Vineyard Triage

Hedged Vines

Can good wine be made from hedged vines that have 6 only leaves per cluster in midsummer? Can a cocktail of Rubigan and organic JMS Stylet Oil be applied to combat and eradicate existing mildew on grapes?

Make no mistake. This vineyard is loved. But there comes a time in a man's life when it's difficult to walk up and down that hill, when it's difficult to raise those clippers, when it's difficult to lift that 5-gallon carboy and when it's time to say enough. It was a good run and it's time to pass the baton.

Half the vineyard is a jungle providing shelter for mountain lions, bears and you can imagine the rest. But the other half was hacked, macheted and hedged into submission. "I like to look at it," says the owner about those neat, cleanly shaved rows. The Queen often says the same, "I just want a vineyard to look at," she says, singing a song about how all I ever talk about is temperature and the mildew index. There has been a good grape set (the owner did manage to prune the rows during Winter), but there are only 6 or so leaves per cluster, instead of the usual 12 - 15 after the rows were given a crew cut.

Jungle Vineyard 

Can good wine be made from hedged vines that have 6 only leaves per cluster in midsummer? Can a cocktail of Rubigan and organic JMS Stylet Oil be applied to combat and eradicate existing mildew on grapes?


Beware the Prayer of Jabez, the one that goes "Lord, please increase my land, please multiply my blessings." Be careful what you wish for. I will grab that baton. I will step up. I will take care of this vineyard for you. Behold, my land has been increased.

The clusters of Petit Verdot and Malbec are plentiful, but the vineyard has not been sprayed all year and powdery mildew, something I know much to much about, is in evidence. Since we have Rubigan left (in abundance), I'm thinking a good shot of Rubigan will offer mildew protection for up to 3 weeks, so that one spraying may get us through the season. And, Stylet Oil is said to be an eradicant for mildew.  Can they be combined for one spraying?

Very Neat Rows - Eye Pleasing

I adore this vineyard. It is scenic and the vines, now in their 13th year, are mature and have produced subtle, delicious nectar. We have spilled sweat and blood over this vineyard and Bluey, the Australian Shepherd, cellar master of our winery and our muse, overindulged on grapes from these same vines and somehow survived to tell about it. And the wine, that floral Petit Verdot that inspires scentologists to replicate its fragrance, this is worth the effort.

The vineyard was "dry farmed" last year, meaning no irrigation was used in summer, and plans are to continue the same this year.  With the winter rains we had, and based on last year's results, I don't believe irrigation will be necessary. And the owner says since they were hedged, the vines have been growing back.  On average, about 6 or so leaves per cluster now. My guess is that more leaves will emerge and that in a month there will be longer shoots and that there is a possibility these grapes will ripen and who knows, produce the vintage of a lifetime.

What do the experts say?

At Spring, Looking Back on Winter's Vineyard Mistakes

The first day of Spring with three-quarters of the vineyard in bud break and some shoots five inches long. Spanish and French lavender are in full bloom. It is a period of renewal for the vines and for the United States as well, I hope. In the vineyard's case there is a threat lurking underneath the serene picture of green shoots: mildew. Since hope is not a strategy I'll take decisive action to implement a spraying program in upcoming weeks to control it.

In hindsight, we made serious mistakes managing the vineyard this winter that could easily have been avoided. Novice vineyard owners and future grape growers pay attention. It is yet to be seen how grave the mistakes will be, but we have definitely made our vines susceptible to fungal infections this year. In hindsight, it is better to:

1) Wait until pruning as late as possible in the season. We started pruning in mid-January, but there is no reason why we couldn't have waited until mid-February. One reason for waiting is rain encourages mildew and other fungi to enter the pruning cuts in the vine. Our error this year was pruning early. After we pruned, the vineyard experienced heavy rains -- and strong fungal growth around the pruned spurs.

2) Immediately after pruning (i.e., the same day), apply a fungicide to the cuts. This is easily done with a paint brush. Next year, I will make this brush application part of the pruning process: prune a row then paint over the cuts. This is to protect the wounds from fungi (and the health of the vine). Think of it as washing your hands with soap and water after a cut to reduce the risk of bacterial infection.

3) A day or so after pruning apply dormant spray and oil, soaking the entire vines. (Our error this year was waiting two weeks before spraying, allowing fungi to grow.)

For a compilation list of errors in the vineyard & winery, I invite you to click on this link: http://www.winemakersjournal.com/lessons.html

What's done is done. Once again we've become a laboratory for unwanted vineyard experimentation. Our consolation will be topping off the barrels this evening (and tasting the 2009 wines). The last time we did this the Tempranillo was to die for.

Preparing For Harvest: The Work That Got Us Here

Our friend and neighbor "Merlot Mike" of Escondido Sunrise Vineyard has issued his first "Merlot Update" of 2008 in anticipation of the harvest. It's an excellent summary of the vintner's toil in Blue-Merle Country. Enjoy the update, and let us know if you'd like to help with the harvest, tentatively planned for Labor Day Weekend (condition of the grapes permitting).

Merlot Mike writes:

"We pruned back in January … cutting back and limiting the number of buds to reduce the yield of our harvest … and then followed by spraying a combination of stylet oil and lime on the dormant vines as a means of reducing the spores that produce powdery mildew.

"On about March 7th, we had “bud break” … when the buds, swelling with life, burst forth and tiny leaves first appear. Within about 10 days, the entire vineyard was alive with baby leaves … very uniform.

"In April, when the leaves were getting larger and the vines starting to grow, we began our application of Pristine and Rubigan … applied in alternating three week intervals … also intended to combat powdery mildew … and used as an alternative to sulfur.

In May, we applied Admire through the drip system to try to protect the vineyard from grassy winged sharpshooters and the Pierce’s Disease they tend to carry.

"In July, we started leaf thinning. On about July 9th, we started veraison, which is when the green grapes begin to change colors … going from green to red … with clusters showing both colors … really very pretty.

"Before July ended, we were completely through with veraison, and could see that the grapes were beginning to rapidly ripen.

"During the first week of August, we trimmed back the vines to make the rows more uniform and began applying the nets … by hand … 2.5 miles of nets applied by hand with the bottoms of the nets tied together with bread ties. We net to keep the birds from eating the ripening grapes … and to enable us to allow the grapes to hang as long as we wish without too much fear of losing the remaining crop to the increasing aggressive birds.

"We are still watering … we will water until about two weeks before harvest … which is getting really close. Once we stop watering, the sugar content of the grapes begins to jump rapidly.
We walked through the vineyard several days ago, selecting 100+ grapes from vines scattered throughout the vineyard … and noted that the brix was a bit over 21. In our experience, our sugar level seems to climb at about 1.5 brix per week now.

"Harvest is approaching … many things need to be done in preparation … selling grapes to wine makers … deciding on how much we wish to use for our own production … scheduling dates for the harvest (trying to break it up a bit this year … perhaps a few days as opposed to a “giant day”) … and chilling the champagne for the traditional sunrise toast as we prepare to venture forth into the vineyard waving our clippers and buckets at the sweet clusters of grapes waiting to be squeezed and pressed, forfeiting themselves to provide us with cases of wine to drink in the years to come."

Spraying & Mildew Control

One of our vineyard consultants -- who will remain nameless today-- believes spraying for mildew where we live may not be necessary very often because we have wide spacing between our rows and good wind flow. Our neighbor (Sunrise Vineyards) has the vines really packed in, and sprays quite often. On the other hand, our other neighbor at Coyote Oaks with 3 year old vines (who uses this same consultant) has never sprayed. Neither have we.

Our friend Gerry -- who grew the excellent Petit Verdot we have in the barrel -- operates a weather station and sends out weekly mildew reports. I had to ask him, in a polite way, is our consultant nuts? Here's Gerry's answer:

"Hi Craig, [the consultant] is not nuts but he does not have all the technical facts about mildew. It depends on grape variety , air flow, temperature, and moisture at the start of the season.. but I use the Davis system (used to be a secret). Some folks will make a big deal of the moisture being important but that is only the thing that gets the mildew started in your vineyard. Once it exists even in a small area it exists and then you have to proceed with protecting your vineyard from getting a major infestation developing. I just assume at the start of the season that I already have some mildew (it stays in the vineyard over the winter by the way). So I am in protective mode from day one. Thus It really depends on temperature and time, Mildew likes its temperature between 70 and 85 deg F. (just like us human beings). I would be happy to describe it to you in person or over the phone. It is simple to do if you have a recording weather station which I have.

The simple version is: 1. do your first spray using Thiolox when the buds just appear... maybe 1" long. The rest of the sprayings depend on your grape variety and the calculated risk level that develops after your first spraying.

2. Each day you have temperature between 70deg and 85deb for 6 continuous hours you add 20 to the risk level. ( If it goes above 85deg for 45 minutes that breaks the cycle and you subtract 10 from the risk level. If it goes above 95 for 15 minutes you get to subtract 10 from the risk level for that day. (That is why the Temecula folks don't worry much about mildew... because it is very hot during their season.

3. the risk value you compute never goes above 100 or below 0. A mild level is 30 or below. 60 is very high 100 is as high as the system will compute it.

4. The day you spray puts the risk level down to zero and you start over. The interval between sprayings depends on the material you spray with. If that first spraying was Thiolox (micronized sulphur) and the risk level goes up to around 40 to 60 or above you only get to wait 7 days til the next spraying..... so you see it depends on the type of spray. I use Thiolox for the first 2 or 3 sprays (or til verasion starts)... I am now using Rally and Pristine... you have to alternate the types of spray unless you are using sulphur which does not need to be alternated with anything except you do not to want to use sulphur near harvest (your wine is affected by it negatively) This is simpler than it seems to be if you can make a good stab at the risk level. If you do not do that just read the label on the material and it will tell you the interval days/weeks...sort of and just do what the label says forget the fancy risk level....you will probably just add one or 2 sprayings to your vineyard for the year. I usually spray about 10 times per year. Gerry."