Winemaker's Corner

Vineyard Update:

You may have noticed that our 2011 vintage is starting to eek out of the bottling line in the past month.  As we slowly pick up steam here in the winery the vineyard crew is in full action out in the rows pruning, pruning, pruning.  Normally at this time of year we are bundled up tight and taking coffee breaks every hour to ward off frost bite, but this year something weird is happening.  It is actually pleasant to be out in the vineyard pruning.  Pleasant until you realize just what all this warm spring-like weather really means.  TROUBLE.

Now I’m not complaining about the lack of snow and general spring like weather, I’m just getting a little nervous.  Why you ask?  Because although this unseasonably warm weather means that we are not likely to have any freeze out vine damage this year (YAY!), we have been seeing accelerated bud development that could lead to early bud break.  Bud break is the period when the tiny dormant buds become active by swelling and starting to form into shoots where this year’s grape clusters will grow.   If bud break occurs too early, the young shoots may be vulnerable to frost damage during spring.  We do have a safety net though.  Fortunately, grape vines have 3 layers of buds (primary, secondary, and tertiary buds).  The secondary and tertiary buds break later in the season and can compensate for the loss of the original bud.  In the event that this happens, the season could be pushed later and we could find ourselves with a late harvest, or worse with a crop that ripens in 2 different stages (YIKES!).   Late harvests can suck if we get early fall weather, or have a really rainy fall that dilutes the berries.  Uneven ripening sucks because then you have to pick a crop that is only halfway mature, or pick the crop twice and often double your picking budget. 

I hate to sit around and bite my nails over a situation that I can’t control, but the suspense is killing me.  So I took a look at the Old Farmer’s Almanac to see what they have to say.  OFM is predicting a warmer and drier winter than normal (ok you got that one right), with a cooler and drier spring than normal (I can deal with this as long as it’s not too cool), and a cooler and drier summer than normal (um….drier winter, drier spring, drier summer…. Are we going to be doing the rain dance this year as we watch our plants beg for water?), and a cooler and rainier fall than normal.  So cooler and drier, then cooler and wetter, sounds terrible right?  It could be, but it could be wonderful.  Maybe cooler even temperatures will produce the most relaxed, even, perfect growing season we have ever seen. 

So even with the Old Farmer, I am still left guessing and hoping and crossing my fingers.  Won’t you please cross yours too and come out this year to see just how things develop for your self.  Fortunately this unseasonably warm and dry weather has kept our walking trails dry and sunny, perfect for vineyard strolling.  We open back up for full operation March 1^st.  That means you can come down any day but Monday to try some of the 2011 vintage and track the progress of the vines.