NEWA Network for Environment and Weather Applications

Post harvest is a time when my husband and I reflect on the year that we have just been through. So far, we have 6 years of tending vines and every year is different. In talking with Charles Massoud of Paumanok Vineyards, no two years are the same. But, with each passing year, we can learn something.
We are not alone in feeling that this year was very challenging, for us, rather devastating. According to Cornell Agritech post Veraison to Harvest, written by Chris Gerling and Hans Walter-Peterson, It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Humidity. And the Rain. And the Clouds. And the Fruit Flies.
This first line in this article begins:
"I come to bury 2018, not to praise it. I mean, yuck. New York agriculture presents challenges every season, but this one bordered on ridiculous."
Were they reading my mind? Although this article talks about conditions in New York, it could very well have been the conditions we experienced in southeast coastal Connecticut.
Further in the article was this:
Again in 2018 we were in desperate need of a warm, dry September and October to boost maturity and ease disease pressure. Spoiler Alert: no dice.
Maybe it was the damage already done by the humidity (Figure 6). Maybe it was the rain, which never left for more than three days in a row.
Maybe it was a combination of these factors or other factors that were harder to perceive, but for whatever reason, sometime around September 15th the rot index went from suboptimal-but-manageable to Zombie Apocalypse, Vineyard Edition.
Again, very relatable. We also hoped that an Indian summer would help us to keep ripening our fruit, but yes, what we had instead was the Zombie Apocalypse.
So, the question is, how can we better manage our crop? One very helpful website that my husband located is the
NEWA Network for Environment and Weather Applications.
The site looks like this:

The tabs on the top of the page include: Weather Data, Pest Forecasts, Station Pages, Crop Management, Crop Pages, Weather Stations, and Help.
We will be referring to this site frequently.

Thanksgiving Homage

In early November, we went to the North Fork of Long Island with our friends to visit Paumanok Vineyards. This has been an annual trek for us since 2016 when we were able to share our first vintage, the 2015 Chenin Blanc with Charles and Kareem Massoud. The Massouds are always so welcoming and lavish in their hospitality. This year, we went to Long Island on two of the most beautiful fall days in 2018. We were welcomed by Kareem and taken to their outdoor balcony overlooking their vineyard.

In a few minutes, the outdoor balcony was filled with all manner of comestibles to pair with the wines that we would be tasting. This year, we brought our 2017 Chenin Blanc Pét-Nat, 2018 Auxerrois, 2017 Chardonnay, and a 1997 Palmer Merlot to celebrate their purchase of Palmer. Our friends brought a bottle of Millton Chenin Blanc from their trip to New Zealand. Charles and Kareem brought out their Minimalist Chenin Blanc, Minimalist Chardonnay, and 2015 Barrel Aged Chardonnay.

As the day wore on and the sun began to set, we moved indoors to continue sampling wines, cheeses, and enjoying the stories that Charles told. Charles brought out a 2014 Blanc de Blancs, 2015 Cabernet Franc, 2013 Merlot, 2014 Assemblage, and a 2012 Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc.
This year, we celebrated Thanksgiving with a few of our dear friends who have helped us throughout our growing season and beyond. We wanted to pay homage to our friends on Long Island by pairing our Thanksgiving meal with the wines from Paumanok.

As we imbibed the wine and grazed our way through the starters, we recalled the beautiful day in November sitting on the balcony at Paumanok having a great time. Our friends also provided us with cheese and jams that they brought all the way from Croatia and reminisced about the vacation they spent there. There was a lot to be thankful for.

Wishing You a Wild and Happy Thanksgiving

Vineyard work is put on hold to celebrate Thanksgiving. Actually, the temperatures in the Northeast is supposed to be at a hundred year low for Thanksgiving. While working in the vineyard, we run into a variety of wild life. Recently, my husband took this photo of cedar waxwings that is just perfect for a Christmas card.

Our hunter found this shot of a very healthy bobcat with it's prey, a hapless squirrel, on his trail camera. Our hunter also got lucky a few days ago when he scored this beautiful deer. He was smiling from ear to ear and we were quite happy as well because our hunter gives us some awesome meats from the deer like breakfast sausage and venison hot dogs to name just a few.

Vintage 2018: Fall Chores

To say that this fall is quite a deviation from the norm is an understatement. On Thursday, November 15, we had our first snowfall. Since we live along the coast, we were under the mistaken impression that our snowfall would be a mixture of rain, sleet and snow which would melt very quickly. However, as early evening came around, the white stuff began to fall and we ended up with between 3-4 inches of snow!
Our plan to work in the vineyard on Friday took a back seat when the winds blew and it just didn't seem like a good idea to go to the vineyard. However, we couldn't neglect the work we had to do for 2 nice (40 degree weather) days in a row and we had friends coming to help us, so on Friday, we went back to securing our netting for the coming winter.
Without help, one person can do one row in 2 hours and 45 minutes. With one persons help, that time is reduced to 1 hour and 30 minutes, and with 3 people working, one row, which really consists of two 800 feet worth of netting can be done in 45 minutes!

This is our second year at securing netting. Last year, we thought that the best thing to do was to secure the netting to the trellis wire. When spring came around, we found that the wind had blown one side of the netting and caught on the anchors on the other side. It was a mess. This year, we are trying some thing different. We have always used grapevine rubber bands for the various securing and tethering activities that we do in the vineyard. Our strategy this year is to put the rubber band very close to the anchor clip that holds the netting. We hope that this weight will keep the netting from getting caught on the netting on the other side of the trellis.
Our anchor clips are spaced (should be) 4 feet apart from each other. By trial and error, we learned that the best way to get the netting as tight as possible is to begin rolling the netting at one end of the row, and then move to the third anchor clip and roll the netting back to the second anchor clip. There will be eight feet between anchor clips that have been rubber banded. We'll see in the spring how our method held up. Meanwhile, we have just 10 more rows of netting to roll up. (For those of you keeping track, for one person that would equal 137.5 more hours of work!)