Vintage 2021: January Update

Here is the first blogpost for Vintage 2021. So far, the winter has been on the mild side with just one major snowfall occuring on December 17, 2020. January has been snow-free and mild so I thought I would start the year with the chart of the Annual Cycle of Growth.

I realized that I hadn't filled in the dates for véraison and harvest in 2020 and since this data is a good thing to have, updated the chart.
While the Annual Cycle of Growth begins with budbreak, there is a lot of work to do to prepare for that event. Winter is when dormant pruning occurs, but there are many tasks prior to pruning which includes cutting all of the tendrils off of the trellis wire as well as putting all of our Agfast on to the top trellis wire. These two things should facilitate pruning, which last year took the entire month of February.
During pruning, we used a new wound dressing called VitiSeal. We used a spray bottle as an applicator, but this year we might try paint brushing it on to the wound site.
One of things that we learned last year is that we have to be prepared to drop our nets on the Auxerrois in August to discourage our friendly vineyard Baltimore Orioles not to peck on the ripening grapes. The Auxerrois reaches véraison first followed soon after by the Chardonnay. So, the Chardonnay also must be protected from bird marauders soon after the Auxerrois. Although the Cabs do enter véraison shortly after the Auxerrois and the Chardonnay, their thick skins gives us a little breathing room to work.
The other operational change we made last year was not to spray the entire vineyard. While it was very nice for us when we did that since certain chemical applications had a 3 day reentry time, that did keep us from working in the vineyard, putting us behind the eight ball. Spraying half the vineyard allowed us to work on the other half of the vineyard.
This year is another year to see how we can streamline certain tasks so that we can be on top of our vineyard care. Crossing our fingers that this February is as amenable to working as last February was.