs of color sometime around the end of next week, we'll see.

114

115

Wadenswil

Pommard

Bunch Closure

July daily temps averaged 1 degree below normal, continuing the coolest year we've had in recent memory.  However, when comparing temps as they coincide with vine development, for the period from budbreak through mid-bloom, we've had more heating degree days during 2011 than any recent growing season.  And, if the slightly higher than average daily temps we began having a week or two ago continue as forecasted, we could end up with a solid heating degree day total for the mid-bloom to mid-veraison period.  We'll get a pretty good idea of the earliest harvest will begin once veraison starts; my guess is veraison will begin sometime around the third week of August, making for another mid- to late- October harvest at our vineyard.

We had rain on 3 days during mid July, which broke the string of rainless days since the first week of June.  Timing was excellent, since it came near the end of bloom, and only amounted to slightly less than 3/4 of an inch, a tad more than normal.


The 3 month forecast, based on analog years, is showing average temps with the rainy season holding off until late October.

I had a good chuckle the other day when a potential grape customer from out-of-state decided not to buy from us for his inaugural Pinot vintage, saying 2011 is a questionable vintage.  So far, the only thing that is questionable is what the last 30 days of the season will be like - which is the same question we have every season, and the answer usually is a good one when we're not ripening during a September heat spike.

 

The vines are in great shape, with canopy growth starting to slow as the clusters start closing up and seed development moves forward.  This year's set produced huge numbers of berries, sample counts show 120-160 berries/cluster in most areas of the vineyard; approximately 2X last year's counts.  While it remains to be seen what the resulting berry size and cluster weights will be, we already know we'll have large tight clusters this year.

Clone 114

Clone 115

Wadenswil Clone

Pommard Clone