Brix, pH and TA Numbers Coming In

Our Auxerrois and our Chardonnay are showing signs of softening and accumulating some sugar so we thought that it is time to take some real measurements of the Brix, pH and titratable acids (TA). Here is what we are seeing:

Variety	# of Berries	Weight	Volume of Juice	Brix	pH	TA
Auxerrois	50	62 g	30 mL	13	2.68	14.2 g/L
Chardonnay Clone-76	100	112 g	46 mL	13	2.73	14.6 g/L
Chardonnay Clone-96	100	100 g	43 mL	12	2.69	15.7 g/L

Throughout the coming weeks, we will be taking grape samples and testing for Brix, pH and TA.

Cabernet Sauvignon at Véraison

While we were concentrating our attention on our Auxerrois, the Cabernet Sauvignon was entering véraison! Last year, the Cabernet Sauvignon was at véraison around September 1, so this year it appears to be one week earlier. Strangely enough, even though the Cabernet Franc flowered earlier, the Cabernet Sauvignon is changing color first.

This one bunch was way ahead of the others with respect to ripening. We didn't have our refractometer handy, but we tasted one grape and it definitely had turned the corner on astringency and was tasting like Cabernet Sauvignon! Time to bring the refractometer into the vineyard to check on the Brix.

Auxerrois at Véraison

Our Auxerrois is always the first to come out of lag phase following the first growth period. My vineyard buddy, Bella and I noticed the softening of the Auxerrois when we were working on the Chenin Blanc which is adjacent to the Auxerrois. After handling the Chenin Blanc, the Auxerrois grapes felt much softer indicating that it was in the ripening phase.
I had my refractometer on August 15 and in checking the Brix of one grape, the Auxerrois was at 10^o Brix. On Sunday, August 18th we tasted a few grapes and the Brix at that time was 12^o Brix. The grapes are definitely taking on flavors but are still a bit tart. Time to do lab work with a repesentative sampling of grapes to measure Brix, pH and titratable acids.

2016 Domaine Javillier Cuvée Oligocène

We are fans of Domaine Javillier, having had the Chardonnay offerings, 2014 Domaine Javillier Cuvée Oligocène and 2013 Javillier Bourgogne des Forgets as well as the Pinot noir 2013 Javillier Savigny-Les-Beaune Premier Cru Les Serpentieres Bourgogne.
Their Chardonnay is one that we aspire to emulate. It is a fine balance of fruit, acidity with a touch of oak that lends a rounded mouthfeel to the wine. We had this wine with dinner last night.
Dinner consisted of Asian chicken salad. We were surprised at how well this Chardonnay paired with an Asian meal. Had we known this, I would have taken a photo of the salad, but instead, I offer you the photo from the Fine Cooking site from which I got the Crunchy Chinese Chicken Salad recipe.

If you are afraid to pair Asian foods with wine, try this Chardonnay with the Crunchy Chicken Salad. Easy short cuts in making this salad include getting a rotisserie chicken and saving the white meat for the salad and getting pre-made wonton chips. My husband liked it so much he put his seal of approval on the salad and said that I could make it for him any time.

Under the Canopy

Deja vu! We seem to be doing the same thing over and over again this time of year and it goes by the name of canopy management. We've been at this since fruitset in early July. The first task was shoot thinning and shoot positioning and then leaf pulling. Even though we feel as though we are a little ahead of where we were last year, anything can happen to derail our schedule so that we are behind.
Here is what one of our canopies look like at this moment in time.

What is under the canopy? These are Chenin Blanc grapes, not yet at véraison.

Bluebirds in the Vineyard

We have been involved in canopy management ever since fruit set. Recently, when we were doing our leaf pulling detail, we came across a row with 2 bluebird nests. Earlier, I had seen an empty nest and then more recently a nest with 3 fledgling bluebirds! This makes it the most bluebird nests that we have ever seen in the vineyard.
I think that our tall grafted vines provided the right kind of scaffold for the bluebird to build it's nest. It is a tiny but beautiful nest. Here is one with three eggs that I saw on July 30th.
In order to learn more about the bluebirds, I went to a site that told me all about Bluebirds from Egg to Empty Nest. I was interested to know when the eggs would hatch. I went back to the nest several times from July 30th until August 6th when I saw the tiny, tiny bluebirds. Here are my photos:

Seeing all these bluebirds got me interested in knowing where the phrase "bluebird of happiness" came from. I looked up many sites on the Internet but I liked this the best from Anne Koplik:
Spotting a bluebird is usually recognized as a symbol of joy and happiness that you’ll be expecting in the future. The symbol of the bluebird is found in many cultures and dates back thousands of years. It can also represent hope, cheerfulness, prosperity, good health, and renewal coming your way!

Grape Berry Circulatory System

One of my favorite articles that I refer to again and again, is called Understanding berry development which appeared in the July 2002 issue of Practical Winery and Vineyard. In that article, I thought that it was the phloem that shutdown as véraison approached, but I was wrong, it was the xylem! So much for my memory.
Here is an illustration from the article that shows how the grape berry changes in metabolites, size, as well as xylem and phloem activities.

Very little information is given in the 2002 article for the reason why the xylem appears to shut down once véraison occurs.
I came across an article published in March, 2018 in Wines & Vines that addressed the situation regarding the apparent cessation of xylem activity to the berry when véraison approaches.
The xylem and the phloem are part of the circulatory system of the grape berry. The xylem, shown in blue in the above diagram, is the main pipeline that delivers water, mineral nutrients, and growth regulators from the root system to the rest of the vine, including the developing grape berry. Water can move in and out of the berry through the xylem.
The phloem, shown in pink, is the vascular pathway that brings the photosynthates or the sugary solution made from photosynthesis by the leaf (the source), into the berry (the sink). The phloem can transport the photosynthates only one way, from the leaves to the berries.
The diagram also shows that after véraison, the xylem plays very little role in bringing nutrients and water to the ripening berry. Why is that?
The authors of the second article, Zhang and Hansen, set out to answer that question. They discovered that the xylem doesn't actually shutdown, but it is the phloem that takes over the sugar water importation as the berry begins to ripen.
The xylem is still functional after véraison, however, at this point, it is not supplying water to the berry. The authors make a case that late season drip irrigation will not dilute the sugars in the berry, helps to avoid water stress before harvest and helps to keep the vines healthy as they enter dormancy.
References:
1. Kennedy, James, Understanding berry development, Practical Winery and Vineyard, 2002, 24.
2. Yun Zhang and Melissa Hansen, Grapes and Irrigation Myths Debunked, Wines & Vines, March, 2018.

Pottery on a Petiole

I was working in the vineyard doing some leaf pulling when I came upon this little mud vase that looked very much like a skilled potter made it. I thought it must be a mud dauber nest so when I went home, I looked it up on the Internet and was a little disappointed that it wasn't anything at all like what a mud dauber makes. My curiosity didn't take me any further than that cursory query that day. Flash forward.

My husband and I were working in the vineyard in our Cabernet Sauvignon doing some canopy management. In doing this, we came upon this beautiful work of pottery which was on one of our leaves. I told my husband that I had seen the same thing before on another leaf. I whipped out my cell phone and took this picture. When we went home, my husband (expert internet surfer) searched on mud pottery nest and up came oodles of images of what we took a photo of. This is the nest of a potter wasp, Eumenes fraternus.
I found more information at the Texas Aggie Horticulture Site devoted to the Potter Wasp. The potter wasp is part of the family Vespidae, subfamily Eumeninae. This creation is called a brood nest.
How does the potter wasp make this nest? They first collect water and then mix it with dry soil using their mandibles. The mud mixture is transported to the nest-making site where it is fashioned into individual pots ranging in size from 1/4" - 6/16" in diameter, or the size of a marble. The entire construction process may require hundreds of trips over several hours. Amazing!
These wasps are solitary and are beneficial because they hunt for caterpillars to paralyze and place them in the brood cell to serve as the source of food for the developing young.
Who knew that the builders of this beautiful pottery pot looking brood nests are beneficial! The vineyard is teaching us something everyday.
References:
1. Texas Aggie Horticulture Site, Potter Wasp.
2. Buckeye Yard and Garden Online, Pottery Wasp.

Grape Status in the Vineyard

This year Mother Nature has provided us with weather that is almost perfect for grape growing. Although we had a very wet April and May, and some of the rain did affect fruitset, the weather from mid-June on has been perfect for grape growing. Here are photos is what we are seeing. We are not quite at veraison.

Varietal	Grape Status
Auxerrois
Chenin Blanc
Chardonnay
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Franc

2012 Martinelli Jackass Hill Zinfandel

Recently, our friends treated us to this 2012 Martinelli Jackass Hill Zinfandel. It is a special wine in our friend's and our memories. The story is this. One night early on in our friendship with this couple, my husband decided that we would drink a Martinelli Jackass Hill Zinfandel. At that time, this bottle of wine might have been one of the more prized in our collection. My husband reminded me (don't you remember, I am so disappointed) that we purchased this wine along with a Turley Tofanelli Vineyard Zinfandel at that wine store in Healdsburg.
What to pair it with? Since it was somewhat of an impromptu dinner, we bought pizza. Once the pizza arrived, we opened the bottle and out came a most wondrous perfume like an aroma genii, unseen but nevertheless present, filling our dining room. We all remarked on it and proceeded to drink this wine with pizza. Throughout the evening, we thought that this was the most elegant pairing of wine and food and it became imprinted in our memory and ever after, we referred to that time we had Jackass Hill with pizza.
So, on this night in 2019, our friends decided to recreate the memory of Martinelli Jackass Hill Zinfandel with pizza. I asked our friend, "what year do you think we had the Martinelli?" He said, "sometime before 2004." The wine was as ethereal as ever and we toasted to the memory of our magical first dinner of Martinelli Jackass Hill Zinfandel and pizza.
I did not know this but reading the back label on the bottle, is a story of how the vineyard became known as Jackass Hill. The story is also on the Martinelli Website. The moniker Jackass Hill goes back to the inception of the vineyard in the 1880's when Giuseppe Martinelli bought an impossible to farm slope in Sonoma County and planted it to Zinfandel. Giuseppi's son Leno took over farming the steep hillside after finishing the 8th grade. None of Giuseppi's other sons wanted to farm that hillside saying that only a jackass would farm a hill that steep.
We would never have associated Jackass Hill with such a disparaging story because in our minds and memories, Jackass Hill was elevated to near peerless perfection!