Vintage 2015: Hot and Humid Weather

We have been having the dog days of summer this week. Hot and humid weather which began this Monday and will continue until the end of this week. Temperatures have been hitting the 90's. We have been going to the land in the early morning and my husband has been mowing the vineyard alleyways. There is not much one can do in this sweltering heat. Grapevines also suffer from excessive heat. Above 35^o C (95^o F), photosynthesis declines as stomata close in response to the excessive heat. That means that the CO₂ that goes into the production of sugars ceases.
My husband gave me a break from working in the vineyard. We both realized that my garden was in need of some serious watering so I have been working in my garden and had an opportunity to catch a pair of goldfinch. It seemed like the male goldfinch was acting as a "watcher" and allowing the female goldfinch to go into the garden to look for food.

Reference:
1. The Science of Grapevines Anatomy and Physiology, Markus Keller, 2010, Academic Press, pg. 20-47.
2. Daniel W Hopper, Ryan Ghan & Grant R Cramer, A rapid dehydration leaf assay reveals stomatal response differences in grapevine genotypes, Horticulture Research 1, Article number: 2 (2014)

Sake and Sushi

Two weeks ago today, I took a trip back home to Hawaii. Several events were converging and it was a good time to be there. First, I was summoned by my mother to be present for the 80th anniversary of the founding by my grandmother, of our little Buddhist temple that I grew up in, and it was my daughter's birthday and her son's (my grandson) birthday. So, it was a very good time to be there.
To celebrate my daughter's birthday, my daughter, her husband and I went to the best sushi restaurant (IMHO) on Oahu. It is a little hole in the wall located near a busy intersection and if you were not in the know, you would miss it completely. It is called Sasabune. We went there for lunch and sat at the counter. What do you drink with sushi but sake, it's like having ouzo with Greek food, it is the right pairing. The hostess suggested a very nice one so that is what I started with. She gave a generous pour and allowed me to take a photo of it.

The sake lasted for almost the entire meal, but I really do like to pair my sushi with sake so I asked the hostess to suggest another sake and this is what she recommended next.

All of us enjoyed the sushi, "da best kine" and I loved the sake. I also want to give a shout out to Paul whom I met on the flight from Providence to Chicago. The flight from Providence was delayed for hours and he had an iPhone 6 and looked up my flight information so that when the flight arrived in Ohare, I was able to run and made my flight to Hawaii. There were 65 people who did not make this flight so I felt really fortunate and now am convinced that I need an iPhone.

Shoot Positioning and Leaf Pulling

If you are as late as we are in putting up your trellis wire, you might find yourself doing the following: We are having to go through our vineyard and shoot position all of our vines that have reached their third level of catch wires.
For many of our vines, we have to untangle the tendrils that have entwined around each other, position the shoots where it makes the most sense and then leaf pull to expose our grapes to sunlight. We motored through the first 20 rows and we are now working on the Chenin Blanc that have as many as 50 plants per row it is taking us 2 or more hours per row. We need to do this so that we open up our canopy for airflow and allow the sunlight to hit our nodes so that the buds that will produce next year's growth will be fruitful. We have also been dropping fruit that is not on a cane that can support ripening as well as fruit that appears smaller than the majority of the rest of the fruit that we have. Here below is one of the standouts in our vineyard.

Stink Bugs in the Vineyard

Just one more shot of things on trellis wires a la If You String It They Will Come.
One day while we were taking a break from stringing our trellis wire, my husband saw this cute little parade. We tried to take a movie of it, but our camera was focused on something else and the parade came out blurry, but these photos will give you a sense of the entertainment these stink bug provided:

Grapes Putting on Weight

It's only been a few days since I wrote about Annual Cycle of Grapevine Growth: Bloom where our grapes were the size of peppercorns. The grapes were putting on a little weight and now they seem to be at the pea-size stage.

No doubt, the regular rainfall that Mother Nature is providing has been very beneficial:

DATE	AMOUNT of RAINFALL
June 1	1-1/4 inches
June 15	1 inch
June 21	3/4 inch
June 27	1-1/2 inches
July 1	1 inch
July 9	Less than 1/4 inch
July 14	7/8 inch
July 15	5/8 inch

Our Vineyard Has Heart

On my bug patrol again. The Japanese beetles are beginning to come out in swarms. In my walk through the vineyard, I came upon this weed. From far, it just seems like an ordinary yellow weed, but, IMHO kind of pretty, so I took a picture of it.
A search on the Internet turned up "Sulfur Cinquefoil" or Latin Potentilla recta as the identification of this weed. It may be pretty, but I did learn that it has a high tannin content and is unpalatable to most wildlife and livestock. Mowing will not reduce the population of Sulfur Cinquefoil, but so far, we don't see too many of these weeds in our vineyard. We might have to resort to hand pulling, grubbing, and hoeing to reduce our small population of sulfur cinquefoil. But, while we have it, I found it interesting to zoom in on one petal since it looked very much like a heart.

Soon, it will be time to mow the vineyard alleys with our Ferri mower again, so I thought that I should take some photos of the weeds that are growing in the vineyard.

My friend said, "Who determined what is a weed anyway?"
Reference:
1. Problem Weeds Guide published by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Coastal Management Program.

If You String It, They Will Come

One day, when we came back to the land for our afternoon shift, we saw these barn swallows sitting on the catch wires that we strung in the vineyard. We were in our truck when we took this photo:

When I went home, I looked on the Internet to find out a little more about barn swallows. I learned that barn swallows are insectivores and catch most of their prey while in flight! I was delighted to learn that 99% of their diet is made up of flies, grasshoppers, crickets, dragonflies, beetles, moths and other flying insects.¹

The article went on to explain that the barn swallows have been observed following tractors and plows, catching the insects that are disturbed by the machinery. This explains why we are seeing barn swallows. I hope that they are catching all of the Japanese beetles that are making their annual appearance.

I was also able to capture this long range view of an Eastern Bluebird sitting on our linepost. Bluebirds are another welcome site because they eat insects. Major prey include caterpillars, beetles crickets, grasshoppers, and spiders.²
References:
1. BioKids: Kids' Inquiry of Diverse Species.
2. Cornell Ornithology Lab: Eastern Bluebird.

Gloves:The Ultimate Solution

Since June, we have been Installing Our Fruiting Wire and then installing our catch wires as our vines have grown. We are now installing our second catch wires and one thing that we have found is that we go through "leather" gloves like crazy.

I wore the white gloves on the left for one day and found a tear developing on the thumb area where I was pulling the wire The left glove always remains rather intact because I don't use the left hand for pulling the wire. We bought these gloves from Tractor Supply Company and since we still had our receipt, the nice lady took the gloves back and gave us our money back. The yellow gloves on the right lasted a little longer, about 3 days before developing a hole. At between $17.00-$22.00 for a pair of gloves, we looked into getting a better pair. My husband did an on line search and found that there are various levels of "leather". Then he found a place that makes leather gloves from real leather. These are the gloves that he bought for us from Texas Good Gloves and Products:

So far, I've been using the above paid of gloves for 4 days now and aside from a little wear, they have not torn through.

Annual Cycle of Grapevine Growth: Bloom

In early June, I blogged about Annual Cycle of Grapevine Growth in Our Vineyard: Fill in the Blanks and referenced Ed Hellman's annual cycle of grapevine growth as it relates to sites in Oregon. I'm now updating the timeline to include bloom in our vineyard in Southeastern Connecticut.

I blogged about the period of bloom, in The Sight of One Flower Blooming because this year, bloom seemed to happen all at once, on June 22nd. I was a little concerned about the time of bloom because we had a rain event on June 21st that might affect the pollination of the grape flowers.
Time has passed and we are seeing the results of self pollination in the vineyard. These two photos were taken on July 5th and July 6th. The grapes are at the peppercorn stage according to the Eichhorn Lorenz System:

References:
1. 1. Nick K. Dokoozlian, Grape Berry Growth and Development.
2. Eichhorn Lorenz System

Anchor Bug: Natural Vineyard Pest Management Agent

A few days ago while I was out for bug patrol, yes, it is that time of the year when the Japanese beetles come out in swarms, I came upon this little cutie in the vineyard and took many, many photos hoping to get a few good shots. I did manage to get two good shots, one from the top and fortuitously, one side view, which showed an under belly of polka dots. Check this out:

I looked on the Internet and the closest that I could come to identifying this beetle was something called the shield bug, but those did not have the markings that was on this beetle that I photographed. I emailed Pamm Cooper of the UConn Extension and she wrote back to me that indeed, this bug is a member of the shield bug family and it is an anchor bug, moreover, it is a pedator!
I found some information on the anchor bug on the NC State University Department of Entomology Biological Control Information Center. The scientific name for the anchor bug is Stiretrus anchorago. I love the description of how they feed (the following is not for the faint of heart): To feed, they swing their beaks up from under their bodies, sneak up to their prey and jab them with the harpoon-like tips. They inject digestive enzymes through the beak that soon render the prey immobile, after which they suck up the digested insides. Check out the photo on the right for a view of this amazing beak!
Unfortunately, this same article says that they are somewhat uncommon pest control agents.

Visit to Paumanok with Architect Joe Bergin

There was a 100% chance of rain which appeared in the form of a thunder and lightning storm, drenching coastal Connecticut in the early morning hours and I had thoughts of the choppy ferry ride ahead. We met architect Joe Bergin at the New London Ferry Dock to take a trip over to Long Island and thankfully, by this time, the waters were calm and it was smooth sailing all the way.
We were on our way to meet with Charles and Kareem Massoud of Paumanok Vineyards. We are in the very early stages of planning our winery and after visits to many different wineries, we know that we need to plan the space so that it is consistent with the wine making process. On the trip over to Long Island, my husband had a video of one of the private wineries that we visited in Ontario that shows how small a wine making facility can be.

Charles, Gary, Joe and I talked over an excellent cup of Cuban coffee about how to go about planning for a winery space. The first question that Charles asked us was, "What is your horizon?" In his more than 30 years in the business, Charles has seen his operation expand every 10 years. Charles drew a diagram of how his winemaking facility began initially with a 1000 square foot space for the production of 5,000 case of wine. Charles then showed us how outdoor spaces were enclosed and turned into a tasting room with a barrel room underneath. Next, the functionality of the tank room was improved by adding a catwalk so that the pump overs did not have to be done by climbing up a ladder, as Charles had done in the past. This expansion seemed very organic.
Charles' bullet points of what to consider when designing a winery included:

• Harvest receiving area; crush pad
• Processing area
• Tank space
• Barrel aging space
• Bottling and storage area
• Dry good storage
• Retail space

Above all, Charles emphasized modularity in tank sizes because you never want a tank that is not full to capacity because residual air in a tank can often lead to wine spoilage problems. It also seems like modularity in wine making space is key.
Four hours passed in no time at all and we ended the visit to Paumanok with a taste of their 2014 Chenin Blanc and their 2014 Minimalist Chenin Blanc. Charles gave us many good tips and lots to think about.

Guest Contributors: Brett and Laura at Ruby Magdalena

My wife and I, along with a couple friends, ventured into Washington’s Yakima Valley to explore a few wineries over a recent holidy weekend. Spring and Fall are great times to visit while it is not too hot and one can get away from the rain on the west side of the Cascades (Seattle). On our journey we hit a couple wineries down in Prosser and a couple on the way back in Zillah. Most of the wineries fit the prototypical experience here in Washington: excellent views, airy and impressive tasting rooms, along with varying levels of intimate tasting experiences.
We had a wonderful time in particular at Ruby Magdalena Vineyards in Zillah. A connection through my parents (UC Davis Enology and Viticulture) led us to Ruby Magdalena Vineyard to meet up with winemakers Marty and Ryan Johnson, and a fantastic time. We were able to sit down and have a wonderful tasting experience along with a nice education about various wine topics.

Ruby Magdalena is located in the Rattlesnake Hills where grapes grow alongside cherries, apples, and pears. As our group pulled up to Marty’s vineyard, Marty and his 3 very enthusiastic dogs greeted us. One is a German Shepard, and the other two had mixes of Timber wolf in them! They are happy dogs that are just as tall as myself, which mean they are about 6’4” in height! We went to Marty’s shed where the project of the day was fixing a lawnmower blade, and we noticed he was also drying some grapes to do an Italian Passito. From there we toured around his 1.5 acres of planted grapes, which were running a little thirsty for water. Much like California, the snowpack in the Cascade Mountains was rather light this year, and most of the Yakima area shut off irrigated water for a couple weeks, until June 1, when it was deemed okay to use some of the water reserves the county had stored up.

Marty was born and raised in the hills of Northern New Mexico. His family line is actually Spanish from the days when the Spaniards came to Mexico and inhabited the various regions of Old Mexico. This has inspired his passion to grow Spanish grapes, which serves as something unique here in Washington. Spanish wines are generally less popular overall in the United States. I first discovered the breadth and depth of wines at Spanish chef José André’s Jaleo restaurant in Washington DC. Take a look at his wine menu or any other well-known Spanish chefs and you will see. Marty grows Tempranillo, Garnacha Tinta, and Graciano grapes. Right now Marty has Tempranillo and Garnacha Tinta in production, with plans for a Graciano in a couple years.

Marty pointed us to some little grapes and flowers starting on his vines. Having not really seen them at this point in the process before, it was a particularly educational glimpse into the entire life cycle in the making of wine. We then went over to some table grapes he has planted in his front yard, which he likes to employ for educational purposes. He showed us the flowers on them, and explained why they don’t really need elegant flowers for cross-pollination; they can do it on their own! After discussing the flowering and fruit process for grapes we sat on Marty’s back porch, to share a glass and some snacks we had brought along.
On his porch, we sat down on a large picnic table that has sweeping views of the Rattlesnake hills, along with the prominent vistas of Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams. Even on a cloudy Northwest day, the large mountains were still a beautiful backdrop. I could visualize the amazing sunsets that Marty and Ryan often witness, as the Yakima area gets 300 days of sun. Along the property’s edge there are also some trees that makes the sunset very “Tuscan-like” as Marty described.

While we enjoyed the view we noticed a few forms of pest management that Marty and his wife employ. First of all, they keep about a dozen cats on their property to handle the pests on the ground. From what we could see, those cats worked hard and played hard. Next, we noticed the nets that were at the bottom of the vines, which would be wrapped around the plants when the grapes start to come in to keep birds from pecking at them. Two methods that his neighbors used included shiny tinsel in the trees and a “bird cannon” which sounds a loud boom sporadically every few minutes. Marty explained that unlike the nets, the birds get used to the other methods, as they are simply temporary distractions. The nets, he assured us, are the best way to assure that birds won’t get to the grapes.
Marty works for a larger winery in the area, where he painstakingly presses 40 gallons of grapes at a time to produce about 2,000 cases. In his spare time, he is tending to his own grapes and processing them in the same manner as well. I would call myself and our group novice wine drinkers (especially with regards to Spanish wines). Nevertheless, we can taste what is good and bad, but pinpointing notes is difficult.

Marty’s wines are terrific, and made with a passion for the process. The Grenache Rose is not for the faint of heart. The sugars are little more concentrated than a typical Rose I have had, which leads to a higher alcohol content. The wine has a nice, well-balanced sweet flavor to it. I imagine it goes great with those sunsets after dinner. Marty also served a little bit of Gamay that he has been at work on over at his job. It was really coming along nicely. We enjoyed the Tempranillo as well. I’ll leave it up to Hanumangirl & Co. to write about the Ruby Magdalena Tempranillo, which I brought to them on a trip home to the East Coast.
It was great to talk to Marty and learn about how he has grown to be fond of wine over the years. As we were sitting there enjoying the wines, he went on to tell us about his fondness and crux for Champagne and his days in Montana where he and an importer would go in on cases of the excellent vintages in the 1970’s. There were a couple things he mentioned about champagne that I had not heard before. First of all, contrary to what you’ve seen on TV, you should never “pop” a bottle of champagne as this creates a force or bottle-shock that transforms the flavor when the wine is opened. Secondly, he explained that the bubbles of good champagne should be comparable to a delicate mousse—very fine and velvety. It was also interesting to look at the simplicity and elegance of Champagne labels, compared to some American sparkling counterparts. I think it also speaks more to making wonderful champagne, and true Champagne has a well-branded reputation already.
All in all, we had a great time and look forward to stopping by next time we are in the area. I recommend it to anyone who is in the Yakima Valley area as well, and it doesn’t hurt to bring a nice bottle of champagne to share as well!

2013 Terres Blanches Saumur

After one of our long work days, we came home and opened up this bottle of 2013 Terres Blanches Saumur. Saumur is located in the Loire region of France. It is made from one of our favorite white wine grapes, Chenin Blanc. We are also growing Chenin Blanc, so when my husband brought home this bottle and we took a sip, "Mmmmmm" was what I thought. Sometimes, Chenin Blanc has this undertone of umeshu (plum wine) which reminds me of being five years old in Japan and having a sip of the plum wine that my Aunty made. What is even more delightful about this wine is that my husband purchased it for less than $14.00. This will be one of our go to wines for summer sipping!