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.