April Update on Our Buds

My last blog post was on April 18! On April 8th I blogged about our buds being still dormant. During the intervening time, we have been busy pruning, trying to work around the weather which has been the wettest on record in Connecticut with rain on 18 of the 27 days in April.
We were pruning as quickly as we could until we noticed after Easter Sunday that the Chardonnay was beginning to be in the budswell stage. Here are the various stages of the dormant bud:

Our Chardonnay is the farthest along with most of the vines at the Eichhorn-Lorenz "rosette of leaf tips" visible stage. The Chenin Blanc is next, but fewer of the vines are at that stage. The Auxerrois, Cabernet Franc and the Barbera are at the wooly bud stage and the Cabernet Sauvignon is still dormant.

Variety	Dormant Bud
Auxerrois
Chenin Blanc
Chardonnay
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Franc
Barbera

During those days when it was merely drizzling and not raining, we were laying down our canes so what we have left are 5 rows of Chenin Blanc to prune and lay down canes. However, the forecast calls for more rain! I know that April showers bring May flowers but Mother Nature is taking that saying to the absurd level!

Vintage 2019: Spring

Earlier in late March, I blogged about Vintage 2019: Pruning Time. We are very slowly coming to the end of pruning but face a few days of rain that will keep us out of the vineyard. What we have learned in the process of pruning is that we can actually begin this process in the dead of winter. (Brrr)
Our vineyard row is nearly 800 feet long with approximately 180-190 vines planted in each row. Currently, we can take up to 4 hours to prune one row of vines.
Each row of pruning that we do can be divided into 4 separate tasks:

• Cutting tendrils from the trellis wires
• Cutting the tops of the canes
• Cutting the one year old canes from the two year old guyot (the cane that was laid down on the fruiting wire)
• Determining which canes to leave for this year's growth

We quickly learned that we should cut the tendrils from the trellis wire as a separate task to facilitate the pruning task. Cutting the tendrils from one row of vines can take up to 1-1/2 hours if done by one person. Cutting the tops of the canes while not necessarily a time saver, can save on the amount of cuttings removed from the row during pruning, which we do with a tarp.

Just doing these two tasks in winter can save us time when it comes to pruning. One additional thing that we can do when we cut the tendrils and the tops of the canes is to move the netting so that it is not in the way when it comes to the final pruning.

Raising the netting should also facilitate our next task which is to lay the canes down on the fruiting wire. These are just some of the details we learned in our 6th year of pruning. Yes, we are slow learners.
So far, our buds still appear to be dormant so hopefully we have a few more days before budbreak commences.

2015 Carpineto Chianti Classico

In the back of my mind, I wanted to make the ground venison that our hunter had given us into a bolognese. I looked on the Internet and found this recipe Marcella Hazan's Bolognese Sauce. The only problem with it was that it was going to take at least 3 hours to make it. Well the opportunity presented itself this past Saturday because it was raining cats and dogs in the morning. We were going to go back to pruning in the afternoon, but we decided to give each other the day off.
What is special about this bolognese is that you add a cup of milk and then you stir and stir and wait for the milk to evaporate and get incorporated into the meat. Then you add a cup of wine and stir and stir and wait for the wine to get incorporated into the meat. At the end of the day, we had this beautiful sauce that we put over some fettucini and had a nice light salad to go with it.

What we didn't have for this meal was the right red wine. My husband bought this 2015 Carpineto Chianti Classico as a pairing for the venison bolognese. The first thing that hit me were the tannins. It was assertive but not overpowering and it cut through the rich bolognese, making for a very nice pairing.
The wine is made with 100% Sangiovese. The label on the back of the bottle tells how the wine is made. The DOCG on the neck of the bottle stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (controlled and guaranteed designation of origin). This indicates that the food product be produced within the specified region using defined methods and that it satisfy a defined quality standard.

And what is the significance of the rooster, you ask? Well, according to DOCG rules, Chianti Classico is legally defined by its aromas of wild berries, violet, iris, earthiness, and spices; as a savory wine with noticeable tannins; and a fair amount of acidity. When those traits are guaranteed in every bottle, then the wine is labeled with a black rooster.¹
Also on the back label is written, "A wonderful match with grand roasts and game dishes." That it is! What is really nice about this wine is that it is $25.00.
Reference
1. Wine Enthusiast, Five Things You Need to Know About Chianti Classico.

2016 Liquid Farm Pinot Noir SBC

Our friends, who are on their cross country trip in a luxury, custom designed recreational vehicle gave us this 2016 Liquid Farm Pinot Noir Santa Barbara County a few months before they left. Thank you MnB!
They knew that we enjoyed the Liquid Farm Chardonnay, and I blogged about it in Visiting Liquid Farm where we met owner, Jeff Nelson and winemaker James Sparks who are making some outstanding Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Rosé of Mouvédre.

We paired this delightful, Pinot Noir with a chicken dish that my husband made. When I asked him how he made it, he said, "I don't know, I just cut slits in the bone in chicken breast, rubbed the Santa Fe rub all over the chicken and baked it in a 375 degree oven for around 45 minutes." That's the kind of meal we can make after a long day of pruning in the vineyard. The side dish is ratatouille a la Remy, the Little Chef in the cartoon which we recently watched and I blogged about in Ratatouille for Wine Lovers, which was made on a previous day and reheated.
I'm not sure if it was the hunger after a long day of work, or the perfect pairing of Liquid Farm Pinot Noir and chicken that made the meal. We kept pouring the bottle of Pinot Noir and nearly finished the bottle while having the chicken. This almost never happens since one bottle usually lasts us 2 nights. The Pinot Noir was light, spoke of dried red fruit like cranberries and was absolutely sparkling in the glass.