Bye Bye 101-14 MGT

One of the casualties of our replanting was this rootstock that lost it's grafted scion which we let grow. The reasons why almost all grapevine growers have to choose a rootstock is a complicated and captivating story about a root louse called phylloxera that I'll put off for a future blog, but if you are interested, a really good book to read is called The Botanist and the Vintner by Christy Campbell.
Before choosing 101-14 MGT to be our rootstock, we did a lot of research on what our area grape growers use for rootstock, beginning with reading Grapevine Cultivation in Connecticut, the 2007 Bulletin written by William Nail (Assistant Scientist), from the Connecticut Agriculture and Experiment Station. The recommendation at that time, was 3309C. We did more research and also asked Mercier, CA about 101-14 MGT. When choosing a rootstock, the following criteria should be kept in mind:¹

• Tolerance or resistance to root parasites such as phylloxera and nematodes
• Ability to influence crop maturity
• Tolerance of adverse soil conditions such as drought, waterlogging, lime and acid or saline soils
• Ability to contribute to the management of vine vigor
• Ability to contribute to grape maturity and composition

A site that summarizes the above characteristics for a rootstock of choice is Rootstock Selection written by Larry Christiansen.
Almost all rootstock is a hybrid of three species: Vitus riparia, V. rupestris, and V. berlandieri. Our rootstock, 101-14 MGT is a hybrid of V. riparia and V. rupestris. It has high phylloxera resistance, low-medium drought tolerance, but better for wet tolerance and has a better influence on the scion vigor compared to 3309C.
Something that I learned while reading Markus Keller's book, The Science of Grapevines Anatomy and Physiology is that the rootstock varieties are dioecious which means that they can be either male or female. Examples of male rootstocks are Teleki 5C, SO4, and Riparia gloire de Montpellier. Examples of female rootstocks include Kober 5BB, 101-14 Millardet et de Grasset, and Fercal! Who knew!
References:
1. Markus Keller, The Science of Grapevines Anatomy and Physiology, 2010, Academic Press, pg. 17.

Something Tells Me It's All Happening At the Node

I've already written about this phenomenon in a previous blog that I called The Mysterious Life of Grape Buds. The mystery was not the grape buds, but in my understanding of the statement: Starting with a mature, leafless, dormant vine, the buds for this year's crop sprout in early spring already bearing cluster primordia generated the prevous summer.¹
While walking the vineyard, I noticed some little red swellings in the axial positions of the Chardonnay and when I looked closely, I saw the little primordial buds! So, they do start growing in the spring and summer and are indeed affected by the weather patterns of this summer. I get it now! I dug up Charlotte Pratt's review article and I finally understand the diagram that is reprinted in many articles on grapevine structure and function and reproduced below.²

Although the Pratt review was published in 1974, I found it to be good background reading. The review goes through the various vine structures: (1) the roots, (2) the stem, (3) the bud and branch, (4) the tendril, and (5) the leaf, elaborating on the first and second year growth characteristics, which is timely for us to know. The review ends with a glossary to grapevine/plant terminology.
References:
1. Boulton, R.B., Singleton, V.L., Bisson, L. F., and Kunkee,R.E., “ Principles and Practices of Winemaking”, Chapman & Hall, New York, 1995.
2. Pratt, C., Vegetative anatomy in cultivated grapes, A review, American Journal of Enology and Viticulture, 1974, 25:131-150.

2011 Sofia Rosé

The 2011 Sofia is a dry rosé made by Winemaker Corey Beck of Francis Ford Coppola Winery. It is made from Syrah and Grenache from Monterey County. We enjoy drinking this refreshingly dry wine on our front porch after a sweltering day in the vineyard. The May-June 2013 Vineyard and Winery Management, a Packaging and Closures issue had an article on Coppola and the Art of Packaging. In it, the article mentions that Coppola has used unique bottle styles as well as cans for his wine. The Sofia Rosé is no exception. At a price point below $20.00, it is one of our go to rosés for summertime quaffing.

Our Attempt at Automating Replanting

We have been in the mode for replanting our vines that didn't make it. It's not a significant amount but there are a few things that are necessary. We modified Dave's dump trailer to make the replanting easier. Our vines are in a plastic waste bin, our IBC tank to carry water for the plants, fortunately fit on the trailer, the shovel, pencil rods, hammer and most importantly cold water for us are all loaded on the dump trailer. We go down one vineyard alley and do the replants on 2 rows of vines on either side of the tractor. It may not be much of an automation, but it really beats carrying all those things down a vineyard alley. We've done all of the Chardonnay replants (exact count to be filled in here: 105 replants, updated on July 6th) and today we are going to be doing the Chenin blanc. My husband thinks that we can do all 17 rows today. Wish us luck!

UPDATE June 25, 2013: The replants are all done! We had to abandon our afternoon efforts yesterday due to an air quality advisory of high ozone levels and you can bet that we took advantage of the advisory to get out of the sun and humidity. This morning, we headed to the vineyard at 6:30 and finished the remaining Chenin blanc and 2 Auxerrois replantings. We're catching on.
Farmers get up early to beat the heat!