Category Archives: Wine Growing

When is Harvest?

This is one of the nicer looking vines right now in the vineyard. Below I put a close-up of the bunches. You can see in the picture the berries have swelled and the bunch has almost closed up. Very exciting! What does this mean for harvest and how can we predict it?

In 2012 we harvested on September 23rd at a bris (sugar content) of 22.8. This year I would like to be at 23.5 to give an alcohol content of a little under 14% but add more flavor. – add 5 days
– For 2013 our bud break and bloom were 3 weeks early – I don’t have enough information on our vines to tell.
– Our Growing Degree Days are a week ahead of last year – subtract 7 days
– We have 4 times the grapes, but also more than 4 times the foliage as 2012 – subtract 7 days
– We had a dry spring, only 25″ of rain this season vs 45″ last year

So…our new estimate is September 14!!!

What are Growing Degree Days and why do I care?

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Above is a picture of the closest part of the vineyard to the house. This year the vine canopy is at least 80% filled in this area…next year it will be completely full. The 667 which is away from the house is about 40% full. It is amazing to me when I look back at pictures from 2010 to now and see the difference.

What are Growing Degree Days (GDD)?

It is a measure of the amount of warmth needed to grow plants and if you know what your area is rated for you can determine what to plant and specifically what kind of grapes are suitable for your area.

Easy math…GDD = (high temperature plus low temperature)/2 minus 50. An example…here in Sebastopol the normal for this time of year is 80 for a high, 45 for a low. So…((80+45)/2) – 50 = 12.5 You then add those up for each day during the growing season and you get a calculation for your area. So for our area when you add the days between April 1 and November 1 you get 2350. Here is how we compare to other areas.

Williamette Valley = 2150 (Pinot contender)
Burgundy France = 2400 (home of great Pinot)
Sonoma = 2350 (we think the best Pinot in the United States)
Napa = 3280 (good for Cabernet)
St. Helena = 2900 (good for Cabernet)
Olympia, WA = 1595 (good for Geoduck clams but on the borderline low for Pinot, perhaps a colder varietal)
Phoenix, AZ – >7500 (good for cactus)
So if you want to grow grapes, find out your average GDD and then see which grape will grow in that climate.

Lastly…how are we doing this year on GDD’s vs the last few years from April 1 to June 15th…or year to date?
2010 564 (very late harvest)
2011 505 (very late harvest)
2012 713 (normal harvest, great grapes)
2013 787 (looks to be an early harvest)

2013 Crop Estimate

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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!

Removing Leaves

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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.

Fertigation for Weak Vines

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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.

Hedging

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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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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!

What does it mean to be Organic?

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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!!!

2013 Turtle Vines grapes !!!

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Just a quick note…we started bloom at the beginning of May and the vineyard is now almost fully complete. In the Pommard block we already have BB sized grapes and it looks to be a very good “set” (the conversion of flowers to grapes) which means a good harvest if all goes well.

May Vineyard Milestones

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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.