Remember the Drought of 2017?

So the summer of 2017 was the worst drought we have faced in 11 years of growing. We blogged about it this past March (see link) and reflected on what the drought may do to the following year crop.

One thing we were concerned about was the impact the drought would have on bud formation in 2017 and translate into the flowering and fruiting in 2018. We anticipated smaller clusters and poorer flower formation further up the cane. As such we pruned with spurs instead of long cane.

This was a good call as at flowering we did noticed fewer clusters further up the cane and smaller clusters as well on a few vines that we left with long cane pruning.

Some of the clusters even on long spur (5 bud Spur) pruned vines were smaller than normal, especially on Leon Millot, Marechal Foch and Colmar Precoce. The Leon Millot clusters were 20-25% smaller, and resulted in equal reduction in yeild. Leon Millot below...

Others like Acadie Blanc and Ravat were unaffected. But we spur prune these ones (2 bud spurs) and the buds on 2 bud spur pruned vines were less affected. These bud are first buds to be formed and finished forming before impact of drought caused damage.

2018 Vintage

So the wines are finished fermenting for the 2018 vintage and now its just waiting for them to settle out and age. "The waiting is the hardest part", not exactly as the late Tom Petty relayed, but once the wine is finished fermenting there is the wait till its ready....or not.

If you are into neaveau wines or early drinking styles you may already be into the 2018 vintage. We make a variety of styles and some may be ready shortly at the earliest but other, like Leon Millot and Marechal Foch are now in winter slumber waiting for spring or late winter bottling or potentially
even next fall.

As the year progresses I often take small samples along the way to see how the wine is comming along. So far this vintage, red or white, is turning out to be very good. Really impressed with the Triompe D'Alsace so far, the Evangeline is great again and the Ravat, despite the isssues with the cool weather and rain, is comming along nicely.

Interesting is that with the cool September we didn't get the ripening we usually do but most varieties continued ripening, just slower than usual. The exception was Petite Milo. It usually ripens to 22 brix but it only got to 20 and was quite high in acid. It is a bit less muscat-less fruity..more citrus moving towards green apple - like what you would get with white grapes that are a bit unde ripe.

Good to know how the year over year changes in weather affect this one...but it still makes a nice reisling-like wine.

Harvest Is Done

We took the grapes in early October in beautiful weather if not perfect for harvest. Main observations were that the sugar levels were a bit lower than usual, and this was due to the cool September that didnt allow the grapes to ripen as much as normal. We also had alot of wasp damage on the Foch. That was not unexpected as this summer seemed to be especially bad for wasps.

The other issue was that we had some rot on some of the Ravat 34. The Ravat 34 has a tendancy to split if it is subject to alot of rain at the end of the season. Well this September we had about 100 mm of rain which fell over 20 of the 30 days of the month.  It was the the most wet, and one of the coolest Septembers we have recorded. Great conditions for rot but because we got so much rain, many of the grapes split open and that is when the rot took hold. So unfortunately we had to leave alot of fruit behind. Rain is usually not a big factor for us in this way as we have very sandy soil and the rain drains through quick. But this year it was the amount and duration of rains that impacted.

Here are the numbers that came in. Grape type and brix;

Leon Millot / 21	Ravat 34 / 18
Foch / 20	Evangeline / 21
Triompe D’Alsace / 20	L’Acadie Blanc / 21
Colmar Precose Noir / 21	Petite Milo / 20
Lucy Kuhlman / 21	Seyval Blanc / 21
Castel / 21	Vandal Cliché / 20
Marquette / 20	Sovereign Ruby / 21
St. Croix / 18	Cayuga / 17 (1st yr)
Pinot Noir / 19

Green Pruning to Improve Grape Ripening

So one if the things that can be done to improve ripening of grapes is cluster pruning. Sometimes this is done pre-bloom to improve the flowering of flower clusters left behind and adjust potential crop load to trellising and vine ripening capacity. This is often referred go as green pruning.

Sometimes this crop adjstment is done later in the year if there is the thought that the gapes on the vine are not going to ripen adequately before the end of season. The second cluster may not ripen to the same level as the first cluster and if harvested together, the higher quality first cluster is averaged lower with the lower quality second cluster, potentially lowering the quality of the wine.

When cluster pruning, the second or third cluster is usually removed which concentrates ripening into the remaining cluster.

We have tested about 30 varieties of grapes at our vineyard and it seems as though some varieties ripen the first and second clusters similarly while other varieties show significant differences in ripening between clusters.

See St. Croix below, with visually obvious differences in ripeness between first and second cluster.

Usually we dont cluster prune later in the season but in cooler years when the vine struggles to bring the grapes to adequate ripeness we may employ this technique.

We can usually tell the years that inadequate ripening may be an issue by the timing of veraison. Late veraison means that we may not have enough time and heat left in the season to ripen the grapes to our liking.  So thats when we would consider cluster pruning of the second cluster.

In the past ten years this has happened only once..but this is also because after 10 years we know what the crop load should be for the various varieties we have as it relates to our vineyard climate and conditions. And we also know when the usual timing of veraison is for the various varities.

Refractometer to Test Brix / Sugars

There are lots of ways to get an idea of the ripeness level of your grapes leading into harvest.

The easiest is to taste the grapes to see how sweet they are and what the acid is like. Problem is if your new at this then you dont really have a baseline of previous years experience to assess it against.

Another way is to check the colour and hardness of the seeds in the grape. If the seeds are brown and crack hard when you bite on them then you know the grapes are getting ripe but experience is key here again and the brown of the seeds is not universal for all grapes relative to how ripe they are. Similarly the bunch stem usually turns brown and hardebs off.

One of the most accurate ways is to test the sugar ot brix level of the grapes with a refractometer. These instruments cost about $100 and provide a fairly accurate reading of the sugars in a few drops of grape juice. I taje a sample of about 3 grapes from different parts of the cluster and average the numbers out.

Brix is a measure of sugar content in the grape juice and ripe grapes will usually have between 18 and 24 brix depending in the variety. So in converting brix to alcohol content, 1 brix gives you roughly 0.55-0.6 % alcohol, so 20 brix gives you wine with roughly 11-12% alcohol when fermentation is complete.

I put a small video here to show how the refractometer works. Not the best video but you'll get the idea when you see this.

Grapes Look Good Heading Into Harvest

So checking on the grapes with about 4 weeks before harvest they are looking good. The bird netting is working ok so far but the wasps still get through and the this Robin found a gap and got under the netting. They love the Foch and Millot.

Most of the vines are hardening off the canes well and the grapes are ripening very well. Here is brix readings as of September 8, 2018 and about 900 degree days growing to date.

WHITES
Ravat 34....15 brix
Evangeline....18.5 brix
Seyval....20 brix
L'Acadie.....20 brix
Vandal Cliche....17.5 brix
Petite Milo......17.5 brix
Seigerrebe.....19 brix

Here is Ravat looking very good

REDS
Leon Millot.....16 brix
Marechal Foch.....15 brix
Castel.....16 brix
St. Croix......15.5 brix
Marquette......18 brix
Colmar Precoce Noir ....19 brix
Triompe D'Alsase.....15 brix
Pinot Noir.....17 brix
Lucy Kuhlman....18
Marechal Joffre....18

Here is Leon Millot with canes hardening off well.

Smokey Conditions During Netting 2018

So we got the nets out in the past few days and just in time as some of the grapes (Leon Millot and Evangeline) are ripening fast. The birds took some of the early Leon Millot and the wasps are going after the Evangeline. Super smokey with the forest fires.

We netted up just over an acre of vines with the new bird netting and it went quite fast. The reds are turning and whites softening.

Mid Summer Update 2018

So it's mid summer and we have a good idea of crop load and likely outcomes in terms of how much grapes we can expect.

Most varieties are doing well and we haven't needed much water this year. Wouldn't say were too much ahead ...it's pretty much a normal year.

The Foch is looking good but we didn't get as much production off the younger vines as anticipated. Triompe D'Alsace is also looking good. Ravat 34 is great again and Evangeline is looking good too. Netting will begin in a few weeks.
Here is Ravat 34

Evangeline

Ravat 34 Wine 2017

Every year this vine puts out a great crop no matter what the conditions. After 10 years we have found this vine has no fungus issues..sets fruit well in virtually all conditions...and is very easy to maintain with cordon spur pruning.

It has a semi upright growth and is easy to train in a 3 or 4 wire vertical shoot system. Usually 2 x 100 gram clusters per shoot and they usually tops out at 19 Brix in the vineyard with 3.0 acidity.

Ravat 34 is a cross of Chardonnay with American grape. It carries a lot of The chardonnay quality and this shows in the resulting wine. It retains high acidity though and has been descibed by some as being akin to Alegote. Very nice again for 2017.

Fruit Set 2018

Weather is a huge factor when it comes to fruit set. If it's too cold or if it's rainy then the pollen is not exchanged easily and bees are not making their rounds.
A few years ago we experienced cool and wet weather when L'Acadie Blanc was flowering and as  result we had very poor fruit set on that variety.
This year the weather has been pretty good during flowering which occured around June 20 to 22. The vineyard is lush and has great growth. Looking across the rows you can still see snow on thhe mountain tops.

The early flowering varieties were Foch and Castel..where as the Evangeline and Triompe D'Alsace are always later. As of June 30 we have a view of fruit set in most varieties. Here is what we are seeing;
Marechal Foch

Leon Millot

Ravat 34

Pinot Noir

L'Acadie Blanc

Castel

Evangeline