Vine Stress

Our Oregon vineyard

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:35:00 +0000

Okay, here it is, our Oregon vineyard. It consists of one lonely Golden Muscat vine. We actually don't have any yard, just a patio, but I removed some flagstones, chopped up the clay and amended the soil and I now have a single-vine vineyard. It even has three clusters , currently in post-bloom berry set. I miss our Missouri vineyard, but until I get back between the trellis rows I'll have to use this single vine as a benchmark.

But I'm getting a sense for the macro climate here, already. One thing I've never considered was the sheer volume of daylight available during the growing season in northern latitudes. We've all seen the giant Alaskan pumpkins, but you have to experience it to get a true sense of the implications. The sun is rising when I wake and sometimes it's still up when I hit the sack. My daughter experiences only daylight this time of year.

I'm mapping out a strategy to start blogging again. I imagine this Golden Muscat vine might make frequent cameos as I figure what direction I'm going to go now that I'm vineyard-less. But I'll keep involved in the business and have plenty to write about exploring this region.

Articles and blogs

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:09:00 +0000

_ Wines and Vines has an article on the Oregon wine industry. Especially interesting: 53% of the state's crop is Pinot Noir. I wonder what that means from a marketing standpoint, relying so heavily on a single varietal. I'm anxious to learn more about the industry once we're settled out there. I'll put a Web 2.0 spin on wine marketing in an upcoming post.

_ The Godfather now has his own blog. Missouri vinifera will still have an online reference after I'm gone.

_ UM's ICCVE launched its first issue of the Midwest Winegrower.

_ Oregon State's April wine research newsletter is also available. I'll look forward to learning more about the OSU Wine Institute.

We have budbreak

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:37:00 +0000

Here it is at last, a full three weeks after last year. This is budbreak on a classic, #2 pencil-sized spur on a Traminette vine. We didn't have an ultra-mild February and March this year like we did last year, causing our early budbreak and subsequent disaster.

I don't know how I'm going to keep up a viticulture blog after we move to Oregon and I no longer have even a test vineyard to photograph, though I hear there are a few vines in the Willamette Valley. I'll have to do more interviews and spend some time in other folks' vineyards. I'll figure out my blogging niche once I get out there. Until then, I'll keep posting about grapes and wine with an emphasis on the vines.

Final pruning

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:19:00 +0000

I thought it would be demoralizing, pruning the vines of my test vineyard for the very last time. Pruning is an exciting time because, through the principles of spare parts viticulture, you can correct problems and redesign each vine with an eye on making it better this season and beyond. You can replace trunks, improve shoot distribution, train new cordons, eliminate long spurs. On every single vine you can strive for that elusive goal: perfection. Sometimes you get closer, especially as your skill and knowledge improve. Often you do not. But each vine you touch is an opportunity.

This year, however, I won't be able to view the fruits of my labor. I won't be able to see what affect my pruning has had on this year's crop and next year's winter survival. Last year was a weather disaster in our region, so I was really looking forward to this year to wipe the slate clean. Signs are good...this time last year we had four-inch shoots on the traminette. We're at least three weeks delayed this year on budbreak...a good thing.

So, for all these reasons, I thought I might be a little depressed pruning these vines that I've been watching over for seven years knowing that I won't be able to bring them to harvest, suspecting that whoever buys our house might even decide to rip them out and plant ornamentals.

But as I finished pruning this weekend, I looked back and realized that I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process. I took a few risks, being more aggressive in trunk retraining, saving fewer spare buds knowing that whoever takes over the vineyard will not likely know enough to do any shoot thinning. When I was finished, the vines were tidy, the buds on the verge of swelling, the whole vineyard ready for what may very well be the most exciting time in the vineyard.

There is a Zen quality to pruning. You get in a zone and things become automatic. So instead of feeling disappointment over the fact that this was my last time pruning the vineyard, I instead experienced a sort of reprieve from the anxieties of wrapping up one job, starting another, packing up a house and moving a family 2,000 miles toward an uncharted future.

The next chapter

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:12:00 +0000

I haven't posted in over a month. Ordinarily this would not be excusable for anyone trying to retain traffic on a blog about any topic. But I've found myself subject to extenuating circumstances.

Readers of this blog, who have been increasing steadily over the past year, already know my story. I was bitten by the vine bug more than eight years ago, and after seasons of growing a backyard vineyard and working in other commercial vineyards on the weekends, I decided to buy property and plant a small commercial operation. I was due to plant this April. The site has been prepped and the vines have been ordered. I was about to become a member of the Missouri Vinifera Society, a stubborn group determined to make good wine in our challenging climate.

But life has a habit of changing plans. I happened across an opportunity for a fantastic job at Oregon State University in Corvallis. It was a position too good to turn down and now I find myself up to my elbows in bubble wrap as we pack up the house.

It kills me to halt this project when I was on the verge of taking it to the next level. I can't look at a bottle of wine without experiencing a spectrum of emotions. While this is a brilliant career opportunity for me, it is surely a setback to my grape growing plans. But it will only be a temporary setback. Many of you may have heard that Oregon also has a few vines in the ground.

And as for my vines...I've worked out a deal with someone locally who plans to get into the business. If this goes through, they'll still go in the ground soon and there will be a new vinifera grower on the charts in mid-Missouri.

In the meantime, my blog will be on hiatus while I move. After that, it may take on a definitively Oregon-centric tone. So check back in the future, and thanks for reading. Oh, and if anyone is interested in a lake house in the Columbia, Missouri area with a mature hybrid vineyard, or a twenty-one acre vineyard property with great building sites, views and also its own small lake, drop me a line!

Cheers,

Dave

Help choose a vineyard name

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:20:00 +0000

Now's your chance to participate in our little vineyard project. Since starting this process last year we've come a long way. We should put our grapes in the ground in April, barring any suprises, crises or opportunities that would throw a wrench into the works.

The next question is what to name our operation. At this point I don't have any plans to start a winery. I'd like to sell the grapes to a local grower, but I would also like to establish some marketing equity in the vineyard, especially if I manage to grow the premium grade of vinifera grapes that I'm shooting for. So one way to do this is to work with a winemaker willing to put the vineyard name on the bottle. From folks I've talked with, this seems like a fairly reasonable expectation, even given the small amount (1/2 acre) I'm starting with.

I'd like readers of this blog to vote on the poll on the right-hand side of the page. Let me know if any of these options have a ring. Some are pretty obvious, but they all relate to historic, geographical or geological features of the area.

February vineyard calendar

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 21:56:00 +0000

I really should have had this month's calendar up at the beginning of the month rather than the end, but there are still a few days left in February. Here's the list of tasks I hope to have finished by Friday:

1) Sharpen pruners, loppers

2) Measure pruning weights for your upcoming season's balanced pruning plan.

3) Begin pre-pruning on more cold hearty varietals

4) Trellis repairs

5) Prepare sprayer for early season sprays of soybean oil and lime sulfur in late February and early March.

Pruning weights

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 21:00:00 +0000

Now is the time of year to head into the vineyard and grab a sample of pruning weights. Larger growers will already be well into pruning. But smaller growers in our region can, and should, wait until as late as possible to prune their vines as this is a way to delay budbreak in an attempt to lessen the risk of early season frost damage to young buds and shoots. I won't be pruning in earnest until mid-March. Our early budbreak happened last year around March 30, so this is the last two weeks of the pruning season. I can afford to wait until the last minute with my small test vineyard.

Pruning weight samples can be taken before you start your serious pruning push, however. If you get this task out of the way, you won't have to worry about it slowing you down later.

You will only need to prune a small random sample of vines to get an average pruning weight. In order to take this measurement you will need only two items in addition to your pruning shears: a bungee cord and a small, hand held fishing scale.

What you need to do first to get this measurement is prune vine down as you normally would. Maybe be conservative and leave some extra buds so that you can trim the vines down later to keep it in balance with the other vines in your vineyard. It's always easy to remove buds down the road, but up to now I've heard of no way to add buds to a pruned vine.

Next, bundle up all of the trimmings from that one vine and wrap them with the bungee cord. Hang the bundle on the fish scale and note the weight. That's all there is to it.

Once you have your measurements, write them down in your permanent record. You will be able to compare your pruning weights from year to year, and from bloc to bloc of the vineyard. You can then use those pruning weights to guide your decision of how many buds to leave on each vine in the vineyard. Most extension programs and growing guides offer suggested pruning formulas that tell you how many buds to leave that season based on your pruning weight.

I recently weighted my Nortons and came up with an average of 3 lbs of cane prunings. The suggested bud count formula for Norton is 50+10. The first number in that formula refers to how many buds should be left for the first pound of prunings. The second number indicates how many buds to leave for every additional pound of prunings. So for 3 pounds, I should leave 70 buds on every Norton vine. That could be 14 5-bud spurs, or 25 2-bud spurs or any combination that arrives at a total of 70 buds. Every vine is a different creature.

You will find out if this formula works for your trellis system and vineyard site. You might need to adjust it once you see how it works for you. Maybe you'll find 70 buds is to many. Maybe you'll find that it's not enough, especially if you have wide spacing or a GDC trellis. Maybe next year you'd want to try 40+10 on Norton and see what the difference is. But at least you'll have a baseline to begin with.

Here are formulas for other varieties that I grow: Chambourcin 20+10, Vidal 15+10, Traminette 20+10, Cabernet Franc & Mourvedre 20+20.

There are a number of reasons to perform this measurement. It gives beginners an idea of where to start. It gives you a way to begin to predict the next upcoming harvest and growing season and evaluate what impact freeze events and damage have had on the health and vigor of your vine.

Here's more info on balanced pruning:

http://www.farmwest.com/index.cfm?method=pages.showPage&pageid=303

http://viticulture.hort.iastate.edu/info/pdf/prunecanopy.pdf

Vineyard falconry

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:21:00 +0000

At the Midwest Grape and Wine Conference last weekend, we ran into Dennis Devitt, a vineyard manager for Gallo who was attending the symposium on mechanization. While we watched the Superbowl, he described a unique method of bird control. It seems they hire a falconer who helps relieve their starling pressure by running birds of prey through the ranch for months at a time.

It was fascinating to hear how they use the raptors to drive away birds who damage the fruit, and evidently it's loads more cost effective than netting the vines. This article describes the whole process.

Falconry isn't unusual in California vineyards, but the process used by Falconer Getty Pollard is fascinating. It sounds like the ultimate biological pest control. I'll see if I can track down some photos.

Wine and movies

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:42:00 +0000

Despite the photo at left, I assure you that this is still a blog about viticulture and not a wine tasting blog, of which there are plenty of fine examples. But I have good reason to feature a bottle of Francis Coppola Diamond Collection Claret Cab Sauv (05). Most of you probably know that I've been bitten by the viticulture bug...I grow grapes in the yard, we have an assortment basement-made wines fermenting in the cellar, I've got a commercial vineyard in development and we decorate the house with empty wine bottles.

But now I need to confess that I'm not merely a vine nut. Another of my overriding passions is motion pictures. A couple years ago, I started writing screenplays just for kicks. I didn't expect much to come of it, but when I finished my first effort, a friend read it and urged me to enter it in a contest. I sent my first feature length spec script to the Nicholl Fellowships (Oscars) last year and it finished a respectable semifinalst, in the top 30 out of 5,200 submissions. I was blown away, but half thought it was a fluke that this script, The Eulogist, did so well.

Well, this morning I had another surprise. I received an email notifying me that this same script was a finalist, making the top 10 in Francis Coppola's Zoetrope Screenwriting Competition. Mr. Coppola himself was a judge, and it's humbling to think that one of the masters of American cinema read my little thriller.

So what's all this got to do with wine? Well, as you probably know, Mr. Coppola is not one of the great auteurs of film, but he's also seriously into wine. And upon hearing of my respectable finish in his contest, my lovely and generous wife purchased a bottle of his Diamond Collection Claret to celebrate. We finished it off tonight.

I don't know what this contest means. I'm not sure if it will lead to a career in film or will just be a nice feather in my cap. With the strike going on now, my hands are somewhat tied. I don't want to cross WGA lines as I someday hope to be a member, and waiting until the end of the strike to send out material means being part of a tidal wave of spec scripts as the industry rights itself again. But a couple things are for certain. I'm hooked on writing screenplays. I've finished two more since writing The Eulogist. And my latest effort, a comedy-drama entitled "Vintage," deals with the subject of wine. I need to find a way to get it into the hands of a producer-type who also is interested in sunlight in bottle form. Hey, maybe Mr. Coppola would would be willing to check it out.

In the interim, I'm keeping my day job and still working to get our vineyard site planted this spring. So far, screenwriting has been a good winter diversion. I'd love for it to turn into something more. But for the time being, my interest in film will have to be balanced with my interest in viticulture. Lots of work to do this spring.

Oh, and some final thoughts on the Coppola Claret. I pulled out my handy Wine Aroma Wheel and applied it to the great director's Cab Sauv. There was some nice licorice/anise and a touch of strawberry jam and chocolate. Bold, though not overpowering. Not a steal at eighteen bucks, but worth all of that price.

Now I need to change gears and focus on the Midwest Grape and Wine Conference for a few days. I leave at 5 in the morning. A report will follow.

Cheers!

DB

More double-trunking: age of trunks.

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 17:51:00 +0000

I talked last week about double-trunking. I should make a few additional points on this topic while it's pruning season. You shouldn't wait for freeze, diesease or mechanical damage to replace a trunk. You should consider keeping trunks of various ages; one older trunk and one young trunk is the best combination in our climate region. A younger trunk means fewer years of freezing, splitting, cracking and scraping. Even on healthy vines you should build a replacement plan into the pruning schedule every few years, if not more frequently. I've included another photo of a GDC trained Norton vine. Last year I allowed several suckers to grow up on this vine even though both cordons are healthy and productive. One of these new suckers looks like it will be a viable trunk (highlighted in yellow), so that I'll be able to prune off one of the old cordons (pink) and wind up with trunks of two different ages. The replacement trunk will also be straighter and correct the problem of the split of trunks being too high on the vine, which we talked about last week.

One other tidbit of information this week. As the wind chill dropped down to minus twelve degrees this week (and yes, we did have days of 70+ weather and tornados not three weeks ago), I started to worry about vine death. A friend pointed out though that vines don't experience wind chill because they have no mosture as a result of going into dormancy. That's a relief, as wind chill is often ten or even twenty degrees lower than acutal temperature.

Multiple trunks

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:09:00 +0000

In a climate that features cold winters, one technique you can use to keep your vineyard in production is training multiple trunks. Instead of a single trunk and head, you train up two trunks. This applies to short trunks on VSP-trained vinifera as well as long trunks on trailing varietals like Norton trained on a high single wire or GDC trellis. Our vines take a beating by our cold winters and by tractor damage, and an entire trunk might be killed down to a low spot on the vine. Having two trunks means that a damaged trunk can be eliminated and a new trunk trained up in its place, while the second trunk helps keep the vineyard in production with minimal losses. Of course, if both trunks are obliterated by a deep freeze, your double-trunking is for naught, but that's the risk of continental climate viticulture.

Here are a couple items to consider when training up trunks: first, have the trunks start from as low down on the the vine as possible. Photo A shows a VSP, spur-pruned Traminette vine with two trunks coming right out of the ground. On a grafted vine, you'd want to be above the graft union, but still low as possible. Photo B shows the same varietal, but the two trunks split off half way up the vine. The problem here is that if the area below the split is damaged, you'll lose both branches of the trunk and have to start from lower on the vine.

Practicing what I heard Kevin Ker (of the Cool Climate Viticulture and Oenology Institute at Brock University in Ontario) recently refer to as "spare parts viticulture" is essential. It might even be wise to keep a young sucker cane every year as a possible third trunk. In Photo C you'll see a GDC trained Norton vine with two healthy trunks, numbered 1 and 2. I've left a cane from last year (#3) as an insurance policy. It might make a great replacement trunk due to its youth and the fact that it is ruler straight while the other two trunks are a little more twisty than one would like. Straighter trunks are easier to work under without catching equipment and damaging the vine. Plus trunk #3 it starts lower down on the vine. I may just keep this one to replace one of the other trunks even if all three survive and are healthy. I'll talk more about the age of your double-trunk system in a future post.

Articles, blogs, links

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 03:59:00 +0000

_ Georgia (USA) vineyards experienced some of the same difficulties that we did from the spring freeze event.

_ Here's a tip on marketing your wine: raise the price.

_ Here's another guy who's doing a similar project to mine. What's more, we're practically neighbors, and he is also a student of the Godfather.

Winter soybean oil spray

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 21:26:00 +0000

If you grow grapes in the Midwest, the last thing you want to think about in February is spraying your vines. When you make 10 to 15 applications per year, you relish the break that the cold weather brings. I like going down into the workshop and seeing the spray rig put away for the year.

But this season I'll be adding another spray to the schedule. In mid-February, I'll be applying a spray of 8% soybean oil. The reason for this spray is to delay budbreak in an attempt to avoid damage from spring frost events. I recently saw Imed Dami of Ohio State University give a convincing presentation on the affects of spring oil applications. Dami who puts out a useful grape-wine newsletter at OSU, studied both stylet oil and vegetable oil, and the latter had fewer problems with pytotoxicity and reduction in yield. But at a rate of 8% or less, vegetable (soybean) oil sprays delayed budbreak anywhere from 2 to 19 days under the right conditions. Also, vines deacclimated slower. Deacclimation is the process of getting ready for spring, and vines that start this process are more susceptible to freeze and frost events. Dami recommends using a spreader-sticker like Latron B-1956 at 1% along with your 8% oil. He says that you can spray 200 gallons or more per acre.

The best way to keep your buds from getting fried by frost events is to do whatever you can to delay budbreak. That means pruning as late in the season as possible, or even rough pruning, leaving longer spurs or canes; the buds on the end of a spur or cane will break first, delaying those closer to the trunk. If you leave long canes, it could delay some of the buds you intend to keep by a few days.

So late pruning, rough pruning and oil applications are three methods to keep those buds from breaking until after frost danger has passed. It's a lot more work, and it may help or it may not be necessary. In the worst case scenario, you can do all these things and still experience damage. But that's the nature of nature.

One note on the spray rig in the photo. That's what I use for my test vineyard, and it will probably get me through my first pair of seasons in my 1/2 acre planting. After that I'll want to switch to an airblast sprayer to make sure I get good coverage on the fruit, since vinifera is more sensitive to diseases. It's an ATV sprayer that runs on a 12 volt battery, plus a gas mask, rubber boots, chemical gloves. I pull it up and down the hill in a hand cart. Only the disposable plastic suit is missing. I really hate all this stuff, but you gotta do what you gotta do. If I someday strike it rich I'll move somewhere where I don't need to spray.

January vineyard calendar

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 22:17:00 +0000

After two seventy degree days, all of the recent snow cover is gone. The ice that you can see on these Norton vines has melted. It's strange weather for early January, and I hope it doesn't begin to deacclimate the vines before a new cold snap. Would be much better for the vines if it were to get cold and stay cold. As I sit here now I see a brown bat circling outside, something I've never notice before this time of the winter, and also never this early in the day. Aren't they supposed to hibernate? I picked up a tick in the vineyard today as well. All this strange weather comes after my local power company mailed us an entire magazine denouncing climate change. They say it's just a frenzy stirred up for political purposes, and that it's a way for university scientists to score grants. Here's a quote: "Global Warming has become a $4 billion per year industry." Oh, and how many billions did Exxon bring home last year? Forty-something, I believe. That's the fossil fuel racket; they'll say anything to keep the dough rolling in. Sorry for getting off track. You can always trust your local coal pusher when it comes to sound climate science, right?

Well, I'll still pretend like it's a typical January and mid-winter rather than spring. Here's my vineyard calendar for this month.

Make a pre-planting checklist of everything that needs to happen before the new vines arrive from the nursery in March

Place order for all of required planting/trellis materials

Review reference materials: is there anything new that has been published? Are there new editions of materials such as the trusty spray guide?

Pre-prune heartier varietals. I wouldn't touch vinifera varietals until March if possible, though, to help delay budbreak. Right now I'm just doing a little clean-up on Nortons.

Check your applicator/chemical license to ensure it's up to date and place order for all early season sprays. I'll now include a March application of soybean oil to help delay budbreak. This is on top of the usual early lime-sulfur sprays

Review your business plan and see how you're making progress on long-term goals

Meet with your accountant to get paperwork ready for tax season

Cook and eat well, and drink lots of good wine

To augment my final item, I should mention that my recent favorite budget-friendly finds are a Clare Valley Austrailan Riesling and Primus, a Carmenere, Cab Sauv and Merlot blend from Chile. Both around ten bucks. The Riesling was un-German. Not that I have anything against the German version, but this was bone dry and raw, maybe even a bit of straw or grass. Many folks don't like those characteristics, but I thought it was interesting on top of the the typical melon and citrus of the cooler climate versions, and it also might hint at the kind of Riesling that might develop in our hot summer conditions here in Missouri. I already want to amend my vine order and plant some. It's a tendency you have to learn to fight, otherwise you'll wind up with twenty rows of different grapes and twenty different budbreaks, veraisons, harvests, etc, plus not enough of anything to make a barrel.

Monitoring your vineyard's mesoclimate

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 11:11:00 +0000

My last post of the year is another vineyard tip courtesy of Michael over at Amigoni Family Vineyards. He plants thermometers variously throughout his vineyard blocs to record variance in temperature of the mesoclimate. Because of slope, air flow, elevation, location of forested areas and water, etc., the temperature can vary greatly. Having a thermometer posted in each bloc, or even several for a larger bloc, can allow you to see that variance in action during a simple stroll through the vineyard.

Michael uses basic thermometers that also record the high and low temperature for a season by marking the extremes. This is especially useful here in Missouri where winter freezes can mean mortality for vinifera varietals. If you notice a temperature variance of several degrees in a winter low, say -10 degrees Fahrenheit at the top of the hill versus -13 in the middle of a slope, then you might want to plant your Chardonnay higher up and save your Cab Franc for the middle and maybe hybrids at the bottom, or avoid planting the bottom altogether. High temperatures are also an issue. Ours is a continental climate, which means we have strong extremes in the summer, too. We have hot growing conditions, and cultivars like Pinot Noir and Riesling are going to prefer the cooler mesoclimates within a vineyard as long as the winter lows won't wipe them out. You may find that the spots with the lowest lows don't necessarily have the lowest highs, and vice versa.

One note on the term mesoclimate. Most people incorrectly use the term microclimate when they mean mesoclimate. It makes sense, everyone knows what "micro" means, not so for "meso." But there are three climates that affect a vineyard. First, theres the regional climate, or macroclimate. That's the thing that we can't change. It's specific to an entire growing region, and it's what makes the Rhone the Rhone, Burgundy Burgundy, the true Sonoma Coast, Russian River Valley, etc. Then there's the mesoclimate, which is your variance in climate from bloc to bloc and row to row. We can affect that through careful planting of varietals, the direction of the row in relation to the sun and also in the winery by blending grapes from one mesoclimate within a vineyard with those from another. That's the term most connoisseurs use when they're talking about a specific vineyard's growing conditions and the style of the wine it makes. Finally, there's the microclimate, which, according to every viticulturist's good friend Dr. Richard Smart, is "the climate within and immediately surrounding a plant canopy." The temperature and humidity can be vastly different inside a dense canopy as compared to a few inches away on the outside. This is what we have the most control over through canopy management practices such as leaf removal, trellising, shoot positioning and thinning.

That's it for this year. It's been a productive year for me. We've purchased a property and vines are on order. What's more, it's a varietal with proven success in our area and one that area winemakers are excited about. See you next year.

-D

Article and blog links

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 20:06:00 +0000

_ Pinot Noir grape genome sequenced. I'm an English major and not so great with the sciencey stuff, so what does that mean in translation? Well there's talk about creating disease resistant Pinot Noir with the same flavor profile as the real stuff. If that happens I'll put a row or two in the ground as soon as I can get my hands on them.

_ Here's a nifty blog called Wine Rendezvous; it features some brief, witty videos that also have some actual information in them. The blog is a promotional vehicle for O-Chateau, a Paris wine tasting company. Cool stuff.

Review: Wine & War

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 14:27:00 +0000

Here’s a good read for when you’re iced in and your sprayer has been winterized, and before you start pruning. Despite its focus on the weighty subjects of the title, it’s easy reading, following anecdotes from winegrowers and winemakers from most of the great regions of France as they suffered under German occupation. It’s often amusing as when defiant vignerons build false walls in their cellars and re-label their plonk for shipment to Berlin. Other vignettes find winemakers facing execution for supporting the Resistance or helping to hide a Jewish family from the Gestapo. Growers also face shortages of labor for harvest or lack of copper for fungicide as the Germans commandeered all metals for their war effort. It will make you grateful that your greatest obstacle to growing good fruit is the weather, as nasty as it can sometimes be.

Jeffersonian viticulture

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:31:00 +0000

Wine is now being made in all 50 US states, as NPR notes in this story. The piece marks the second time I've heard discussion of Thomas Jefferson related to viticulture in the past few days. The Grape Radio guys recently posted a video from Virginia where the grower mentioned the early colonists' obsession with planting vineyards and Jefforson's own experiments with vitis vinifera in the east. "He failed miserably," notes Fletcher Henderson of The Winery at La Grange.

But the NPR story mentions that this Jeffersonian vision of a nation of backyard vineyards is finally coming to fruition more than two centuries later. It also cites that the number of wineries in this country has doubled in the past ten years. There is a renaissance happening. There are vineyards going up all over the place, a fact to which I can attest.

What's contributing to this change? Why are people planting vines on their farms or in their back yards in places like Minnesota? Is it Thomas Jefferson's prescience about the American spirit? Is it evolving conditions due to global climate change? Information sharing enabled by the "so-called Internets?" New cultivars? New techniques?

A certain amount of this can be attributed to the pioneering American spirit, Jeffersonian innovation if you will. But then China is also planting new vineyards at an incredible rate.

What seems to be happening here, though, isn't industrial viticulture. It is something done not necessarily for money, but because people are driven to do it. I'd love to make money off of our vines, but if I were to never break even I'd just be satisfied with producing good fruit. There is a sort of neo-pastoralism at work here, and I can't quite put my finger on it. I remember seeing dooryards in Beaune and Tuscany where every house featured its own vineyard, and it seems we are recapturing that sort of of pastoral Old World sensibility. Whether we do it as a natural pursuit of some rural aesthetic, or if is happening in artificially planned vineyard communities for the well-heeled, a broad cross-section of our society is getting into viticulture. Grapes are going in the ground. Wine is being made. And it's a beautiful thing.

I just called to add 50 more vines, another row, to next spring's planting of Cab Franc.

Happy holidays!

-D

Easter Freeze wrap-up

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:18:00 +0000

I've already written at length about what is now called the Easter Massacre that affected the vineyards in our region. I was fortunate to be able to cover a workshop held on the event for my day job. Most interesting was the use of oils to delay budbreak, which I'll try to elaborate on in a post soon.

Hilling vines

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 03:37:00 +0000

Growing vinifera in cool climates requires extra care. One additional step is hilling up of the soil around the base of the vine trunk. The goal is to cover the base of the vine up above the graft union where the rootstock is joined to the scion. If there is a hard freeze, there is a better chance of the vine surviving. The trunk will likely die, but enough wood might be insulated and preserved beneath the soil to grow a new trunk from the scion. This first photo shows two recently hilled vine rows.

There are several ways to hill up vines. Here, Michael Amigoni (aka the GoMV) at Amigoni Vineyards uses a small tractor with a side-mount grape hoe to push the mounds of soil up against the base of the vines. There are custom-designed rear-disc systems as well. The wider the mound, the greater it's insulating factor. Hilling up is essential, as a hard freeze can be devastating. In the Finger Lakes region, 25 percent of the vinifera were killed a freeze in 2004.

Planting your graft unions an inch or two off of the ground is essential for ease of hilling and to get the maximum amount of soil over the graft union, increasing the insulation factor. Here is a close-up of the hoe blade. Care must be taken to avoid damage to the vines, and one key is to ensure that the trunks are as straight as possible from proper planting and training. On a side note, multiple trunks help fend off cold damage. If one trunk is split or killed during a hard freeze, there's a chance that the second trunk might survive, ensuring that you don't lose an entire crop to that freeze event. Snow can also help insulate vines, but we don't get permanent snow cover here in central Missouri. Mounding can also be accomplished with mulch or straw, but soil has a greater insulation factor. It can be done by hand, as in this backyard vineyard.

Hilling vines is just one technique in reducing winter damage in cool climates. Trunk renewal is another technique; this involves training a new cane every few years to replace an older trunk so that you don't have all trunks of the same age. That way a freeze that kills the older trunks might spare the younger wood that has undergone fewer freezing winters and less mechanical (tractor) damage. Here's a great summary of some cold weather practices in Canada, where they're growing Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and both Cabernets where it is not uncommon for winters to dip below -18 degrees. As rare as it is to find vinifera in our region, it is also as easy to forget that these European grape varietals has been growing in colder regions for many years and with much success. It's a challenge, but few things that are easy are worth doing.

* Update - 1/12/08 Here's an article on hilling in the OSU Wine-Grape newsletter

Article links

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:56:00 +0000

_ The two varietals I've got on order, Cab Franc and Mourvedre, are being grown in Georgia. And we're talking "Gerogia on my mind," and not "Georgia the cradle of winemaking" where grapes have been cultivated for wine for over 7,000 years.

Wine and turkey

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:19:00 +0000

Mike Steinberger over at Slate has as a good recommendation for this Thanksgiving. Since wine-turkey pairing is the topic du jour, I thought I'd add my own suggestions. While I think I may take Steinberger up on the Oregon Pinot notion, I also might suggest a lesser known varietal also grown in Oregon. Gruner Veltliner is an Austrian varietal, reminiscent of Gewurtztraminer, that is very food-friendly white wine that has enough complexity to hold up to a big, strong bird like a turkey. And speaking of Gewurtz, why don't you give that a try, too? Traminette is a hybrid of Gewurtztraminer that is grown commonly in Missouri, and it would be an excellent choice.

As for other varietals grown in our area...a Cabernet Franc that's light on the oak might be just the red wine to consider. I believe that turkey is one of the most versitile creatures out there. Any number of wines can be paired with this queen of the table birds. Try a Viognier for a white. Or the Chambourcin from Augusta Winery here in Missouri for an ideal hybrid red.

Adventures in agricultural lime

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 02:55:00 +0000

I know that the first thing that crosses your mind when you twist out the cork of that last precious bottle of Pommard 1er Cru smuggled home in the half case in your carry-on luggage after your anniversary trip to France back in the days before the paranoia of the twittering fear mongers (nothing to fear but...) rendered corkscrews and even liquid itself verboten in-flight, before that rich, deep, very French odor of slate, raspberry and barnyard slips over the lip of the bottle, before your acknowledgement of the event you're celebrating, before your expectation of the table conversations that will be lubricated by maroon sunlight in bottle form, before the possibility slips through your consciousness of the extra-curricular activities (if you're lucky [sic!]) that might follow whatever event warrants such a fine bottle of magic...yes the first thing you will think of upon pulling that cork is, of course, the soil pH. Yes, you will wonder, yes, what exactly was the pH of the soil in which these grapes were grown?

Okay, maybe I'm making assumptions. In truth, unless the bottle belongs to a soil scientist, a vineyard manager, or someone with a serious problem, the last thing on your mind when you open a bottle of great wine will be the soil pH. After all, the acidity of the soil doesn't even relate, directly, to the pH in the finished wine. pH isn't a sexy wine word like "slate" or "shale" or "minerality," terms which have all become cliches among aficionados.

But soil pH is important if you're growing wine. The pH of the soil has an optimum range for vinifera, hybrids and native American varieties. Natives tolerate, and even prefer, the slightly higher acids of a low pH soil (remember, it's an inverse relationship, low pH = high acid). Cabernet franc, which I'm planting, prefers a pH of around 6.5. At this optimum range, soil nutrients are more accessible and are taken in at the right levels. While a low acid soil won't necessarily mean you wind up with a low acid wine, it can affect the overall health of the vine and thus the ripening and health of the fruit.

My soil tests showed that the pH of my first vineyard block at the new site was 5.5. Since I'm planting cab franc, I wanted to raise that pH to around 6.5. The way to do this, effectively lowering the soil acidity, is to add agricultural lime. It's a common necessity in our region. Your handy Extension person and or website can help you figure out exactly how much lime to add to your site to raise your soil pH.

Lime additions are calculated and measured and bought in tons. Even though I spent time growing up on a farm as a kid, I also lived in an apartment in Chicago for many years, so the idea of tons of anything is a foreign concept. I was sure it was going to be expensive to add appx. 800 lbs of ENM (effective neutralizing material, aka lime) to my one-acre bloc. Especially when a single 50-lb bag of pelleted lime cost six bucks.

There are two basic types of limestone...calcitic and dolomite. I have high magnesium content (call it 'mag' content to sound like you know what you're talking about) in my soil, so I wanted to add calcitic limestone as dolomite contains higher levels of magnesium. You can have too much of a good thing, and excessive levels of any nutrient can cause toxicity that is as dangerous, or even more dangerous, to your vines than not having enough nutrients. At first I planned on using bags of pellet lime, spreading them with a rented lawn spreader and a borrowed ATV. I thought this was a pretty clever solution, and when I figured out that it would cost me around 400 dollars to perform the entire operation, I was fairly satisfied. The problem was matching up the ENM rating of the limestone in question. ENM is measured in lbs per ton, so if you have limestone with a rating of 400 (per ton), and your experts tell you that you need to add 800 lbs of ENM, that means you need to add TWO tons of the material to reach your target. That's 4,000 lbs! A lot of stuff.

Once I figured this out, I grew scared...my cost was doubling, not to mention the workload. But then I learned you could buy lime by the 12-ton truckload. And what's more, a good agricultural co-op will deliver and spread it for you. The problem is that you need to buy a minimum of 12 tons. I thought this might cost a fortune, but then I learned I could get 12 tons for a couple hundred bucks...a fraction of the cost per ton than what I'd been planning to spend on bag lime. The only issue is that you have to have a place for them to spread the extra lime. I had them dump two tons on my one-acre spot (at 400 ENM per ton, that would mean I added the required 800 ENM to the bloc) and then spread the rest randomly around our property. That way I'll be ahead of the game when we plant new blocs in the future.

I had the field disked ahead of time to allow the lime to work down into the soil. I had to wait a few weeks for them to come out to our property as, believe it or not, 12 tons is not a very large project. They were liming area corn and bean farms with hundreds of tons, so they had to work me in. I met them at the vineyard, showed them where I needed the lime and they took care of the rest. I'll let it rain, then rip and then drag the bloc smooth in the spring to further spread the lime. I'll test again every year to to see how the lime levels are shaping up. A couple years down the road I can make adjustments as needed.

This is probably confusing to novices. It was very confusing to me, but now that I've gone through the process I have a pretty good handle on the hows and whys of spreading lime. I also understand concepts like acid rain better. This is a problem in the northeast...acid rain can reduce pH of soils into the low 4-range (increasing acidity). That would be no good for wine grapes of any variety.

So now at Thanksgiving or on your birthday or whenever you pop open that next great bottle of wine, maybe the soil pH will be the first thing you think about. I know I'll be thinking about it for a long time.

November-December vineyard calendar

noreply@blogger.com (DB) — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 02:32:00 +0000

Farming is a seasonal business. Everything you do is tied to what Mother Nature is going to throw your way. Sometimes all you can do is react, but there is also plenty you can do to prepare yourself and your vineyard.

I'm beginning a new feature. At the beginning of every month I'll try to establish a comprehensive checklist of all the seasonal items to accomplish in the vineyard. This is specifically tailored for my region and varieties, but I'm basing this off of several calendars I've seen, both from the ICCVE and the fantastic "Production Budgets for Arkansas Wine and Juice Grapes" document. (I can't find it online anymore, otherwise I'd link to it.) I'm lumping the next two months together because this is the slow part of the season and many of these tasks aren't tied to what's happening in the vineyard and can be performed at any time during the two-month period. Once I have the entire year covered, I'll keep the posts intact and simply review and adjust them as I learn from experience. I hope folks can find this a useful reference, and also feel free to make suggestions.

Clean and winterize sprayer(s)

Winterize irrigation system

Check on/confirm vine orders for upcoming planting season

Review season disease and pest damage and revise/adjust IPM (integrated pest management) strategy

Check stock of supplies, list items needed to order

Adjust soil pH (add lime) if necessary

Prepare ground for new vineyard blocs

Check trellis, perform repairs

Hill up soil on grafted vines

Clean sheds, garages, equipment

Evaluate effectiveness of and repair/adjust deer fence