No Pencil Rods, No Planting!

I'm sure Steve didn't say it quite that way, he's looking out for our best interest, afterall. So, we made a call to our supplier who said that he was fresh out of pencil rods! Wait...I thought he said that he had enough to supply us. A lot of people must be planting vines this spring. What are pencil rods, you ask. They are 4 foot long and 1/4-inch in diameter, each weighting 0.510 pounds, and each costing approximately 52 cents. We will be planting 6804 plants so we need at least 6804 pencil rods in order to stake the newly planted vines so they don't flop over. My husband used the grapevine network and got helpful tips on using bamboo as a backup. But after a lot of calling, it was Steve to the rescue!

He knew of a person who was interested in selling his used pencil rods and Steve negotiated a good price for us. So, off we went this morning to Long Island via the Cross Island Ferry to meet Charlie. It was about 12:30 when we called Charlie who gave us directions and said that we can start picking out the pencil rods even if he wasn't there. We decided to bundle the rods into 30 pieces each, which is about 15.3 pounds. Charlie came about 30 minutes later. We introduced ourselves and thanked him because without his pencil rod stash, Steve wouldn't plant our vines! After a few minutes, Charlie said he needed to go for lunch so we continued with our pencil rod sorting and bundling. Our truck can only carry half a ton so we had to be careful about how many pencil rods we loaded onto the truck. After three hours of work, we had only bundled 2,000 pencil rods and had 5,000 more to go. Just about this time, Charlie showed up and provided a solution. He said that his crew could put the remaining pencil rods into a galvanized horse trough. Gary and Bill will come back at the end of the week with a flat bed truck to pick up the rest. Steve, we're ready!

Endpost Designs

We're coming to terms with all those little devils that are called the details. We had one design in mind for the endpost, which was to construct an H-brace. We went near and far to locate black locust for the endpost because it is durable, long lasting and does not contain chemicals (i.e. chromated copper arsenate CCA).  First, we had to surmount the difficulty of getting straight black locust posts, it can be very crooked.  Second, it is rather expensive, but no more expensive than metal line posts.  But lastly, when it came down to it, we could not find enough to construct the H-braces for the 36 rows that comprise our vineyard, which came to 144 posts, not including the brace posts.  But the death knell, or let's say reality check came when we priced the H-brace installation at the ends of the vineyard rows---it would cost $250.00 for each H-brace!  That's $18,000.00!
There are three types of endposts (1) H-brace, (2) anchored endpost assembly and (3) slant brace endpost system. The following images are taken from an excellent slide deck provided by Prof. Paul Domoto of the Department of Horticulture, Iowa State University:¹

Due to the high cost of installing the H-brace, we are rethinking the anchored endpost assembly option. Dr. Domoto provides step-by-step instructions on how to construct the anchored endpost in this slidedeck, Reference 1 below.

References:
1. Paul Domoto, Constructing a Vineyard Trellis, Iowa State University, January 26, 2002. Prof. Paul Domoto kindly gave me permission to use the sides.
Additional references:
2. Bernd Maier, Trellis End Post Assembly Designs for Vineyards, New Mexico State University.
3. Installing a Vineyard Trellis

1998 Chateau de La Gardine

Any time there are lamb chops on sale is a good time for "paidakia" (Greek lambchops). Our Greek friends were in town so, taking a page out of their cookbook, we made horiatiki (Greek salad) and lemoni patates (lemon potatoes). My husband brought the paidakia to our friend's to cook it on his grill, we call this "meals on wheels", unfortunately, I wasn't there. More unfortunate for me, our friend brought up from his cellar, one of my favorites, Paradigm Cabernet Franc. I suppose my husband felt just a little sorry for me because the next evening, we had the paidakia leftovers and my husband brought out this 15 year old Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Chateau de La Gardine. We did notice that the edge of the wine was a bit orange in color, signaling some oxidation, but this wine went seamlessly with the paidakia, elevating the meal while being elevated itself. It was sublime! I remarked to my husband, "How do you tell this wine from a Bordeaux", and he did agree that it was rather Bordeaux-like.

Spring at Rathfinny Estate

The Internet grapevine is a wonderful network. Through it, we met Cameron Roucher, vineyard manager at Rathfinny Estate in South Downs, U.K. At that time we were faced with the distinct possibility of having to plant 6800 tall-grafted vines by hand. Cameron provided us information and links to Vinplant. The owner, Volker Scheu and my husband began an email exchange that resulted in Steve Mudd agreeing to plant our vines.
Cameron has been very busy this spring. The blog at Rathfinny Estate mentions that they have planted 85,000 more tall grafted vines in 8 days!

Through email exchanges, it seems that South Downs and Mystic, CT may have similar climates. Our climate is moderated by the proximity to the Long Island Sound and Rathfinny's climate is moderated by their proximity to the English Channel. This spring has been late in our area and we are still having frost warnings. The Rathfinny blog and Cameron mentioned that it was very cold, frost in the mornings and snow on a few days when they were doing their planting.

Thank goodness for vineyard innovations such as GPS-guided equipment that can plant 85,000 vines in 8 days! Sometimes, I eschew technology but this is one I embrace without reservation! Check out the link to Rathfinny Estate. They will be making sparkling wine using traditional methods.

Chardonnay

I am rereading The Art and Science of Wine by James Halliday and Hugh Johnson. Here is what they say about Chardonnay, one of the varieties that we will grow:
Chardonnay is the most forgiving and the most flexible of all varieties. It will make a satisfying wine in any climate from cool to very warm---but the personalities of these wines will be vastly different.
New England is a cool climate viticultural area and our Southeastern New England AVA has the moderating maritime influence from the Long Island Sound. In addition to the sound, our vineyard, located on Quoketaug Hill at the head of the Mystic River, means that cold air should roll down the hill, seeking the Mystic River. It will be exciting to taste what this location has to offer for the expression of the chameleon Chardonnay.
There are many Chardonnay styles. Recently, Chardonnay that has been fermented in stainless steel is gaining quite the following. Chardonnay can also be vinified using oak and then go through a process called malolactic fermentation (MLF) where a bacteria called Oenococcus oeni, previously known as Leuconostoc oeni converts malic acid to lactic acid. Oenococcus oeni can also produce a compound known as diacetyl that imparts a nutty or caramel flavor to the wine, but taken to the extreme (5gm/L), can lead to the wine having a buttery flavor.

One of the things that we are contemplating doing in making our Chardonnay is to do whole cluster pressings, a technique employed by sparkling winemakers. I learned that this practice originated in California, for the lowering of phenol levels. Interesting. We might have to do an experiment, whole cluster vs. berries.
What we are sure of is that we love the minerally, steely wines that come from Chablis and Ontario. We've enjoyed the 2009 Pearl Morissette, 2009 Bachelder Niagara Chardonnay, and the 2010 Exultet Chardonnay, The Blessed. They are making some fabulous wines in Ontario and on Prince Edward County. If only our wines could taste like that! We'll see.
All structures were drawn by the freely available drawing program from ACD Labs called ACD/ChemSketch Freeware.

Our Vineyard, Next Steps

Now that we have been so fortunate to be able to have Steve laser plant our vineyard, our thoughts are turning to pencil rods, line posts, H-braces and gripples. We have been trying to keep the vineyard free of "chemicals", which means shying away from chromated copper arsenate treated posts, otherwise known as pressure treated wood. So, my husband took a trip to Barkhamstead to meet with Peter Hart to check out his black locust, Robinia pseudoacacia. The advantage of using black locust is that it is a very hard wood and it will basically last in the vineyard forever. It's a little difficult to work with (we have heard) because it is as hard as concrete. The other advantage is that black locust is basically an invasive specie in Connecticut. We've already been to look at black locust, about a year ago, but at that time, we were discouraged that the posts cost so much and they were very crooked. So, we're trying again.

We may have better luck this time because instead of using black locust throughout the vineyard, we only want to use it for the H-brace endpost. We will have 36 rows, that means at most 216 black locust posts.

Pruning Lessons

We've read how to do it, we've watched videos on how to do it, but that is no substitute for the real thing. Russell Holmberg from Holmberg Orchards invited us to learn how to prune grape vines, sacrificing a few of his Pinot Blanc vines to pruning novices. Russell's Pinot Blanc are cane pruned and under his and Michelle's excellent mentoring, we learned how to cane prune the vines.

The question is "how do you make sense of all of the shoots that are before you?" At first it just looked like a tangle, but then you pick apart the vine, understanding where last year's cane was laid down, get a good idea of what to keep and what not to keep, cut back dead canes and then trim back to two canes per trunk. One cane is the insurance cane and the other cane is the one that will be laid down for this year's growth. The tops of the canes were cut differently to serve as visual reminders of which was which. For the insurance cane, we made a cut farthest away from the node, for the cane that would be for this year's growth, we made a cut nearest the node. The cane destined to provide this year's growth is usually the one that is growing above the insurance cane. There was so much to remember. On the other row, Russell, with his lopper was making just 2 cuts and getting the same results that we were getting. I'm sure it took us 10 times as long to figure out how to trim one vine than it took Russell and Michelle, but we finally got to the end of one row. We learned a lot and the good news for Russell is that we only mangled a few of his vines.
Both Russell and Michelle were great! They introduced us to the practical aspects of pruning with a lot of good tips on how to do it correctly!

2008 Pio Cesare Oltre

It can and has been done! We had this 2008 Pio Cesare Oltre. You might ask, "What is Oltre? I had the same reaction when my husband opened up this bottle and served up a glass. It was inky purple in the glass and packed a lot of acidity. It's Barbera! We know we enjoyed Pio Cesare Barbera, but this Barbera had it's acidity toned down with the addition of Nebbiolo, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot!
While we have decided on which whites to plant (in a few weeks!), we are still undecided about which red variety to plant. We feel that we have done our homework regarding Barbera and think that this variety will be a red that we will plant along with another red variety that we haven't quite decided on as yet. We have been told that Barbera grown in the Sierra Foothills can be very acidic. We think that our night time temperatures in Connecticut will be able to respire some of the acids that is the hallmark of Barbera so we are interested in knowing how Barbera will express itself here. We also think that the addition of Merlot might be the right element to round out the flavors of Barbera and feel that this wine may be the perfect compliment to Italian pastas, Portuguese seafood stews, Paella and pizza! This 2008 Pio Cesare may be the little push we need to order Barbera this winter for planting in the spring of 2015. Yes, it does take that long when ordering custom grafts!

The Widow Clicquot by Tilar J. Mazzeo

I read this book while on our trip to see the Deutz Fahr tractor at Paige Equipment. For me, this was a page turner and a book I couldn't put down. It was published in 2008 and became a New York Times Bestseller. We have had Veuve Clicquot, courtesy of our friend, Barry but I had no idea that veuve is widow in French. Hah!
Veuve Clicquot was born in 1777 and named Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, daughter of Marie Jean Josèphe Clémentine and Ponce Jean Nicolas Ponsardin, whose wealth derived from ownership of a textile mill in the town of Reims. During her youth, Barbe-Nicole lived through the tumultuous years of the French Revolution which saw the collapse of the monarchy, culminating in the execution of King Louis XVI in 1793. In 1798, when she was 21 she married François Clicquot, son of Phillipe and Catherine Clicquot, another wealthy textile maker. The story could have ended "and they lived happily ever after", but in 1805, when Barbe-Nicole was only 27 years of age, François died, allegedly of tyhpoid fever, but given his bouts of depression, it was also rumored that he took his own life. Regardless, Barbe-Nicole was left to fend for herself and her young daughter Clémentine. This is the story of an amazingly resilient, entrepreneurial, innovative woman that Tilar Mazzeo details in this book. Along the way, I learned that the often told story of Dom Pérignon's discovery of Champagne and his quote "I am drinking stars!", is a clever marketing ploy used by Moët & Chandon. I also learned that in her quest to provide her Champagne with clarity in the glass, it was Barbe-Nicole who invented remuage, the technique of riddling. Read it yourself and if you are a woman, be inspired by her tenacity!

What Does "Sustainable" Mean?

Have you ever wondered what it means when a winery calls itself "sustainable"? We want to be "sustainable" when we build our winery and buildings on our site, and I've always had vague ideas about what sustainability is, so I was very interested in an article I chanced upon when I was rereading the stack of Vineyard & Winery Management magazines that we have. I came across this article in the January/February 2010 issue called Defining 'Sustainable' written by Bruce Zoecklein. Zoecklein gives the following bullets from a talk on the subject given by Joe Chauncey at the 2008 Wineries Unlimited conference:

• Ecologically responsive
• Economically viable
• Good neighbor
• Bioregional
• Healthy and sensible
• Operationally efficient

More to the point, sustainble practices for wineries include the following:

• LEED certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
• Use of eco-friendly building materials
• Earth-sheltered buildings
• Green roofs
• Building orientation/insulation
• Sun baffles or solar blocks
• Alternative energy, including geothermal, solar and wind
• Energy/heat capture and recovery
• Carbon dioxide capture
• Natural lighting and venting
• Rainwater collection
• Water recycling
• Materials recycling

This article advocates the establishment of benchmarks to evaluate progress in environmental and ecological sustainability. Later on in the article, Zoecklein writes: The link between economic sustainability and environmental sustainability will strengthen only through technology and the implementation of technology through education.
That statement gave me pause. I tranlated that to mean that faster is cheaper and better. Not that I am a Luddite, but I'm not at all certain that technology is the answer to economic and environmental sustainability.

A Look at a Deutz Fahr Tractor at Paige Equipment

We packed our bags and headed out toward Rochester, NY to visit Paige Equipment in order to look at their Deutz Fahr tractors.

My husband has been doing his research on narrow tractors for our narrow (7 feet) rows in our soon-to-be-planted vineyard. His research has taken us to Long Island to see an Antonio Carraro tractor and to Lakeland Dealership near Seneca Falls to see John Deere tractors. We met John Paige who spent some quality time with us explaining the features of the Deutz Fahr.

We feel that it is always good to meet the people who are selling the equipment so that we can put a face to a name and to hear about their products first hand. I think that now that we have done our homework, it's time to put the pros and cons down and pull the trigger and order something! We actually don't have that much time before the vines are in the ground and the weeds are growing like crazy!

Post-Bottling Aroma Defects

I am rereading our older issues of Vineyard & Winery Management and found a really good article called "Post-Bottling Aroma Defects" written by Ted Rieger in the November/December 2009 issue. The following compounds were listed as flaws that can be detected after bottling in a sensory seminar presented by Eric Herve, Ph.D., of ETS Laboratories in St. Helena, California:

Compound	Aroma	Thresh-hold of Detec-tion
Acetaldehyde	pungent, fruity, apple	100 ppm
Phenylacetaldehyde	old flowers, old rose, acacia, sweet, honey-like, slightly rancid also can produce fresh, fruity aromas	50 ppb
Sotolon	walnut, nutty or oxidized aroma also maple syrup and curry	7 ppb
1,1,6-trimethyl-1,2-dihydronapthalene (TDN)	kerosene, old riesling	50 ppb
Methylmercaptan (MeSH) Dimethyldisulfide(DMDS)	rotten cabbage, broccoli, natural gas,cooked vegetables	1.5 ppb (MeSH) 10 ppb (DMDS)
Dimethylsulfide(DMS)	canned corn, asparagus, olive, truffle	20 ppb
2,4,6-trichoroanisole (TCA)	moldy or musty	2-6 ppt
2,4,6-tribromoanisole (TBA)	moldy or swimming pool	3-6 ppt
4-ethylphenyl (4-EP) 4-ethylguaiacol (4-EG)	phenol, Band-Aid, leather, clove, barnyard	400 ppb (4-EP) 50 ppb (4-EG)
2-ethyl-tetrahydropyridine 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline 2-acetyl-tetrahydropyridine	mousy, mouse cage, salami skin	low ppb

The most common causes for the appearance of these compounds after bottling come from:

• Oxidation or premature aging
• Reduction and off-aromas associated with sulfides
• Haloanisoles
• Microbial spoilage, most commonly Brettanomyces-related

Knowing and Making Wine by Emile Peynaud

One of the books that we have is this one written by Emile Peynaud, translated to English by Alan Spencer and published in 1984.
Emile Peynaud is considered to be the Father of Modern Enology and this book is well worth the read for a novice like me. Only now am I learning about the tremendous impact that Peynaud had in ushering in the modern age of winemaking. It was Peynaud in the 1950's who convinced winemakers in Bordeaux that they were harvesting grapes too early and their cellars were not a noble eyesore, but was in reality, unhygienic and detrimental to making quality wines.¹ Peynaud convinced winemakers to accept low acid levels in the grapes and wines and control temperatures in the cellars, especially during fermentation. These practices lead to richer, riper, and rounder wines which could be enjoyed when they were younger but which also had the ability to age.² The book is divided into 8 parts:

Part 1 Tasting and the Composition of Wine
Part 2 The Ripening of the Grape and Harvesting
Part 3 Microbiology of Wine and Fermentation
Part 4 Vinifications
Part 5 Storage and Aging
Part 6 Clarification of Wines
Part 7 Stabilizing Processes for Wines
Part 8 Bottling Wines

I am finding gems of knowledge sprinkled in every part of his book. Here is one for your consideration:
What is tourne?
Wine that has turned in French is described as having tourne, a sickness caused by the total fermentation of tartaric acid in wine into lactic acid, acetic acid and carbon dioxide. Certain lactic acid bacteria species are responsible for this unfortunate condition which results in a wine tasting flat and flabby. This is because of the increase in pH due to the decrease in tartaric acid. In red wine, the color becomes dull and brownish, the wine can go cloudy and develop silky waves when shaken in a glass. The carbon dioxide makes the wine gassy. As if this was not enough, advanced tourne has a disagreeable odor and a "mousy" flavor. There is a simple remedy. The bacteria that attack tartaric acid succumbs to sulfur dioxide additions. In 1984, Peynaud wrote, "...this disorder has become very rare in good vinifications and wines correctly stored. With the progress accomplished in this area, it may be confidently declared that tourne is on it's way to have disappeared altogether. However, it would be quite common if wines were made and kept without any sulfur dioxide being used at all."³
References:
1. Mike Steinberger, The Tastemaker, Slate, July 30, 2004.
2. Per-Henrik Mansson, Emile Peynaud, Who Influenced Winemaking Around the World, Dies at 92, Wine Spectator, July 21, 2004.
3. Emile Peynaud, "Knowing and Making Wine", 1984, John Wiley and Sons, pg. 259-260.