Fire and water.

My grandmother was oft heard quoting Aesop, "...fire and water, they are good servants but bad masters."  Even as a small child I got the gist of what she was saying.  However, growing up in Liverpool, I didn't think I was in imminent danger of burning up, or being washed away.  Fire is mostly great; a cozy wood burning stove, a candlelit dinner, toasting s'mores round a fire-pit.  Better still, chestnuts.  Good servant stuff.  What could possibly go wrong?  Well, now I live in tinderbox dry California and wildfires happen.  The bad master stuff.
One week ago, I was going about life in a normal manner, e.g., picking Cabernet franc.  Exactly one week later things are not quite normal.  In fact, I'd go as far as to say they are abnormal.  I went to bed last Sunday night ignorant to the fact that there was a wildfire raging just a few miles from here.  Without going into detail, except to say that what ensued was quite dramatic, at 3.45 a.m Monday morning Vinomaker and I had to quickly evacuate Vinoland.  I grabbed Vinodog 2, my passport, my green card, my wedding ring, my rosary beads (from the Vatican) and my purse - and I was gone! We returned about 7 hours later.  Everything just as we'd left it, but now covered in a grey and black layer of ash.
Six days later, we still have no power, but thank God we have everything else.  In an area just about 3 miles from Vinoland, an entire street is gone.  I don't have that voyeur-bone in my body that some folks have.  People suffering horrible loses are not there for my entertainment.  I would want to grieve the loss of a home, a pet, or all of my possessions in private.  Yes, I'm curious, but this cat doesn't have nine lives.  I'll survive without witnessing, first hand, the misery of others.
Speaking with neighbours who have been in this area since the early 60s, I have learned that wildfires ravage this area about once every 20 years.  One neighbour recalled for me the calamitous fire of 1964, the year he moved to Coombsville.  And an even more destructive conflagration in 1981.  So, it seems, we were overdue.  Everything in life is cyclical and that includes wildfires.  It's just that now there are more people and homes in the way of Mother Nature (when she takes it upon herself to do a little housekeeping).  And vineyards.
Last winters heavy rains only exacerbated the intensity of these wildfires, as there is plenty of fuel to keep them stoked.  The charred hillside, from where I took this photograph, is now mostly clear of brush and shrubs, a lot of the larger trees are blackened but still standing.  Just like the neighbourhood itself: a little singed, but mostly unscathed.  I wish I could say the same for all Napans.  Fuel for thought.

The winner by a nose.

Continuing with the continuing education theme, when the TWWIAGE production team are not actively making wine, the winemaker (or the oenologist) organises 'blind' tastings for the entire staff.  There is always a theme; usually a comparison of a particular vintage, AVA or price point. Or sometimes a vertical tasting of his own wines.  It is a serious, but fun exercise.
In a recent comparative-tasting, TWWIAGE's flagship Cabernet Sauvignon was pitted against five other 2013 Cabs from throughout the Napa Valley, all of them more expensive than TWWIAGE's offering.
Unfortunately, one wine was corked so it was, for all the tasters, relegated to last place.  Hate when that happens.
To cut a long tasting-story short, the winner, by one point only, was Far Niente's Cabernet Sauvignon.  The very close second went to the TWWIAGE wine (incidentally, my second place wine also).  My favourite wine in the tasting was the offering from Chateau Montelena - quite a light and elegant wine, but, I thought, a wine that would be very food friendly: (it came in third overall.)
And that was that, I feel much more clever now.

Solstice sunset.

The winter solstice's sunrise wasn't much to look at.  And up I was, looking at it, listening to Jethro Tull, brewing coffee and making cinnamon rolls: I wanted to get my money's worth of daylight on this the shortest day of the year. 
However, whilst walking the Vinodogs late this afternoon I got to enjoy a very impressive sunset which highlighted the neighbourhood vineyards with a deep, amber glow.
Happy winter solstice, enjoy, be happy...for tomorrow it starts to stay lighter, later.
Sing it, Ian!

Good old mould.

These Semillon grapes are looking good, or rather bad - which is a good thing when they are destined to become a late harvest wine.  This Coombsville vineyard is the source of Semillon grapes for Far Niente's Dolce, a delicious late harvest blend of the aforementioned grape and Sauvignon blanc. 
It hasn't been the greatest growing season for late harvest wines.  It has actually been too warm and dry - there has been no rainfall in October.  Last week there was heavy ground fog nearly every day, which is a more desirable climatic condition for Noble Rot, but it may be too little, too late.  Last Tuesday, whilst driving to work, I did espy a vineyard crew working their way through the vineyard with 5 gallon buckets, no doubt making one of many picking passes, selecting only clusters that were showing a good dose of Botrytis cinerea.  I hear the Dolce harvest can last up to 6 weeks.  It's not a cheap wine, but it is a great tipple.

Get a move on!

The folks at Far Niente, who usually perform their vineyard operations like clockwork, seem to be a bit behind this year.  Or maybe this spell of warm weather - it reached 80° here on Wednesday - took them by surprise.  Whatever the reason, this was how Far Niente's Chardonnay vineyard looked this morning when I walked the Vinodogs.  By this afternoon's walk, a pruning crew was busy giving each vine a flattop.
Pre-pruned earlier in the winter, these vines are displaying what in plant physiology is known as apical dominance...cool.  And I may have mentioned it before, delaying pruning as long as possible can help to retard budbreak which can aid in the avoidance of injury to the new, baby budettes from spring frosts.  I expect to hear Far Niente's frost-protection fans strike up, (usually about 3 a.m.), in the not too distant future.

Stripped off.

The folks at Far Niente were busy diligently leaf pulling today in preparation for their Chardonnay harvest (or at least in this vineyard).  It's a tiny bit earlier than last year, but then 2012 overall has been a more even growing season compared to that of 2011.
The beginning of this week saw temperatures in the high 90s here in Vinoland.  Today it was just 75°F, partly overcast and rather breezy - what a difference.  The cooler weather will slow the sugars down a tad in our Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah vines, but I won't have any specific data until I do a sugar sampling on Sunday.

Frost season.

Having a cover crop in a vineyard is generally a good thing for the vineyard's health.  However, a tall cover crop (like the 5' tall mustard in the above photograph) can artificially raise the vineyard floor, thus encouraging frost to settle on the new plane which is what the top of the cover crop has now effectively become. Unfortunately, that can be right in the bud/fruit zone. Napa had a fairly hard frost event yesterday. Currently, it's 31 degrees F as I type and the roof of Vinoland's barn is white with frost - it faces west.

The folks at Far Niente mowed down their cover crop yesterday. Just when the bell beans, field peas and vetch had started to bloom and look very pretty, the rain ended, took the clouds with it and opened the door to usher in frost season.  A disked, vegetation free, dark-soil vineyard floor is the best condition in which to capture the sun's daytime warmth.  In my opinion, a cover crop is essential to soil health, but for frost protection the timing of mowing down a vineyard's cover crop is crucial to saving the grape crop.  And, that's the conundrum of cover cropping.
By the way, Happy California Poppy Day!

Beginnings and ends.

This morning, after I had finished clearing up last night's tasting score-sheets, wine-sticky pencils, runaway corks and a seeming million grains of rice (that, inexplicably, the Vinodogs had not hoovered up) I, and the aforementioned canines, went for a walk.
Whilst enjoying our promenade I noticed that the nearby Far Niente Chardonnay vineyard is experiencing budbreak - the exact same timing as last year.  Far Niente's vineyard fans were running long before daybreak, but with the temps only getting down to 36 degrees F the little budettes were not in danger of frost damage.
I was going to go back and take a photograph of the Chardonnay vines this afternoon, but I noticed Vinoland's Syrah is well and truly on it's own way through budbreak, so I photographed one of my own little buddies instead.

Also today, I finished tying down all the Cabernet sauvignon canes. That means I am finished with pruning.  Whoo hoo!  I am sitting here with a glass of bubbly as I type.

Go grapes!

When to prune?

Like a fine Swiss timepiece, the Far Niente vineyard crew have been out and about these past two days pre-pruning their Chardonnay vines. Once again, this post-harvest operation has been performed in this particular vineyard with precision timing.

Vinoland's vines, as I have mentioned on this blog once or twice, are head-trained and cane (and spur) pruned so I don't perform any pre-pruning. Besides, I'm not exactly a planner-type person (am I, Vinomaker?), so if I get started pruning approximately sometime in February that's planning enough for me! However, I did exercise some forethought this past week and purposely went out and found myself an Advent calendar in anticipation of today, December 1st.

It's all about priorities really, isn't it?

Cluster's last stand.

Sorry, I just couldn't help myself!

The past two nights have seen the crew at Far Niente strip their vineyard bare of Chardonnay grapes...except for this one lonely cluster. Well, I'm sure there are more clusters abandoned deep within the rows and aisles of this vineyard, but I'm very particular about what items I anthropomorphise and this little, solitary, sad bunch of grapes is the item of my obsession right now.

Anyway, I wish the winemakers at Far Niente a happy fermentation.

Vinoland's Syrah is coming in tomorrow, whether it likes it or not.

The long and winding row...

...well, not quite.  This row really undulates rather than winds, but looking down this row, in the Far Niente vineyard, I couldn't get one particular song out of my head. More often than not, Beatles songs are the soundtrack to my everyday life thanks to my sister, La Serenissima, who placed them in my head subliminally.  Well, them or The Ramones actually, (thank you Thud).  Anyway, yesterday the hard working folks at Far Niente stripped all the lower leaves off their Chardonnay vines in preparation for harvest...or just to let the clusters dry out from our recent four day rain event.  Humph!

Last year, the Far Niente Chardonnay was harvested on October 16th which happened to be the same day we picked Vinoland's Syrah.  Fat chance of that this year!

Biding time.

The folks at Far Niente have not been letting the grass grow beneath their feet, in fact they disked said grass into their Coombsville vineyard's floor a couple of days ago. The FN vineyard crew also, whilst playing the waiting game with Mother Nature, made hay while the sun shined and drilled-in this coming winter's cover crop.

The Chardonnay clusters are looking very nice right now, just a little bit of sunburn, but with more rain forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday who knows how long the fruit will stay looking this pretty. Waiting for harvest is not a total waste of time, there are a number of other vineyard operations for vineyard managers to busy themselves with whilst they wait, and wait, and wait. Sigh!

The trouble with...

...cordon-training grapevines is the number of cuts, wounds really, that are inflicted upon the vine every year at pruning time. Potentially, each cut is indeed a wound through which any of a number of pathogens could enter into the vine e.g. the fungal disease Eutypa lata.

In the best possible scenario, for the cordon-trained vine in the above photograph, the vine has a minimum of 20 pruning wounds; one to remove one of last year's shoots and one to form this year's new 2 bud spur in each of its ten different positions. In comparison, the head-trained/cane-pruned vines in Vinoland have a mere 6 wounds; one to remove last years cane, one at the end of the new cane and one to form this year's 2 bud spur. The less wounds, the less chance of infection.

However, sometimes large wounds are unavoidable and that's why I have been known to daub Dreft on large cuts. You can see two really large wounds in the photo but on the bright side, this particular vine now has two brand new spurs on this one cordon alone.

Of course, there are many other considerations for choosing one style of training over another, but I personally think vine health is one of the, if not the, most important.

Anyhow...congratulations to the folks at Far Niente on the budbreak of their 2011 Chardonnay vintage.

Like clockwork...

...the vineyard crew were out pre-pruning the Far Niente Chardonnay vineyard near Vinoland today. Although a week earlier than last year, I have to take my hat off to their head viticulturist for maintaining a very tight vineyard operations schedule...if only I were so organised!

See ya, Syrah!

Vinoland, and it's immediate vicinity, was a hive of activity today. We harvested our Syrah, and I am happy to say the fruit looked to be of great quality.
The folks at Far Niente harvested their Chardonnay overnight (this photograph was taken a week ago), perhaps more due to logistics this year than just the desire to bring the fruit into the winery for processing as chilled as possible. 2010 is shaping up to be one of those vintages where the time between harvesting whites and reds is being considerably shortened.
This evening, Vinomaker and I attended the Napa Valley Small Vineyard Owners Association's harvest party...there were some vineyard owners of normal height there also.

Green harvest.

Last weekend the vineyard crew in our friendly neighbourhood Far Niente vineyard performed a green harvest on their Chardonnay vines. A green harvest is the removal of immature grape clusters whilst they are still green, with the express intent of inducing the vine to put all its energy into ripening the remaining clusters. Up in the rocky vineyards soils of the east and west hills of the Napa Valley, vine vigour is naturally kept in check due to oftentimes burdensome growing conditions. In contrast, on the valley floor where soil fertility is high, sunlight hours are long and irrigation systems are regularly employed, the pampered vines can beget an over-abundance of grapes that might not be of the desired quality.
This year, in the valley, green harvesting seems to be the rule rather than the exception. Growers, perhaps anticipating the continuance of a thus far cool growing season, are carrying out green harvests at a slightly higher rate than I have witnessed in previous vintages. However, the general consensus is that the 2010 vintage will be satisfactory in this the coolest summer in Napa since 1998. But, they have to say that don't they? After all, who would buy a 2010 wine in 2013 if the growers and producers themselves slammed the vintage now before it is even harvested?
I personally think the 2010 vintage will be just fine, although yields will obviously be reduced. We still have basically two full months before the majority of Cabernet sauvignon grapes will be harvested and Mother Nature generally knows how to get the job done. And lets face it, most French producers would chew off their own right arms to get just one month of a Napa Valley growing season, even in this less than perfect of years.
The Chardonnay grapes in the Far Niente vineyard do look rather handsome: they seem to be progressing through veraison very nicely and really don't look like they are having too difficult of a time in 2010 at all!

Do not disturb.

Seriously, who'd want to? Not me.
It looks like the European Grapevine Moth is being held at bay; so far, so good.
This insect trap, set by Napa County, seems to have captured nothing more egregious than a particular species of Cicadellidae and some Diptera. Thank goodness...Vinoland may survive the EGVM onslaught.

The secret ministry of frost.

It's no secret that spring frosts spell trouble for the winegrower. Although it is forecast to rain tomorrow, and the day after, this mornings frost heralds the imminent onset of up to an eight week period of interrupted sleep for the Napa Valley's vineyard managers. It is a tad early for me to be overly concerned for my vines. However, I did notice rather corpulent looking Chardonnay buds in the eastern block of the Far Niente vineyard as I was walking the Vinodogs late yesterday afternoon, and that may be a concern for them.
I think budbreak will be several weeks early this year, and so I'm estimating my sleep will be interrupted within the next two weeks. Those wind fans are loud!

Escape from Far Niente.

It has been well over a month since I last posted anything about Far Niente and I don't want the folks over there to think that I have given up stalking their vineyard.
The cover crop in the FN vineyard is looking fabulous right now and it's growing like, well, weeds. The vineyard crew seem to choose the same mix of plants each autumn; bell beans, field peas, vetch, and some weird wheat/barley hybrid like Juan Triticale, all high in nitrogen content. In the spring the cover crop will be disked into the soil. A green manure cover crop, such as this, can add 150 lbs or more of nitrogen per acre, which could possibly cause excessive vigor in the vines, particularly on highly fertile soils. The Chardonnay vines that are grown here don't seem to be overly vigorous, so I can only assume the vineyard manager knows what he is doing.
What's different about this picture though, is the fact that a heavy rainfall last November 20th resulted in some of the cover crop seed being washed out into a low corner of the vineyard. Deposited against the roadside fence, and the culvert that runs alongside it, some escapees are opportunistically flourishing in the nooks and crannies where they came to rest.
Can you blame these poor little fava beans and field peas for wanting to abscond? I'd do a runner too if I knew I was going to be disked into oblivion.

Prune early for Christmas.

Almost one year ago to the day, this vineyard was undergoing the exact same farming operation, pre-pruning. The people at Far Niente have to be the most consistent and dedicated winegrowers I have seen in these parts. Either that or they have nothing better to do. Having polished off a bottle of their delicious 2006 Cabernet sauvignon, with Vinomaker and Thud last week, I know that is not the case.
I hope I don't come across as some Far Niente groupie or stalker, it's just that their vineyard is the closest commercial vineyard to where I live, just some 200 yards from my gate, and it is hard not to notice when stuff is going on over there, seeing as I walk it's entire length daily with the Vinodogs.
So a very Merry Christmas, and a very nice looking cover crop, to all the Far Niente vineyard crew.