Waiting for Fischer Twister

Our days are now filled with shoot thinning and weed whacking. My husband does the weed whacking and I am shoot thinning. How many rows can we do a day, you ask. The answer is 2. At this rate, it will take us 18 days to do the entire vineyard. Here is what we have done so far:

What we are waiting for is the arrival of the Fischer Trimmer that my husband ordered last October. It looks like this and makes short work of cutting down the growing weeds in the vine row:

Let's hope that waiting for our Fischer Twister is not like waiting for Godot.

Vintage 2022: May Vine Growth Spurt

It's almost the end of May and in the vineyard, the vines are growing! I blogged about budbreak on May 13 and now almost two weeks later, we are in the process of shoot removal!
Our vines are tall grafted vines where our trunk is the rootstock which is approximately 24 inches above the ground and our scion, or the variety (such as Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, etc) has been grafted at this height.^* This brings additional work that we must do which is to clear the graft union or what we called "the head region" from all undesirable growth. We do this while we are also shoot thinning in preparations for this year.

My husband has also begun the process of weed whacking the vine rows. We invested in an automated Fischer Twister but it hasn't shown up at the dealer yet so yesterday, he was back to using our electric line trimmer.
Here is a view of the Chardonnay that was weed whacked under the vines and shoot thinned. On either side of the row that has been weeded, are rows where the weeds are growing like weeds! When I took the photo, I especially liked the shadow of the vines. Yes, it was late in the afternoon.

^*Additional blogs on tall grafted vines:
1. German Publication on Stem Vines
2. May 2012 Update on Tall Grafts at Mercier
3. Fall Update on Tall Grafts at Mercier

2020 Librandi Asylia

Our son and his family came to visit us this past weekend. He and his family lived in Seattle until a few months ago when he moved back to the East Coast! A cause for celebration---we get to see more of our grandchildren! The bonus this weekend was that he offered to cook and brought some wine to pair with the food.
He made Korean style shrimp on a bed of grits flavored with nori! The thing about Asian food is that it is a little difficult to find the right wine pairing. Earlier, I blogged about Modena Vecchia and Sushi. I found that sparkling red wine was a perfect pairing for sushi. For the Korean dinner that our son made, he brought this 2020 Librandi Asylia, a grape that I had never heard of before. It is grown mainly in Lazio, central Italy and Calabria in the South where is it called Greco Bianco.¹ The Librandi Asylia comes from Calabria. The wine was fruity and dry and went very well with the Korean shrimp.

What a treat!
References:
1. Wine Searcher, Greco Bianco Wine, November 26, 2019.

Trio of Barbera for Summer Quaffing

Today, summer seems to be in the air. No need for the winter fleece! By the same token, I feel that with the approach of warmer weather, it's time to bring out the rosé and white wines for summer quaffing. There is one red wine that I think is drinkable in summer and that is Barbera. Barbera pairs so well with red sauce foods like pizza and spaghetti.
We have our favorites: Ratti, Vietti and Montebruno Barbera d'Asti.
The Renato Ratti Barbera d'Asti is a terrific value since it is priced at under $20.00. On their website, Ratti gives the following information for the Barbera d'Asti Battaglione. The first vintage of this wine was made in 2009 and it is made with 100% Barbera, aged in barriques and stainless steel tanks. I was interested in the label because it has a soldier on it. Apparently, Renato Ratti created the label to celebrate the heroism of the Piedmontese regiments in the XVIII Century. The color is intensely purple and the fruit flavors are a little muted but taste of black cherries with a spicy finish.
The Vietti Barbera d'Asti Trevigne is another one of our goto Barberas. I like the whimsical look of their labels but it is what is in the bottle that is a delight to the palate. This is another wine under $20.00 so again, a great value. The Vietti is somewhere in the middle between the Ratti and the Montebruno in flavor profile. Still very easy drinking with a nice balance of fruit and acidity. The wine is also made with 100% Barbera and the winemaking process starts with a pre-fermentative cold maceration, followed by an alcoholic fermentation in stainless steel for approximately 2 weeks, with frequent daily pumping over and délèstage operations. Subsequent post-fermentative maceration on the skins. After racking the wine is moved into barriques for malolactic fermentation. The wine is aged in barriques, big barrels and steel tanks for approximately 12 months.
Of the trio of Barberas, I lean toward the Braida Montebruna Barbera d'Asti as my favorite, but it is just a little bit more money than either the Ratti or the Vietti. There is a fair amount of ripe black fruit balanced by the right amount of acidity that appeals to my tastebuds in the perfect way. Made with 100% Barbera, the must spends two weeks in temperature-controlled steel tanks, where it ferments, and is then transferred to large oak barrels to age for a year.

So I'll be enjoying these Barberas with pizza during the summer months.
References:
1. Ratti Website.
2. Vietti Website.
3. Braida Website.

Vintage 2022: Annual Cycle of Growth - Budbreak

It's that time of the year to begin filling out the annual cycle of growth chart. We have been doing that since our first harvest in 2015. It is a good chart to have to compare how the vintage went with other years.

The dates in the chart is a reasonable approximation, the important thing is the order in which the event occurred. For this year, we were surprised to see that the Chenin was ahead of the Chardonnay. The Barbera is also on par with the Chenin and Chardonnay in terms of budbreak. The Cabernet Franc and Auxerrois are not far behind and the Cabernet Sauvignon is always the last to budbreak.

Variety	April 29 status	May 6 status
Auxerrois
Chenin Blanc
Chardonnay
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Franc
Barbera

Ultramarine and Soft Shell Crabs

Now is the season for soft shelled crabs. Our friends are aficionadoes of both Champagne and soft shelled crabs. Since the season for soft shelled crabs is very short, we have to be on the look out for it when our local seafood purveyors advertise the availability.
Friday was that day! My husband scored 8 soft shelled crabs and during the days preceeding this event. He researched recipes using soft shelled crabs. There is the typical battered and fried soft shelled crab but my husband went rogue and found a recipe from Craig Claiborne which called for making a compound butter using onion powder, paprika, sea salt, marjoram, black pepper, garlic powder, cinnamon, all spice, combined in mayo, dijon mustard, cider vinegar and a few more dashes of cinnamon. The cleaned soft shelled crabs were then dredged in rice flour, pan fried and then slattered with the compound butter.
The soft shelled crab was served with sugar snap peas and Jasmine rice.

The Ultramarine was the perfect accompanying potent potable with flavors of strawberry and sour cherries. It was a 2017 Heitz Vineyard rosé, with disgorgement date of December 2, 2021. It was the second time we were privileged to have this sparkling, enjoying it both times!

Vintage 2022: It's May!

On Friday, April 29, the last of the pruning duties were done and the last row of canes were laid down in preparation for this vintage.
We were working on the Chenin Blanc and trying to be extra careful because the buds were at budswell and at the ends of the canes we were seeing budbreak This was more apparent at the north end of the vineyard than at the south end.
We took a look at the status of all of our varieties at both the north end of the vineyard and the south end of the vineyard. Here are what our varieites looked like on April 29:

Variety	April 29 status
Auxerrois
Chenin Blanc
Chardonnay
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Franc
Barbera

All of the varieties with the exception of the Cabernet Sauvignon is at budswell. The Barbera is early to budbreak but is the last variety that we harvest.