The weather has settled into a wonderful summer pattern of warm days and cool nights, with no change in sight.  Fruit dropping has been completed in the primitivo vineyard, and the fruit still hanging appears to be of excellent quality.  Our focus in the primitivo vineyard has now shifted to bird control, as a small experimental block of tempranillo grapes (which, true to their name in Spanish, ripen early) was decimated by birds, and they began to take interest in the primitivo.  Multiple legal methods of bird control are being employed.  The first grape chemistry readings were taken from a sample of block 6 primitivo, and this suggests that we are on target for an early- to mid-September harvest of that varietal.  Fruit dropping in the later-ripening barbera vineyard is ongoing. 

As July comes to an end, the return of normal summer temperatures seems almost like autumn when contrasted to the blast furnace that was the prior two weeks…we remember again why we live here!  Veraison in the primitivo vineyard is now broadly underway, and as expected the barbera has started veraison in the last several days.   Fruit dropping to meet yield targets is now happening in earnest in the barbera vineyard, whereas the more severe winter pruning and the natural ability of primitivo to better self-regulate yield leaves us with with less work to do in that vineyard.  Further fine-tuning of the harvest windows may be possible by the next update.

Scratch what we said a week ago about seasonable weather…it’s been a little hotter than seasonable and will continue to be so in the near future.  This is shaping up as the warmest summer since 2002 at Shaker Ridge.   A combination of the continued hot weather, light crop load, and a natural tendency to ripen early has apparently led to the beginnings of veraison in the primitivo vineyard.  This is at least a week earlier than last year, despite a much later budburst than last year, and has led us to move up our predicted harvest window for primitivo by 1-2 weeks.  Although there is no sign of veraison yet in the barbera vineyard, we expect it to follow suit, and we have accordingly moved up our expected harvest window for that varietal by a similar amount of time.

After a blazing hot period in late June, we have settled in to a typical Foothills summer pattern with very warm days and cool nights.  Training of the lateral cordons in our new port vineyard is completed and shoot growth is good, suggesting that we will be able to get our first taste of the Portugese varietals selected next season.  In the main vineyard, the vines remain healthy but experienced some water stress during the hottest period.  The berries continue to enlarge and secondary fruit has formed.  We are beginning the process of dropping fruit ahead of veraison to hit yield targets.