Vintage 2016: Summer

Our friend came to help us with line trimming of our weeds in the vineyard (thanks, Kim!) so at this very moment, the vineyard looks really nice and clean. A view down this row of Chardonnay shows the vines we planted in 2013 as well as the newly planted vines. This was just in time because yesterday, we had a "site visit" from the Farm Services Association representative to check up on our replanting.

The night before, we had some much needed rain but the accumulation was minimal at best. Still, something is better than nothing. However, after the rain passed, the day was so hot and humid it brought out the perennial swarm of Japanese beetles. So, while Tricia was mapping our vineyard using GPS, I was out with my soapy water catching as many Japanese beetles as I could. You might remember the photo on the right from the summer of 2014. My husband has now sanctioned my beetle catching activity, but he has absolutely put his foot down when it comes to keeping the dead bugs in a juice jar. I try to do shoot positioning and canopy management while I catch beetles, multitasking at this time of the year is critical.
We are in for some hot and steamy weather for the next few days.