Hello and Welcome,
This is the climate summary for
the month of August 2013 (Julian calendar days 213-243 inclusive.)
They say the line between genius
and insanity is a thin one. We would add that in winegrowing this relationship
is in a constant state of flux dependant upon the weather. And the final
product, even years down the road, is repeatedly subject to interpretation.
August has been such a
month. We have had very warm days with dry breezes from the east. The mornings
have sometimes blessed us with a heavy onshore flow from the coast providing
humidity and cloud cover, and on the 15th an early morning double
rainbow over Block 2. The evening sunsets and the full moon have been stunning.
And we have even had the “R” word. Yep, a little bit of rain to close out the
month. But to get a true read on the vintage, we need to pay attention to the
underlying fundamentals – night time temperatures which have been warm.
For us, the line between unripe
fruit and wonderfully expressive flavors and aromas in Pinot Noir occurs at
about 105 days after flowering. In that other Pinot Noir growing region,
Burgundy, they only need about 100 days to cross the threshold. So what gives?
The nights in Burgundy
are typically a little warmer, and even a little increase in temperature adds
up over 100 days.
But what does this mean and why
should I care? It means that during the day the leaves are carrying on
photosynthesis and exporting that energy through the vascular tissue to the rest
of the plant. This is how the vine is building sugars in the wineberries.
However, the leaf can generate much more energy than it can export during the
daytime hours.
As nightfall approaches the
temperatures begin to drop. The leaf is still trying to export energy back into
the vine, and will continue to do so until the temperatures drop down to below
50 degrees Fahrenheit. At that point, the vascular tissue is too cold to
continue transporting energy from the leaves. The leaves are left to store the
energy until the temperature rises.
As the sun rises and greets the
vines, the leaves are once again photosynthetically active. However, the leaves
are still storing energy from the day before. This limits the amount of
photosynthesis that can occur each day, and in turn increases the number of
days necessary to ripen the fruit. Now, 100 v 105 days may not seem like much,
but try holding your breath for 5 days. It makes a difference.
But wait, there’s more! As part
of the Pinot Noir cluster, we have the wing. This little, or sometimes large, appendage
has got to go. Here’s why. The wing flowers about a week after the main cluster
and therefore ripens about a week late. We would prefer not to have the unripe
flavors from these berries in our wine, so we nip them off. That’s about a
minute per vine by 45,000 vines. That’s pretty easy farmer math.
Now let’s talk about ripeness.
What does it really mean? We look at it from two points of view. The first is
the scientific analysis. We measure the fermentable sugars, primarily Fructose
and Glucose, represented as Brix. We know that we will convert sugars to
alcohol at a rate of about 60%. So if we have 20 Brix in our fruit, we will end
up with about 12% alcohol. If we see 25 Brix it means we waited a bit too long
and are peddling 15% alcohol Pinot Noir. Those are the rules of the road.
Acids are great and we measure
those with a pH meter. For those of you who skipped high school chemistry, like
Ernie, just remember the lower the pH the more acidic the wine will be. A
microbial stable wine will be somewhere between 3.0 and 3.7 pH, the lower the
better for extended aging. That is why wines from cool, character building
vintages like 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2011 may need a little more time to tell their
stories than warmer, more accessible vintages.
Once the numbers tell us we are
“in the zone” we can get onto more subjective evaluations. The objective here is
to understand what the wineberries taste and smell like. Think of the grape
skin as a little flavor and aroma packet. Our job as wine growers is to use the
105 days of ripening to influence how those flavors and aromas will develop. We
have several tools at our disposal including removing leaves to increase sun
exposure, or not. We hedge the canopy to help accelerate ripening or let the
shoot tips grow to slow down the ripening process. Cover crops and grasses play
a role by taking up excess moisture when they are allowed to grow tall. Not so
much when Ernie lowers the flail for a tight trim.
It also helps to keep the crystal
ball in good repair so as to factor in what Mother Nature has planned.
Obviously, we spend a lot of time in the vineyard tending to the vines. It
keeps us off the streets, but we can only dance to the music she plays. And our
station is WTFR (Waft The Fruit Radio) where the hits keep on coming.
So, there it is. The canopy is
still looking very green and healthy. The wineberries are turning from green to
mauve to purple. We are trimming off excess crop and the late to ripen wings. We
are also waiting for a spot of rain to soften up the rows in the vineyard so
Ernie doesn’t have to buy a new rototiller this year. Then the summer cover
crop gets turned into the soil and we put down about 50 pounds per acre of
Winter Peas to fix nitrogen and Rye Grass to hold it until the Spring when the
cycle starts over again. No chemical fertilizer here, we grow our own!
Of course, everyone has
an opinion on the upcoming vintage quality. It is said that only journalists
can know the quality of a vintage before the grapes are actually harvested.
That may be true, but we also have our own “Peanut Gallery.”
These guys and hens are
constantly in the vineyard. Mostly they are eating the Buckwheat seeds from the
summer cover crop mix. But they pop off quite often and loudly. We usually get
an earful at the breakfast table, as there favorite spot to orate is in the
shrubbery between the kitchen and block 2. They also have their own rabbit. He,
or she, seems to be quite shy and we have yet to see an appropriate suitor on
the scene.
And Peaches is still running
around here somewhere. Ernie was discing the “Upper
West Side” getting ready for a spring planting of Wadenswil clone when he saw this
beautiful doe running along the inside of the new deer fence. Her coat was the most
amazing color of a Redtail hawk’s tail feather. Not much to worry about in the
vineyard just now, so Ernie geared down on the crawler and let her by. Since
Ernie’s encounter, Peaches has been a bit shy, so we’ve issued a “Missing
Peaches Report.” We expect she is getting ready for the rut and will be back in
fine form just as the grapes ripen up.
Before we get to the
numbers, we wanted to remind everyone that if you are doing any home repairs or
remodels, you need one of these. This basic model has a handle for red and a
handle for white. However, with just a little more effort you can find a model
that will provide several choices to match your mood. We do recommend that if
you are addicted to bubbles like Dena, the traditional glass bottle and tree
bark stopper is the proper way to go.
And here are the numBERRRRs!
We have recorded 524 degree days
for the month of August, providing a total of 1,737 degree days since the
beginning of the growing season on April 1, 2013 (Julian calendar day 91.) For
analytical comparative purposes only, the 2010 vintage only recorded 1,722
degree days through the end of OctoBERRRR.
Silky, sexy wines they are, with
relatively low alcohol. When Ernie was in Dublin ,
the Irish guys would say “You can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning.”
If that is the case, then 2010 is the vintage.
Crunch ‘em if you got ‘em, and
Ernie does. Looking at the first 15 days of August we see a high of 92.0
degrees and a low of 47.2 degrees, with an average temperature of 66.39
degrees. This is from the optimally positioned weather station that takes a
temperature reading every 20 minutes. The next 16 days of August provided a
high of 89.3 degrees and a low of 50.6 degrees, with an average temperature of
67.31 degrees from the aforementioned, optimally positioned, weather
station. The second half of August also brought a shot of rain and heavy cloud
cover that held the daytime heat through the evening hours.
Here is what we can glean from
these numbers:
R
The high temperatures
are well below the levels that will shut down the vine and potentially sunburn
overexposed berries.
R
The low temperatures tell
us that the vines are continuing to export energy from the leaves during the
evening hours. This is advancing the ripening curve and reducing the number of
days the vine needs to build sugars.
R
Conversely, the vines
are reducing the potential number of days we need to achieve flavors and aromas
in the skins due to an advanced ripening trajectory.
R
We may not be able to
wait the full 105 days to start harvest operations. Good news for you. You may
only need to hold your breath for 3 days instead of 5.
Based
on the date the vines flowered plus 105 days, a harvest window opens on day 262
of the Julian calendar (aka Thursday, September 16.) However if September
continues on August’s course, we may be forced to begin harvest a little early
to avoid high potential alcohol wines. What a change this would be from 2010
and 2011 where we were still harvesting well into NovemBERRRR.
August rainfall occurred from the
25th thru the 29th and totals 0.29 inches. While not a
significant amount of rain, this event is significant as we typically do not
see rain in August. It was a welcome sight as we have been pretty warm and dry
since our last rain event on June 30th. Total rain for the growing
season is now 13.37 inches.
Here is what we had to say
last year, August 2012:
We have recorded about 545 degree
days for the month of August, providing a total of 1,474 degree days since the
beginning of the growing season on April 1st. This compares with 582 degree
days last August and a comparative total of 1,271 degree days for 2011. Ceteris
Paribus for August, but we are still holding our degree day advantage from the
Spring.
Our high temperature was 101.0
and Ernie’s hi-tech, wireless weather gauge chose this day to display “OFL.” We
couldn’t agree more, it was awful! Our low temperature for the month was 45.4
degrees Fahrenheit. There was no rainfall in August. Rainfall last August was
also zero. Rainfall since April 1st through August 30th remains
8.96 inches, and is 0.43 inches less than last year's growing season to date
rainfall of 9.39 inches.
Kindest Regards,
Dena & Ernie
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