Got Buds!

We have several new varieties that we planted last year so I wanted to take a few photos of our emerging buds, a miracle in itself. Here are some photos of what our buds look like in late April.

Variety	Buds	Advanced Buds
Cabernet Franc Clone 327
Cabernet Franc Clone 214
Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 412
Chardonnay Clone 96
Chardonnay Clone 76
Chenin Blanc Clone 982
Auxerrois Clone FPS-1

It is interesting to me to compare the above table of our buds with the blog I wrote on May 8, 2015 called Waiting For Budbreak. It appears that this year's budbreak is about 1 week earlier than in 2015.

Planting Preparation

It's that time of the year again to put in the last allotment of vines from our original order that we submitted to our nursery in the winter of 2014 for shipment/planting in the spring of 2016. Last year, we replanted 4200 vines which took us 6 days. This is the preparation work for planting. What really helped us last year to even contemplate planting 4200 vines was the rental of a dingo. This year, we rented a slightly different dingo and began slightly earlier. Our yeoman friends came at 9 a.m. Much to our embarassment, they were there before us, eager beavers! They worked continuously from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and drilled a total of 420 holes! Only 1080 more to go!

Vintage Notes: April 2017

True to adage, April showers are occurring even as I write this. I think this rain is a departure from the previous years that we've been keeping tabs on the weather. Here is what I could find on the Internet regarding the weather in our area. I have circled the rain days in red. The average rainfall in our area occurs in the 31 days centered around April 3rd.

We are getting ready to plant 1500 more vines this year, so this is welcome rain, but it is happening right when we are getting ready to auger the plant holes. Yesterday, our friends came to help us with all kinds of pre-planting tasks. At the end of the work day husband also got his tractor running and weeded the rows that we will be planting in. While he was doing that, I took a few photos of our Auxerrois and Chenin Blanc buds, still in the wooly bud stage. Some of the Chenin Blanc buds are slightly beyond the wooly bud stage and beginning to transition into the green tip (or in the case of Chenin Blanc, pink tip) stage.

Grape Cane Gallmaker

During pruning, we came upon a problem that we were noticing near the nodes on some of our canes. Leave it to my husband to find the cause of this malady. Our problem is textbook grape cane gall and the causative agent is a tiny snout beetle. We read all about this at grape cane gallmaker, a publication by the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. There are two different Ampeloglypter species, one which causes grape cane girdling and the other which causes this problem at the nodes. The grape cane gallmaker overwinters in debris on the ground and begins doing it's damage during May and June when the grape vines are about 25 to 50 cm long.
The damage that we were observing was caused by the female hollowing out a small cavity just above a node and placing a single egg into the cavity which she fills with frass. The pupa or larval stage lasts from June to August. If signs of Ampeloglypter damage is seen on a cane, it can be pruned before the adult form emerges.

Not too many of our canes were affected but, now that we know what to look out for, hopefully we can remove affected canes so as to prevent the proliferation of this gallmaker.
Reference:
1. Grape Cane Gallmaker, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station.

2012 Lan Rioja Crianza

How can you beat a wine made from Tempranillo grapes and is a crianza for less than $20.00. Yet, this Lan Rioja is just that. We had this wine after an arduous day in the vineyard pruning our four year old vines. So nice to sit back and sip a deep purple aged wine with (sigh...no one wanted to cook), pizza and a Greek salad.
Way back in history on August, 2013, we were treated to a Rioja Wine Tasting at the Wine Store in Westerly, Rhode Island and at that tasting, we were able to sample a 2005 Bodegas LAN Rioja Edicion Limitada.
Wines from Spanish wine growing region, Rioja are a very good buy because they are not released until they are pretty much ready to drink. The 2012 Lan Crianza is already 5 years old and very, youthful with a fair around of fruit. The designation that this wine is a crianza means that the wine must spend a year in oak barrels and a year aging in the wine bottle before it can be sold. A step up from a Crianza is a Reserva and then a Gran Reserva:¹

• Crianza: 1 year in oak barrels and 1 year aging in bottles
• Reserva: 1 year in oak barrels and 2 years aging in bottles
• Gran Reserva: 2 years in oak barrels and 3 years aging in bottles

This Lan Crianza will go on my tab: Wines Under $20.
Reference:
1. Wine Folly:Rioja Wine: From Crianza to Gran Reserva

Chenin Blanc Wooly Bud

We began our pruning detail on April 10th and powered through the 2 year old plants but are now plodding through our 4 year old plants since there are decisions to be made and the future to think of. While pruning our Chenin blanc, we noticed that many of the buds are at the Eichhorn-Lorenz wooly bud stage as shown on the right.
We have noticed that out of all of our vines, the Chenin blanc is the first to exit dormancy, followed by the Chardonnay and then the Auxerrois. This year, we have Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc to add to our vine variety. So far, they still seem entrenched in dormancy.
Yesterday, we were only able to do 2 rows of Chenin blanc before the howling wind and cold drove us to the warmth of our home. That's our story and we're sticking with it.

Pruning Time

We are a bit late with our pruning chores. It didn't take us too long to do the newly planted vines (3 days), 4200 of them. The mild winter was a godsend as the new vines are showing green wood and the buds are looking good. After we prune our vines, we come back immediately with a systemic fungicide.

We are now pruning our older vines and that takes a bit more time. We hope to be done with all the pruning in the next two days!

2015 Mas de Daumas Gassac Frizant

We had this bubbly at the end of our meal at Water Street Cafe in Stonington Borough. We were celebrating the beginning of our friend's indefinite sabbatical (read "retirement"). It is a frizant made with 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Mourvèdre, Pinot noir, Sauvignon, Petit Manseng et Muscat, so it was light pink in color. I thought it was unusual for a bubbly to be made with Cabernet Sauvignon. It is made by bleeding Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from the younger Daumas Gassac vineyards. The “free-run” grape juice is then fermented in a closed stainless steel tank for 3-4 months to retain all the fermenting gas.
The May 12, 2016 online edition of WineBusiness.com has a great article about the estate called French Legendary Mas de Daumas Gassac Presents World Famous 'Grand Crus of the Midi' at VINEXPO Hong Kong 2016.
In this article, I learned that the Mas de Daumas Gassac estate is located in the South of France, in the Languedoc commune of Aniane in the majestic Gassac Valley. The estate benefits from the cool microclimate derived from the Gassac River, several natural springs and the influence of the nearby mountains. The soil that dominates the valley is a rare and still unexplained red, powder-fine glacial soil, which is strikingly similar to that found in the prime areas of Burgundy. This combination of characteristics is quite unique in Southern France.
The vineyard is universally revered for its outstanding red and white wines. Mas de Daumas Gassac is often referred to as the Grand Cru of the Midi, it has earned a rare “cult” status since being founded in the 1970s. Samuel Guibert is the second generation co-owner as well as winemaker of Mas de Daumas Gassac. I liked this Frizant so much that I asked my husband to order more.
References:
1. WineBusiness.com, French Legendary Mas de Daumas Gassac Presents World Famous 'Grand Crus of the Midi' at VINEXPO Hong Kong 2016, May 12, 2016.
2. Polaner Selections Mas de Daumas Gassac.

Vintage Notes: Spring 2017

I've been a bit remiss in providing Vintage Notes for 2017. It could be because our winter has been so mild, but it could also be that I've been a little lazy. This winter has been very mild, although we did have some snow up on our land as these photos taken by our hunter attest to. His trail camera caught a few deer on February 12th and an awesome hawk on February 15th.

The first task that we tackled this spring was the tying of our newly planted vines using Grapevine Rubberbands. With the help of our friends, we were able to complete the rubber banding of approximately 4200 grapevines in 8 days.

This History of the World Through the Wine Lens

When I was reading Hugh Johnson's Vintage: The Story of Wine published in 1989, I was keenly aware of the fact that the history of the world and the story of wine were intricately intertwined.
Recently, I thumbed through the book again and found myself going from 5000 years ago to the present time in 2 hours or so. It was quite the experience. When I looked on the Internet, I found that Hugh Johnson had made some videos about the history of wine. So, if you don't have time to read the book, you can learn about the history of wine in bite size pieces, as Hugh Johnson mentions here:

Or if you have 2 hours to spare, you can watch this: VINTAGE Volume I A history of Wine HUGH JOHNSON
References:
1. Hugh Johnson, Vintage: The Story of Wine, Simon and Schuster, 1989.

Critical Stages of Inflorescence (Flower) Formation

Doing our rubberbanding task has allowed us to get Up Close and Personal With Our Buds, but without x-ray vision, it's difficult to know how fruitful our buds are. The fruitfulness of a bud is a two year process and conditions in year one and year two affect how fruitful our vines will be. It is always a good thing to take another look at inflorescence formation even though I have blogged extensively about the flowering process:
The Mysterious Life of Grape Buds
Conditions Influencing Inflorescence Differentiation
Grapevine Flower Buds
Grapevine Inflorescence
Flowering in the Vineyard
Grapevine Inflorescence Formation---Parts 1 and 2
Inflorescence Formation Part 3
In reading Vasconcelos et al., The Flowering Process of Vitis vinifera: A Review I came upon a good schematic that might help to envision all the processes going on during budbreak.

I always find that a diagram is helpful in understanding what this cycle looks like. So, here is one of my go to diagrams of shoot growth from Jackson.²

In Summary:
Critical stages of flower formation

• Season 1: induction, initiation, and early differentiation
• Season 2: differentiation at budburst

For more information regarding how inflorescence fruitfulness is influenced by climatic conditions, please go to Conditions Influencing Inflorescence Differentiation
. References:
1. M. Carmo Vasconcelos, Marc Greven, Chris S. Winefield, Mike C.T. Trought, Victoria Raw, The Flowering Process of Vitis vinifera: A Review, Am J Enol Vitic., December 2009 60: 411-434.
2. Ronald Jackson, Wine Science Third Edition, Elsevier, 2008, pg. 68.

2013 Palazzo Della Torre

We had this 2013 Allegrini Palazzo Della Torre the label will tell you much of what you need to know. It is a red wine made from two grapes Corvina and Rondinella. A few nights ago we had the 2012 Zenato Ripassa, which is also made from the Corvina and Rondinella grapes. While the Ripassa is made by passing the juice of the once fermented grapes over the skins and lees of the fermented Amarone grapes, in the case of the Palazza Della Torre, only some of the grapes used in making this wine is left to dry. We have encountered this technique used by Winemaker Andrzej Lipinski at Colaneri Winery located in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
We had this wine with pizza after working in the vineyard, neither of us wanted to cook. That is our excuse. At less than $20.00 a bottle, this is a wine well worth stockpiling in your wine cave.

Up Close and Personal With Our Buds

Recently, when my husband and I were out in the vineyard, beginning our vine rubberband task, my husband noted that on some nodes, there were two buds. In the somewhat fuzzy photo at the left, there is one bud that is clearly larger than the smaller bud that has a bit of cottony stuff.
The larger bud, we assume is the dormant bud. The dormant bud has many names:

• compound bud
• winter bud
• eye
• latent bud

Although the dormant bud looks like just one bud, it is really comprised of 3 buds, the primary, secondary and tertiary buds, that is why it is also called the compound bud.¹

Nature is really wonderful, when you think about this compound bud. During spring, if the primary bud should be killed due to an untimely frost or other events, the secondary bud can takeover. The secondary bud may also have inflorescence (be fruitful), and keeping the grapevine alive by sending up a shoot is always a good thing. There is still one more chance that the grapevine has in case of failure of the secondary bud. The tertiary bud is standing by.

One of the seminal references that other texts refer to was written in 1974 by Charlotte Pratt called Vegetative anatomy in cultivated grapes, A review. This is one of the reading materials provided by the U.C. Davis online course. Not only does it give a detailed look at the various parts of the grapevine, it also provides a glossary at the end of the review. It's a great reference to have. In reading the paper, I came across a word orthostichies (what?), the glossary defines it as being: a sequence of leaves one above another on a stem.
Who knew?
References:
1. Pratt, C., Vegetative anatomy in cultivated grapes, A review, American Journal of Enology and Viticulture, 1974, 25:131-150.