(Quarter 2: 2008)

Spring is a beautiful time of year here in the Alexander Valley.  The vines awaken from their winter slumber and start pushing their buds in March.  The grass is still green and the sun shines most days. We applied our spring fertilizers to the traditionally weaker sections of the vineyards, which will give them nutrition slowly and throughout the growing season.  Everything was looking great, until the nights of 20 and 21 April.  We were hit by frost—the first bad frost in April in 38 years!  Our flat-land vineyards were hit hard, though our hillsides have very minimal damage.  It was so cold (26 degrees F) that even our frost-protection did not do much to improve the outcome.  We expect a significant loss in the flat vineyards.  Vines naturally want to produce fruit, so they may push secondary shoots, but these new shoots will not be as fruitful.  We will know more about the damage when the fruit sets in June.

The hillside vineyards are doing well, though they were set back a bit by the cold weather.  The late rains have allowed us to postpone irrigation, which is important for the vines, as they are forced to absorb all available water and nutrients from the soil.  We only begin to irrigate here when the soil is dry enough to begin slowing the growth of the vines.  This ensures that the vines are not overly-aggressive, nor overly fruitful.  Balance within the vine is all-important.  We have mowed and diced the cover crops on the hillside blocks.  These cover-crops are planted after harvest and provide the soil with nutrients, particularly nitrogen, that have been removed by the vines over the previous growing season.

Margo, our foreman of 13 years, and his crew are out removing the frost burned shoots so they do not encourage mold growth, and have started shoot-positioning in the sections of the vineyard where the shoots have reached about 12 inches.  Both of these jobs must be done by hand.  Bloom is about two to three weeks away here.  Grape vine blooms are very tiny and delicate so we must worry about wind blowing them off before they self-pollinate and set the fruit.  Despite the wind worries, I love this time of year, because a vineyard in bloom, though it doesn’t look like much, releases a beautiful floral and fruity aroma that is its own reward.

NEWS FLASH:

It turns out that bloom is not 2 to 3 weeks away, it is here!!  I have just heard from Margo that the flat land vineyards are about 3% in bloom, so we can start worrying about that wind (and enjoying that gorgeous perfume) now!