Beginning of Hedging Duties

It seems very early to us but we are begining hedging duties starting with the fastest growing variety, the Cabernet Franc. Here is a photo of the Cabernet Franc getting a haircut.

We want to hedge the vines as soon as they are beyond the reach of our spray nozzles because we learned from last year's lack of prompt attention that the young leaves of the growing vines are the first to get infected with mildews that get transmitted to the rest of the new shoots. The tradeoff here is that once the apical or growing end is cut off the shoots will transfer their growth to the summer laterals. We are already beginning to cut summer laterals that are as thick as the growing shoots in the Barbera.

Wine Making in a Warmer World

I was reading one of my wine news feeds which had this article: Climate change is altering the chemistry of wine. The article touched on the effect of fires on grapes as well as rising temperatures and the unpredictability of current weather patterns on winemaking and wine.
The Problem
For wine grape growing, a region’s climate change can disrupt the balance of sugar, acid and secondary compounds by changing the rate at which they develop over the growing season. A warmer growing season generates lots of sugars, fewer acids and undesirable changes in aromas.

Warmer temperatures affect the rate at which sugar and acids are accumulated in a grape berry. The amount of sugar is important because that is what the yeast converts into alcohol. A berry which is higher in sugar content leads to a wine with a higher level of alcohol. In addition, the flavor of a very ripe berry is more like raisins leading to a boozy, raisiny, "cooked" tasting wine and the drop in acidity affects the longevity of the wine in the cellar.
The Solution
All of this has an impact on the wine and blurrs the sense of place, or "terroir" of a wine grown in a specific region.

• In Bordeaux, for example, a traditional style for red wines is full-bodied with strong fruity aromas and a “pencil lead” earthiness. An earlier spring means that the grapes of traditional varieties mature during the peak of summer rather than in the fall, generating lots of sugars, fewer acids and undesirable changes in aromas.
  In the past, Bordeaux was allowed to grow 6 red varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec, and occasionally Carménère) and 8 white varieties (Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris, Muscadelle, Colombard, Ugni Blanc, Merlot Blanc and Mauzac).
  The unprecedented solution in Bordeaux as of 2021, is to allow the wine grape growers to grow an additional 4 red (Arinarnoa, Castets, Marselan and Touriga Nacional) and 2 white (Alvarinho and Liliorila) varieties. For the red Bordeaux, the addition of the French variety Arinarnoa can boost acidity and tannin levels and the Portuguese Touriga Nacional can ramp up powerful black fruit aromas that heat-sensitive varieties might lose. The caveat is that the final wine blend cannot contain more than 10% of these newly allowed grape varieties.
• Another solution researched by plant physiologist, Gregory Gambetta at Bordeaux Sciences Agro and the Institute of Vine and Wine Science is to study how to climate-proof vines by using different rootstocks. Rootstocks control a plant’s overall vigor and water use and maybe selected to tolerate the warming world. UC Davis viticulture researcher Kaan Kurtural has been testing this hypothesis at the Oakville Experimental Vineyard in Napa Valley since 2016. Kurtural his colleagues have been monitoring 16 unique combinations of rootstocks and Cabernet Sauvignon clones to learn which combinations are most resilient under stressful conditions like heat waves and drought while still producing high-quality Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. So far, the Austrian rootstock Kober 5 BB, the French 3309 Couderc and 110 Richter have looked promising.
• Investigating the effects of different viticultural practices, including a carbon-sucking grass that can grow between rows and vines tied up to wires in numerous trellising styles
• The use of shade films to slow the ripening process to selectively filter the UV spectra to prevent the loss of heat sensitive flavor compounds
• Adapt winemaking techniques to produce a well rounded wine with riper grapes

References:
1. Ula Chrobak and Katarina Zimmer, Knowable Magazine, Climate change is altering the chemistry of wine, June 22, 2022.
2. Roger Voss and Kathleen Buckley, Beverage Industry Enthusiast, Bordeaux Aims to Protect its Future with New Grape Varieties
3. Wine Industry Network, Bordeaux Receives National Approval to Introduce Six New Red and White Grape Varieties in 2021, January 26, 2021.

Berry Set in the Vineyard

On June 24, I wrote a blog about Vintage 2022: June Update Annual Cycle of Growth. On that day, I also took pictures of all of our varieties and where they were with respect to berry set.
Here is a photo compilation of our vineyard at various stages of berry set:

The photo shows that the Auxerrois, Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon are still at flowering and the Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc and Barbera are at berry set.
Here is a summary of what happens during berry set from Ed Hellman's excellent article:¹

• Successful pollination and fertilization of the ovule leads to berry development
• Flowers with unfertilized ovules shrivel and die
• Many of the initially formed tiny berries abscise or drop off during the first 2-3 weeks
• Only about 20-30% of flowers on a cluster develop into mature berries; this is enough to develop a full cluster of fruit

Here is a photo of berry set in the Barbera:

The photo shows the initial stages of berry set, with the flower's filaments still attached to the developing berry. It also shows that one of the calyptra whithered while still covering the filaments. Cold temperatures, rainfall or high humidity are often associated with incomplete detachment of the calyptras leading to reduced fruitset.

References:
1. Ed Hellman, Grapevine Structure and Function.

Vintage 2022: June Update Annual Cycle of Growth

We have been busy weeding with our new Fischer Twister, shoot tucking and shoot positioning. On June 15th, we noticed that the Chardonnay had begun to bloom! I thought that was fast, but I checked on my annual cycle of growth chart and found out that we should have been anticipating bloom. Here is the chart for the last 2 years:

The above dates for bloom for the various varieties are approximate. For example, my friend and I were shoot tucking and shoot positioning the Cabernet Sauvignon on Monday, June 20th and did not see any inflorescence in bloom, but the next day on June 21, when I went to check the Cabernet Sauvignon, it was about 40% flowering!

Last year, we had rain events during flowering which we surmise lead to reduced fruit set and berry size. This year, I am keeping closer check on rain events during flowering. So far, this is what has occurred.

Date	June 15	June 17	June 18	June 19	June 20	June 21	June 22
Weather Conditions		Rain 4 am for 15 minutes		Steady rain in am			Steady rain in am to 1:30 pm
Auxerrois			20%
Chenin Blanc				30%
Chardonnay	20%
Cabernet Sauvignon						40%
Cabernet Franc		10%
Barbera					30%

At the moment, it is difficult to discern if the rain has affected fruitset. I will keep on monitoring the various varieties to see what happens.

Godot (Fischer Twister) Showed Up

On May 30, I wrote a blog about Waiting for Fischer Twister. Unlike Godot, our Fischer Twister showed on June 15, when Doug from Oesco came with our long awaited new toy. Unfortunately, the adaptor plate that Oesco engineered for us was not quite right. The solution turned out to be for Doug to take our only vineyard tractor back to Oesco to get the adaptor to fit the tractor.
Doug came back with our tractor two days later (June 17) and the adaptor plate custom built to fit our tractor. Not only that, since they had the tractor, they made a few other necessary custom modifications so that our tractor appeared to be made to run the Fischer Twister.
This is our tractor with the Fischer Twister. My husband is testing the controls for the Fischer Twister on the tractor and Doug is verifying what is happening to the twister.

Here is a closeup of the adaptor plate that Oesco made so that the front of the twister can be fixed to our tractor.

Here is the modification that Oesco made to the back of the tractor to accommodate two 12-volt power outlets.

Here is a short movie of the Maiden Voyage of the Fischer Twister.

Here is the vineyard after the Fischer Twister has done it's job beating down the weeds and my husband has mowed it.

To say that we are happy with the Fischer Twister would be an understatement! Thank you to the team at Oesco, Russ, Kate, Russ, Doug and Aaron for making it all happen for us!

Chardonnay in Bloom

It is getting to that time of the season when the infloresence (flowers) on our varieties begin to bloom. In looking at our chart of the annual cycle of growth, we should be expecting bloom to begin any time now. In fact, when we went to the vineyard on Wednesday, June 15, our Chardonnay was beginning to bloom.

Bloom begins at the north end of our vineyard where it appears to be sunnier and then proceeds to the south end of our vineyard. When we went to the vineyard yesterday, more of the infloresence on the Chardonnay was in bloom. I would guess that it was about 40% in bloom. Not only that, the summer laterals on the Chardonnay were also beginning to leaf out.

Last year, we expected to see an increase in the weight of our varieties but we were quite surprised when all of our varieties with the exception of Chardonnay, came in at approximately the same weight or much lower. (Statistics for Our Varieties from 2019-2021)
We postulated that since our Chardonnay bloomed 5 days earlier than our other varieties, the Chardonnay escaped a weather event that was somewhat detrimental to the Auxerrois, Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Barbera.
So in an effort to more precisely document what is happening this year, I hope to keep track of the weather conditions at bloom.
For this year's Chardonnay, yesterday we believe that the infloresence was at 40% bloom. At 4 a.m. in the morning there was a brief but heavy rainfall which may affect fruitset.
I hope that these notes will show a correlation between the weather events and the amount/weight of the varieties at harvest. Fortunately, there is a long stretch of good weather coming up.

Vintage 2021: June Update

May is the time for budbreak and June is the time for the buds to grow and grow they have been! The rain in June is falling in the evening leaving a great day of work in the day for us. We have never seen our shoots grow so quickly. We were working in the Barbera from June 7 - June 10 shoot thinning, shoot tucking, shoot positioning and cleaning the graft union.
Here is what that looks like:

The red line on the "after photo" indicates that we have trained the Barbera to a single guyot. The red circle shows the difference after cleaning the graft union. In order to keep the two vines from entwining into each other we use a product called Agfast to keep the growing shoots separate and upright.

While I was working in the Barbera and cleaning the overgrown graft union, I saw two eyes looking back at me:

At first, I thought that the grape cane had "eyes" then I recognized the big-eyed click beetle, Alaus oculatus! I didn't know this, but the larvae of the big-eyed click beetle is predatory to other beetle larvae feeding in decaying wood.
More (so much more!) shoot thinning, shoot tucking, graft union cleaning and Agfasting to do!
References:
1. University of Florida, Featured Creatures, Alaus oculatus.

2017 Ultramarine Rosé and 2017 Paumanok Blanc de Chenin

It was a beautiful day of work in the vineyard, the sun was up and a gentle breeze was blowing, two friends came to help us shoot tuck the Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc.
What could top this day? Being invited for dinner at a friend's home overlooking Fisher's Island Sound!

Our friend anted up a 2017 Ultramarine Rosé and my husband brought out this 2017 Paumanok Blanc de Chenin (a gift from Kareem and Charles Massoud---thank you!) to pair with Cato Corner cheese. Both bubblies were made in the méthode champenoise or traditional Champagne style, the Ultramarine from California and the Blanc de Chenin from Long Island. They were both excellent and went very well with the cheeses.

Amazing Wildlife in the Vineyard

On Sunday, my friend and I were shoot tucking the growing Chardonnay. My husband and I always wonder why we take all this time to create a trellis for the grape vines to grow in, and inevitably none of the growing vines want to grow between the trellis wire. Shoot tucking lasts for the entire growing season of the vines because not all of the vines are the same height so it is almost a daily activity that begins now!
However, the day was a beautiful one, perfect temperature and little to no humidity and the shoot tucking is one of the easier "tasks" early in the season. My friend and I were going along shoot tucking and I saw an amazing sight.
Let me digress just a little. Ever since we put in our vineyard, we have seen what I blogged about in 2013 as The Vineyard Raptor, the praying mantis. We were happy to see the styrofoam like egg cases as well as adult praying mantis. In 2019, while harvesting, my friend took a video of a praying mantis with a yellow jacket in it's mandibles!
We are fortunate that the praying mantis has found a home in our vineyard because (1) they are ferocious predators and (2) it can cost $10.50 for one egg case from Amazon!
So while we were shoot tucking, on my row, I saw tiny praying mantis coming out of the egg case and took a photo and showed it to my friend. She ooed and ahhed and then we continued for not too far when she saw an egg case on her row and I took another photo. It was so cool to see the young hatchlings!
So, without further ado---

Along with having my friend working with me, seeing young praying mantis was definitely a highlight of the day in the vineyard!

The Cabernet Franc is Growing

We have been shoot thinning since May 20th beginning in the Chenin Blanc, moving on to the Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and now the Cabernet Franc. This is an outlier photo, but the ends of this one plant of Cabernet Franc was almost at the top trellis wire. The photo also shows that the growing tips of the Cabernet Franc is copper colored.

While we were working in the Cabernet Franc, there was a vine with pink growing tips and since we know that we have a few white varieties in the Cabernet Franc, and that the growing tips of the Cabernet Franc is copper colored, this oddball might be a Chenin Blanc.
The following two photos show the before shoot thinning and after shoot thinning. Since our vines are tall grafted, much of the growth happens at the graft union or "the head" region. What we are doing now is cleaning the graft union and allowing only a few shoots to grow for next year's cane.

The Versatility of Champagne

We have been drinking our fair share of Champagne this past winter and spring. We typically pair Champagne with appetizer courses and one of the ultimate pairings that we can think of is fresh shucked oysters. We are very fortunate to live along the Connecticut shoreline where oysters are making a wonderful, decadent, and tasty resurgence.
However, we are learning about the versatility of Champagne and how it can be paired. For example, we had this Laherte Feres with pasta. I blogged about Paul Bara Bouzy Réserve Brut Champagne being perfect with lavender goat cheese and surprisingly, Point Reyes blue cheese topped with fig jam or honey.
Recently, we had this Vilmart & Co. Champagne.

We paired the Champagne with sushi and scallops, a quick and easy dinner after coming home from the vineyard. My husband seared the scallops with a little trick of soaking it in milk for an hour before searing. What do you think of the color and crust? It was delicious! I am still trying to perfect my sushi making.