Vintage 2020: June Update

On May 26, I wrote a blogpost called Vintage 2020: Got Rain Will Grow. At that time, we were working on disbudding. With all of the rain we received in May and two soaking rains that occurred on June 6 and June 11, our plants quickly went from disbudding to shoot thinning.
We began June with shoot thinning in the Chardonnay, which was the farthest along of our grape varieties. The next variety that required attention was the Barbera which I wrote about in a blogpost called Our Barbera has Flowers! Since we only had one row of Barbera with canes that we laid down, the shoot positioning of the Barbera went relatively quickly.
Work on the Auxerrois began on June 9th and we still have a few more vines that require shoot positioning. Here is a photo of the Auxerrois that have been shoot positioned and all of the leaves are acting as solar panels using a complex process called photosynthesis.

Working so closely with the vines allows us to come in contact with some interesting sights. While working in the Auxerrois, I came upon this Sphinx moth. It let me take numerous photos of it.

When I showed my husband my photos, he said, "I don't like that, I don't like that at all." We both know that the Sphinx moth caterpillar can cause extensive damage to grape vines. When we first planted our vines in 2013, we came upon the Sphinx moth caterpillar which I blogged about in Eumorpha pandorus: Beautiful But Voracious. While, I know that the caterpillar can devastate a vine, I just couldn't bring myself to kill the moth.

In the meantime, the Cabernet Franc decided to take off as well. So, we moved on to shoot positioning the Cabernet Franc. We have two clones of this variety, 214 and 327. We have noticed that the 214 blooms earlier than the 327 and therefore is a little ahead phenologically speaking than the 327. While shoot positioning the 214, I came across one bearing three sets of inflorescence!
All of this is keeping us very busy.