Nuestro Sueño Vineyard: 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.

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