Shoot and Inflorescence Development--Part 3

I started keeping a better photographic record of the Eichhorn-Lorenz Shoot and Inflorescence Development which is the first main stage taking the vine from bud break to stage 16. The first of these posts was on May 14, Modified Eicchorn-Lorenz: Shoot and Inflorescence Development when our varieties were between stage 4 and 9.
The next update a week later on Saturday, May 22, I posted Shoot and Inflorescence Development--Part 2, with photos taken on May 21, showed that the vines were between stages 9-15, with the Barbera leading the way.

To keep up with the consistency, yesterday, May 28, I took photos of the vines and this is what they look like now:

Variety	Photo
Auxerrois
Chenin Blanc
Chardonnay
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Franc
Barbera

At this time, the Auxerrois, Chardonnay and Barbera are the leaders of the pack and the Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc are a bit behind. The contrast between the photos taken on May 21 and yesterday, May 28 shows that the vines are growing rapidly. We began disbudding on May 12 and finished on May 24. We are making another pass through the vineyard, our current canopy management is shoot thinning.
Last night, we had the first big rainfall since May 10th. The rain is much welcomed and should help with the shoot elongation stage that the vines are in now. But, that also means that we need to get moving on the shoot thinning!
References:
1. Fritz Westover, Grapevine Phenology Revisited, Wines&Vines, March 2018.

Tasting Fees

It rained overnight and it is wet outside which means that instead of hurrying off to the vineyard, we can relax over our morning coffee so, the conversation at the table is about tasting fees. What spurred this discussion was an article my husband was reading from Wine-Searcher called Tasting Fees Skyrocket in Wine Country, and is condensed from Silicon Valley Bank's 2021 Direct-to-Consumer Wine Survey Report. What is interesting is that this report is based on 460 U.S. wineries who were self reporting their information.

• 69% of the respondants were from California and only 7.6% were outside of the West Coast
• The standard tasting fee in the U.S. is $25
• The average in Napa County is $58 and the average in Sonoma County is $30; if doing a "reserve" tasting the fees can run from an average of $90 in Napa and $50 in Sonoma
• Washington State is the bargain region for tasting high quality wines averaging $15 for a tasting
• More than 40 percent of wineries expect to hold tastings by-appointment only this year

The move to tastings by-appointment only was the result of Covid-19 restrictions. But when the wineries are fully open once again, the majority will retain a by-appointment option or remain fully by-appointment.
This works for us since our personnel consists of my husband and myself, we had long ago decided that when it came to wine tastings, we would be following the by-appointment only model.

View from the North End of the Vineyard

My husband and I were just sitting down at the north end of our vineyard on our picnic table during one of our breaks and I showed him a photo of the vineyard taken on May 6, 2021. What the photo shows are the Auxerrois grape vines that are located on the west side of the vineyard.
We decided to take a similar photo from around the same spot and this is what the photo looks like:

The top photo shows what this end of the vineyard looked like on May 6 and the bottom photo shows what the vineyard looked like yesterday, on May 23, just 17 days later.
I hope to keep taking photos from the same area as the season progresses to show the changes occuring in the vineyard.

Shoot and Inflorescence Development--Part 2

On May 14, I wrote a blogpost called Modified Eicchorn-Lorenz: Shoot and Inflorescence Development focussing on the first stage of grape vine growth.

At that time, the vines were at the EL 4 to EL 9 stage.

Yesterday, a week later, on May 21, this is what the vines look like:

The above photo shows that the varieties are at this stage:

• Auxerrois: E-L Stage 12--5 leaves separated shoots about 10 cm long; inflorescence clear
• Chenin Blanc: E-L Stage 11--4 leaves separated
• Chardonnay: E-L Stage 12--5 leaves separated shoots about 10 cm long; inflorescence clear
• Cabernet Sauvignon: E-L Stage 9--2 to 3 leaves separated shoots 2-4 cm long
• Cabernet Franc: E-L Stage 11--4 leaves separated
• Barbera: E-L Stage 15--8 leaves separated, shoot elongating rapidly single flowers in compact group

At this point, surprisingly, the Barbera has far surpassed the other varieties in growth stage, the Auxerrois has caught up with the Chardonnay and the Cabernet Sauvignon is still the laggard in this group.
References:
1. Fritz Westover, Grapevine Phenology Revisited, Wines&Vines, March 2018.