Hello and
Welcome,
This is a special
mid-September climate update.
If you live in the
Willamette Valley and are Pinot Noir fans, you don't need me to tell you that
2011 is turning into a "dark horse" vintage. It is our intention to saddle up
and ride this pony the final furlong into a fortnight of harvest.
To wit (Reminds us
of the 2007 vintage):
1. A person about
whom little is known, esp. someone whose abilities and potential for success are
concealed: "a dark-horse candidate".
2. A competitor or candidate who has little chance of winning, or who wins against expectations.
2. A competitor or candidate who has little chance of winning, or who wins against expectations.
However, if you are not bearing witness to the unfolding events of the vintage then please hold the birds at your location and I will give you the update.
The last half of August and the first half of September have been warm. However, not in the way you might want. August brought warm daytime temperatures and moderate nighttime temperatures. We had sunny days and clear evenings. It almost felt like summer! This period of great weather was largely responsible for the initial color change we witnessed in the vineyard. Not much of a start, but certainly trending the right direction.
Now the first part of September followed the trend and winemakers here began to sport smiles on their faces. Some went to their doctor while others began self medication regimes. By the second week of September we had heavy cloud cover, things returned to "normal" and the smiles disappeared. What to do with all of these meds???
Well, September’s cloudy days brought a blessing and a curse. The blessing is warm nighttime temperatures. This helps the vine ripen fruit by allowing the energy from photosynthesis to "translocate" throughout the vine instead of being trapped in the leaf due to a cold night. This has markedly improved the rate of color change we see in the vineyard and we like it!
The down side is that the heavy cloud cover responsible for the warm nighttime temperatures and high humidity is conducive to Botrytis. This fungi likes movies and long walks on the beach. Wait, that is a different boy. Botrytis (aka Edelfäule in German for you Christof) likes warm humid conditions that allow it to grow on unprotected grapes creating Laccase and other unmentionables that will compromise our fruit. Mother Nature, she is such a cutie!
After 4 vintages of this pattern, we are prepared. We continue to make preparations for a down to the wire, photo-finish harvest. Why just the other day, the faulty temperature gauge in the tractor was fixed - Thanks Tom! The clusters that remain are being de-winged and the canopy is still looking very healthy. The fall cover crop of Oats and Peas is in the barn waiting for some soil moisture before Ernie drills it into the vineyard, or the mice to find it and eat it - whichever comes first.
The numbers through the first half of September are looking good. Mostly even and not too many of them are prime. The rain number is the "highlight" at ZERO.
We have recorded about 265 degree days through the 15th of September, providing a total of 1,536 degree days since the beginning of the growing season on April 1st. During this period, our highest high was 98.6 and our lowest high was 90.9. Our lowest low was 47.6 and our highest low was 50.4 degrees Fahrenheit. There was no rainfall. The average monthly humidity was 59.20% and the average dew point was 51.37 degrees. Comparative data will return with the full September climate update.
Even though the data supports no conclusions, we are seeing a weather pattern favoring a trend to accelerated ripening and the ever present risk of bunch rot. And don't ignore the desire for the vines to ripen their seeds and reproduce. They need to make those berries attractive to passing fauna. Sounds like high school and if you are old enough to enjoy fine Pinot Noir, you know how that works.
Kindest Regards,
Dena
& Ernie
No comments:
Post a Comment