Today Winemaker Bruce MaGuire (in the blue sweater) with David, Andy and Enrique inspected the frost damage in one of our younger blocks of Pinot Noir. The prognostic is not good. Some varieties, such as the Riesling, are an almost total wipe-out. The Pinot Noir which normally produces 2.5 to 3 tons per acre looks like 1/2 a ton per acre — not that much different from last year which was also damaged by frost. There were a lot of sad faces.
The group met to plan how to farm what has survived. The amount of fruit that a vine carries will determine much of its care – balancing the fruit with the vine. On the positive side low yields often produce outstanding wines.
Unfortunately, the prognostic is the same throughout California, everyone is certain to be scrambling for grapes.
April was not a very kind month for our vineyard. We had several days of frost which caused severe damage to every variety. We are not alone, Sonoma and Napa also experienced frost damage, which is almost certain to result in a light harvest for 2008. A light harvest this year following a light harvest in 2007 will make the present grape shortage even more severe.
Grapes, as in most crops, have cycles of scarcity and over-production. In the case of grapes the cycle usually lasts 3 to 5 years — the time to plant and harvest producing vines. There will be a lot of planting the next few years, despite economic hard times. We are not exempt from this, hopefully not misplaced, optimism. We are planting another 30 acres of Pinot Noir in 2009, from land leased from our neighbor. Pinot Noir from the Santa Rita Hills, we think, will always be a rare commodity.
The slideshow shows the progress of a particular vine in one of our blocks. From the looks of it, it is hard to believe that the vine suffered frost damage. It is flourishing, there are quite a few clusters, mostly second growth. Second growth grapes ripen later and tend to ripen unevenly and be smaller. Time will tell. The photos start with the latest and go backwards to bud break.
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The Pinot Noir is now beginning to leaf and exposing its nascent clusters. This is a delicate time — we had frost last Sunday which damaged most of our Grenache — and a good time to take out the worry beads. Right now frost is the enemy — last year we had an early frost which damaged the Pinot Noir and substantially reduced the crop. Unfortunately there is not much we can do about it – the worry beads get a lot of action. The image is of a Pinot Noir Vine taken Friday March 21, 2008.
Today it felt like Spring. After several weeks of rain the Sky was clear and the day was warm. We should see budding in the Pinot Noir by late February. We had a very small harvest in 2007 due to an early frost which damaged the vines. With the ample rain we have had this winter we would normally be expecting a better than normal harvest this year.
The problem is that this years clusters were formed last spring and they may have been damaged by that frost. David Lafond, who is our bean counter — our cluster counter – predicts fewer clusters but larger than normal. The vines attempt to balance production and vigor.
We saw the first Poppy of the year which is always a good sign that Spring is not far behind. Here is a view of the vineyard today — still bleak — but the hills are green.
The vines close down after harvest. The cold weather allows them to remain dormant during the winter months. Pruning begins once the vines are dormant and continues until February.
The party, a pot-luck dinner, included all those working at the winery, their spouses and their children.
Today Winemaker Bruce MaGuire (in the blue sweater) with David, Andy and Enrique inspected the frost damage in one of our younger blocks of Pinot Noir. The prognostic is not good. Some varieties, such as the Riesling, are an almost total wipe-out. The Pinot Noir which normally produces 2.5 to 3 tons per acre looks like 1/2 a ton per acre — not that much different from last year which was also damaged by frost. There were a lot of sad faces.
Today it felt like Spring. After several weeks of rain the Sky was clear and the day was warm. We should see budding in the Pinot Noir by late February. We had a very small harvest in 2007 due to an early frost which damaged the vines. With the ample rain we have had this winter we would normally be expecting a better than normal harvest this year.
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