This is the climate update for the month of May 2013.
If anything describes the trials
and tribulations of growing Pinot Noir it was the month of May. We enjoyed the
most amazingly stunning April where we were burnin’ diesel overtime to harness
explosive vine growth and condition the vineyard floor for our Spring Cover
crop. Ernie got the seeds drilled in and set about the arduous task of waiting
for rain, and wait he did. In case you have not met Ernie, this is something he
is not very good at.
He just needed a tenth
to a quarter inch of precipitation to achieve that magical event called
germination. But instead it was wall to wall sunshine and dry for the first
half of the month. For everyone who was visiting from somewhere other than
here, don’t be fooled. You were simply caught up in a cruel hoax perpetrated on
the farming community at large.
To wit: We just burned through
our harvest weather. You see, every year we get about the same amount of wind,
sun and rain. We like to see rain early in the season, not during harvest, but
the thing is we never know just when we are going to get what. It kinda throws
a spanner in the works, but hey that’s farmin’.
That is until the evening of the
12th. Ernie had been waiting for nearly 3 weeks for a spot of rain.
He had just spent “several” quality hours of his life getting the vineyard
floor ready to accept 1,500 pounds of cover crop seeds. You may be interested
to learn that it takes about 1,500 seeds of buckwheat to weigh a pound, and we
like about 50 pounds to the seeded acre. So that would be 1,500 seeds x 50
pounds per acre x 15 seeded acres gives us a whole lotta buckwheat!
The evening of the 12th
provided the proverbial shot across the bow with a brief drizzle. Slug and
fungus weather is what that’s called. The remainder of the month delivered the
goods, and we had germination! Those last 2 weeks also tallied up the second
wettest month of the year at a whopping 2.78 inches. The full month of March
was only 2.87 inches.
Looking at the growing season to
date, this was a pretty fortuitous event. We have had a very dry spring and
that does not bode well for the dry farmed vineyard at Amalie Robert Estate. The
warm stretch in April and early May invigorated the grass as well as the vines.
Grass, while it doesn’t seem to be doing much, is a voracious consumer of
water. The taller it grows, the more rapidly it depletes the available soil
moisture. In some parts of the vineyard, grass is a tool we use to eliminate
excess soil moisture. In some parts of the country, grass is grown for other
purposes.
But here is the thing, available soil
moisture leading up to harvest has a very significant impact on wine quality.
In the final analysis, a berry is composed of seeds, skin, pulp and water. The
most significant contributor to berry weight, and yield expressed as tons per
acre, is water. In a perfect year, there is just enough available soil
moisture to satisfy the demand from the leaves and allow the vine to partition
carbohydrates (send reserves to the roots) as it prepares for the dormant
season. This is commonly referred to as “making the vine struggle” to ripen the
fruit. But be aware, the leaves can exert a very strong hydraulic pull from the
roots to extract the water they need from the soil.
However, you cannot get a refund
from a used equipment dealer, so if there is too little available soil moisture
the vine dips into the berries for the water it needs. This condition results
in a desiccated berry (raisin) with the potential for overdeveloped skin
phenolics (bitterness) and aggressive and unresolved tannins. Combined with
concentrated sugars, this could lead to the unfortunate crescendo of over
extracted and high alcohol port style wines whose best meal pairing may well be
with leftovers in the kitchen sink. Or perhaps, the latest wine flash site
d’jour.
Fortunately, we had a bit of rain
in May.
Along with the cover crop drama,
which germinated into a fine stand of young succulent plants, the first set of
catch wires are up and clipped into place. The only exception is the rule of
block 12. The Viognier shoot growth is once again lagging behind. Ernie set a
trap, or is doing an experiment – yeah that’s it, for block 12 this year. Watch
this space in the coming months, and the Harvest AAR (After Action Report) for
how things work out.
Alas, the part you have all been
waiting for, the numbers. And here they are: 8675309
However, if you were a Pinot Noir
vine grafted onto, let’s say 44-53M rootstock, May would have seemed more like
this:
The month of May accumulated 229.7 degree days, had a high of 84.6 and a low of
35.8 with 2.78 inches of rain. This brings the 2013 growing season up to 281.4
degree days from April 1 through May 31. Rainfall for the growing season is now
up to 5.00 inches.
As we head into what appears to
be a vey nice summer, please remember olive oil, sea salt and fresh cracked
(fracked?) pepper is not a substitute for sunscreen. Be sure to “get some onya!”
Here is what we had to say last
year:
The month of May accumulated
196.32 degree days, had a high of 88.0 and a low of 31.7 with 2.92 inches of
rain. This brings the 2012 growing season up to a very respectable 236.08
degree days from April 1 through May 31. We are significantly warmer than 2011’s
heat accumulation of 37.61 degree days by nearly a factor of 10! Rainfall for
the growing season is 6.04 inches, which is less than the 2011 ark building
rains of 7.71 inches.
Clearly, we are seeing warmer and
drier growing conditions than we have experienced in the last couple of
vintages. But are the differences really farmin’ significant?
Kindest Regards,
Dena & Ernie
