A  quick recap of 2009 weather in the Sierra Foothills would go something like this:

• January:  dry, pleasant
• February: wet, cool
• March: dry, cool
• April:  normal rainfall, cool
• May: wet, then hot, then perfect
• June: cool, cloudy.  Cloudy?? Yes, cloudy.

Threats of an early budburst and another dry winter were allayed by the cool, rainy weather in February, which was followed by continued cool weather in March and April.  In the end, we think we netted out at close to average winter rainful, and budburst was quite delayed.  Buds in the barbera were first seen to push on March 31, with generalized budburst there and the start of budburst on the back hilltop of primitivo by the first week in April.  Even once pushed, the shoots stayed in a suspended state of animation until just after a deep rainfall in early May, at which point it was off to the races.  While the vines had a headstart, the annual grasses and clover in our vine rows–forced to go through their annual life cycle in an unusually short period of time–were not far behind.  With this sprint of the plants came that of the farmers to keep up:  near-weekly spraying to prevent mildew, shoot thinning to control crop load, mowing to control the 2-foot high grasses, and miscellaneous irrigation, fertigation, and equipment repair.   All at once. 

But as we sit here in early June, blessed wth lovely, unseasonably cool temperatures, the vineyard is relatively under control, the grasses and weeds are all but done for the year, and with further cool weather expected, we can dream of staying ahead of the irrigation this year.  Bloom is past, and the young berries are beginning to grow.

Meanwhile, on the county fair circuit, our 2007 Estate Red—consisting mainly of our first vintage of Portugese varietals blended into a dry wine–took silver medals at both the Amador and El Dorado fair homewinemaker competitions.  Obscurity Cellars’ 2007 ShakerRidge Vineyard primitivo earned silver medals in the commercial wine divisions of the same fairs.  And Oakstone’s 2006 Shaker Ridge barbera, while not entered in competitions, sold out in a few short months when made available through Oakstone’s wine club and tasting room in Fair Play.

It was a hectic harvest season, with home and commercial harvests extending over 5 consecutive weekends.  However, with over 95% of the grapes in, it looks like we survived.  We are blessed with reliable clients who stayed on top of the ripening situation, adapted plans as necessary, and came to pick up their grapes with clock-like precision.  The region’s grapes generally experienced a spike in sugars from prolonged high heat and arid conditions beginning in late August, capping off what had been a fairly well-behaved season after the unexpected late spring frost.  We think the grapes turned out quite well, but the proof will be in the pudding, and we look forward to tasting the efforts of our client winemakers.  We were excited to receive samples of some of those efforts from the fabulous 2007 vintage, and will be popping the cork on those in the coming weeks.

Out in the vineyard, we have small quantities of barbera and primitivo best suited for dessert wines still hanging, as well as a late-ripening Portugese varietal in our experimental plot.  We look forward to some quiet weekends and hopefully plenty of winter rain as we turn to the arduous task (but somebody has to do it!) of frequent tasting of this year’s developing wines to make sure they are progressing suitably….

Harvest Update:

We have a policy of posting the data we get, not the data we want to get.  And actually, even the data we got is not so bad.  The forecast for this week just got worse and worse in terms of heat and dryness, such that it became our fourth multi-day incursion into the 100’s of the season, and the second in as many weeks.  While the barbera fared beautifully, continuing their gentle climb toward ripeness, we definitely experienced some dehydration, as judged by a spike in sugars, in the primitivo.  The good news, however, is that ripeness as judged by sugar/acid ratio distinctly improved, such that the grapes are now pretty much text book for harvest.  The juice in our weekly sample was a deep red color, also clearly signalling that “it’s time”.  Moreover, as the dehydration, which is also evident in an increased incidence of shrivel, is quite recent, we expect that the grapes harvested this weekend will have ripe fruit flavors without the raisiny notes that would eventually follow.  The primitivo, in short, is ready.

The barbera looks to be about 2 weeks out, and the cooling weather ahead should give it a fighting chance to come in for a soft landing…we remain optimistic.

HARVEST UPDATE:

Steady as she goes!  This week’s sunny but cooler weather, coupled with ample watering, have allowed the grapes to make steady progress toward ripeness without a spike in sugars.  We are beginning to see shrivel in some bunches in both vineyards, but this remains the exception rather than the rule, and some of those bunches were included in this week’s sample.  It looks to us like this weekend would be too early for the primitivo for most of our clients’ preferences, but next weekend looks promising.  The barbera remain on track for early-mid September.  We plan to take the next reading next Thursday or Friday.

Harvest Update:

Today’s chemistry readings help validate those from 4 days ago, and present a picture of rapidly ripening fruit.  We have just endured the third intense heatwave of the growing season, and have been dealt a wonderful card of a coming string of days in the mid- to upper 80’s and even a little “humidity”…40%+!  Our plants have never looked so good at this point in the season, so we are optimistic that we can use this respite from hot, dry weather to try to get ahead of the curve on watering and achieve ripe fruit with minimal dehydration.  We plan to continue watering the vineyard (in blocks by necessity) around the clock until at least the primitivo is in, and likely beyond.

In terms of harvest predictions, we are feeling very confident in recommending that our primitivo clients consider taking their fruit in the next 2 weeks, depending on the level of ripeness that they are looking for.  We see the optimal window for a dry wine likely to end by Labor Day.  The acids are a little high right now, but they have already begun their typical precipitous fall.  The juice in our chemistry samples is significantly red-tinted, also suggesting that we are close.   We expect to sample again for chemistry on the 22nd or 23rd, and harvest for some by next weekend would not be out of the question.

There is clearly more time for the barbera, as usual, and early- to mid-September continues to look highly probable.  We will continue to water these vines as aggressively as possible to try to win the annual battle against dehydration.  

We are nearly on cruise-control heading into harvest season.  A long string of classic warm days/cool nights is finally giving way to a stretch of more intense heat, which is expected for a few more days and which we are combatting with watering.  Seconds were dropped from our clone 02 barbera plants, which were particularly loaded with them this year, and some limited first crop fruit has followed on a plant-by-plant basis…perhaps 10% overall.  The primitivo formed relatively few seconds, and those have been dropped, along with a limited amount of main crop fruit (based on balance within a given plant), from Block 6 and part of Block 7.   This operation will be completed in the primitivo this coming weekend, with the main goal less to thin the crop, which is already on the light side, as to better synchronize the ripening of what’s there.  Our philosophy is that any bunches showing green at this point “ain’t gonna make it” for the commercial harvest, as the vast majority of the primitivo crop is a solid blue/purple in color. 

We have netted an unprecedented fraction of our main vineyard–about 20%, focusing on areas immediately adjacent to trees that traditionally get ravaged.  While there has been some bird damage in the primitivo, so far we appear to be holding our own against the birds, with the help of the nets and bird distress call boxes.

The first chemistry readings of the season were just posted.  We are a little rusty on our sampling routine after not doing this for 11 months, but the readings seem plausible based on taste, appearance, and our historical data.  While the sugars are not off the charts yet, they are getting up there relative to the acid, and we repeat our prediction that this will NOT be a late season.  In fact, based on the data, we are moving up our estimates of harvest slightly to late August-early September for primitivo, and to early September-mid-September for barbera.  This will all become clear exactly when it always becomes clear…when it’s nearly on top of us!

Normal mid-summer temperatures, with abundant sunshine unfiltered by wildfire smoke, have returned to our area.  As expected, verasion is well underway throughout the vineyard, with almost all first crop bunches of barbera showing at least some ripening, and most main primitivo clusters showing the uneven ripening typical of the primitivo/zinfandel family.  Our experimental crop of tempranillo, by contrast, shows almost uniformly purple bunches already, though it remains a few weeks from full ripeness.

As we enter the home stretch for this growing season, our main challenges will be keeping the grapes hydrated and out of the mouths of marauding birds.  We have already begun deploying bird netting on strategic parts of the vineyard adjacent to trees, and the familiar sounds of our mechanical “bird boxes” can be heard echoing across the vineyard from dawn until dusk.  As the birds (uncharacteristically) didn’t even wait till ripeness to attack the tempranillo, we expect the birds to be a real challenge this year.

The primitivo crop is light enough that we think we will be harvesting 2 tons or less per acre without any fruit dropping this year.  We suspect that this is payback for a relatively heavy fruit set last year.  On the barbera side, there seems to be more “second” fruit even than normal for barbera, and we are going to have the seconds dropped this week to allow the vines to focus their energy on ripening our main crop, which otherwise appears to be moderate in size.  The health and appearance of the vines for this point in the season remains excellent on both the barbera and primitivo sides of our vineyard.  If we can avoid high heat between now and harvest, it should be a very good year.

We are pleased to announce that the first commercial dry red wine made from our grapes was just released this weekend as a vineyard-designated wine at Obscurity Cellars in Fair Play, CA.  The 2006 Primitivo from Obscurity Cellars recently won a silver medal at the 2008 El Dorado County Fair and a bronze medal at the 2008 Amador County Fair.

Pleasant summer weather has given way to intense but seasonable summer heat.   This past week, we experienced a series of 105 F+ days, which have been book-ended by a series of 90 F+ days.  Coupled with smoke and haze from wildfires, it has been little short of an oven in the Foothills of late. 

The grapevines continue to look very good to date.  Mildew prevention has been complete, with most risk behind us now.  Weed and bug pressure has been minimal due to a combination of agricultural practices and, we suspect, the dry spring.  We have been watering the barbera relatively aggressively as compared to past years, and the primitivo less than in past years, as this seems to better match the vines’ requirements.  The vines look very healthy.  Both the barbera and primitivo grapes emerged very well from the recent scorching days, with very little evidence of sunburn.

The crop load on the barbera looks moderate, although there seem to be more “seconds” than usual, perhaps related to the April frost.  We will have a better sense of crop load, and the need to drop fruit or not, in 1-2 weeks as verasion kicks in. 

The primitivo is carrying a relatively light load, in part due to a fair number of “shot” berries evident after flowering, and also smaller clusters in general.  We have no complaints, as the fruit load looks to have naturally fallen within our 2 tons/acre target, which may obviate the need for any fruit dropping this year.    Some yellow leaves have begun to appear predominantly on our far hilltop which has a better-draining soil than the rest of the vineyard and may be showing a little water stress after the recent heat wave.  Since these were also the earliest emerging vines this spring, this may also be the start of the natural senescence/ripening process.

Our experimental plot of tempranillo grapes, always the earliest to ripen among our reds, have just begun verasion this weekend, and we suspect that we will see widespread evidence of verasion in both the barbera and the primitivo within 1-2 weeks.  This should not be a late harvest.

Veraison in now in full swing as expected, with 100% veraison evident in both the barbera and primitivo vineyards.  We know we’ve previously cited other times of year as the most beautiful in the vineyard, so we won’t contradict ourselves now.  However, the home stretch toward harvest (prior to raisining and bird gorging) has got to be right up there, with the full bunches of dark blue berries hanging on still-green vines.  Given the early ripening, we began our bird control measures early this year, and as usual we think they were effective for at least 2 days.

We finished a complete pass through the main vineyard to drop fruit last month, the first time that we have ever completed this in July, thanks to the use of some supplementary labor.  We consider fruit-dropping–which was in the 40-50% range—to be the single most important thing we can do maximize quality, besides preventing powdery mildew, eliminating bunch rot, controlling weeds, eradicating gophers, prevention of dehydration, avoiding over-hydration, stopping marauding birds, keeping deer away, and avoiding half a dozen possible nutrient deficiencies.  Come to think of it, it’s a wonder that we harvest any grapes at all.

We are excited at the prospect of harvesting our first grapes from our 3-year-old trellised vineyard of 5 different Portugese varietal grapes typically blended in port-style wines, but interesting in their own right and as blenders for more common varietals.  The grapes will be harvested in separate lots as the individual varietals reach maturity, allowing us to vinify them separately and learn about their unique characteristics. 

We expect to begin posting grape chemistries from our main vineyard shortly so that our clients can follow the ripening process and begin to anticipate harvest dates.

It’s summer in the Sierra Foothills, and nothing is new under the sun.   A string of scorching 100+ days around the 4th of July marked the official beginning of summer, but these have mercifully passed.  Apart from that, temperatures have been quite reasonable in a Foothills sort of way, low-to-mid 90s during the day and upper 50’s to low 60’s at night.  As happens about once a summer, we did receive a brief but measurable rainfall this past week, which was not particularly welcome since it automatically triggers the need to spray for powdery mildew.  

Based on signs in the vineyard, it’s clearly going to be an early harvest year, which means that the blessed off-season is that much closer!  Our experimental plot of tempranillo grapes, which means early in Spanish, have already begun verasion in earnest, with the first signs on about July 6.  We think the same early-ripening variety of grapes began ripening about 2 weeks later last year, so this is the first clue of an early harvest.  Our main varietals, primitivo and barbera, show only slight and occasional signs of veraison as of today, but we would expect more clear evidence in about a week.

Mildew control has remained excellent, and we’re happily about one spray away from being done with that for another season.  Water  supply is holding out, and we pushed (with the help of the aforementioned scorching days) our vines to the point of water stress in the last 2 weeks.  A small fraction of our grapes suffered some sunburn damage during the hot weather, but this has actually helped our fruit-dropping efforts, as these grapes effectively drop themselves.  Manual fruit-dropping has begun and will remain the primary focus through harvest, as we try to maximize quality at the expense of quantity.