I'm a fan.

I love this portable wind machine that showed up in the Opus One vineyard last week; the fan one day, the propane tank the next.  The vast majority of vineyards around the Napa Valley have been pruned now and vineyard-vistas are greening up as leaves and shoots (white varietals) are appearing atop vines as a fuzzy, pale green haze.

The Opus One vineyard is, of course, Cabernet sauvignon - an expensive crop that needs to be protected from frost.  With the possible threat of frosty spring mornings just around the corner, vineyard managers up and down the valley are making sure that frost protection means are in place, and in working order. Vineyard managers that employ overhead sprinklers for frost protection have been checking that their sprinkler systems will indeed sprinkle when called upon to do so, (as evidenced by the number of vineyards that have been getting a good sprinkler-dousing the past couple of weeks).

I finished pruning the Syrah today, making my spur and cane selections that is, I haven't tied them all down yet.  The Syrah vines are very enthused which makes tying the canes down difficult.  It also means that those little buds will be susceptible to frost damage if we have a chilly morning.  My fingers are crossed because I don't have a portable wind machine.

On another note, this past Wednesday's Napa Valley Register reported that more than 400 concerned citizens had showed up at a joint meeting of the Napa City Board of Supervisors and the Napa County Planning Commission (on Tuesday 10th March).  What are they concerned about? Vintners, growers and average folk are concerned about the unfettered growth of wineries within the agricultural preserve, wineries that "are becoming glitzy event centers that overshadow agriculture, generate too much traffic and use too much groundwater."  A group of  growers and vintners, notably Andy Beckstoffer and Dennis Groth, submitted a joint letter (which I'm sure got a frosty reception from the supervisors), asking the county to enforce regulations set in place under the 1990 Winery Definition Ordinance.  Problem is, the county repeatedly grants variances to new wineries to get around the laws the county itself instituted to protect the agricultural preserve. It's a highly contentious issue and I'm sure that a huge flap is fermenting.  Stay tuned.

Pruning: Opus One.

The relatively small block of Opus One Cabernet sauvignon vines, on the corner of Hwy 29 and the Oakville Crossroad, was in the process of being pruned this morning.  A solitary vineyard worker, to my right, was busy removing last year's growth.  I could hear the trellis wires twanging, like some giant untuned guitar, as he yanked at the stubborn shoots, with their vice-like tendrils, to remove them from the trellising.
It made for a very pastoral scene (if one could just ignore the busy traffic a couple of hundred yards away), and I wished I was at home pruning in Vinoland.  

Get your macronutrients here.

The soil is not white in Oakville, these mounds are large piles of fertiliser heaped around the edge of the Opus One vineyard waiting to be applied and disked in.

Whilst vineyard managers are primarily concerned with all things harvest at this time of year, they must also consider whether an application of fertiliser is necessary. Apparently, the people at Opus One who are responsible for the health of this particular vineyard have decided that a good dose of potassium sulphate (K2SO4) is in order. I am assuming that it is K2SO4: potassium chloride (KCl) is another form of of potassium fertiliser that could be used, but it should not be used in a vineyard that may perhaps have an existing salinity condition.

Late autumn or early winter is a good time to treat a vineyard as full advantage can be taken of winter rainfall to move the fertiliser down into the soil and on into the root zone. Seeing as this vineyard was ripped out last spring, perhaps due to some unnamed creepy crawly, this empty field is a clean slate on which a new and improved, and fertilised, vineyard can be planted.

Vineyard coda.

A little while back, I did a post on the goings on in the Opus One vineyard in Oakville. At the time, I thought they were perhaps simply replacing their wooden vineyard posts with metal stakes. But, the old posts remained in disarray for what seemed an awfully long time for such a relatively uncomplicated vineyard operation, if that is indeed what the folks at Opus One were up to.

Shortly after budbreak, I noticed that all the new shoot growth had been cut away from the cordons, except on a few vines, here and there, that still had foliage on them but were surrounded by stakes and caution tape. I still wasn't quite sure what was going on in this vineyard.

More recently, I observed personnel from Napa County Agricultural Commissioner's office digging large holes around the vineyard, obviously in the process of removing samples of something for testing in the lab. I could only conclude that this vineyard had such a severe infestation of whatever was ailing it that it was only a matter of time before this particular block of premium winegrapes was history.

This morning, a very wet January 1st, sorry, I mean June 1st, when I passed the Opus One vineyard on a work errand, the vines had been ripped out and were now heaped in two enormous piles, and the vineyard floor was being disked.

I have emailed the folk at Opus One and asked them what particular creepy-crawly (as it seems most likely that this would be a pest rather than a virus) their vineyard is suffering from, and what exactly their IPM programme entails. However, I don't expect to hear back from them.

At $205 a bottle, whilst Baron Rothschild and Robert Mondavi may not be turning in their graves I'm sure they are at least a little restive.

'Tis as rotten as a rotten post.

I don't know if these vineyard posts are in fact rotten, but the people at the Opus One winery in Oakville have decided to replace nearly every last one in their vineyard. Or at least I think that is what they are doing, I don't really know. All I know is that it makes for a very strange sight when driving by...I'll be watching to see what happens.
Happy Pancake Tuesday!
Photograph courtesy of the Marketing Queen.

Whitewashed.

Optimistically, in the remote chance that September and October in Napa will be somewhat meteorologically normal, the folks at Opus One have treated the south-facing side of their vines, in one block of their vineyard, to guard against damage to the ripening grapes. It was 99 degrees F in my neck of the woods today, so maybe they know something I don't.
Surround WP crop protectant forms a barrier film, which acts as a broad spectrum protectant that may decrease damage from insect pests, but more importantly as a protectant against sunburn and heat stress on grapes. Surround is made from kaolin clay, an edible mineral, used in toothpaste and also as an anti-caking agent in processed foods. This product is apparently acceptable for use in organically grown vineyards. Whoop-de-doo!
It may well work, it just looks weird.

Mother Nature's composition.

It is fun driving around the valley right now because there is lots to look at. Clusters of grapes, that were green and hidden in the canopy just last week, are now easily spotted, conspicuously blushing amidst the verdant vegetation.
At the Opus One vineyard, in Oakville, veraison in the Cabernet sauvignon is well under way, despite daily temperatures being 10 to 15 degrees below normal this summer.
2010 is going to be an interesting vintage.

Shiny, happy vines.

Pruning will be the order of the day for me.
Most vineyards around the valley are already pruned, Opus One's vineyard on the Oakville Crossroad is one such vineyard. Some, like mine, are not. I am so far behind this year, but I fully intend to finish Vinoland's Syrah vines today.
Opus One's assertion of "low-yield, high-density spacing" can be evidenced in the picture of the stumpy, cordon trained Cabernet sauvignon vine above. One would think that that type of planting, on the deep, fertile soil of valley-floor Oakville would spell trouble by producing elevated levels of methoxypyrazines in the finished wine. One would probably be correct, especially since Cabernet sauvignon has a propensity for high levels of methoxypyrazines to begin with. Cramming the vines so close together just serves to make them compete for sunlight, so they tend to over produce vegetation in the quest for the light energy their neighbour might be getting, shading the ripening fruit in the process.
A 1994 bottle of Opus One shared with Vinomaker and Thud, was however one of the most enjoyable wines that I have ever had...so I suppose the proof of the pudding is in the drinking. It's just that I prefer my vines to be happy, well adjusted and spaced vines. With that in mind, I am off out into the vineyard to indulge them their every whim: they will reward me in the autumn.