In addition to the red wine, we also made white wine from Chardonnay and rosé from Pinot Noir, so it was a busy but fun and “fruitful” week.

The berries are growing nicely and the bunches have turned and hanging downwards. The berries are filling the cluster (we call it “cluster closure”) but the vines still make more leaves, a phenomenal array of “solar panels” converting sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into sugars.

The biggest challenges are fungal diseases due to morning fog and constraining the shoot growth. At this point, the season looks good – maybe we get another good harvest!

Budburst is truly one of the most exciting times in the vineyard and I love watching the growth and development. Grapevines are hermaphrodites, which means they have both male and female reproductive organs, so they can self-fertilize. In short, they don’t need bees to make grapes… At this stage, the biggest risk in the vineyard is spring frost but with the temperature in California well above 70o F (+20oC), I think we’re in the clear and now it’s time to focus on vine balance.

I’m obsessed with this concept as it’s the scientific approach to viticulture (growing wine grapes). Basically, we talk about the “source”, which is how much nutrients the vines receive, and the “sink” is what the vine does with the nutrients. We want a balance between the “source” and the “sink”. To manage the “source”, we can either increase or reduce the nutrients such as water or fertilizers. In our vineyard, we have clay-heavy soil that retains water and nutrients, so we actually want to reduce the “source”. This year, we’re using more cover crops between the rows (see photo) to reduce the “source” for the vines. For the “sink” there are two ways the vine will use the energy/nutrients: (1) vegetative growth (shoots) or (2) reproductive growth (grapes). We want the vines to focus on reproductive growth but with enough vegetative growth to actually ripen the grapes. At this stage in the growing season, we go through the vineyard and try to determine how many shots to leave on each vine. It’s really really difficult and the only experience will tell you what to do. If you remove too many shoots, the vine will focus on vegetative growth. If you leave too many shoots, the grapes may not ripen fully. If we leave too many shots, we may also run the risk of too dense a canopy, and then we have mildew problems.

Contrary to common belief, we actually want to optimize the amount of fruit on each vine and not reduce it. Some producers argue small yield per hectare equals better quality fruit. Research has shown that is not always the case. For example, Syrah (which we grow) has greater quality with higher yields. That is the same for Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, but not the case for Pinot Noir. Of course, there is a balance, but we actually want higher yields from our vineyard. In the next weeks, we’ll continue monitoring the vegetative growth and prune, if we need to.

I thought I write a few lines about what is going on in the vineyard at this time of year. Let me start by saying I LOVE this time of year in the vineyard. This is when we create the foundation for the vintage, and potentially next year. First, we need to prepare the soil. As we grow our vines organically, we use horse manure as fertilizer. Our vineyard is on a sloping hillside, so we need to spread it manually and then tiller it into the ground. I’ve included photos of before and after so you can see how nice the rows look now. We also use White Dutch Clover as ground cover between rows. The ground cover looks pretty and is essential to maintaining and improving soil health. The ground cover also helps with weed growth and can be managed to influence vine growth and canopy characteristics, crop size, and fruit and wine quality.

Second, we grafted our young vines. In California, we use a rootstock that is resistant to the phylloxera louse. Today, most modern vineyards are planted on phylloxera-resistant rootstock with the scion or budwood grafted in a commercial nursery or in the field. Our vines consist of budwood (the part that makes it Syrah) grafted on a rootstock. We planted the rootstock two years ago, so I grafted Syrah on those rootstock plants this year (see photo).

Third, we started pruning the vines. This is the most critical task in the vineyard and also the most exciting. We use a cordon spur-pruning system. Basically, our vines are trained in a “T” shape (see photo). Those horizontal arms are called “cordons,” on which are spaced vertical spurs every six inches or so (approximately a hand-width). It is from those spurs that we get new vine growth each season. For each vine, you need to decide how many buds to leave on each spur (normally two buds), which will set up the growth for the following season. I will write about vine balance at some point, but the number of buds helps determine the vine balance and crop yield. So we want to make some smart decisions hence why I find this such an exciting time in the vineyard.

As always, our dog, Cruz, was very helpful in the vineyard. He didn’t miss anything! Sorry for the long note and thank you for reading it to the end. More to come about pruning in the next couple of weeks.