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Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Winegrower and Vineyard Operations Manager at Merryvale, Remi Cohen is keeping us up-to-date on what's happening in the vineyard...
Our sorting tables helped us to weather the storm.

"Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day (like November).

"Severe rain all day yesterday! Our first major storm of the season brought us anywhere from 2.5 to 5 inches, depending on where in the valley. Our estate vineyard in St. Helena had just under 4 inches.

"Even though our ecosystem and watershed need the water, most wineries would have preferred if the rain came in November. Fortunately, Merryvale has the majority of our fruit already harvested and in the winery. We only have approximately 10% of our grapes still ripening on the vines. All of our estate vineyards have been completely harvested, and we just finished harvesting our St. Helena Estate vineyard on Monday with the final pick of Petit Verdot.

"Driving around this morning, I stopped at a few of the blocks where we have grapes remaining on the vines. Although there is some standing water on the vines, the weather is forecasted to clear up, and they will dry out. Brix may have decreased slightly, but the few blocks I tasted still had nice flavors and concentration.

"The rain would be an issue only for vineyards where the fruit is already damaged, and then the water would cause rot and mold to form, or for vineyards that have yellowing leaves and will not see much additional maturation despite the forecast for sunny weather.

"Tomorrow, we will sample all of our remaining blocks to determine if Brix have decreased, and to confirm or postpone any remaining scheduled picks. The majority of the fruit will be harvested Friday, Saturday, and into next week."

From 10/5/09: "I love sleep, so perhaps the most challenging thing about harvest is the lack of it! But the challenges of a sleepless ten weeks are easily overcome by the magic of night harvest. In Napa Valley during harvest, it is like an underground club. You drive up the Trail to your harvest destination and you see all the lights at all the different wineries, and you think, 'Oh, they're picking that block today.' You run into the same people at Model Bakery or Starbucks as soon as they open and give each other a knowing nod, or a 'How's harvest?' One of the best treats is being able to drive through St Helena with no traffic.

"But my favorite part about night harvest is the moon. And last night's full harvest moon was exceptionally lovely, and on this cold crisp night, I could really sense the changing of the seasons and I know we have only a few more weeks to go.

"Last week was our busiest week, and we harvested almost 30% of our total production in one week! Merryvale finished harvesting our Chardonnay on Friday, which concluded the harvest of all of our white grapes. After today, we have only one block of Merlot left to pick, having brought in Buena Vista selection Merlot from Hyde Vineyards this morning.

"We still have a lot of our Cabernet left on the vines, and we look forward to a little warming later this week to get some more Cabernet into the winery as the week ends.

"We have already pressed some reds, and harvest parties are already on the schedule. We look forward to bringing in the rest of our Cabernet, and are optimistic about the quality we are seeing in the cellar so far. Cheers!"

From 9/23/09: "Harvest is moving at full speed in Napa now. Due to hot weather all week, we have accelerated picking Chardonnay, Merlot, and Cabernet. By the end of next week, we anticipate finishing our Chardonnay harvest. This week, we have really begun to harvest the Bordeaux varieties, particularly Merlot and early Cabernet blocks.

"Fortunately, the heat was not as intense as originally forecasted, and the highs are only sustained for a short part of the afternoon. Forecasts are for a return to seasonable or below average temperatures beginning early next week. That will likely slow down the ripening in the remaining Cabernet blocks.

"This morning we harvested small portions of two blocks of Cabernet from the Schlatter Family Estate in St. Helena. Above is a pic of a few lug bins in the back of the truck."

From 9/14/09: "Although the rain we had this weekend was early and quite strange, especially since it was accompanied by thunder and lightning, it did not have a negative impact on the grapes. In fact, we proceeded with our two planned harvests this morning of Hyde Chardonnay and Schlatter Family Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. If there was more significant rainfall or if there were multiple consecutive days of overcast and gloomy weather, we may have had problems with rot developing or a decline in concentration of flavors. But the low quantity of rain followed by today's bright and sunny morning was only enough rain 'to keep the dust down,' as the growers say! It wasn't even enough to clean my car, only to encrust the dirt!!!"

From 9/11/09: "Even with this week's high temperatures, harvest continues steadily, but not frantically, at Merryvale and Starmont. By tomorrow, we will have finished harvesting Sauvignon Blanc, and on Thursday we completed harvesting our Pinot noir, all from the Stanly Ranch in Carneros. We started harvesting Chardonnay, and Chardonnay will be the main focus for the next two weeks. Today we harvested some Hyde Chardonnay from an enticing block of mixed clones that exhibit exotic floral flavors.

"We have begun harvesting some Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon from earlier ripening sites, but we anticipate continuing to harvest Cabernet throughout the rest of this month and into October. Attached is a picture of us harvesting one of our earliest Cabernet lots from this morning at our Estate in the foothills overlooking St. Helena.

"We are really excited about the early flavor development, and are finding developed and concentrated flavors, the disappearance of green flavors, resolved tannins, and brown seeds at lower Brix than recent years.

"Cheers!"

From 8/27/09: "Harvest began for Merryvale on August 20th with Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon Musque from Juliana Vineyards. Since then, we have also picked Juliana Vineyards Semillon, and additional Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon Musque from the Oakville appellation, all crushed at Starmont. On average, we have been harvesting Sauvignon Blanc around 23 or 24 Brix and it has nice natural acidity. We are optimistic about the quality as the vines have shown beautiful melon, citrus, and floral flavors, and yields have been average or slightly below average. We will finish harvesting our warmer climate Sauvignon Blanc early next week, and two Oak Knoll blocks of SB will continue to ripen on the vines.

"We anticipate beginning the harvest of Pinot noir at Stanly Ranch in Carneros near Labor Day. Some of our blocks of Chardonnay are also close.

"We also have Merlot in Calistoga that is now at 23.5 Brix, with nice early berry flavor development. This block will likely begin the harvest at the Merryvale facility in St. Helena, and we also anticipate harvesting this near Labor Day.

"Harvest has begun at a nice pace, with moderate weather. The forecast is for some warming this weekend, and then a return to average temperatures next week. Harvest will really kick into full gear for us after Labor Day, as we currently have Chardonnay, Pinot noir, Merlot and even some Cabernet between 20 and 23 Brix.

"Cheers!"

From 8/11/09: "Harvest is near! We have young Sauvignon Blanc vines at Juliana that are near 21 Brix! Dave (the other viticulturalist) and I went to Juliana today, and were very excited about the early flavor development in the Sauvignon Blanc, with Dave noting flavors of melon and even some tropical and floral notes. The Semillon was also showing very nice flavors, and is not too far from being ripe either! Dave and Sean plan to visit Juliana next Monday, and there is a good chance we will start bringing in some fruit from Juliana sometime in the middle or end of the week.

"Although we are all grateful the high temperatures over the weekend have somewhat subsided, the heat was great for the vineyards. The moderate weather we have been experiencing so far this season has caused veraison to progress quite slowly. The recent heat helped increase uniformity and advanced veraison.

"We have finished most of the work in the vineyards for the season. All that is left is the 'green drop' in some remaining Cabernet blocks. During the green drop, which usually occurs between 80-95% veraison, we thin the remaining green clusters off the vine. This helps increase uniformity in the rest of the fruit and pushes ripening forward by concentrating the vines' effort on these clusters. This is also a time for detailed irrigation practices. We want to keep the vines hydrated enough to continue to slowly ripen, but we have to be careful not to overwater and create big berries or delay ripening too much, and we have to be careful not to underwater and cause severe stress and risk potential berry shrivel.

"All of our interns have arrived, and we will begin sampling intensively next week, with Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Pinot noir, and Chardonnay at the top of the list! We'll keep you posted!"

From 6/19/09: "Veraison is here! The recent hot weather has accelerated ripening and we are seeing veraison in all varieties in Napa.

"Veraison marks the onset of ripening. The berries begin to soften and expand, filling with water and sugar and thereby diluting their acidity. It is also the beginning of changes in the phenolic compounds, the compounds that are responsible for the tannins in wine. These are gradually losing their astringency. There are also changes in other compounds. For example, methoxypyrazine is one of the main compounds in Cabernet Sauvignon that is responsible for vegetative flavors, and the concentration of this compound declines between veraison and harvest.

"At this time, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc both have berries that are softening and expanding with water and sugar. In some Oak Knoll vineyards, the Chardonnay is more than 50% veraison, and Sauvignon Blanc ranges from just beginning veraison to about 20%. Pinot noir has about 30% colored berries. We have seen occasional colored berries in Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah, but most vineyards still have less than 1%.

"The weather forecast is for seasonably warm weather for the next week. This is perfect weather for ripening to progress steadily. We expect harvest to begin with Sauvignon Blanc at the end of August. In the next few weeks, we will be noting 50% veraison in all of our blocks. We use this data, as well as the historic data of the amount of days between bloom and harvest and between veraison and harvest, to predict harvest dates and the order of harvest. This helps in scheduling with the winery, although weather changes, irrigation patterns, crop size, vine health, flavor development, and other factors will influence the final harvest dates.

"We are also in the progress of collecting our crop estimates. We have been counting and weighing clusters. The crop is not as large as we thought initially, as many clusters are loose and berries small. This bodes well for high quality and concentrated flavors."

From 6/19/09: "Grape growing is never predictable! In the first week of May, we experienced unseasonably wet and cool weather, with over an inch of rain in most areas of Napa Valley. But weather pushed into the 90s for May 16th and 17th and bloom started very rapidly in all varieties. Good weather occurred during the first weeks of bloom, and the early varieties such as Chardonnay set well. Chardonnay has big clusters this year with a lot of berries, and viticulturists are predicting an above average crop. At this point, the berries still seem small so the larger crop may be balanced by smaller, more concentrated berries. Pinot noir, which normally has small clusters, has slightly larger and denser clusters, so we are predicting an average to above average yield there too.

"However, June began cool and cloudy and we even experienced some light rains, which slowed bloom in the later varieties. This prolonged set and made it more variable, with shatter in Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Until we see how the berries grow, it is hard to tell how big the crop will be in these varieties, but there are many areas where the clusters are very loose. If the berries stay small, the crop can be below average in some areas. If the berries grow to average size, we can have an average crop.

"The late spring rains enhanced the vine vigor. Canopies remain quite healthy, and vines around the valley are looking robust. Growers are working rapidly to catch up with all of the vine growth. In many blocks, we had to make a second suckering pass to clean up shoots that grow along the trunk or on the cordon. This has delayed the next pass, the leafing and lateral removal. At this point in the season, we remove interior leaves and laterally growing shoots in order to expose the fruit to dappled sunlight and wind. Care must be taken not to overexpose the fruit and subject it to sunburn, but enough exposure is necessary for uniform ripening.

"In the next few weeks, we will begin the crop estimation. At lag phase, we will be counting and weighing clusters in all of our blocks. Lag phase is the period between the growth of berries and the ripening of berries, when there are very few changes in the size or chemistry of the grapes. At this time, the clusters are about half of their final weight, which makes it a great time to get an indication of the final weight of the crop.

"As usual, the growing season is predictably unpredictable. It keeps life interesting..."

From 5/21/09: "Ka-Bloom! The incredibly warm weather we had this past weekend had a very powerful impact on vine growth and bloom. Before the weekend, the Chardonnay had just started to bloom, and now we have full bloom in most Chardonnay blocks. Even Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon are blooming, ranging from 5-75% depending on the site, clone, and other viticultural factors. I love the smell, it is very subtle, fruity and a little herbal, but not great if you have allergies! We started the season about 10 days behind average, and now we are close to catching up to an average year.

"The rain we had at the beginning of the month saturated the soil and allowed for nice, uniform and vigorous growth in most vineyards. The growth is right where we want to be at bloom time, with the canopy filling most of the trellis and the shoot length around 3 feet. The vines will start slowing their vegetative growth as they finish bloom, and start focusing on berry development. At this time, we will lightly stress the vine and provide minimal irrigation, so that the berries do not become too big. This first phase of berry growth is cellular division, which will determine the final amount of cells that will be in the berry. After veraison, we have cellular expansion, which will determine how big these cells will become. What we are trying to achieve is small berries (fewer cells) that are plump (fully expanded) as opposed to dehydrated or shriveled. To achieve this, we will stress the vines during the cellular division phase, and then provide them with plenty of water during the cellular expansion phase.

"As far as we can tell, there is a potential for a large crop. The clusters are long, with lots of flowers and big wings. Now is the most critical time of the year for determining how much fruit we will have. The weather during bloom will affect 'set,' or the percentage of flowers that will become berries. With good weather, warm and sunny, we will likely have a good set. The weather forecasters believe the next week to be warm and sunny, so we shall see!"

From 3/24/09: "The 2009 growing season has begun! Chardonnay is Merryvale's first variety each year to experience 'budbreak,' or the initiation of growth following winter dormancy. As of March 23, Chardonnay was at approximately 25% budbreak across the Carneros and Oak Knoll appellations of Napa Valley. Pinot Noir follows closely behind, and is currently at approximately 5% budbreak. Merlot and Syrah will not be significantly behind and their buds are already 'swelling,' but Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon can be as much as one month later than Chardonnay. Interestingly, Sauvignon Blanc has a very short growing season, since it is among the last of the varieties to experience budbreak, but one of the first to be harvested!

"Although we have had a lot of sunshine in Napa recently, the nights and mornings are still quite cold, and we are experiencing a later than average budbreak. Chardonnay normally reaches 50% budbreak by March 15, so we are about 10 days later than average. Of course, this can change as the season progresses depending on the weather.

"Early this winter, there was significant concern that we would not have enough rainfall. January was well below average. We experienced some intense storms in February and in the first part of March that have brought us closer to an average year and have filled our soil profile and most reservoirs. However, we are still about one-third below average rainfall, depending on which appellation within Napa Valley. This makes our water conservation and deficit irrigation programs for sustainability and quality very important, and we will also have to be conservative about yields.

"We have had periods of dry weather over the recent weeks, and growers are taking these opportunities to mow their winter cover crop. This will also help conserve water and prevent frost damage. Mowing and cultivation are the main activities in the vineyard now. The next main vineyard operation is 'suckering,' or the removal of unwanted growth on the vines such as shoots that grow on the trunk. This occurs approximately 6 weeks after budbreak. In years of low water availability, it may make sense to sucker early in order for the vines to focus on the remaining growth to get the desired vigor, especially in low vigor sites.

"What makes viticulture so interesting is that each season is different, and it is the viticulturist's challenge to respond to the dynamic forces of Mother Nature. It is fascinating how the impact of our weather on the growing season creates distinct flavor, structural and textural expressions in our wine. Let's hope for the best in 2009!"

From 1/30/09: "Winter is pruning time. This is one of the most important practices in the vineyard because it allows us to create the stage for vine balance for the entire season. If we do not prune, then there will be too many buds, or growing points, left on the vines. All the buds will start to grow in the springtime, and there will be so many growing points that they will compete with each other and not have the strength to ripen the fruit they produce. Additionally, there will be shoots and fruit all over the place. Pruning helps us to localize the fruit so that we can manage the vines for uniformity of ripeness and open the canopy near the fruit to allow for dappled light and wind, naturally reducing mold and mildew.

"Winter rains disperse certain fungal pathogens (including Eutypa), or diseases, that can enter into the wounds left from making pruning cuts. That is why we do a practice called pre-pruning, where we prune the vines early in the winter, but only prune them partially so that we remove the majority of the vegetation. This part of pruning does not require much skill but is more labor intensive since you have to pull last year's woody vegetation off the trellis. The fungal pathogen may enter the shoots that are remaining on the vines, but they will be pruned off the vine when the final pruning is done later in the season. This final pruning is quicker since you do not have to remove much wood, but it requires more thought to make the best pruning decision. As the season progresses, the amount of fungal pathogens that get dispersed are greatly reduced, so an alternative to pre-pruning is to prune later in the season. Additionally, at this time, more sap exudes from the vines, preventing the entering and establishing of the diseases.

"Since we have had so little rainfall this year, we have been able to prune with a lower risk of disease spread. The disadvantage of the low rainfall amounts is that we are in a serious drought. We have had approximately 60% less than the average rainfall for the winter season. Growers are concerned that their reservoirs are not filled and that the ground water will not be replenished for this growing season. This will likely lead to a lighter crop because the vines will not initiate growth on as many clusters and they will also tend to make smaller clusters with smaller berries. Additionally, growers will thin more fruit than in an average year because they will be concerned that they will not be able to irrigate a heavy crop. Of course, the season may change, and spring may bring us plentiful rains that can change the crop yield prediction. We have to look on the bright side, though, which is that a lower yielding vintage with small clusters and small berries can create excellent, concentrated wines. Also, the California wine industry has moved away from an excess of wine that occurred after the record-yielding 2005 vintage, and has moved into balance or even a shortage of grapes, with low yielding and high quality vintages in 2007 and 2008.

"Winter is pruning time. This is one of the most important practices in the vineyard because it allows us to create the stage for vine balance for the entire season. If we do not prune, then there will be too many buds, or growing points, left on the vines. All the buds will start to grow in the springtime, and there will be so many growing points that they will compete with each other and not have the strength to ripen the fruit they produce. Additionally, there will be shoots and fruit all over the place. Pruning helps us to localize the fruit so that we can manage the vines for uniformity of ripeness and open the canopy near the fruit to allow for dappled light and wind, naturally reducing mold and mildew.

"Winter rains disperse certain fungal pathogens (including Eutypa), or diseases, that can enter into the wounds left from making pruning cuts. That is why we do a practice called pre-pruning, where we prune the vines early in the winter, but only prune them partially so that we remove the majority of the vegetation. This part of pruning does not require much skill but is more labor intensive since you have to pull last year's woody vegetation off the trellis. The fungal pathogen may enter the shoots that are remaining on the vines, but they will be pruned off the vine when the final pruning is done later in the season. This final pruning is quicker since you do not have to remove much wood, but it requires more thought to make the best pruning decision. As the season progresses, the amount of fungal pathogens that get dispersed are greatly reduced, so an alternative to pre-pruning is to prune later in the season. Additionally, at this time, more sap exudes from the vines, preventing the entering and establishing of the diseases.

"Since we have had so little rainfall this year, we have been able to prune with a lower risk of disease spread. The disadvantage of the low rainfall amounts is that we are in a serious drought. We have had approximately 60% less than the average rainfall for the winter season. Growers are concerned that their reservoirs are not filled and that the ground water will not be replenished for this growing season. This will likely lead to a lighter crop because the vines will not initiate growth on as many clusters and they will also tend to make smaller clusters with smaller berries. Additionally, growers will thin more fruit than in an average year because they will be concerned that they will not be able to irrigate a heavy crop. Of course, the season may change, and spring may bring us plentiful rains that can change the crop yield prediction. We have to look on the bright side, though, which is that a lower yielding vintage with small clusters and small berries can create excellent, concentrated wines. Also, the California wine industry has moved away from an excess of wine that occurred after the record-yielding 2005 vintage, and has moved into balance or even a shortage of grapes, with low yielding and high quality vintages in 2007 and 2008."

"Eat, Drink, and Be Merry(vale)!"

Merryvale Vineyards - News and Events

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