Good Bloom, Good Set...for the most part

Bloom ended early this past week.  The first week of bloom was dry and sunny, we had cloudy and showery weather for the rest of the period.  Except for one block, fruit set throughout the vineyard was very nice with large berry counts per cluster.

Even without any significant rainfall, we had exceptionally vigorous shoot growth this spring, making for an expensive year of canopy management.  But, by mid-afternoon today we finished the bulk of this year's canopy management with shoots tucked and clipped up to the top wire, leaves and laterals pulled on the east side of the fruit zone, and vines hedged (twice already - once to prevent the long end-shoots from bringingin down the trellis, and then again yesterday/today to tip the middle shoots that lagged behind).  Usually we hedge twice each season, we'll be lucky if it's only one more time this year.

Things should slow down a bit for several weeks, as the berries/seeds develop.  With the warm (mid-90's), dry weather forecasted to begin in the next week or so, I won't feel so bad finally working on taxes inside with some A/C.

First Signs of Bloom

While tucking shoot tips under the top wire today I saw this, the first sign of bloom. I walked other blocks and saw flowers opening in those, too.  Like last year, this is the earliest bloom in recent years, with first signs of it on the same day.  It confirms that we are headed for another early harvest this year, perhaps even as early as last year's September 27 start of harvest.

After a very warm May, with 5 days hitting the upper 80's/lower 90's, we are having the highest early-season accumulation of heating degree days in recent years.  Through the end of May we had 375 heating degree days.

Despite nearly 12" less rainfall than normal during the dormant part of this season, with slightly less that 26" of rainfall since last season, we are still about 2" ahead of the January through May norm.

Although many of the shoots are at the top wire, we haven't had any significant rainfall since the middle of May; and, as a result, we are seeing significant unevenness is shoot development - with many of the middle shoots shorter than the end shoots.  This is causing a lot of additional shoot positioning work this season.

The forecast for the next month or so currently shows continued pleasant, sunny days - mostly in the mid- to upper-70s, with less than normal June rainfall (typically only about 1.5").  On the positive side, this bodes well for bloom; but I'd like to see a little rain sometime soon, to fill out the vines for fruit development and to get all the trellis work done.

Warm, Wet Spring - Off to a Fast Start of the Growing Season

Although it was a very cold and dry dormant season, since January temperatures and rainfall have been above average.

We've had 102 Cumulative Heating Degree Days through April, just slightly less than last year's early start to the season.

Although we've had only 23.9 inches of rainfall for the period since last harvest, about 10 inches below the normal, we've had two inches more than normal since January.

The net effect of these favorable weather conditions is that the vines are off to a good, strong start.  As of Tuesday, we had 12 open leaves on the rapidly growing shoots.  With mostly sunny weather this Spring, it doesn't look like we'll have issues with the carbon:nitrogen ratio which has adversely affected bloom in several of the recent seasons.  While too early to know how bloom will go, it looks like we have slightly more shoots per vine than normal, each uniformly bearing 2 sets of inflorescences.

So at this point in time, the vines are looking early and healthy; with good prospects for a normal and well-balanced crop load....we'll see what Mother Nature has in store for us.

Quail

Budbreak 2014 - April 9

Another early budbreak. We have been on the verge of breaking bud for the last two weeks, and on Wednesday it finally happened - five days later than last year, 11 days later than the earliest start in recent years.

We've had a colder than normal winter; particularly during December, when we saw temperatures dip into the single digits. Over the next month we'll see how much, if any, bud damage this caused.

We've also had a dryer than normal dormant season - during the October through January period we had less than 7 inches of rainfall, compared to a normal level of over 22 inches.   In February and March, we recovered somewhat with over 14 inches.  By the end of March cumulative rainfall for this season was still 10 inches lower than normal.

During the "off-season", in addition to the regular pruning and trellis work, we planted another 3 acres of Pinot vines, and put in the associated trellises.   We are now nearly done with our second phase of renovating the vineyard, having substantially increased vine density, introduced phylloxera-resistant rootstock, and planted additional Pinot clones.

2013 - Terrible End, But Nice Wines

It was a short, wet end to an early, hot, dry growing season; benefiting vineyards that ripen early.

Fortunately for us, our vineyard ripens early, allowing us to harvest ripe fruit at the earliest point since we took over in 2006.  We brought in our first fruit on September 19, our last on September 27.

Our 2013 wines are in barrel, going through malolactic fermentation.  We'll see how they turn out, but at this point they have red and blue fruit flavors, moderate alcohol levels, soft tannins, and juicy acidity.  Here's what they look like:

In another twist to a strange season - after the hottest season in memory; then all the rain, humidity, and cold that forced wineries to bring their grapes in early - Mother Nature gave us a beautiful, dry, sunny end to October.  Just before rain began again this past weekend we were able to plant 3500 new vines, as part of our ongoing vineyard renovation project to quadruple vine density, increase the number of Pinot clones/selections, and establish a hedge against phylloxera by planting resistant rootstock.

 

A soon as the leaves finish falling, we'll remove clips from the catchwires and begin the annual pruning process. 

September 19 - First Pick of 2013 Harvest

Thursday September 19, 6:45am Just a few minutes before we started our first pick of the 2013 Harvest, clear and 45 degrees.

A few minutes later

Pommard just about to be picked

First full bin and some of the sorting crew

We picked the Pommard and Wadenswil blocks for 3 wineries, including our own; and some 114 and 115.  Beautiful day, great crew, and very nice grapes.

Our grapes cooling in our new winery building at the vineyard, while we're loading customer trucks.

Crew rates first grapes of inaugural sorting at our own winery building.

Sorting and destemming line, finishing up around 5:30am Friday morning - one long, satisfying day!

After a day of soaking: Brix 23 to 24, pH 3.28 to 3.34; smells of tea and fresh fruit; great Pinot flavors.

Thank God for the Deluge, It Offset this Hot Week

The great condition of the vines at this late stage helped absorb the rain from last week, offsetting the effects of the 90+ degree temperatures this week.  We ended up having some splitting in the Pommard and Wadenswil rows, which are farther along in the ripening process (softer skins) than the Dijon clones; but overall the dilution effect of the rainfall held back a significant increase in Brix, with little effect on the pH.  With flavor development beginning to accelerate, and daytime temperatures declining into the 70s, we now are hoping for rainfall (and Botrytis) to be held at bay for another week to 10 days. 

With the abnormally high variation in berry age within the clusters this season, the clusters have a wide range of berry ripeness - shriveling berries, perfect berries, and near ripe berries all in the same cluster. And, the super thick skins this year seem to be taking somewhat longer to yield ripe pinot flavors.  If we don't get too much rain resulting in a Botrytis problem, we could end up with good Brix and pH, and an exceptionally complex range of great flavors. 

As of Thursday (when temps began to moderate), Brix and pH were, respectively:
21.0-23.0 and 3.05-3.10 in the Dijon 115
21.0 -22.0 and 2.98-3.00 in the Dijon 114
22.5-23.0 and 3.11-3.13 in the Pommard
23.5 and 3.11 in the Wadenswil

Hoping for minimal rain and maximum flavor development this week...