Continuing saga 5-30-11

If you look at last weeks post you will see that there has been a little growth but not as much as we would have wanted. However the grape clusters are developing and when we get some warm weather we will see the canes grow and the clusters will flower. Because these grapes are self pollinating we will not have bees. We just hope that we do not have rain during the flowering period. We will keep track of the coming events.

By the way the Rocks and Rhone event this year was a successfull event. Lots of good feedback from visitors.

The 2009 Fleur de Montagne was awarded a gold medal, best of class and the best Rhone wine at the El Dorado County Fair this year. The El Dorado Competition apparently allows wines from all appellations now, at least I saw some from Sonoma and Lodi.

Till next week

John

The continuing saga of the development of the Chardonnay.

I was hoping that our assistant would sub for me last week so we would have an unbroken record by the week but she did not. The reason I did not do it is because Barbara and I took a vacation and rafted on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. What ball. 8 days on a raft, shooting rapids, sleeping under the stars, eating some great meals and gaining unwanted weight.

We did miss the unpleasant weather here and you will notice that the Chardonnay did not grow much this last couple week but just wait until the warm weather hits. Below are a couple photos of the the same canes we are showing. They have grown but not as much as we hoped.

Continuing continuing saga of bud break and development May 9

From last Monday until Friday We had warm weather and the bud, which has now become a cane, has grown from just barely showing it's leaves to a cane 61/2 inches long. That's 51/2 inches in 5 days or about an inch a day. You can almost see it growing. The other buds did not do as well but they were not as far along as the tall one in the photo.


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This shot shows a small cane on the left and a small cane on the right. If you look closely you can see two positions in between where a cane should be growing. These two positions were hit with frost so will probably not grow a cane and so we loose 4 bunches of grapes. That does not sound like much but if that happened to each of our 2000+ Chardonnay vines it would be quite a loss.

It will be interesting to see what next week brings. Cold weather little growth, warm weather significant growth?

Continuing continuing saga of bud break and development May 2

This week the bud is swelling after getting some warm
weather. You can see the shot of the bud we have been
watching. It is growing on a spur where there are
two buds. Look at second photo on the right to see the two buds. The spur is attached to a cordon that is attached to the trunk of the vine. See photo on the left.
Typically there are two buds on a spur. From each of these buds comes a cane and each cane will grow two bunches of grapes. So by controlling the number of spurs and buds we can control the number of grape bunches and thus the vineyard yield.

By the way we are releasing our 2010 Grenache Rose. It is a great
summer wine so come taste it.