Author Archives: Doug Williams

Adding extra water for weak vines

I have 3130 vines of very tightly space Pinot noir surrounded by houses and trees on a very slight grade. About 550 vines of the 667 clone were weaker than the other vines. They are near trees and on the top of the small grade. So last week I installed an extra drip line. I will water these vines earlier than the rest of the vineyard to allow them to grow better and catch up to the rest of the vines. It will also let me fertilize them through the irrigation system separately. You can do this type of customization with small vineyard and it will pay big dividends to ensure your vines are healthy producing high quality grapes!

Chipping last years Canes

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Every year the vineyard has to be pruned. Old canes are removed, new ones are picked to allow for this years growth and then you have to chip the canes and spread them back into the vineyard. Why not just leave them in the vineyard? Well, even if they get mowed, the little pieces would get caught in the nets in the fall and cause a mess.

So, I removed the canes from the rows and made piles outside the rows. Then the canes are chipped and the mulch is put back on the rows to prevent weeds from growing. This year with about 1/2 the wires filled with canes it will take me 6 hours of chipping…a lot of hard work!

TRTLVNS license Plate Transferred

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For those that don’t know it, we got in an accident 15 months ago…were T-Boned and my 15 year old C230 was totaled! We went back and forth whether to replace it with a Tesla/Audi/Mercedes/etc. or my favorite…a 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid which averages 50mpg both city and highway.

Eventually I decided I was a vineyard/winery person and now my regular car is my F250 XL (long bed with lift gate) I picked up used 3 years ago. So naturally I moved my license plate over…just took a while. So if you see a Big Red Truck in Wine Country with TRTLVNS for a license plate…honk.

2014 Work Log

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The above picture was taken late February. It shows the status of the vineyard…the vines are pruned and tied, vines marked for removal or grafting with either green tape or a grow tube, extra water line installed (not pictured), clover is finally growing after a very dry winter but no wildflowers (rows marked with a flag had expensive wildflowers sewn in last fall). Still have work to do but this post will show the work in our 5th leaf for Turtle Vines and I will update it throughout the year.

Jan 28 Pruning 45 hrs (all hired)
Feb 17-21 Tie Canes 9
Feb 25 Cane chipping/2nd drip 14 (8 hired)

Total to date 68

2014 Vineyard Plan – Turtle vines

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Our Hawk is back! What does this have to do with our 2014 Vineyard Plan you ask…well, we want to be good stewards of the land by being organic yet grow the best tasting Pinot Noir possible.

2014 Improvement Activities:
1. Install a second irrigation line to 500 weak vines
2. Prune aggressively for 2014 to push root growth and conserve water intake due to the drought.
3. Water vines until “set”, or until the renewal spurs have grown appropriately.
4. Test petiole’s at bloom and make adjustments
5. Incorporate seaweed concentrate into foliar spraying plan to decrease shatter, increase berry size and grow healthier vines.
6. Vary powdery mildew/botrytis spray plan with Botector and Sulfur, in addition to Serenade, Stylet Oil and Soda.
7. Experiment with removing the basal leaves early in the season to avoid powdery mildew/botrytis.
8. Monitor TA and pH along with brix as harvest parameters.
9. Subcontract out bigger jobs if possible.

Tying Vines with a New Pellanc Tying Tool

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Last year I used a Tapener to tie the canes to the wires. Imagine doing this 10,000 times and using brown tape. This year my friend, John Mason at EMTU Estates, and I decided to purchase a Pellanc Tie tool and share the expense. Why share? You only have to tie once per year and the tool is expensive. The advantages of this tool are that it is at least 3x faster than by hand and you can use biodegradable twist ties. In addition you save yourself the exposure to carpal tunnel syndrome, which is prevalent due to performing the same task over and over in the vineyard. Just for me…I have 3130 vines…so you do the same thing many times.

As you can see the tool’s energy is supplied by a battery pack that you belt on…and all you do is load a very long tie that is cut when you pull the trigger. The battery is supposed to last 10,000 pulls…or almost enough to do my entire vineyard. However, given the monotonous nature of tying, I will probably only do a few hours at a time until I finish in about 10 hours.

First Bottling – Choosing a Bottle/Capsule

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We are about to bottle our 2012 Pinot Noir, if all goes well before the end of February. It will have aged 17 months and is ready to go into bottles, where it will sit for 2-3 months to prevent “bottle shock” and then ready to drink.

The first task in designing your bottle is picking a bottle shape. The picture below are the bottles I considered. In the old days you could tell the wine by the bottle shape without looking at the label…but not anymore. It really does not matter what shape you put it in as it will age the same.

So…bottles come in different heights, bottom diameters, weights, neck sizes, label areas, punts sizes and country of origin just to name a few. I wanted a US made bottle that had a fatter bottom with a standard size top for the tin capsule but a thick top line, but not to heavy and was available locally for me to pick up. Just a side note…they have asked people to taste the same wine in different bottles and the one with the more expensive looking bottle always tastes better.

I narrowed the list to the two bottles above and the one of the right won and it will be paired with a standard matte black tin capsule!

First Bottling – Choosing a Cork

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OK…if you have been following along we have a bottle, capsule and a label. How about the cork? Below you will find 4 grades of cork with the best on the left. Amazingly the price goes up about 25% as you increase the grade of the cork.

As Joanne has famously said…why stop now. We picked the top grade of natural cork from ACI Cork USA, Inc. Why…it looks better and should provide a better seal with less air pockets. I’m hoping that it will also have less potential for “cork taint”.

Lastly, why even use cork. In New Zealand and Australia, where we recently spent 4 weeks, all the Pinot is bottled with screw caps. I had originally wanted glass corks. Well, it all came down to simplicity and cost. With the volumes we had I could afford the tools to do screw caps and they don’t have the tradition of real cork. We had access to a small corking tool. Glass corks were more expensive and we found them difficult to remove. Lastly, with cork we got to put our logo on each and everyone of them so after you enjoy our wine you will have a moment!

First Bottling – Designing a Label

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After you have picked your wine bottle, you need to brand the wine and design a label.

Our son, Vaughn Aldredge, designed the front label and logo you see above. Isn’t it beautiful? Just in case you didn’t know, the Turtle is our spirit animal. Next, Mary Mitchell incorporated the logo into a wine label. Lastly I found a printer at the Wine Show in Sacrament two weeks ago who showed me the label below from Silvertip Vineyards. The label is wonderful and printed on thick felt paper. We liked it so much we are going to use the size and paper for our label. Lastly, I registered a QR code for www.turtlevines.com and put it on the back label. I hope you enjoy it what you see it!

When to water for Renewal Spurs

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In the last post I gave you an update about the drought here in California. The net is we still need a lot of rain in the next 2 months.

2013 our vines were in their 4th leaf (still young and the roots not fully developed) so I was trying to wean them from water to develop the roots better and help the pH of the grapes. Unfortunately, I went a little to far and the renewal spurs for cane pruning did not fully develop. So, this years crop will be a little smaller than expected…which is OK since we are short of water again and I don’t want to stress the vines so early in their life. What does that mean for those who don’t know the lingo…in the picture above, the “arms” for his year did not grow enough on some of the vines. What will I do in 2014? I’m going to make sure we get enough water until the fruit is “set” which should be enough for 2015. So much to learn…and I guess you don’t learn unless something happens to you.