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It’s Pruning Time in the Vineyard
A vineyard update from Goosecross, Napa Valley, Winemaker Geoff Gorsuch:
I always look forward to pruning season every year because it’s great quiet time out there, just me and the vines. We get a lot of questions this time of year because some vineyards in the valley are already completely pruned, others look quite wild and untamed and still others, like ours, are sort of half pruned. So, let’s talk about timing.
When: The big picture answer is any time from December through February – maybe even into early March. Once we’re sure the vines are dormant, we can start and it’s important to finish before the growing season begins again (bud-break), usually mid-March. Growers and wineries with lots of acreage will start as early as possible in order to get done on time. For the small grower, like Goosecross, there are a couple of reasons we like to prune at the last minute when we can.
One is to protect the vines from a fungus called eutypa die back (common name: “dead-arm disease”). During the rainy season, the spores are everywhere and will infect fresh pruning wounds. If we prune late, often the worst of the rain is behind us, plus the wounds develop resistance faster. But now, in the height of the rainy season our partially-pruned vines are still OK because eutypa moves so slowly. There’s no way it can travel all the way down these foot-long shoots to the cordon before March so the damaged plant material, if any, will be pruned off later.
The other reason to prune late is that it may delay the onset of bud-break, slightly, and spare us some of the lost sleep and expense of protecting the new growth from frost.
So, what about these half-pruned vines? In order to make quick work of our last-minute pruning, we get the worst of it done in advance. Last year’s shoots were a tangled mess, clinging to the trellis wires, so we got that cleaned up so we can finish the job quickly and easily later.
How: The vines need to be severely pruned, kind of like roses. From a wild tangle of shoots that are 3-5 feet long, I bring it down to what looks like almost nothing — just the vine skeleton.
Our vines are trained into what is called a bi-lateral cordon (two permanent arms) and we use what is called vertical shoot positioning (VSP), which means the shoots are trained up vertically, through the trellis wires. VSP maximizes light exposure to the leaves, which helps heighten fruitiness, and provides filtered light to the clusters.
I leave several small protrusions on the cordons, called spurs. The spurs contain the buds (growing points) for the next season’s shoots. The theory is that for each bud, I’ll get a new shoot in the spring. From each new shoot, I can expect about two clusters.
The problem is that the vines don’t read the textbook, and I’m bound to have some surprises. So, I’ll go through in April, to see what actually happened, and inevitably do some shoot thinning. If there are too many shoots and the canopy is dense, it blocks the light and increases mildew and mold problems. Plus the extra shoots produce excess clusters, which can compromise quality.
In late May, after flowering, I’ll make cluster counts to see if I need to do any thinning. There’s nothing I can do about too few, but if there are more clusters than I anticipated, the grapes may not ripen properly and could lack flavor intensity.
Every year is a new ballgame, but one thing we know for sure: Quantity and quality hardly ever go together, when it comes to wine, so careful winter pruning and thinning, later, during the growing season is critical to the quality of the vintage.
So, we’ve already done our “pre-pruning” and we’ll finish up in late February. Happy New Year!
Harvest Update from Goosecross
Our Harvest Calendar tells the story. September brought us a few blasts of heat and the grapes came rolling in at a fairly rapid fire. The bad news: It’s exhausting to have so many burners going at once. The good news: A lot of the really hard work is behind us, now, so we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. 
So, how’s it going? Of course, you expect me to say it’s going great, so I’ll be pleased to oblige! After the roller coaster that was 2008, this has been a beautiful growing season.
Number one, flavors are right where I want them. Beautiful balance, great flavor intensity.
Number two, yields are nice and normal. In some cases, like our Cabernet Franc, even generous! That’s a relief, although not surprising. When the vines pull back one year they often pour it on in the next.
As we reported, at the end of August, we started our harvest significantly later than we did in 2008. Aside from a few heat blasts along the way, this has been a decidedly cool growing season. Some wineries are still quite a bit behind schedule, but we’ve caught up nicely, thanks to that warm September. Early isn’t the best, in most cases, because it may mean inadequate “hang time” in terms of flavor maturity, unless the whole season was early. Late is a little scary because we can run into rain. A little rain doesn’t much matter, but heavy rainfall can cause rot, mildew, dilution… Some varieties are more susceptible than others.
So, we’ve got Petit Verdot – all three rows of it 
coming in Sunday and Syrah, probably, next week and we’re home free! Let’s hope Mother Nature continues to smile on us! Cheers!
Goosecross Winemaker on Pre-harvest Leaf Thinning
Geoff Gorsuch, our Winemaker, will tell us about his strategy for thinning leaves as the grapes ripen. This was filmed at our estate vineyard in Yountville, Napa Valley. Enjoy!
Blushing Beauties
Those little green peas I told you about are beginning to blush and they’re a sight to be seen – such pretty little things… These little “peas” are actually Cabernet Sauvignon which is putting out signals that it’s thinking about coming home – not real soon – but maybe in about eight weeks, give or take, depending on the weather (other varieties ripen earlier).
As if I needed reminding, this is kind of like a wake-up call to get ready for crush. To make sure I’ve ordered all the supplies I need, get the cellar ship shape and sanitized, take look at last year’s notes and get my game plan together for this year (it reinforces my illusion that I have control)
Besides acting as an early-warning system for crush, the color change (veraison) signals that the vine’s energy has shifted from shoot development into grape ripening. So – that means we’ll be gathering samples before long. You get a bunch of zip-lock bags and pick a representative sample from each section (we’ve got 11 sections on our ten-acre site). Initially we’re after the average sugar, acid and pH. Once they average about 20% sugar it’s time to start tasting. Flavor is, by far, the most important consideration in a harvest decision, but you’ve got to keep running the numbers, too.
I expect the next post will be from the harvest trenches. So far, we’ve come through frost, heat and smoke without much to complain about except a little inconvenience. But, I doubt 2008 will be known for its volume. Let’s see what Mother Nature has in store for us next and hope our luck continues!
Sleep Deprivation in Paradise
As our Winemaker/Vineyard Manager, Geoff, remarked “This is global warming??”
Ya gotta feel for him. It’s become a regular thing, getting up at 2:00 or 4:00 a.m. to hang out in the vineyard checking temperatures and listening to the radio until the sun’s up or he’s convinced we’re out of frost danger. Then it’s back to the winery to do some odds and ends before collapsing on his desk to catch a few zzz’s about the time the rest of us come strolling in at the leisurely hour of 9:00-ish.
Geoff blearily acknowledges “I have to count my blessings. We haven’t had any crop loss, so far, but at this point I’m about ready to sell my soul for a good night’s sleep.”He’s absolutely right. The Napa Register has reported over a million dollars in frost damage in Napa County so far this year, the worst year for frost in about thirty years – only the old timers remember a spring like this.
The buds for clusters appear almost the moment the growing season starts, and damage begins when it drops below 32 F. Some growers protect the new growth by turning on overhead sprinklers. If they have enough water, the ice insulates the tender shoots and buds as the temperature drops. We use a wind machine, a big fan, really, which mixes the warmer air, above, with the cold air that’s settling down on the vineyard to raise the temperature a bit. In many areas of the north coast, wind machines just couldn’t cut it when faced with temperatures in the mid-twenties, but we’ve been lucky so far. Some growers don’t have any form of frost protection at all.
A local vineyard management company estimates 27 frost nights over six weeks, since the growing season began in mid March. That’s bad. But it doesn’t tell the whole story. There are all those nights when it hits the mid thirties, which requires showing up at the vineyard just in case. So, even if it doesn’t actually freeze, you’re up in the middle of the night, driving around the vineyard sipping high-octane brew out of a thermos.
A little cloud cover, or rain or a good, old-fashioned warm front would provide some very welcome relief. We’re usually out of danger by about mid-May. Keep your fingers crossed and send some No-Doze…
Spring has Sprung
We’re off and running with the 2008 vintage. The vines here at the winery started coming out of dormancy right on time, mid-March, and they’re growing like crazy! Usually Merlot and Cabernet Franc are the first on our estate to bud out, then the Cabernet and finally the Petit Verdot. The harvest will probably follow a similar pattern. When you consider the whole valley, Sauvignon Blanc is often the earliest to bud, with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir on its heels. The Bordeaux varieties tend to bring up the rear.
Early spring is called the season of “great growth” in the vineyard, because the new shoots seem to grow before our eyes. As soon as they bud out, I’m on call for frost protection because we can have freezing temperatures at night here as late as into May. The newly exposed, tender buds will be damaged if the temperature drops below 32° F.
Those of you who have come for a visit have probably noticed the large fans in the vineyard. These wind machines mix the warmer air, above, with the cold air, below, to protect the vineyard. Some growers also use smudge pots, which burn diesel or oil to warm the vines. Some years it’s no problem at all and others it seems like I’m up almost every night. This year is more in the latter category – I’ve been driving around checking temperatures in the wee hours a lot lately. I wouldn’t mind a little cloud cover to help insulate things at this point…
This is also the time of “great walking”! As you saw a few posts back, the pruning is severe. Now, it’s time to get out there and sucker. We prune with the idea that we’ll get a shoot for each bud, and a couple of clusters per shoot, but inevitably, the vines do as they please and if there are extra shoots, as there nearly always are, it’s important to sucker out the extra ones. Otherwise we risk over-cropping and crowding, which may exacerbate mildew problems.
Another reason to walk is that the best way to know how the new shoots are developing and to check for signs of insects or disease is to get off of the tractor and walk. As I walk I’ll tuck the new shoots up into the trellis wires.
The vines should flower around mid-May and set the crop by early June. Every season seems to go faster! Let’s hope Mother Nature smiles on us! Cheers!
PRUNING 101: down to brass tacks
In the last post Nancy, our Director of Education, recapped our staff “Pruning 101″ session. It was a great morning – everyone caught on really well and it was a bloodless coup – no trips to the emergency room! The vines seem to be OK, too. Anyway, Nancy asked me to tell you a little bit about what I’m trying to accomplish by pruning.
I’m always sorry to see the end of pruning season because it’s great quiet time out there, just me and the vines. But – the buds are swelling. It’s time to finish so the vines don’t waste any of their energy on growth that’s just going to be pruned off later. So, here goes:
When: Any time from December through February. Once we’re sure the vines are dormant, we can start and it’s important to finish before the growing season starts again (bud-break), usually mid-March. I did the Merlot and Cabernet Franc first, because they usually bud out ahead of the Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. Pruning at the last minute, like this, is great, when I can swing it, because it may delay bud-break and cut down on the number of nights I spend up, worrying about frost.
How: The vines need to be severely pruned, kind of like roses. From a wild tangle of shoots that are 3-4 feet long, I bring it down to what looks like almost nothing – just the vine “skeleton”.
Our vines are trained into what is called a bi-lateral cordon (two permanent arms) and we use what is called vertical shoot positioning (VSP), which means the shoots grow vertically up through the trellis wires. VSP maximizes light exposure to the leaves, which helps heighten fruitiness, and provides filtered light to the clusters.
I leave several small protrusions on the cordons, called spurs. The spurs contain the buds (growing points) for the next season’s shoots. The theory is that for each bud I leave, I’ll get a new shoot in the spring. From each new shoot, I can expect about two clusters.The problem is that the vines don’t read the textbook, and I’m bound to have some surprises. So, I’ll go through in April, to see what actually happened, and inevitably do some shoot thinning. If there are too many shoots and the canopy is dense, it blocks the light and increases mildew and mold problems. Plus the excess shoots produce excess clusters, which can compromise quality.
In late May, after flowering, I’ll make cluster counts to see if I need to do some thinning. There’s nothing I can do about too few, but If there are more clusters than I anticipated, the grapes may not ripen properly and could lack flavor intensity.
Every year is a new ballgame, but one thing we know for sure: Quantity and quality hardly ever go together, when it comes to wine, so pruning and thinning carefully is critical to the quality of the vintage.
Now, we wait for the new growing season to begin and pray we don’t have too much frost this spring!
Pruning 101
It’s March – I know these vines look like they’re dead right now, but they could wake up and start growing, literally, any minute, just like the roses in your garden. So, it’s time to get this business of pruning wrapped up. Geoff, our Winemaker, foolishly agreed to show us how it’s done. He’s a very patient man!
First, a little carbo-loading for the arduous task ahead:
Geoff explains the theory and, with trepidation, hands over the pruning shears to Mark, our Tasting Room Manager, downtown, at Wineries of Napa Valley.
We managed to come out of it with all digits intact
So – the theory, according to Geoff Gorsuch: “For each vine, it’s a balancing act – getting a leaf-canopy to cluster ratio that’s appropriate for the vigor of the vine and the site. Balanced vines make balanced wine.”
“Before”
“After”
Next post: Geoff explains in a little more detail
Lookin’ Good!
Can’t get anyone to say anything bad about the 2007 vintage. The weather is just so darned agreeable! It’s doing it again today! When the human population is so blissfully comfortable, you can bet the vines are feeling good, too, so things are looking very rosy indeed!
Be happy for the sparkling wine producers because many of them have begun harvest in the last few days, which means they’re getting the full benefit of the beautiful weather. The rest of us have to wait, which means that there’s the chance the Mother Nature can still turn on us, but we don’t like to think that way.
Here’s a description of an ideal growing season around here: warm, but not too-hot days; cool, foggy nights; no rain. That’s 2007 in a nutshell so far. And so we have high hopes. In fact Lee Hudson, a local grower, is so fair-weather besotted that he pronounced 2007 to be “…an exquisite season. I predict the best harvest in 100 years.” No, he doesn’t work in marketing.
You can see the grapes have made progress since the last time I was out with the camera. Lookin’ good!
OK, petty gripes:
1. Low rainfall last winter, about 2/3 of normal. This would be more of a problem if it was a hot summer, but it’s been so mild that the vines haven’t been as thirsty as we feared they might be and no one seems to be talking about water shortages. There’s actually a dry-conditions upside (provided it doesn’t continue) of small, non-watery grapes within the cluster. If we don’t have good rainfall in 2008 the gripe will no longer be petty.
2. A little “shatter” in some vineyards. That just means that pollination was impaired here and there, for some reason, and there was some crop loss. No one seems to be able to put their finger on the cause this year. The estimate for the valley is that the crop is down by about 10% of “normal”, whatever that means.;-) Geoff Gorsuch, our Winemaker, thinks we’re just about normal, maybe slightly down.
Geoff just thinned the crop for the third time this year. It’s not unusual to thin a little before and after fruit set is complete. Over the last few weeks, as veraison (the color change) has been wrapping up, he’s thinned again in the sections where he’s noticed some reluctance to color up. The result? Bam! Instant, gorgeous color in the clusters that remain. It’s all about distribution of energy.
We’re running a little ahead of schedule. Early is a blessing because it gives us a better shot at getting the grapes in before the rains hit. The only time it’s a gripe is if the growing season is shortened and the fruit doesn’t get enough “hang time“. The whole season has been early from the get-go, and, in these mild temperatures, the grapes tend to ripen slowly, so they should have plenty of time to develop good flavor maturity and intensity. Geoff says it’s too soon to be sure.
He figures we’ll probably bring in our first grapes, usually Sauvignon Blanc, around Labor Day. With any luck we’ll wrap it up with Petit Verdot or Cab some time in October.
If we can find a way to prolong Mother Nature’s excellent mood, then maybe Mr. Hudson’s prediction will come true. Under these circumstances, Geoff’s biggest fear is human error. “When you’re handed a year like this, the best thing to do is just try not to screw it up!”
Bloom is Bustin’ Out All Over
Well, we had New Years in March, and now I guess you’d say it’s Epiphany. The vines have started to bloom over the last week or so. Pretty spectacular, huh? Well, uh, on second thought…
So, don’t bother rushing out here to see the romantic flowering of the vines. This is a bloom only in the technical sense. And they have no scent – these fuzzy little flowers couldn’t possibly attract a thing.
And that’s OK. The grape flower is hermaphroditic, meaning that the blossoms are self-pollinating. They contain both the male, pollen-producing staminate and the female, seed-producing carpelate. This means we don’t have to worry about attracting bees or rely on the wind to carry the pollen. Quite convenient. We only worry about the weather, and so far the weather, if not the flowers themselves, has been spectacular. Mild and agreeable–and dry–which bodes well for cluster set. Uniform cluster formation means Geoff, our Winemaker, may just have a little easier time figuring out his answer to the eternal question at harvest: “What is ripe”
The Cabernet Franc was the first, beginning to flower about a week ago, followed by the Merlot. Geoff said he’s amazed at the amount of fruit the vines want to set in some parts of the vineyard and sees some serious cluster thinning in his immediate future.
He’s already dropped some crop in the Merlot–a rather bold and confident move when it has yet to complete bloom. We’re beginning to see some action in the Petit Verdot and hints of flowering in the Cab. So, the next thing you know, it’s time for cluster counts and we’re off and running!
Here’s to a bloomin’ good year!
Cheers!
