Mowing and Cool Sightings in the Vineyard

My husband gave me the keys to the tractor yesterday and had me mow the tall clover that has grown up in the vineyard alleys. I did a little mowing last summer so I was familiar with what I needed to do but initially, my husband gave me a little refresher: (1) select the rpm driven PTO, (2) engage the PTO, (3) lower the Ferri mower to the proper level, (4) slowly bring up the revs, (5) put the tractor in gear while stepping on the brakes, (6) take off the parking brakes and then go! Yikes, I was going fast. I made one pass and my husband was waiting for me at the other end. I'm shouting, "How do I put this in creeper gear!" I put on the brakes and my husband put me in creeper gear. Much better. So, I'm going up and down the vineyard alleys mowing, mowing, mowing. Why? Because it's so much easier just to keep on going than to remember how to reverse the instructions so that I can stop.

I was able to stop the tractor and by the afternoon, I could start and stop the tractor on my own. I'm hoping that this blogpost will be a reminder for the next time I need to mow the vineyard. It's looking really good, but you can be sure that I'll need to mow the vineyard again, probably in about 10 days or so.
Now that the clover has been beaten down, it is much easier to walk the vineyard alleys and look at some cool stuff. The grape flowers are getting larger compared to the first time that I took a picture of them. Also, when I was walking in the vineyard I saw this bald faced hornet probably engaged in making a nest.

I found an interesting article on the Internet on the bald faced hornet. These nests get pretty large so I don't think this little grape leaf stalk (petiole) will accommodate the hornet nest. But it was pretty cool to see.

Appellation Cornell on Crown Galls

I've subscribed to the online newsletter from Cornell University called Appellation Cornell even before we began planting our vines. In this month's newsletter, I found a timely article written by Tim Martinson and Tom Burr that answers the question I Have Galls in my Vineyard: Should I Call my Nursery?.
This question could have been written by us because as we did our pruning back in April, we noticed that there was crown gall on some of the plants. As we focused on which plants had the crown gall, we realized that it was only the Auxerrois that seemed to have succumbed to this malady. We pulled out those vines affected with the crown gall and considered notifying our nursery.
The organism that causes the crown gall is a bacteria called Agrobacterium vitis.
What Tim Martinson and Tom Burr report in this article is that when a new, more sensitive testing method called magnetic capture hybridization (1000 times more sensitive in detecting the bacterium) was used, it was found that A. vitis is rather ubiquitous in the environment. Even if crown gall-free foundation plants could be generated, the chances for infection in the vineyard still remains a possibility.
Gall-formation is triggered mainly in damaged tissue in response to cold injury or in graft unions (where tissue is intentionally damaged and callus tissue forms at the union to bond the rootstock and scion together).

Here on the right, is a photo of our Auxerrois with crown gall formed at the graft union, which in our case is a tall-grafted vine. The bacteria forms at these sites after transferring an element of its DNA to the plant. During the spring, when the grapevine is actively growing and dividing, the DNA transferred to these cells from the bacterium gets expressed and causes the tissue to form galls instead of forming organized conductive tissues (e.g. Phloem, cambium, and xylem tissues) to repair the injury.
So the answer to this question is, "Your nursery is not to blame."
References:
1. Tim Martinson and Tom Burr, I Have Galls in my Vineyard: Should I Call my Nursery?, May, 2015.
2. Burr, T. and T. Martinson, 2015, Grape Crown Gall, Factsheet of the National Clean Plant Network – Grapes.

1998 Vieux Télégraphe La Crau

My husband seems to recall that we bought this 1998 Vieux Télégraphe close to when it was released. This was when he was still hanging on Robert Parker's every word regarding wine and the fact that it was imported by Kermit Lynch was also a plus. I do recall that we went to a wine shop in rural Massachusetts, where it was is lost in the fog of time, and we saw Vieux Télégraphe for sale there. It seemed to be reasonably priced at around $35.00 a bottle, and less expensive than Chateau de Beaucastel. We left the wine shop without making a purchase but then stopped and thought about it for a while and decided to go back and got half a case.
So, recently, we drank the last bottle from this purchase. I thought I got a little whiff of VA (volatile acidity) on the nose upon opening, which blew away as I swirled the inky purple liquid in my glass. I was spicy and still had berry fruit, but it really was a must drink now kind of bottle. We drank this with a rack of barbeque pork that my husband grilled. It was just the right touch after working out in the vineyard.
I found a very good article on Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe on the Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant site. On this site, I learned that the composition of the Vieux Télégraphe is 65% Grenache, 15% Mourvèdre, 15% Syrah, 5% (Cinsault, Clairette, et al).

Forestry Plan

On Monday of this week, we were able to have Certified Forester, Joan Nichols out to look at our forest. She is a crack at identifying trees and quickly told us that we have a lot of red maple which is really one of the succession trees in a forest. We showed her our prized tulip poplar which she thought may be about 150 years old. When we got to the east edge of the logging path, Joan identified a black oak which was covered with invasives. We need to clean this beauty. All the while that we were walking in our forest, I heard a lot of birds chirping, a veritable mellifluous cacophony.
We walked to the north end of the field where I saw our hunter's stand, very cleverly disguised and his camera which has captured some shots of a bobcat and foxes in the past. On this path, Joan excitedly pointed out a beautiful, old sugar maple. She showed us her prism which she uses to count the trees that are of a certain diameter. We left Joan to do her work and then went home to finish up some other tasks.

In the early evening, Joan called us to say that she ran into a clutch of woodcocks in our forest and that was quite exciting. Also, in the same area that she first identified the sugar maple, she saw another stand of sugar maples! We didn't know what a woodcock was, so we searched on the Internet and I found the Cornell Ornithology Lab, where I found some excellent information and this photo.
We've always valued the forest and the balance of life there, and it was nice to learn about the woodcocks and whatever else might be there. Our plan for the forest was to created a walking path where we do not unduly disturb the balance of nature. I'm a little fastidious and I wanted to clear the fallen trees and branches, but Joan explained that those fallen trees, while they may look a little unsightly, are homes and hiding places for the creatures that live there. I have a new appreciation for our forest.

Pruning and Disbudding

Yesterday we spent the entire afternoon pruning and disbudding our vines. After seeing budbreak, we had to make some difficult decisions regarding which shoot to keep. We also wanted to encourage some of the buds that were in better locations to leaf out so we went through the vineyard, cutting back the canes.
Even more difficult decisions had to be made because there were many shoots showing the developing inflorescence, the flowers that will eventually turn into fruit. But we wanted to ensure that the canes are healthy and producing a good amount of leaves before subjecting the vine to bearing fruit. We did keep a few of the healthier canes and disbudded those canes, leaving every other shoot that could potentially bear fruit.

The other benefit to the pruning and disbudding is that the vine will no longer have to spend energy to support excess vegetation. This is critical because we have had almost a month of dry weather and since we are still working on our irrigation plans, we are still relying on Mother Nature to provide us with rain. The last time that we had 3/4-inches of rain was on April 23rd. So, another advantage that we hope to have given our vines is that we have removed some of the excess vegetation so that the water reserve in the soil will have to support fewer leaves. Be healthy and prosper, vines!

Grape Hoe: Cut and Smother

Now that we have budbreak, we are dealing with bugs and now weeds. It is inevitable. But this year, we have automated our weeding with the grape hoe that we tested and purchased.
In the early years, (i.e. 2013), we have hoed weeds by hand and learned that the weeds grow faster than we can hoe. So, this was not practical. Last year, we went up and down the rows with our weed wacker, a little bit more automated, but still not practical because by the time we finished weed wacking all the rows, the first row we did was full of weeds.
So, this year, putting a little bit more money and a lot more smarts into this recurring situation of weeds in the vineyard, along with the grape hoe, my husband also purchased a disc so that as he goes along the vine rows, the grape hoe cuts the weeds at the roots and the disc hills over the cut weeds with soil to smother the weeds. At the moment, he cannot do this operation in one pass because the bracket that the disc is on is at the same location as the grape hoe. He is in consultation with our supplier. But, even when making two passes, it is so much better than manual labor. Here is a photo of the vine row with weeds and the result of the cut and smother operation with the grape hoe and disc.

One thing that hasn't changed, however, is the uncovering of our perennial crop of rocks. Our friends Mary and Barry loaned us this cart. After my husband goes down the alleys with the grape hoe, I've been going down the alley to pick up the rocks that the grape hoe uncovers. To pull the cart, or to push the cart, that was the question. It is easier to push the cart full of rocks, but when I do that I feel like a peddler. I wonder what it is I am selling?
I can't help but be reminded of the egg lady in Athens. She had a cart like mine and she would chant something that even our Greek friends could not decipher. I'm not selling eggs, but if you're in the market for rocks, we have them by the ton, and for you, my friend, I'll give you the special price.

Budbreak and Bugs

The good news is that we have budbreak in the vineyard! On Friday, we were Waiting for Budbreak and now, a mere 3 days later, the buds have unfurled revealing beautiful, pale green leaves. Here on the left is our Auxerrois, so even the laggards are catching up.
Along with budbreak comes the inevitable onslaught of bugs. We are on bug patrol already and have seen some familiar bugs such as the Grape Flea Beetle and then some unfamiliar bugs such as the Click Beetle. My husband, who has eagle eyes saw this first bug, a hairy caterpillar, that was maybe 1/4-inch in length. I don't know how he can see that!

For bug patrol, I walk the vineyard with a container of soapy water and carefully maneuver the offending bug to it's soapy death. According to the University of California Pest Management Guidelines, the Click Beetle can feed on buds in the spring with the injury to the bud looking essentially the same as that of the grape bud beetle. Fortunately, the site also mentions that for Click Beetles even with high populations in the vineyards, they seldom cause economic damage to grapes.

2015 Plant Distribution

It took us about 6 days and 42 human hours to transplant our grapevines that were scattered in various locations in our vineyard. In addition, we brought the vines in our backyard nursery to join their brothers and sisters in the vineyard.
Our recent count of live plants and plants that we have moved gives the following plant distribution.

The Chardonnay ENTAV 76 was collapsed into 4 rows and the Chardonnay ENTAV 96 was moved next to the ENTAV 76 vines and also collapsed into 4 rows. This leaves us with 6 rows on the east side to put in some trial red varieties in 2016.
We also moved our Auxerrois FPS 1 from the west side of the vineyard so that they are now all in rows 2 and 3. Row 4 is totally free of vines which we hope to replant with Auxerrois FPS 2 in 2016.
For comparison, this was the plant distribution in the fall of 2014.

The fact that we have moved all the "stray" vines allows us to concentrate our attention in a more confined area. We will still need to weed and take care of the rest of the vineyard, but having the vines closer together means that we will be able to take care of other activities like vineyard scouting and spraying, more efficiently.
Happy Mother's Day!

Waiting For Budbreak

We have been busy transplanting our grape vines from various locations in the vineyard as well as bringing our backyard nursery plants to plant in the vineyard. Interestingly, since our backyard is very close to the shore, the temperatures are cooler than at our vineyard, and the bud stage reflects this difference in mesoclimate.
We first moved our Chardonnay so that they were all in one block and gave them some water, about 4 days later, buds that were closed are now poised for budbreak.

The revelation to us was that in addition to warm temperatures, plants need water. Duh. In the spring, the soil is, or should be at field capacity so this is not a problem. But when planting new vines, like we did in 2013, we cannot rely on Mother Nature to provide us with timely rainfall.
Even though the winter of 2014-2015 was brutually cold and snowy, it appears that our vines have pulled through, or at least have acclimated to the New England winter. Last year, on May 10th, I blogged about the Various Stages of Dormancy, so if the pictures on that blog are any indication of the phenological stage that the buds were in, I believe that this year, we are right on schedule.

Last year, it seemed that our Auxerrois were the laggards and they seem to be following the same pattern this year.

We are like expectant parents, waiting for budbreak!

Turkey!

Rich, who hunts our land for turkey and deer and his daughter were on our land recently. It is turkey season. No sooner did they park their truck, when they saw a likely target lurking nearby on the logging road. Rich said that what they do is set up a decoy jack, a young turkey and then make female turkey calls. They got one to respond in no time at all and managed to convince this alpha turkey that this would be his lucky day. He came to give the decoy some competition and that's when Rich's daughter took her shot. She was victorious---it was her lucky day!

Rich had the freshly caught turkey in his truck when he came over to give us some fresh clams that he also caught. Close up, the turkey was a magnificent looking bird and we recognized many of the feathers that we see in our vineyard rows. Rich thought that this bird might be more than 20 pounds dressed, and later confirmed that it was 24 pounds!
One of my favorite videos that I took on the land is this one Turkey vs. Tractor, where my husband is racing 30-40 turkeys that were in our vineyard on a nice fall day in 2013. I guess we have one less turkey in the vineyard now.

Celebrating Our Friend's Kanreki

Our friend Mary recently turned 60, so my husband was in search of a restaurant that would allow us to bring our own wine. We discussed the possibility of going to Persimmon Restaurant in Bristol, Rhode Island an hour and a half drive away. It seemed like a long way to go for dinner, but, 3 out of 4 of us are retired, so distance should not deter us from a good evening, was my husband's justification. So, on a Wednesday at 5 p.m. we set out for Persimmon.

The front of the restaurant is unpretentious, but inviting and we were seated in a cozy and intimate booth. Cara was our excellent server and she left us with an extensive menu and mentioned that they also had a 5 course tasting as well as an 16-20 course tasting that evening! Then came decision time...appetizer and entrée, or their 5 course tasting. When all was said and done, the men opted for appetizers and entrée and the women opted for the 5 course tasting. We began dinner by opening up Mary's favorite white burgundy, a 2011 LeFlaive Le Combettes, acquired by Barry on one of his recent trips to California. We paired the LeFlaive with our appetizers. I tried to take photos of all of the dishes, but sometimes I forgot and just ate the beautiful dish placed in front of me, the black truffle beignet, was one of them. Mary and I had 3 pre-appetizer offerings of quail egg, truffle beignet and creamed asparagus soup and the men had the cold seafood salad and the octopus salad.

As I mentioned in the title of this blog, we were celebrating Mary's Kanreki. Kanreki is a Japanese tradition that celebrates a person's 60th birthday and has it's roots in the Chinese zodiac of the twelve animals. In a 60-year cycle the honoree has gone five times around the Chinese zodiac, the cycle of life returns to the beginning, and marks the honoree's rebirth and return to their second childhood.
What better way to continue this celebratory dinner, than to open up a 1987 La Tache and follow it with the 1995 Dominique Laurent Clos de la Roche to pair with our entrées.

Mary and I began our 5 course tastings with the following offerings.

Barry's entée was the lamb done 3-ways and my husband had the duck with morels.

The La Tache still looked youthful in the glass and we sipped and enjoyed the wine which was still showing amazing fruit and acidity. We had been sending back a tasting of the wines we brought to have with our dinner so when we were having the entrée, Chef Champe Speidel came to welcome us to his restaurant and stayed to talk with us. I noticed that he went around to all the tables in the restaurant, speaking with all of his guests. Nice touch! Dinner, was not over by any means. We still had dessert to go. So, we were all given 2 pre-desserts of coconut ice cream and passionfruit donut.

Then, Mary had the cheesecake over citrus fruits and my husband and I enjoyed the chocolate and caramel balls, Barry choose the apple cider donuts. Lastly, we were treated to this platter of small bites. If I count up all of the dishes we had it amounts to 12 dishes that came in our 5-course tastings! The nice part about all this was that we were happily satiated and not stuffed at all. What an enjoyable and memorable Kanreki.

2015: Augering Holes

Yesterday, we rented an auger to make some holes in the vineyard so that we could transplant some of our live plants. We needed to make 148 holes. My husband had already moved 8 plants on Wednesday, and it took him an entire morning, so moving 148 more without any automation seemed futile. We were able to rent this auger from Home Depot. We began around 10 a.m.

We're moving the surviving plants that are in various locations on our 4.5 acres into a block so that it will be easier to take care of them during this growing season. Augering holes will also give us a good idea of how long this job will take because we are considering augering 6500 holes in the fall in preparation for spring 2016 replanting. We were just about 2/3rds of the way done when we were saved by reinforcements. Our friends Mary and Barry came to check up on us and gave us a hand. This was just the push that we needed to dig the remaining holes, so in 5 hours and with help from our friends, we were able to auger 148 holes. At this rate, we can auger 6500 holes in 44 days!

Meanwhile, in walking around the vineyard, there are many hopeful signs that the buds are slowly, but surely coming out of their winter dormancy and showing a little bit of pink!