Cool-Climate Wine Versus Warm-Climate Wine

Recently, I read a really interesting article from Wine Enthusiast called The Real Difference Between Cool-Climate and Warm-Climate Wine. Mother Nature plays a big role in the vineyard and that translates into the type of wine that can be made. This article explains the flavor differences between a wine made in a cool-climate versus a wine made in a warm-climate.
Wine grapes grow best in the northern and southern hemispheres between 30° – 50° latitude. So what defines a cool-climate wine? Cool climate is also a function of elevation. Vineyards perched in the mountains enjoy cooler temperatures than fruit on the valley floor. Other factors can include the amount of rainfall, humidity, and cooling or warming forces like cloud cover and wind patterns. These climatic differences contribute to the overall flavor profile of a wine.

Cool Climate Wine Attributes	Warm Climate Wine Attributes
Grapes do not ripen as quickly	Grapes ripen faster
Lower natural sugars	Accumulates more sugars, can lead to higher alcohol content
Higher acidity	Can be a struggle to maintain acidity in a wine
Tart fruits flavors like cranberry, raspberry, sour cherry and green apple are common	Darker fruit flavors often dominate like plums, blueberries, blackberries, and these wines can even exhibit chocolate notes.
Wines may be described as elegant, nuanced and fresh	Wines may struggle to taste fresh, leading to stewed, shapeless or flabby flavors

White grapes suited for cool-climates include: Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris and Gewürtztraminer. Red grapes suited for cool-climates include Pinot Noir and Zweigelt. While in warm climates, Zinfandel, Grenache and Shiraz attain their full expression. Cab Sauv from cool-climate Bordeaux often shows herbal, savory and gravely mineral character with drier tannins while in Napa Valley, it loses the herbal notes, also known as pyrazines, and takes on ripe blackberry fruit with voluptuous softer tannins. Knowing this, you can surprise your friends during a wine tasting by correctly stating whether the wine you are drinking is from a cool or warm-climate and try to pinpoint the locale that your wine came from.
References:
1. Lauren Mowery, The Real Difference Between Cool-Climate and Warm-Climate Wine, Wine Enthusiast, May 1, 2018.

Vine Cycle and Vineyard Activities

I've already used the following illustration in a blog I wrote called Vine Growth where I summarize when the various parts of the grapevine are growing. But, it is still a very good reference to have about all of the activities that the grape vine is undergoing once budbreak occurs.
This illustration is from Ronald Jackson's Wine Science: Principles and Applications, and shows the growth rate of various organs of ‘Colombar’ grapevines grown in South Africa throughout the season.¹

One of the things that can be gleaned from this illustration is that it takes about 200 days from budbreak to harvest. This is a guideline.
From another one of my favorite online articles, Ed Hellman's Grapevine Structure and Function, I extracted this timeline and kept information about our varieties beginning with our very first very small harvest of Chenin Blanc in 2015.

One thing that can be gleaned by keeping a log like that shown above is the number of days from budbreak to harvest. We now have six data points!

Varietal	Budbreak	Harvest	Number of Days
Chenin Blanc	May 8, 2015	September 22, 2015	137
Chenin Blanc	April 26, 2016	September 26, 2016	156
Auxerrois	April 30, 2017	September 21, 2017	144
Chenin Blanc	April 30, 2017	October 7, 2017	160
Chardonnay	April 30, 2017	September 23, 2017	146

Since the data points above are for very young plants, they serve only as a rough guideline. This year, we hope to have a better understanding of how to ripen a vineyard that is at 85% replanted capacity, with vines in their fourth leaf. We're hoping for Mother Nature's full cooperation!
References:
1. Jackson, Ronald S., Wine Science: Principles and Applications, Third Edition, Elsevier, Academic Press, 2008, pg. 109.
2. Ed Hellman, Grapevine Structure and Function.

2010 Alpha Estate Xinomavro

This 2010 Alpha Estate Xinomavro is a red wine made in Greece. It is already 8 years old and the good thing about it is that you can purchase this wine for under $20.00! The wine reminded me of drinking Barbera. I thought it had a good acidity and possessed mellow tannins.
While we had this wine with chicken parmesan on a bed of spaghetti, it will go well with any meal with red sauce. It will also stand up nicely to a good steak as well as a nice burger.
From the label on the back of the bottle, I learned that Alpha Estate is located in the northwest part of Greece, in Macedonia.

The Xinomavro is called the noblest red varietal of northern Greece. Xinomavro can be translated into "acid black", a reference to the grape's acidity. Alpha Estate is located on the Amyndeon plateau, and is part of the Amyndeon viticulture zone.² The source of this Xinomavro is the Hedgehog Vineyards located at an altitude of 690 meters facing Petron Lake and Voras Mountain.
On the Alpha Estate Website, they include the vinification and aging methods: Destemming, no crushing, cold soak - skin contact, alcoholic fermentation at gradual increasing temperatures, maintenance of wine "sur lies" for eight months with regular stirring. Twelve months in French oak barrel medium grain, white toasting and twelve months in the bottle.
I think this wine could be a great summer addition to BBQs and hamburger cuisine! I am so looking forward to warmer weather!
References:
1. The Greek Grape.
2. Alpha Estate.

Pros and Cons of Early Leaf Removal

In my previous post, I wrote about What is Early Leaf Removal? This is the follow up blogpost regarding the pros and cons of early leaf removal. Early Leaf Removal (ELR) is a technique that is still experimental and doesn't replace traditional canopy management activities but can be good for highly-fruitful varieties that produce a high number of clusters (3-4 per shoot) or large clusters such as Grüner Veltliner, Sangiovese, and Barbera.
The benefits of ELR are the following:

• ELR when performed at the onset of fruit-set, may induce a reduction in berry size and an increase in berry abscission due to carbohydrate limitation at the onset of fruit development
• ELR may be employed as a potential alternative to cluster thinning techniques used for crop yield control in highly-fruitful wine grape varieties
• ELR can be more easily mechanized, as opposed to cluster thinning for crop yield control
• ELR decreases cluster compactness by reducing the number of berries per cluster and/or the berry size and can serve to reduce the severity of Botrytis bunch rot infection in susceptible varieties
• ELR of basal leaves increases sunlight penetration and air movement in the fruiting zone, which is important for improving spray penetration within the canopy
• ELR can also reduce methoxypyrazines, ‘herbaceous’ aromas found in higher concentrations among immature grapes at harvest, and may contribute to improved wine color intensity in red varieties

Employing early leaf removal is tricky business because the basal leaves are being removed pre-bloom. During this time, the basal leaves are the one that are photosynthetically active, providing the carbohydrates to the inflorescence as well as the growing shoot.
The disadvantages of ELR may be:

• ELR may potentially exacerbate ‘poor’ fruit-set if extended periods of wet, cool (< 59°F), overcast, or very hot (> 90°F) weather conditions occur following leaf removal
• ELR may lead to bud damage as a result of physical damage during leaf removal and/or reduction of carbohydrate supply during bud development
• ELR effects on carbohydrate storage in perennial tissues and its relation to dormant tissue (buds and canes) cold hardiness development is still unknown and under active research at this time
• ELR use and crop estimation prediction is unknown at this time; cluster thinning is a more conservative approach and can provide a better estimation of final yield

Since we do not have overly fruitful varieties in our vineyard, with the exception of Barbera, which is still not producing any fruit, I think we will be sticking to the standard practice of leaf removal after berry set.
References:
1. Maria Smith and Dr. Michela Centinari, Early season grapevine canopy management, Part II: Early leaf removal (ELR), Dept. of Plant Science.
2. Tommaso Frioni, Shijian Zhuang, Alberto Palliotti, Paolo Sivilotti, Rachele Falchi, Paolo Sabbatini, "Leaf Removal and Cluster Thinning Efficiencies Are Highly Modulated by Environmental Conditions in Cool Climate Viticulture", Am J Enol Vitic., March 2017.

What is Early Leaf Removal?

Late last year, after harvest, my husband forwarded me this link that appeared in Wines & Grape U, Early season grapevine canopy management, Part II: Early leaf removal (ELR) that explains the benefits of leaf removal around bloom. It is now time to revisit this article.
From taking the U.C. Davis online course, I was familiar with the advantages of leaf removal. I was, however, unaware of the timing and the removal of certain leaves as well as the advantages of the canopy management system called early leaf removal.
Leaf removal is an adjustment of total vine leaf area and affects the relationship between photosynthetically active leaf area and yield and can lead to:

• Improved the cluster microclimate
• Additional sunlight penetration
• Higher temperature in the cluster

What is early leaf removal (ELR)? At the moment, ELR is still considered an experimental canopy management technique for crop control of highly-fruitful varieties. ELR is the removal of basal leaves of the main shoots and, optionally, lateral shoots developed from the basal nodes. ELR is typically performed shortly before (pre-bloom) or at the beginning of bloom.¹

Early leaf removal is still an experimental technique for highly-fruitful varieties. The next blogpost will deal with the pros and cons of using this technique during pre-bloom to bloom.
Back to disbudding work for us. Nearly finished with that task!
References:
1. Maria Smith and Dr. Michela Centinari, Early season grapevine canopy management, Part II: Early leaf removal (ELR), Dept. of Plant Science,
2. Tommaso Frioni, Shijian Zhuang, Alberto Palliotti, Paolo Sivilotti, Rachele Falchi, Paolo Sabbatini, "Leaf Removal and Cluster Thinning Efficiencies Are Highly Modulated by Environmental Conditions in Cool Climate Viticulture", Am J Enol Vitic., March 2017.

Vintage 2018: Budbreak

We have been busy pruning our vines in a race against budbreak. We did have a little breather after we finished pruning our last vine on April 29th and were waiting for budbreak. While we were waiting, we got in a round of mowing and we are now weeding in the vine rows.
I never take budbreak for granted and look for signs of life, but this spring has been unusually cold, windy and rainy which delayed budbreak in our vineyard.
Everything happens all at once! We have budbreak! Here is what the various varieties are doing at the moment. The red varieties are behind the white varieties, with the Cabernet Sauvignon 412 being the slowest. For the whites, typically Chardonnay is the first to reach budbreak and the Auxerrois is typically the laggard. In this photo of Chenin Blanc, I can just begin to see the inflorescence (flowers). Exciting!

Done Pruning

We began pruning on March 24th and pruned our last vine on April 29th. While we were doing the job, we constantly told ourselves that next year we will be starting earlier. We will have to, given all of the canes that we laid down this year. Here is what the vineyard looked like before pruning. Before pruning:

Here is what one row looked like after pruning. After pruning:

We are breathing a sigh of relief. Not only that, at the beginning of this week, April 30th, it still felt like a winter chill was in the air, but as of Wednesday, there definitely was a touch of summer in the air. The buds are sensing this change in temperature as well since they have begun their slow but inexorable passage to budbreak.