Author Archives: Doug Williams

2013 Crop Estimate

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morning side

 

In 2012 I estimated 1300 lbs of Pinot and we picked 1190 on our first harvest!  This year the vines are more mature and we should get roughly 60% of our eventual total, which would be 3 tons.  However, in walking the vineyard the east end is not as vigorous as the west end, so my guess is 2.75 tons.  This will make 193 cases of wine.

Let’s not forget our Sauvignon Blanc which has been getting rave reviews but is very limited.  My guess is we will get 4 cases of “Nonna’s Vineyard”

Lastly, given the warm spring with lack of rain, we will harvest early to mid-September.  I’m hoping September 21st as this is when our friends and relatives said they could come help!

Finding A Winery Partner Since the County won’t let us be One!

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JC Winery

 

This was taken last fall as we were helping our dear friends Bill and Lauren make their Chardonnay at Santa Rosa Junior College.

What does it take to become a winery?  In Sonoma County you have to be zoned correctly and then for a small winery comply with regulations and pay around $6,000, mostly to the county.  Last month we started paperwork to be a winery but found out we are in the wrong zone.  Back to square one.

In order to sell the wine you do make, it has to be made at a bonded and permitted winery.  (Of course, anyone can make 100 gallons per person of wine a year, a law leftover from prohibition, and drink it or give it away to friends.)  So, we are in search of a good match for our organic grapes that can be hand crafted to make the best Pinot Noir possible.

We would like to find a winery that has the following traits:
– is close by
– we like the wine they make
– will give us a good price for our grapes
– will help us make wine  to sell, either as “Custom Crush” or “Alternating Proprietorship”
– values organic grapes
– is fun to work with

Yes, this is a lot to ask, and it is only 3 months until harvest…but once they taste the wine we made last year, all will be good.

And if this does not work…will sell some of these high quality grapes to some nice folks and make more wine on the side for us to enjoy!  Either way is OK…

Stay tuned to see where we end up this year.

Removing Leaves

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morning side

 

We went to a great deal of effort and expense to orient our vineyard 42 degrees from North/South.  Why…do try and get the same amount of sunshine on the grapes evening morning and evening.

But is that enough?  No…from earlier posts we thinned the shoots to balance the vine.  Now, to add to our “subtraction makes good wine”, we need to remove leaves.  Again, why? If you keep all the leaves then you will have herbaceous tasting wine, probably mold on the vines since the spray can’t get to the clusters and it will increase the anthrocyanin levels (taste).  But you can’t take to much off or you could sunburn the grapes later in the year.  In Russian River Valley, we normally take more leaves off on the morning side (above picture) and keep more on the afternoon side (below picture).  You do this after the grapes are BB size to build up their tolerance to the sun.

Another complicating factor is that some varieties want more leaf removal.  Pinot has very thin skin, so you can’t take to much off.  Sauvignon Blanc is more tolerant so you will probably see most of the leaves removed.

Last year was our first harvest, so the plants were not very vigorous so leafing was very easy.  This year…I have to think hard on which ones to take and which to keep.  Won’t know until the heat of the season if I took to much.

afternoon side

Turtle Vines Sauvignon Blanc – Labels

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joey labelsSB labelled

Labels, we have Labels!!! We are gettng very close to finalizing our Turtle Vines labels.  As you can see above, we put them on our newly bottled Sauvignon Blanc.  Vaughn Aldredge is the designer and has done an excellent job on the Logo.  Now I just have to determine if I wanted painted or printed labels on my 2012 Pinot Noir and make sure the labels comply with all the government requirements.

both SB lablels

Fertigation for Weak Vines

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blue tape vineyard

I have learned a lot about Pinot noir by having different clones. The Pommard Pinot noir clone on the west side is very vigorous and seems to grow great. The 667 Pinot noir clone on the east side is not very vigorous and has seemed to struggle since we planted it in 2010.

In many cases a vine that struggles a little is an advantage. If you don’t have a big canopy, you do less work thinning shoots and leaves, and you have less chance of powdery mildew. In a lot of cases it will produce great wine as you want your red wine to struggle to bring out great flavor.

Well, in the case of about 250 vines, the struggle is a little to much and I have resorted to applying organic fertilizer by hand to those vines to help them along. First I marked the ones that were weak (not yet to the second wire) with blue masking tape. Then I lifted up the weed cloth and put 1 pound of Dry Crumbles (organic fertilizer) under the weed cloth and then covered it back up. When we water later in the month it will dissolve and help the vines.

Since it is organic fertilizer, won’t know for a while if it works, but it can’t hurt.

Fertilize vine

Hedging

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Hedge 2013

This week we hedged the west half of the vineyard. Since the Pommard clone is more vigorous, we did these on May 28th and I expect we will do the 667 clone on the east end in a few weeks.

I get asked all the time…why hedge.
– to make the vines look pretty?
– to give my arms a workout as I cut them 6″6″ in the air?
– to balance the amount of leaves to fruit on the vine to produce great wine?

All of the above!

These Boots were made for Walking (in the vineyard) !!!

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boots

 

When I started Turtle Vines 4 years ago I invested in a good pair of Red Wing boots.  I have used them in all seasons and they have been very good to me and my feet!  But, all good things must come to an end, as they have outlived their usefulness.  Truth be told I should have gotten a new pair last year as my feet got wet this last winter.

Interestingly, the soles (see picture below) look like they had some sort of chemical attack, which is very strange since I have been farming organically for 4 years.  Maybe they just had to many miles on them from walking up and down the rows, which as they say, is the best fertilizer a vineyard can have!

 

 

Boot bottoms

What does it mean to be Organic?

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wine in vineyard

 

This was a very big day for Turtle Vines…we were inspected for CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmer) this morning, May 28th, 2013.  There were a few minor items I overlooked and he found, but I’m hoping in 4-6 weeks we will be an officially Certified Organic Vineyard.  There are only 3% of the vineyards in Sonoma County that are organic, so this puts us in good company!

So what does it mean to be Organic?
– We are limited in the chemicals we can spray on the vines to safer, non-toxic liquids to combat mildew and insects. It also means we need to spray more often as the chemicals are not as effective. This means you have to be a better farmer in watching the health of the vines.
– It also means the fertilizers you use are less concentrated, so it you want to “juice” the vines to get them back to good health, you have to plan way in advance.
– You can’t spray Round-Up on weeds in the vineyard. In our case we put 2 miles of weed cloth with mulch on top to reduce weeding in the vine rows. Most vineyards use Round-up and a pre-emergent to control weeds. Just look under the vines and if you only see dirt and not weeds, in most cases it is not organic.
– For us organic is more expensive in the short term, but the soil is much healthier in the long run.
– The good news is I feel much better about the health of the vines, the health of the environment in the vineyard and my health spraying!!!

 

May Vineyard Milestones

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Vine 5-22

It has been a very busy May so far and I just want to update you on what is happening in the vineyard.

First off, the weather has been warm/hot and dry, in fact our “Growing Degree Days” are running 20% higher than last year. This is a measure of the weather for us farmers. For the rest of you it means I’m 2-3 weeks ahead of last year, so it has been more stressful than last year at this time.

We started the month with bloom. They say that from bloom to harvest is around 120 days, so that will put harvest in early to mid September.

The rest of the month so far has been devoted to thinning shoots on the vines, positioning the shoots so they grow straight and leave room for the grapes, clipping the wires together and weeding. The result is the picture above…well manicured vines! Just have to finish weeding on 2/3 of the vineyard and we are good to go.

One downside of the nice weather is that the powdery mildew is a big concern, so I have started spraying with oil much earlier than last year.

What is next? I have to start leafing around the BB sized grapes so the spraying is more effective and the develop a sun tan so they are better able to stand the summer heat.

I’ve put some pictures below of the work so far this month.

P1020500

Row 5-22