Ordering Chenin Blanc Fillers

Way back in 2013, we hired a crew to laser plant our vineyard with 6,800 vines. They consisted of 5 rows of Auxerrois, 17 rows of Chenin Blanc and 14 rows of Chardonnay, split between two clones, 76 and 96.

Due to a number of conditions during 2013 and 2014 which I wrote about in 90% at the School of Hard Knocks, when spring 2014 arrived, we found out that more than 90% of our vines had died.

It was a sad day, but my husband was undeterred and made plans to replant the vineyard. For custom grafted vines, it takes 18 months between the time the order is placed to when the vines are received during the following spring. For us, because we ordered the replacement vines in 2014, they did not show up until the spring of 2016. So, 2/3rds of our vineyard was actually planted (replanted) in 2016.
The vines that did the best to survive the initial planting was the approximately 450 Chenin Blanc vines, our "old vines". While they soldiered on to provide us with some fruit in 2015 and beyond, these old vines were ready to be replaced and this is where we find ourselves.
The following chart shows where the various "holes" are that need to be planted with new vines:

The Chenin Blanc fillers will be planted in the area where the original vines were located. We don't appear to have lost any of the vines that we replanted in 2016 and 2017.
Although it took from 2013 to where we are now, a photo taken in August, 2020 shows that our vineyard is thriving as we learn more about how to manage our vines using the appropriate viticultural practices.

Where in the World...

Sorry, couldn't resist. My daughter created this!

Vintage 2021: January Update

Here is the first blogpost for Vintage 2021. So far, the winter has been on the mild side with just one major snowfall occuring on December 17, 2020. January has been snow-free and mild so I thought I would start the year with the chart of the Annual Cycle of Growth.

I realized that I hadn't filled in the dates for véraison and harvest in 2020 and since this data is a good thing to have, updated the chart.
While the Annual Cycle of Growth begins with budbreak, there is a lot of work to do to prepare for that event. Winter is when dormant pruning occurs, but there are many tasks prior to pruning which includes cutting all of the tendrils off of the trellis wire as well as putting all of our Agfast on to the top trellis wire. These two things should facilitate pruning, which last year took the entire month of February.
During pruning, we used a new wound dressing called VitiSeal. We used a spray bottle as an applicator, but this year we might try paint brushing it on to the wound site.
One of things that we learned last year is that we have to be prepared to drop our nets on the Auxerrois in August to discourage our friendly vineyard Baltimore Orioles not to peck on the ripening grapes. The Auxerrois reaches véraison first followed soon after by the Chardonnay. So, the Chardonnay also must be protected from bird marauders soon after the Auxerrois. Although the Cabs do enter véraison shortly after the Auxerrois and the Chardonnay, their thick skins gives us a little breathing room to work.
The other operational change we made last year was not to spray the entire vineyard. While it was very nice for us when we did that since certain chemical applications had a 3 day reentry time, that did keep us from working in the vineyard, putting us behind the eight ball. Spraying half the vineyard allowed us to work on the other half of the vineyard.
This year is another year to see how we can streamline certain tasks so that we can be on top of our vineyard care. Crossing our fingers that this February is as amenable to working as last February was.

Wine Sensory Defects---Brettanomyces

I recently came across some lecture notes given by George Vierra called "Sensory Defects in Wine". I was familiar with most of what he was talking about but there was an entire section on Brettanomyces and this intrigued me.
I haven't really written about Brettanomyces in detail, only this post 2009 Bernard Baudry Chinon where I wrote a small blurb on the Janus-faced nature of Brettanomyces. So, this is a closer look at Brettanomyces.
Have you ever smelled barnyard or band aid aromas coming from your wine? I distinctly recall one red wine tasting that we had at our home decades ago where one of our friends thought that an old Bordeaux wine we opened smelled like band aids to her! Those aromas come from the yeast Brettanomyces bruxellensis also known as Dekerra, which is the spore forming “perfect” sexual form of Brettanomyces.
Currently there are five known species of Dekkera/Brettanomyces:

• D. (B.) bruxelllensis
• B. custersianus
• D. anomalus
• B. naardenensis
• B. nanus

The conditions that allow Brettanomyces to multiply include:

• cellar hygiene not under control
• SO₂ not used appropriately
• barrels and infected containers neglected and allowed to absorb oxygen from the air
• more common in red wine because it contains a higher level of polyphenols as well as a high pH
• growth is slow but much faster above 68 ^oF and essentially stops below 46 ^oF
• resistance to sulfur dioxide, alcohol and low sugar levels give it great potential to spoil wine
• filtration can physically remove Brettanomyces

Compound	Aroma/Flavor
4-ethylphenol	medicinal
valeric acid	green apple
isovaleric acid	wet goat; rancid, horsey aroma
4-ethylphenol	aromas of stables, barnyards and sweaty saddles; bandaid; chemical signature of Brettanomyces infection
isomers of 2-acetyl-tetrahydropyridine and 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, experienced retro-nasally	mousiness; bread crust, stale popcorn, and mouse urine
4-ethylguiacol	leather and spice

The following are recommendations if you don't want Brettanomyces tainted red wine:³

• avoid barrels; use stainless steel
• avoid cross contamination; when taking barrel samples, use plastic thiefs that are used just once
• avoid doing rack and return where the wine would go from several barrels to be mixed up in one tank: instead, rack each barrel separately to tank and return, clean the tank before repeating the procedure with the next barrel
• keep the acidity low, either by acidifying or harvesting earlier
• avoid lees ageing, keep barrels topped up, and aggressively clean new and used barrels

References:
1. George Vierra, "Sensory Defects in Wine".
2. Jamie Goode, Brettanomyces.
3. Jamie Goode, Brettanomyces Master Class.