Cruise control.

Things are coming along swimmingly in the vineyard; flowering is continuing nicely and fruit set in the Pinot grigio vines looks good, little intervention is needed right now. It's just as well really, as I had a really busy weekend and couldn't devote too much time to the vineyard.

On Friday, my TWWIAGE co-workers and I went to an Oakland A's game. It was a long night, but lots of fun was had by all. Saturday evening found Vinomaker and I at BottleRock 2014, with about 30,000 other music enthusiasts, enjoying the second iteration of this local music event. We enjoyed ourselves, but it meant another late night for me.
Around noon on Sunday I finally got out in the vineyard, but I wasn't there for very long. What I can only assume was a very mild bout of norovirus literally knocked me off my feet for 48 hours. I never get sick, so this was a bit of a shock to me. I thought norovirus was something people usually contracted on cruise ships, sheesh! I'll think twice about partying with 30,000 peeps the next time the opportunity arises, I'd have been safer in the vineyard.

Peek-a-boo!

Hello there little vine!
It amazes me how dormant, bench grafted vines muster up the energy, stored in their roots, to push through the mound of earth above them. It's a vineyard miracle :)
When the growth is about another inch long I will gently break down the mounds and let photosynthesis perform it's wondrous wizardry.
Of course this means the vines will need to be irrigated now as they will have almost depleted the moisture content of the soil they were planted in. Vinomaker, where are you?

The hills have vines.

What is this? Some barren moonscape? Evidence of crazed, hill building moles with a knack for synchronicity? No, it is just the extension of our Pinot gris block here in Vinoland.
The little bench grafts are stretching out their roots, taking up nutrients and water, and reaching upwards, through the mounded soil, to the awaiting California sun. I'll be there to greet them when they make their entrance into the world.

Hard graft!

Finally, all the new Pinot gris bench grafts are in. It's been a long, tiring, often frustrating process, especially for Vinomaker who did the majority of the work, (I am competent with a shovel, but more impressive in a supervisory capacity.)
We chose to use bench grafts over field budding, simply to ensure a better percentage of successful adult vines. Our Cabernet sauvignon and Syrah were all field budded (and the majority of our existing Pinot gris), and they are happy healthy vines...we just wanted this block of new plantings up and running the first time around. We had a 100% take with our Orange muscat block, so we were encouraged to go the bench graft route once more.
Bench grafts are a more expensive approach to establishing a vineyard: there is a lot of work done in the nursery to produce a graft that is alive and calloused fast to the rootstock. You can see the callous around the graft in the picture with the nascent Pinot gris buds above. Doesn't look like much does it? However, in 4 years time it will be a tasty glass of chilled white wine enjoyed on a warm, sunny Napa summer day.

Pinot in the hole!

Not everything I do is fun and games with wine and grapes, from time to time there is some real work to be done in the vineyard. So, today I tied my hair up under my plant pot shaped hat (thank you Thud), and went about the business of increasing the vine count, here in Vinoland, by planting baby bench-grafted Pinot gris vines (Clone 4).
The preparation yesterday and the actual planting today just happened to coincide with the two hottest days we have had thus far in 2009; 100 F and 102 F. Scorchio!
When planting bench-grafts it is important to protect the head, and any tender emerging shoots, by mounding earth at a depth of a least two inches over the bench-graft. At the nursery, the bench-grafts are kept in cold storage and depending on how long they have had to warm up, before being planted in their final resting place, they start to push out shoots that will eventually become the trained vine we all recognise.
Vinomaker and I were a little delayed in getting the bench-grafts planted in a timely fashion (due to the previously blogged tree stump debacle). Our babies had pushed out up to 4 inches of shoot growth in some cases. The corresponding protective mounds were more like ancient Egyptian pyramids than something that should have resembled puny mole hills. It took a lot of shovel work...and a lot of soil!
However, our efforts were cut short. One of the bundles turned out to be Pinot noir (also Clone 4), so we were finished planting a little bit sooner than we anticipated. I have a call in to the nursery which supplied the bench-grafts.
In celebration, albeit a little premature because we will have some extra planting to do, we are now sitting on the deck enjoying a glass of Vinomaker's 2008 Pinot grigio from the currently producing vines. Delicious.