Vintage 2022: Annual Cycle of Growth

The year is quickly coming to a close so I need to post this final Annual Cycle of Growth. It's a good thing to look back on to see how each year progressed with the six varieties of Vitus vinifera that we have planted in the vineyard.

It is good to see trends emerging that will help us prepare for next year!

Pre-Christmas Celebration

'Twas two days before Christmas and a winter storm was bearing down on the east coast. On Thursday evening, the system brought rain and gale force winds and when we woke up on Friday morning, it was still raining. We chose a time between the deluge and an impending 30 degree drop in temperature to drive 2 hours north to Massachusetts to visit our son and his family. They relocated from Seattle in March and this would be the first time we would visit them in their abode. Needless to say, while the roads were crowded we didn't run into any traffic slow downs due to the weather. (Most people had chosen to drive on Thursday or hold off to Saturday when better weather was forecast). We did get to our destination and were able to spend some quality time with our son and his family.
Our son scored a porchetta from a bona fide butcher shop and he also knew that it would take 5 hours to cook the trussed pork. When 5 p.m. rolled around, my husband began shucking the oysters that we had been gifted from our hunter. We paired the oysters with this Laherte Freres Ultradition Extra Brut that my husband had sourced. Laherte Freres is a grower-producer and was founded in 1889 by Jean-Baptiste Laherte and is now in the hands of Aurélien Laherte who took over in 2005. The label on the back of the bottle indicated that it had 4.5 g/L of dosage and the composition was 60% Pinot Meunier, 30% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Noir. The Ultradition lineup consists of Brut, Extra Brut and Rosé Champagnes.
After consuming 2 dozen oysters and imbibing the Laherte which was a terrific pairing, we moved on to the porchetta with baked potatoes and salad. The porchetta was paired with our 2019 Cabernet Franc (extremely limited production of 8 cases) which paired very well with the pork and evolved throughout the meal.

Last but not least, dessert was a gingerbread cake topped with whipped creme! We are still recovering from our slight overindulgence.
References:
1. Laherte Freres, Polaner Selections.

Victorine de Chastenay Crémant de Bourgogne

The holidays are coming up and a good sparkling wine from Burgundy is the Victorine de Chastenay. This crémant (the name of a sparkling wine made outside of the Champagne region) went into one of the gift baskets that was part of the drawing that we had for our harvest party. It is imported by Skurnik. The crémant is made from 75% Pinot Noir, 10% Gamay, 10% Aligoté, and 5% Chardonnay. The fruit comes from 40 year old vines from the Côtes de Nuits and Côtes De Beaune in Burgundy. The complex and refreshing Brut Blanc is made completely in tank to preserve the minerality and freshness of the Côte d’Or fruit and are aged on the lees for 20 months before release (the minimum for the appellation is 12 months!).
This crémant retails for under $20.00 and is a good bubbly to serve at Christmas or New Years! (or really at any time, IMHO).

2022 Annual Harvest Party

We had our annual (second year in our industrial space) harvest party where we get our crew together to thank them for all of the work they did to help us with bringing in the grapes. Last year we were organized enough to take pictures of all the food we made and served but this year, we just plain forgot.
However, instead of one prize for our drawing, we came up with 3 prizes. The grand prize had an Aubry Champagne, the second prize had a sparkling bourgogne, and the third prize had a lambrusco and other goodies were included in each prize.
This year, we decided that the food we would make would have a Hawaiian/Asian theme. So here we is what we served:

We would like to thank everyone who helped us to make the harvest a success! You are the best!

Vintage 2022: December Recap of this Vintage

It's been a while since I have written a blogpost. We have had a tolerably warm fall into winter here in southeastern Connecticut which has allowed us to do some buttoning up in the vineyard. The major task is rolling up the netting in preparation for winter. We are almost done with that!
So, here is a recap of what our year was like. We began work in the vineyard in mid-February with pre-pruning activities which included freeing last year's canes from wires, tendrils and Agfast (a branch locking device). Once that was done, the first pass of pruning could proceed and those tasks took us into mid-April. The warm spring brought budswell in the vineyard earlier than we expected and we were still pruning the Chenin Blanc, being careful not to knock of the buds!
Before budbreak, we were able to lay down this vintage's canes just in time. Budbreak for all of our varieties occurred in May. Once this happens, so many things have to take place at the same time! Disbudding quickly turns into shoot removal.

Shoot removal which could be done without any pruners becomes shoot removal with pruners. The vines are growing! The weeds are also growing! My husband weed wacked most of the vineyard before our major purchase of the year arrived on June 17th, when Doug from Oesco brought our new weeder. The weeder worked very well and made short work of weed removal. We are hoping that next year, the weeder will make my husband's manual weed wacking a thing of the past.

Our hedging duties began at the end of June since the spring brought many days of rain (June 8, 9, 13, 17, 19, and 27) and the shoots reached the top of the trellis wire. We learned that hedging is an important activity because if there is any mildew that will happen, it will be on the young leaves of the growing vine. Hedging took the entire month of July to do. Fortunately, our family from Hawaii and Worcester came to help us in the vineyard and that put us in a very good place. Meanwhile, fruitset was also happening in the vineyard. Fruitset is a tenuous time for the young grapes because shaking of the cluster at the wrong time will lead to shatter! July also brought a heat wave, the first one beginning on July 19th. We also began leaf pulling and shoot tucking, once we were certain that fruitset had occurred.
August brought veraison in the Auxerrois and for the first time, we were able to bring the netting down on the ripening grapes. A month later, on September 17, we had the entire vineyard netted, prior to harvest. That was a first for us! We learned that what is really helpful in accomplishing this task is to have the netting on the lowest possible notch on the linepost so that the growing shoots don't have a chance to entwine their tendrils into the netting.
A week after all the netting was in place, we harvested the Auxerrois, on September 25. The Chardonnay was harvested on October 2, the Chenin Blanc on October 16 and 17, and then the red varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Barbera on October 21.
With the exception of the Chenin Blanc, all of our varieties were in pristine condition when they were harvested. Our Chenin Blanc, especially, the clone 982 suffered botrytis damage. But with the help of our excellent crew, we did manage to harvest 4900 pounds of good quality Chenin Blanc.