Rob’s Weekly Vineyard Report
It’s with happiness and relief that I relate the good news that Veraison has begun and all around our vineyard, berries are beginning to blush with color and promise. The danger of powdery mildew is still present, but an end is in sight to the vigilance we’ve had to show.
Unfortunately, the color change is some sort of signal to the birds that the seeds are mature and the juice is getting sweet, so while our battle against mildew is ending, soon will begin our struggles to discourage the ravenous flocks of starlings from eating our crop. Starlings are an introduced pest with incredibly discerning taste: they love Pinot Noir. One the one hand, you have to respect their palates; on the other, they’ll eat the whole crop if you let them.
Since the last update we had a significant rain episode followed by the past few days’ excessive heat. The vines have responded by continuing to grow, a good thing to help us get the fruit ripe in the next two months. The heat is probably also helping to speed veraison along. It was around 100 degrees today afternoon, and we sent home the vineyard crew early to avoid the danger of working in the heat.
We’re still engaged with balancing the crop load by removing excess fruit from all the vines that need it, but we should be done soon enough. It’s a job that requires a good and empathic sense of vine physiology. One needs to understand by looking at the strength that a vine demonstrates how much fruit it will be able to mature. It’s required a lot of personal attention in training our staff, but I think the hard work will pay off with riper fruit for a tastier wine.
Last year, harvest began on this vineyard on October 15, so we’ll be planning for on that date or earlier to be ready to pick.
