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Saturday, May 13, 2023

Vintage 2023: May Vineyard Update

My husband and I have been working non-stop to do the final pruning on 11 rows of grape vines in our vineyard. We started with the vines that were already in budbreak so that we didn't do too much damage to the buds while we pruned and then laid down this year's fruiting canes. We checked our updated annual cycle of growth chart and began with the 5 rows of Chenin Blanc that we had left to do in the white varieties and left the red varieties for last.
Here is our updated annual cycle of growth chart:
After we finished the Chenin Blanc, we tackled the Cabernet Franc and then the Barbera. We left the Cabernet Sauvignon for last because the buds were just beginning to enter bud break while the Cabernet Franc and the Barbera were already leafing out.
While working on the Barbera, we found that out of all the varieties that we grow, it is our problem child with tendrils everywhere! It took a while for the pre-pruning and pruning step to get out the excess canes from last year. Having done that we went to tackle the last remaining rows, two rows of Cabernet Sauvignon. After the Barbera, the Cabernet Sauvignon seems like the docile child and we have been powering through it. We still have a little more work to do but we see the light at the end of the tunnel.
One thing we did notice as we began working in the Cabernet Sauvignon was this oddity:
There seemed to be one vine that was way ahead of the others. We know that we have some white varieties in our Cabernet Franc but we didn't think we had any whites in the Cabernet Sauvignon until we realized that we transplanted a Cabernet Franc into the Cabernet Sauvignon because we had excess Cabernet Franc. From the above photo, you can see how far advanced the Cabernet Franc is compared to the Cabernet Sauvignon.
We hope to have the entire vineyard pruned by the end of Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to all moms!

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