Pl@nt Grape: A Catalogue of Vines Grown in France

Here is a linke that my husband provided me with to Pl@nt Grape: A Catalogue of Vines Grown in France. It is a beautifully illustrated online catalogue of grape varieties and the vine clones grown in France, throughout Europe and the world.
For example, we have two clones of Cabernet Franc, 214 and 327 growing in our vineyard. The Pl@nt Grape site provides a beautiful illustration of the grape bunch and leaves, in a nod to ampelography and also provides far more information.

This online catalogue contains information such as phenology, suitability for cultivation, sensitivity to diseases and pests, clonal selection and more.

Pruning Time is Here

My husband and I wanted to get a head start on pruning this year. March has been a brutal month with major snow, wind and rain every week, but this week temperatures are in the 40's so we began our pruning on Saturday, March 24.
This year, we have 6,000 or so plants to prune so it will take a while. This got me to thinking about when we pruned in previous years and how long it took us:

Year	Month/Dates
2014	April 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24, 28
2015	April 12
2016	March 1-3, 6, 8, 11, 16, 17
2017	April 10-13, 15, 16, 19, 23

During 2015, we only had approximately 600 young plants to prune so it didn't take us too long. During 2016 and 2017 we replanted nearly 6000 vines. The plants that we planted in 2016 are now in their 3rd leaf so there are many plants that have canes that we can lay down.
We began our pruning duties on Saturday. Here is the task we have ahead of us:

In Search of Wine Quality: Part 5 Irrigation

In December, it was my intention to have a series of blogs entitled "In Search of Wine Quality" based on this flow diagram:¹

So far, I have the following blogposts related to this topic:

• In Search of Wine Quality: Vineyard Location
• In Search of Wine Quality: Soil and Water---Part 2
• In Search of Wine Quality: Soil and Water---Part 3
• In Search of Wine Quality: Soil and Water---Part 4

Today, I'm continuing with Irrigation. It is so important that I have an entire Tab dedicated to the topic of Irrigation. We first planted our vineyard in 2013 when we had no irrigation in place. This is really rolling the dice with Mother Nature when expecting new vines to take hold in a foreign location.
When contemplating drilling a well, we found that dowsing is a good way to locate a water source. It is not scientific but it does work and we were able to locate a well on our property that is providing us with 40 gallons/minute.
After locating a source of water, we were engaged in trench digging for our irrigation system. In this blog, Installing our Irrigation, there are two videos that summarizes the activities from November, 2015 until January, 2016.
In May, 2016, we planted 4200 vines to replace the 6000 vines that died in 2014 after our first planting in 2013. 2016 was a dry year that saw virtually no rain from the end of May until the middle of July. After planting our young vines, while we did have the irrigation system in place, we still needed to do additional work (put in the irrigation line to hold the drip irrigation hose, tether the drip irrigation hose to the line, etc, all in sweltering summer weather) to get the water to the young plants. In between all of that work, we did a lot of manual watering of the new plantings until we finally had our irrigation manifold assembly in place and a generator hooked up to the assembly to get water to our vines! Tony, our well driller came to hook up the manifold assembly to the controller and our electrician came to install a power cable to the generator that we had rented and finally, on July 22, we had irrigation in the vineyard. Irrigation: when you need it, it is great to have!

We have 7 zones in the vineyard, so we didn't have to irrigate all the zones at once. We did it in sections and we learned that irrigating at night was better for water conservation. It was a seriously hot summer!

References:
1. D. I. Jackson, P. B. Lombard, Environmental and Management Practices Affecting Grape Composition and Wine Quality - A Review, Am J Enol Vitic., January 1993 44: 409-430; published ahead of print January 01, 1993.

Vintage 2018: A Month of Storms

At the end of February my husband and I were thinking about beginning pruning chores because the temperatures appeared to be warming up in a hurry. And then we had bomb cyclone Riley on March 2nd, another storm on March 7, March 13, and March 21 (yesterday).
All of this reminded me of a 70's commercial about Mother Nature. Not that we were trying to fool Mother Nature, but we were certainly hoping to get a head start on pruning this year.

Oak Barrel Sizes

Until I began looking further into oak barrels, I was totally unaware of the fact that barrels come in a variety of sizes as shown below:¹

I also learned that there are specific sizes and shapes to age or ferment Burgundy versus Bordeaux wine. The Burgundy barrel called a piéce is shorter and fatter than the Bordeaux barrel called a barrique and usually holds a few liters more (228 L vs. 225 L) than the Bordeaux barrel.
American barrels are 225 Liters (59 gal), 65 and 70 gallon barrels are also available. Puncheons (hogsheads) can also be used and they can hold 120 gallons.² My husband is looking into getting us Puncheons or 500 L barrels for our fermentations and aging.
The various barrel sizes have traditional and specific uses.²

Name	#Liters	#US Gallons	Uses
Firkin	41 L	11 gal	Taking its name from old Middle Dutch for “fourth” implying a quarter of the size of a British Barrel. Traditionally used for dispensing cask ale.
Quarter Cask	50 L	13 gal	A quarter of the size and proportion of an American Standard Barrel generating a higher wood to liquid ratio. Used for rich oak finishes in Scotch and American whiskey
Rundlet	70 L	18 gal	Roughly half the size of a British Barrel. Traditionally used to transport wine.
Tierce	160 L	42 gal	Closest cask in volume to that of a modern oil drum and one third of a Pipe. Traditionally used to transport wine, mature rum or store salted goods.
British Barrel	160 L	43 gal	Roughly half a Hogshead. Traditionally used to store ale or lager
ASB Barrel	200 L	54 gal	The American Standard Barrel is used throughout the US whiskey industry after which most are exported for reuse in maturing other spirit types including rum, tequila, Scotch and Irish whiskies.
Hogshead	250-300 L	66-79 gal	The most popular cask used in maturing Scotch and Irish whiskies commonly consisting of re built ASB’s from the US which have already held American whiskey. With a slightly smaller oak to liquid ratio, it’s believed that Hogsheads react better to the cooler Scottish climate. Twice the size of a Barrel, half the size of a Butt, quarter of a Tun. Also used in wine and beer.
Barrique	cognac 300 L wine 225 L	cognac 79 gal wine 59 gal	Standard barrel used for old French wine and cognac although at two different volumes. Traditionally coopered with wooden hoops instead of metal.
Puncheon or Tertian	450 L	120 gal	Also known as a Tertian from the Latin for “third” implying a volume roughly one third of a Tun (330 litres) although modern day puncheon’s are closer to 500 litres. The modern rum industry favors a short, fat puncheon with thick staves known as a Machine Puncheon while the sherry industry prefers a more traditional tall, slim puncheon with thin staves called a Sherry Shape Puncheon.
Butt	500 L	132 gal	Twice the size of a Hogshead, tall and narrow with thick staves and a nice set of hips true to its name. Commonly used for sherry.
Pipe	650 L	172 gal	Tall cask yet stockier and rounder than a Butt with thick staves. Commonly used for port.
Drum	650 L	172 gal	True to its name, short fat and dumpy with wide staves. Common cask for Madeira wine.
Gorda	700 L	185 gal	Commonly used in North America for the marrying or vatting of different whiskies.
Tun	982 L	250 gal	Roughly twice the size of a Butt and equal to four Hogsheads. Traditionally used for the fermentation of beer or marrying of spirits. Designed to represent one perfect imperial ton of liquid.

Fun Fact: The original use of tun meant a barrel of a particular size, the space that such a barrel would occupy, and a ship's capacity to carry a given number of such barrels. Therefore the use of the term "tun" was originally a figure for space--not weight. To the English, it meant a wine barrel with a capacity of about 252 gallons. When Parliament imposed duties on the wine entering England in these barrels, the duty imposed on each tun eventually led to the use of tunnage in describing a ship's capacity to carry such barrels.³
An interesting read about the world's largest cask can be found here: Slate: From Taxes to Ax Marks: The Story Behind the World’s Largest Wine Cask.
References:
1. Drinking Cup: Understanding Maturation – Part 1: Know Your Casks.
2. Excellent slide presentation at: Barrels & Ageing, Santa Rosa Edu.
3. Shipboard Measurements.
4. Embracing Old Oak Barrels.

Troubling Implications of the New Wine Tax Law

One article caught my eye when I looked at our wine feed, it was written by guest writer Sara Schorske on the Ship Compliant Website and called Troubling Implications of the New Wine Tax Law.
Sara Schorake's article was the springboard from which I found this article also called Troubling Implications of the New Wine Tax Law written on the Compliance Service of America site.
Here is the first paragraph:
"The 2018 tax law promised to help the whole wine industry with sweeping tax reductions. When the dust settled, however, it became clear that the careless drafting and hasty enactment of the law took back some of the expected benefits and added some major headaches, explained in this article."
I tried to make sense of what those sites were about and as usual, my husband was one step ahead of me with a link to a real person, Ann Reynolds explaining the changes in terms even I could follow:

Here is the link to the TTB Tax Cuts and Job Acts of 2017: Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform.
For some background context go to Wine Grape Growers of America: Federal Excise Taxes.

Food, Wine and Harvest in Bordeaux

This morning, my husband shared this video with me. When he emailed me the link, he said, "This video is making me hungry." I think that it is a totally aspirational goal for our vineyard and lifestyle. Bring it on!

To watch the video: Google "Food, Wine and Harvest in Bordeaux Vimeo". If you are a foodie, I promise that you won't be disappointed.

Freezing Conditions During Spring Grapevine Deacclimation

For grape farmers, spring is an especially uncertain time when Mother Nature can be benevolent or violent. So far, after a mild February with temperatures in the high forties with a few fifty degree days, spring seemed to be just around the corner. However, with a bomb cyclone on March 2nd and a repeat performance on March 7th, Mother Nature is loudly proclaiming that we are still in the throes of winter.
As much as we would like to welcome warmer weather, we need these two months in March and April to prune our vines before budbreak, which in our region is typically around the last week in April in warm years, and the first week in May, in cooler years.
During the spring, while the vines are deacclimating and coming out of dormancy, they can be subject to freezing conditions. There are two types of freezing conditions known as radiation and advective freezes. The following table lists the conditions that occur under each of the freezing conditions.¹

Radiation Freeze	Advective Freeze
Radiation freeze occurs when the warm air which is normally closer to the ground is replaced by colder air, pushing the warm air above the cooler air mass (an inversion)	Advective freezes occur when a cold air mass moves into the area with subfreezing temperatures
Winds less than 5 mph	Winds higher than 5 mph
Clear sky	Sky may be cloudy
Cold air mass 30 to 200 feet thick	Cold air mass 450 to 3,000 feet thick
Inversion develops	No inversion
Cold air in the low spots
White or black frost damage
Easier to protect	Difficult to protect

There are a few methods to protect vines against spring freeze damage. These include:²

Passive Protection Methods	Active Protection Methods
Site selection	Heaters
Cultivar selection	Over-vine sprinkling
Cultural practices	Wind machines/helicopters

One of the more impressive photos of Active Protection Methods that I've seen is this from the Girl and the Grape and author, Alison Crowe kindly gave me permission to reproduce it here:³ She saw this scene when she was zipping along Hwy 121 between the towns of Sonoma and Napa, in Carneros.
It's so counterintuitive to imagine that sprinkling vines with water to create a coating of ice is an effective protection against freeze damage. This method works because when water goes from a liquid to solid state, turning into ice, there is a release of energy in the form of heat. As long as this coating of ice is kept wet, the temperature will remain at 32 degrees F and act as protection to the young buds. If the ice dries out, the water will begin to evaporate and the ice will get colder than the air temperature. Therefore, over-vine sprinkling must continue until the temperatures exceed 32 degrees F and the ice coating begins to melt. In addition, over-vine sprinkling will not work when winds are in excess of 10 mph and temperatures are lower than 24 degrees F.
While we as farmers have a few tricks up our sleeves to protect our crops, I'm always reminded of what our friend, Charles Massoud (the wise one) says:
“We are in a partnership with Mother Nature, but she is the senior partner.”
References:
1. Mark Longstroth, Michigan State University Extension, What is the difference between a frost and a freeze?, April 21, 2015.
2. Workshop Proceedings: Understanding and Preventing Freeze Damage in Vineyards, University of Missouri-Columbia, December 5-6, 2007.
3. Alison Crowe, Girl and the Grape.

Oak Barrel Morphology

My previous blog post was about Oak Species and Wood Properties of oak barrels. Today, I'm continuing the oak theme with blogging about barrel morphology and the parts of a barrel.
Here is an illustration of a barrel with all of the various parts labeled:¹

To make a barrel, the oak tree must be at least 100 years old! The trees are usually harvested in the winter or autumn when the sap is least active. The trees must be straight and defect free. Only the portion of the oak from the ground to the first lateral branches is used, which can yield at least 2 and at most 4 barrels. In France, oak forests have been farmed for hundreds of years and grown in a way to ensure the production of tall and straight trunks.

The species of oak and the wood properties play a role in how the staves are made. In oak trees, there are medullary rays that run perpendicular to the growth rings. Medullary rays are diffusion channels or 'tubes' for the transmission of water, sap and nutrients. They are arranged like spokes in a wheel.

American oak contains much more tyloses than French oak and at the intersections with the medullary rays in the growth rings, these rays concentrate tyloses, creating dams. The tyloses in American oak effectively seal up the heartwood and can be quarter sawn as opposed to French oak which must be hand hewn along the lines of the medullary rays.
These specific ways to make a stave, based on the type of oak, ensures that there will be no leakage through the medullary ray.² After the staves are made, the preferred method of drying is in the open air as opposed to the more rapid kiln drying. The staves then have a chance of drying more evenly, thereby retaining the aromatic qualities and leaching out more tannin from the wood.
Who knew that there was so much to learn about barrels and there is so much more to learn! As least my husband and I will be a informed consumers when we go to buy our barrels.
References:
1. Barrels & Ageing
2. Nick's Vintage School
3. How to Evaluate Wood

Oak Species and Wood Properties

This year, we will be buying some oak barrels for the fermentation of our Chardonnay and élevage of our red varieties Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. I never feel too comfortable in speaking about a harvest, even before budbreak occurs, but some planning needs to happen in the spring in preparation.
These attributes of an oak barrel make it ideal for winemaking:

• is strong, durable and bendable
• it allows a very slow introduction of oxygen into the wine
• it imparts the character of the wood into the wine

Oak barrels can be made from European and American oak. The various species are:

	American Oak	European Oak
Oak species	Quercus alba and six related white oak species Q. bicolor, Q. lyrata, Q. macrocarpa, Q. muehlenbergii, Q. prinus, and Q. stelata Q. garryanna from Oregon is a new source of oak flavors.	Quercus. robur (Q. pedunculata) Q. sessilis (Q. petraea, Q. sessiliflora)

The preferred part of the oak for barrel making is the heartwood. This illustration shows the location of the heartwood and sapwood.¹

In addition to the heartwood, the type of grain (tight or open), is important in the selection of the oak for barrel making. ).
So how is an oak's grain defined? The grain is defined as the average width between the annual growth rings of the tree. A growth ring is composed of the succession of the spring wood (or early wood) and summer wood (late wood). Spring wood appears richer in vessels, which conduct the sap, summer wood is denser in fibers and parenchyma and fewer vessels.

Open grain has fewer vessels (spring wood) per foot, and more fiber and parenchyma (summer wood). On the other hand, tight grain has a greater proportion of vessels and less fiber material.² Here is where things get a little tricky. Tight grain has more vessels which means that it contains more void, and is therefore more porous!

The tightness or openness of the grain is important because tight grained oak seems more aromatic since more aromas are released from the vessels, where minerals, nutrients, and sugars were located. Conversely, open grain may taste more tannic because the wine gets more contact with fiber material from the larger proportion of summer wood.
Interesting! Much more on oak barrels to come in future blogs.
References:
1. Excellent slide presentation: Barrels & Ageing.
2. Types of oak grain, wine élevage in barrel, Practical Winery & Vineyard, July 2014.
3. Oak Aging and Wine.
4. Boulton, R.B., Singleton, V.L., Bisson, L. F., and Kunkee,R.E., “ Principles and Practices of Winemaking”, Chapman & Hall, New York, 1995, pg. 399.
5. Ronald Jackson, Wine Science Third Edition, Elsevier, 2008.

March 1st 2018

Yesterday was like a tale of two days. During the day, my husband and I were in the vineyard, tethering the last rows of netting that we did not get to when winter came and it got too cold (yes, alas, we are weather wimps) to work. Our John Deere dealer came up to the land since he had a delivery in Mystic and found us at work. It was almost 60 degrees and perfect for working outdoors. My husband took a picture of this cool patterned beetle and learned that it was a Sap Beetles (Glischrochilus quadrisignatus) also known as Picnic beetles or Beer bugs.¹ What is a beetle doing out so early in the season, we wondered? This is the overwintering adult who will lay eggs that will become adults in June. They like ripe or overripe soft fruit, grains, sap, mushrooms, sweet corn... Okay, we have been warned.
Part 2: March 1st, midnight.
Beginning almost at midnight, March 1, the rains began to arrive heralding the beginning of another bomb cyclone, named Riley. The first time I heard of that moniker for a storm was on January 3rd Vintage 2018: Winter East Coast Bomb Cyclone.²

We are bracing for heavy rains and winds beginning the latter part of today, March 2nd. The weather forecasters predict that the storm will last into Sunday and may bring with it power outages and flooding in the coastal areas.
Another warning to heed!
References:
1. University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Two Beetles that Bite, August 2, 2011.
2. The Weather Channel.