This is the first leafing, there will certainly be one more and possibly two more. Leafing occurs at the fruit level on the lower wires. The top leaves are kept, they are necessary for the photosynthesis that will mature the grapes.
Removing the lower leaves opens the vine, permits better air circulation, balances the vine with its fruit. Vines have a tendency to over-compensate and produce excessive folliage.
The images show the nascent grapes and a worker leafing. The bottom image shows some of the leaves littering the ground.
A wedding last Saturday ably staged by Mirella Valdez and her crew.
For other photos.
Photos by Pablo
And the usual suspects – Cathy, Mirella and Sandra who organized it all.
After several weeks of cooler than normal weather it is warming up. Cane growth is less than normal but we expect it to catch up rapidly.
The images were taken today — the fruit has set and it is begining to form. Now we can get a fairly good estimate of the crop and start balancing the vine — reducing the fruit where necessary.
The grenache is estimated to yield nine tons per acre — an aburdly high number – but not unusual with Grenache at this stage. Workers will soon reduce the fruit load so that it is closer to three tons per acre.
Images are of Pinot Noir.
The International Herald Tribune writes that “Makers of wine corks say they’ve cured ‘taint’.” Cork taint is the winemaker’s nemesis. After nursing a wine through fermentation, barrel aging and bottling, a sometimes two year process, and have the wine spoilt by a bad cork is enough to frustrate any winemaker.
Cork makers, facing declining sales, have been scrambling to find a way to eliminate this problem. The declining sales come from competition and acceptance of new closures — screwcaps and glass stoppers, well designed and in the case of the new glass stoppers — claims to have the same beneficial effect as cork. That, of course, remains to be seen, but the new competition is moving the cork makers from their complacency and cork taint may eventually become a quaint curiosity.
To read article
Winemaker Bruce McGuire has selected the Vineyard Designate Wines which will remain in barrel for another seven months and now he prepares the Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir and two Pinot Noir clone selections, which have traditionally been bottled the summer after harvest.
The images show the wine being extracted from the barrels by nitogen pressure so that there is no need to pump it. At this stage when the wine is still sitting on its lees we carefully extract it leaving the lees in the barrel. The barrels are then thoroughly cleaned and stacked ready for next year’s harvest.
David Lafond has rigged up a system where the water and the lees are collected below the winery in a mobile tank. The water and the lees are then spread throughout the vineyard with the intention of encouraging a wild yeast population similar to that used in our fermentation.
There is an interesting article in the San Francisco Chronicled titled ‘Turning Water into Wine’ on the merits and or need to irrigate vines. We in the Santa Rita Hills and Santa Barbara County have no option, with rainfall this year around six inches and an annual average of eighteen inches the decision has been made for us.
In other areas, including the Napa Valley, where the rainfall exceeds forty inches, the choice becomes one of vine management. Without irrigation the roots will go deep looking for moisture. With irrigation the roots remain shallow. The theory being that shallow roots can be nourished more easily and rapidly than deep ones. Almost all new plantings in California are provided with drip irrigation, even where abundant rainfall occurs, in Europe the story is different and irrigation is associated with overcropping and strictly controlled by the government.
To read article
At this time of year the wines have matured and are showing their character. The barrels are arranged by lot or specific areas in the vineyard.
It is the wine maker that creates the best expression of the 2006 vintage. every year we initiate trials using Vine canopy management, different barrel manufacturers and yeast selection to name a few.
Each glass is from a separate barrel, representing a component of that lot. This particular effort was to create the Lafond Vineyard Designate Pinot Noir. It will remain in barrel until about January 2008.
Images are of Winemaker Bruce McGuire and Assistant Winemaker Ryan Ralston evaluating the Pinot Noir…
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