Vintage 2021: Pruning Update

At the beginning of the month I blogged about Vintage 2021: March Pruning Time. This blogpost is an update on where we are. We have friends who come to help us with this activity (thought for a moment to call it "chore" but "activity" is much more positive!)
Our vineyard is comprised of 36 rows of vines and each row is around 800 feet long. From west to east, we have 5 rows of Auxerrois, 17 rows of Chenin Blanc, 8 rows of Chardonnay, 2 rows each of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Barbera.
From past experience, we know that the Chardonnay and the Auxerrois are the first to budbreak so we prune those vines first. This year we are also pruning the red varieties before the Chenin Blanc. This year, we are trying something a little different. The steps are still the same, but now we are doing them concurrently:

• Lower netting in order to cut tendrils, remove Agfast and cut wire on last year's fruiting cane

• Cut the tops of last year's shoots, now 1 year old canes; cut these shoots shorter than the shoots that will possibly be used for this year's fruiting canes
• Raise netting
• Do the final pruning leaving potential canes to lay down
• Lay canes down on the fruiting wire
• Rake up the cuttings for later removal

Our friends have been coming to rake up the cuttings that are in the vineyard rows. About one third of the vineyard now has the canes laid down in preparation for budbreak.

We have about half the vineyard pruned at this point and another half to go!

Designing a Winery: 2010 Interview in Wine Business Monthly

This blog is exerpted from two articles that appeared in Wine Business Monthly in 2010. It featured Scott Bartley, Peter Lescure and Mike Kiani on tips for how to plan for success in Winery Construction.

• The roundtable agreed that the first thing that the owner should develop is a business plan to define the vision and the budget
• The use permit can proceed concurrently with the business plan
• Get people involved with the expertise up front
• Have a dedicated winemaker in place
• Architectural schematic design includes: the design process, design development, construction documents and construction

Peter Lescure provided a chart of Winery Development Functions and when various people involved in the planning and construction need to be involved:

The roundtable panel had many more ideas they discussed including:

• Appriopriate design of the refrigeration load for the three months that it will be needed
• Importance of freight access; loading dock
• Power needs and energy costs
• Building with ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) in mind
• How to deal with waste water

References:
1. Bill Pregler, Industry Roundtable: Winery Construction Part 1 -- Plan for Success, Wine Business Monthly, June 2010.
2. Bill Pregler, Industry Roundtable: Winery Construction Part 2 -- Plan for Success, Wine Business Monthly, June 2010.

2000 Chateau D'Issan Margaux

The first day of spring occured this past Saturday, March 21. It was a beautiful day and we spent a good portion of it pruning our vines. As a celebration of spring, my husband decided to fire up the barbie! He bought some steaks and veggies to cook on the grill. We decided to pair our meal with this 2000 Chateau D'Issan Margaux. How did this happen? All of our wines that my husband has "catalogued" is in the wine cellar. He directed me to "those black boxes" and said just pick one up and look at the label and this was the first bottle that I picked up. (Question: what else does he have down there?)
I remarked that the wine was now a young adult! When it was time for dinner, we opened up the Margaux and poured the dark purple wine into our glasses. I detected a bit of barnyard on the nose. Not off putting, but it was there. There was a lot of dark fruit flavors like black raspberries and black currents with a spicy finish. The wine was well balanced with soft tannins. It tasted like a wonderfully evolved wine with a fresh, youthfulness that means that there maybe more years to enjoy this 2000 Chateau D'Issan. It was the right wine with steak to commemorate the beginning of spring, 2021!

Preparing for Pruning our Chardonnay

The first day of spring found us in the vineyard getting ready to prune our Chardonnay. It was a beautiful first day of spring and the next few days will also bring temperatures in the 60's. I was going ahead of my husband removing the tendrils, Agfast and ties holding down last year's canes. I spotted this Chardonnay that accomplished what we were hoping to achieve from last year's pruning.
This photos shows that the cane that we laid down last year came from a region that was somewhat removed from the graft union. We were hoping to encourage new shoots to come from a region closer to the graft union. The vine cooperated and we were rewarded with two new shoots that will be laid down for this year's fruit.

Although it is delightful to work in 60 degree temperatures, we hope that this is just a passing phase since we have a lot more of the vineyard to prune before budbreak! Just asking, weather-gods.

2018 Goodfellow Family Whistling Ridge Chardonnay

We recently received our Chardonnay purchase from Goodfellow Family Cellars located in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. We were looking forward to tasting this Chardonnay and it did not disappoint. It was very pale yellow in the glass and had a beautiful aroma of citrus fruits. It was medium body and the finish had a hint of spice.
Overall, I thought that the wine was very well balanced between the fruit and the acidity. The back label says that Whistling Ridge sits on an exposed ridge top of uplifted marine sedimentary soils. Only 140 cases of this Chardonnay was made.
We paired the Chardonnay with another of my attempts at making Side Street Inn pork chops. Once you've had a taste of this pork chop in Hawaii, all other pork chops pale in comparison. Actually, to call this "fried pork chops" is to deny the magic of this out-of-this-world gustatory delight. Those of you who have had this know what I talkin' bout!
For this attempt, I put the salt, pepper, garlic powder on both sides of the pork, and wrapped it with cling wrap for 8 hours. Just before cooking, I took the pork chop out so that it could come to room temperature. I cut a slit on the fat side of the pork chops so that it will lay flat while cooking (tip). I dredged it in a one-to-one mixture of flour and cornstarch, got the pan piping hot and began searing the pork. When I saw blood, or in about 7 minutes, I knew that I could turn the pork over and cook for another 6-7 minutes. Here is my attempt:

My husband said, "Getting closer". I guess this means that we just have to make a trip to Hawaii to get the one-of-a-kind, original Side Street Inn pork chops to refresh our memory!

Designing a Gravity Flow Winery

We have been interested in using gravity to move our must and wine around for a long time. The research article Layout and Evaluation of Clavey Winery Facility that I referenced in my previous blog, Layout and Evaluation of Clavey Winery Facility had a section on designing a gravity flow winery.
Some of the features of a gravity flow designed winery are:¹

• May lower non-soluble solids
• May eliminate the need for some processing equipment (pumps)
• May use less energy
• May make winery flow more compact
• May enhance tourist view

Gravity Flow Four Level Design:

• De-stemming crushing, filling, and punching open fermentors
• ~11 feet below-press and unloading fermentors
• ~3 feet lower- the barrel cellar, main tank room, lab, wine library, storage
• ~4 feet lower-loading dock

In the Angold research paper, the following diagrams conceptualized the layout:

I thought that this was a nice place to begin imagining how our property might accomodate a gravity flow winery. I did go to the Clavey Winery website, but unfortunately they did not show if the owners had actually implemented this design.
References:
1. Ron Angold, Layout and Evaluation of Clavey Winery Facility, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, 2009.

Layout and Evaluation of Clavey Winery Facility

When we are not pruning in the vineyard, we are trying to figure out how to configure our winery keeping our workflow foremost in our minds. I came across this research paper written by Ron Angold called Layout and Evaluation of Clavey Winery Facility written in fulfillment of his senior project in December, 2009.
This paper is right up our alley because it discusses how to design a winery for a 2500 gallon (approximately 1041 cases) facility with expansion in mind. I realized that I looked at this research paper a while back because one of the layout designs that I put into my own folder of "Winery Designs" came from this paper! So now I know where to attribute the design.
So, in this blog I'm going to abstract the relevant information beginning with the factors that needed to be considered when designing the wine facility layout:

• amount and type of grapes to be produced
• gravity flow design
• equipment needed
• wine storage

Winery design should take into account:

• Raw product handling
  grape receiving
  inspection
  fruit culling
  weighing
  dumping
  de-stemming
  crushing
  pressing
  sanitation
  incoming and outgoing waste
  
• Fermentation
  settling and fermentation tanks
• Storage
  space requirements for barrels can be calculated to be approximately 5.5 square feet per 200L (53 gallon) barrel
• Laboratory
  sample receipt
  sample preparation
  wet chemistry
  sensory analysis
  instrumentation
  microbiological analyses
  wash/clean up
  administration
• Bottling use constract bottling(?)
• Warehousing
• Tourism/tasting room

This research paper is well written and easy to understand. There is a second section on gravity flow that I would like dedicate a separate blog to. See you later!
References:
1. Ron Angold, Layout and Evaluation of Clavey Winery Facility, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, 2009.

Moveable Netting Catchwires

In 2019, we moved all of our netting from a fixed catchwire to a moveable wire. We were hoping to avoid the problems that we faced when the shoots grew and tangled their tendrils into the netting, making shoot positioning an onerous task. This year, we are making use of that feature and moving the nets from their position at the end of harvest, to the lowest possible setting. Our friends came to lend us a hand and this is what the netting position looks like before and after:

Moving the netting to the lower setting facilitates the clean up work that goes on in removing the tendrils, Agfast and the wire holding down last year's lay down cane.

I have to say, though, the Barbera is a tangled mess! But the new netting position makes all the tendrils visible and easier to trim.

Pruning Essentials

I can across another timely article in our Wine Business Monthly journal. It's called Site-specific Pruning Simplified written by Mark Greenspan. Here are some pruning rules mentioned in that article.
No Skinny Stuff

• Don't leave skinny wood
• Dormant buds and early-emerging shoots rely on stored carbohydrate in the woody tissues nearby until leaves become functional and begin photosynthesis
• Leaving skinny wood starves the buds and young shoots for energy when they need it most
• In cane-pruned vines, skinny wood slows bud emergence, and sometimes buds don’t burst at all
• Weak wood will leave weak shoots and canes that will be skinny the following year
• Excessive buds retained at pruning will weaken the vine over time and could potentially create ancillary problems, such as greater disease susceptibility
• Vines that have been overtaxed by overly generous pruning (i.e., leaving more buds than they should have) continue to be weak
• Prune to wood that is no less than 1 centimeter in diameter (three-eighths of an inch)
• Leaving thicker, stronger wood will produce more uniform and stronger shoots and canes
• Thick canes with long internodes and that are possibly also flattened/oval-shaped, rather than round in cross-section, are often poor choices for cane-pruning
• Eight to 10 buds per cane will usually do; any more can lead to uneven budbreak

Timing

• Budbreak timing will be affected by the timing of pruning
• Susceptibility to spring frosts is an important consideration as is susceptibility to poor weather during bloom and fruit set
• Early pruning is really only beneficial if fruit ripening is difficult in a particular situation; otherwise later is better

Finer Aspects of Pruning

• Avoid large flush cuts to older wood because they will die back and create zones of desiccation that will interfere with the vascular system of the trunk or cordon

Last year, we applied the Simonit & Sirch Pruning Techniques to our vineyard and we think we achieved some good results. Please check out that link if you are interested in that technique. Photos of pruned vines come from our friend in the UK, Cameron Roucher, the vineyard manager at Rathfinney.
References:
1. Mark Greenspan, Site-specific Pruning Simplified, Wine Business Monthly, January 2020.

2017 Beau Rivage Chenin Blanc

My husband recently participated in Beserker Day and scored us some Chenin Blanc from California. We had the 2017 Beau Rivage and really like it. We thought the wine was well balanced with stone fruit notes and an acidic finish.

The pairing that went with the Chenin Blanc was a kicked up version of the gnocchi that we had in January. This version had pancetta in it and flavor-wise made all the difference.

Vintage 2021: March Pruning Time

The birds are singing around 5 a.m. letting us know that spring is just around the corner. The lion of the adage, "March comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb" roared on March 2, with howling wind gusts of 50 mph! However, the very next day, the lamb made it's appearance and we've begun pruning duties in the vineyard.
Last year, we began in February, which was an unusually warm month cutting tendrils. We then did a first pass of cutting the tops of the canes. Those two activities took us into the first week of April.
This year, we are cutting tendrils, removing Agfast, cutting the wire that is holding down the cane we laid down and freeing the vine for it's final pruning. Although this pre-pruning work is taking some time, we hope that the actual pruning will be facilitated.
We began in our Auxerrois and were very happy to see that our canes are very healthy. I had to refer to the blog that I wrote in 2016 called Stages of Budbreak to get calibrated on what stage we are seeing for the Auxerrois and it looks as if the buds maybe in their "bud scale opening" phase.

Looks a bit early to me!

My Recent Education on Petite Sirah

We don't drink much Petite Sirah in our home unless it comes with a blend of other grape varieties, so I know very little about the variety. Recently, while reading the August 2020 issue of Wine Business Monthly, I came across an article written by Lance Cutler called Varietal Focus: Petite Sirah. This is a fun fact that I learned: French grape botanist and breeder named François Durif found this new varietal in a vineyard planted with Peloursin. While he knew one of the parents to be Peloursin, the other parent, the pollinating parent, was a mystery to him.

Nevertheless, when you're the discoverer of a new variety, you can name it after yourself, and this cross was called Durif. The advantage of this new variety was that it was highly resistant to downy mildew, but because it had tight bunches, was prone to rot. So, it fell out of favor in France.
In 1884, Charles McIver imported this variety for his Linda Vista Vineyard in Alameda County. The small berries provided a high skin-to-juice ratio, leading to inky-colored wines with monster tannins. The vines were vigorous, produced huge crops and thrived in California’s dry climate.
Through time, the grape known as Durif became known as Petite Sirah. Many sites credit this renaming of Durif to Petite Sirah to Charles McIver. It became very popular in California and was used mainly as a blending grape. In the 1890's California was hit with phylloxera which wiped out many of the Syrah vines, but the Petite Sirah managed to survive. Petite Sirah with it's tougher skin and smaller berries continued to hang on during Prohibition as the grape of choice to ship to home winemakers on the east coast.³
In 1999, Carole Meredith et al. did the DNA parentage to identify that Petite Sirah in California is identical to the variety called Durif and the parentage was a cross between Syrah and Peloursin.⁴ Peloursin is a very old French variety from the Isere region of France, on the east side of the Rhône River. Syrah is the ancient noble variety from which the great Northern Rhône wines of Côte Rôtie and Hermitage are made.⁵
All this education has got me wanting to try some Petite Sirah. The Wine Business Monthly goes on to interview these following winemakers and their wine:

• 2017 Lytton Estate Petite Sirah John Olney from Ridge Vineyards: trying to bring elegance to a rustic variety focusing on bringing balance in terms of ripeness, acidity, fruit emphasis and especially tannin; aromatics reminiscent of its Syrah parentage, intense color and full-coated tannins, floral hints, mineral and wet stone
• 2016 Gianna’s Block Petite Sirah Nova Perrill from Foppiano Vineyards: striving to achieve dark color, tannins and deep fruit, in an elegant way, complexing components of coffee and cocoa for a lush mid-palate and a long finish
• 2016 Estate Petite Sirah Ross Reedy from Truett Hurst Winery: style goals are all about concentration and power with balance as the fruit and tannin work in perfect harmony; blue and black fruit with soft tannins, seamless movement from front to back with a long and lush finish
• 2013 Elevation Petite Sirah Mike Dunn from Retro Cellars: a cold-climate Petite Sirah, lower in alcohol and higher in acidity than warmer locations, enhancing black cherry and blue fruit components while taming tannins
• 2012 Napa Valley Petite Sirah Matt Sunseri from Aratas Wines: focus is to create wines with a firm mid-palate and muscular structure but with expressive redolent fruit that shows a little restraint, subtle, exotic spice imparted to wine from aging in Hungarian oak
• 2017 Royal Punishers Petite Sirah Tres Goetting from Biale Winery: trying to achieve a wine that is dark and ripe and layered with complexity, both aromatically and on the palate, bold fruit and tannin extraction, dense weight without any residual sugar, fine-grained tannins that are long without being hard, alcohol that is not too high and oak that lifts the fruit without over-powering it
• 2017 Petite Sirah Thompson Vineyard Stephen Searle from Jaffurs Winery: embraces the bold and brash nature of Petite Sirah, looking for dark, inky colors and big, ripe aromas and flavors with silky tannins; balance power and drinkability; use of American oak lends chocolate notes and mouthfeel
• 2015 Estate Petite Sirah Paul Frankle Sculpterra Winery: striving for big flavors with plenty of floral aspects highlighted by the lavender character that comes from our vineyard, tend towards high alcohol with a long finish
• 2016 Petite Sirah Aaron Jackson from Aaron Wines: vision is a Petite Sirah which is powerful, rich and highly extracted, but also balanced, look for ripe fruit with savory notes, spice and balanced acidity, goal is to make a “complete” wine, one that is true to the varietal yet has polished mouthfeel, a round mid-palate and a soft tannic finish that provides structure

References:
1. Lance Cutler, Varietal Focus: Petite Sirah, Wine Business Monthly, pg. 12-33, August, 2020.
2. Illustration from: Petite Sirah, Wine Oh.tv
3. Sean Ludford, The Joys of Petite Sirah, July 25, 2017.
4. Carole P. Meredith, John E. Bowers, Summaira Riaz, Vanessa Handley, Elizabeth B. Bandman, Gerald S. Dangl, The Identity and Parentage of the Variety Known in California as Petite Sirah, Am. J. Enol. Vitic., Vol. 50, No. 3, 1999.
5. PS I Love You.org, Petite Sirah.