2008 Elio Sandri Nebbiolo

We had this 2008 Nebbiolo recently and it was still a little young, but definitely quaffable. The color was a dark magenta in the glass. The balance of fruit and tannins which tasted a little, not a lot spicy, was delicious. Moreover, my husband says that it is in the $20.00+ price range so a very good value.
We still have a few more bottles so we will cellar them and taste it again some time in the future.

Periderm Formation

Last year, I worried about the hardiness of grapevines when a freakish winter storm dumped snow on October 29th. I wrote a blog about it called Cold Tolerance and Grapevine Phenology. This year, when we got a chance to see our friend's vineyard, I noted that as the grapes were transitioning into veraison, this year's shoot were also turning brown, the signs of a developing periderm. When the periderm formation has completed, the green shoots will turn brown and then these shoots will be called "canes".

Assessing a Vineyard's Optimum Ripeness

Fessing up, we don't have a vineyard yet and we'll have to wait another two to three years after planting next spring in order to have grapes, but when we do, we'll be checking for the ripeness of our grapes by berry sampling of the vineyard in order to get statistically meaningful results. We will follow this protocol:

• Avoid collecting berries from the edge rows
• Collect samples from both sides of the vine
• Estimate the proportion of shaded clusters and sample accordingly
• Collect berries from the top, middle and bottom of a cluster
• Collect berries at the same time of the day for consistency

Single berries can be monitored for the sugar content by using a refractometer, but estimating the fruit maturity of the entire vineyard or vineyard block does involve collection of a representative sample. I want to be doing this approximately three weeks before harvest to understand the progression of the berry flavor. A really good diagram was provided in Practical Winery and Vineyard Journal called Understanding Grape Berry Development published in the July/August 2002 issue.

One of the many things that I learned is that the xylem flow to the berry ceases at veraison and the berry enlargement relies on the phloem sap.
After gathering my representative sample of berries, I would check for the sugar content using a hydrometer to measure the Brix, I would use a pH meter to check for the pH and I would titrate my sample for the amount of tartaric acid. I would also taste my sample of berry juice to see if I like the balance of fruit and acid and then make my harvest decision based on those parameters.

Assessing Grapevine Nutritional Status

The grapevines are entering veraison in our neck of the woods and the carbohydrates that were produced in the leaves are being translocated into the fruit which is an effective sink, i.e. the grapes are getting ripe.
Petiole analysis for monitoring the nutritional status of the vineyard is usually done during the spring when the vine is at full flowering or 80% cap-fall. This spring sampling is a great guide to knowing if your grapevine will be getting the proper nutrition throughout the growing season. The petiole analysis can also be done any time a nutrient deficiency is suspected.¹
When we visited Steve Mudd on Long Island, he gave us a list of people we should contact to ensure that we have the proper soil conditions for the vineyard. The pH of the soil is very important in getting the appropriate macro- and micronutrient uptake by the vine. If there is a deficiency in a nutrient, then Steve recommended that we contact Fieldworks to get a custom blend to amend the soil. After that, we will be monitoring the growing vine in the spring in order to see if the vines are getting the required nutrients. It is important to get the petiole analysis done from the same company. Here is the list of contacts that Steve gave us:

• get soil analysis done with Kinsey Agricultural Services, Inc. in Charleston, MO
• get custom blends for soil amendments from Fieldworks in Rochester, MA
• get petiole and leaf analyses from A & L Eastern Laboratories in Richmond, VA

1. Grapevine Nutrition 3: Petiole Analysis

1998 Chateau de Beaucastel

My husband often likes to test me on my wine knowledge. He loves to hand me a glass of wine and sits back with a smug look to see if I get at least the variety correct. Since I'm a hedonistic taster, I often get the variety wrong. One evening, he presented me with a wine and with my first taste, without any hesitation, I exclaimed, "I love this!" and met his approbation. We have had an earlier vintage of Chateau de Beaucastel, a 1995, and in that tasting, I wrote about the article in Wines & Vines that mentioned that Chateau de Beaucastel treats their wine with thermovinification. The label on the back of the bottle gives no indication that this is what they do to their wine. Thermovinification or not, this is a wine that is well crafted and goes so well with food. Here is the label on the back of the bottle that provides more information.

Approaching Veraison---Grapevine Internal Clocks

This past weekend, we visited our friends who have an established vineyard and in walking through their vineyard, observed that the Chardonnay was approaching veraison. I am reading about grapevine phenology in chapter 2 of Markus Keller's textbook on The Science of Grapevines. The definition that he provides in this book was very helpful to me.
Phenology: a definition as it applies to the grapevine
It is the study of the sequence of plant development and is mainly concerned with the timing of specific stages of growth and development in the annual cycle.
Knowing grapevine phenology is helpful for the following reasons:

• Site and cultivar selection
• Vineyard design
• Planning of labor and equipment requirements
• Timing of cultural practices as part of vineyard management

I am familiar with the process call the circadian rhythm, but I didn't know that this is how grapevines monitor the seasons. The vine's circadian rhythm is driven by a self-sustaining oscillator consisting of proteins that oscillate with a 24 hour rhythm in response to light and this is how the plant regulates its physiological functions! Who knew!
Plants are smart enough to compensate for the temperature change as the seasons progress and can reset the phase of the clock. This synchronization of the circadian clock to the external environment is called entrainment. The grapevine's internal clock as well as their hormones are important in the seasonal progress of the grapevine from budbreak to what we ultimately desire, a great harvest.

Land Status

Things will get real pretty quickly. We're in the process of lining up someone to clear a few more acres for us so that the morning sun will hit the grapevines. We are also lining up someone to turn the soil for us and put in some tiling so that we can plant a fall cover crop.

We have a hunter on our land so last night, my husband thought that it would be good to give him a heads up because one of his cameras might be on a tree that would be coming down. Our hunter has been hunting deer and wild turkey on our land since 2006 and we have been the beneficiary of some wonderful wild game meats. He is a serious hunter and put a camera up so that he could track the comings and goings of the deer. In the process, he also gets photos of other wild life and it amazed us that he saw bobcats and coyotes.

There is also a fox of some kind. Who would have thought that these animals are roaming our land. We have to be cognizant of maintaining this habitat as best as we can as we clear the land.