The beginning of grape ripening–veraison–is finally upon us for our main varietals. Veraison is well-advanced in the tempranillo, present in the vast majority of primitivo clusters, apparent in many barbera clusters, and barely starting in the touriga nacional. Considering that it’s already mid-August, we remain on track for a notably, perhaps historically, late harvest. It should be an interesting home stretch.

Temperatures in the last two weeks have been only moderately hot (low 90’s)–not blistering–but our typical arid summer conditions, coupled with drying afternoon winds, have caused some water stress in vines throughout the vineyard, which we are combatting with around-the-clock rotations of irrigation of different blocks.

Chewing of our drip lines, probably by squirrels, continues to vex us (seemingly earlier every season), though we’re fighting back with some strategically-placed temporary fencing. In addition, by the end of the weekend, we expect to have the port vineyard 100% enclosed in overhead bird netting, which we’ve found to be absolutely essential if we want to harvest any of the grapes. Because tempranillo ripens so early and is a particular favorite for the birds, this overhead netting must be rolled out and hole-free before most of the port grapes are sweet. If there is a hole, the birds will find it (though if they get tangled in the net, our cats find THEM). Finally, we are fighting classic late season weeds, including our nemesis the horse weed, mainly to prevent their robbing of water and nutrients intended for the grapes.

We still have some grapes available for sale including significant quantities of barbera, limited quantities of some touriga grafted over last year, and the total output of our 2005 port vineyard (“Buy the Quinta”). As this is our first year of production from the grafted touriga field, and we have no track record with the fruit of these vines (though we think it’s the same clone as one of our 3 touriga nacional clones in the Quinta), and also our first try with a vertical cordon for this varietal, we’re going to offer a substantial discount on this fruit. If you mention this blog, we’ll offer these grapes for $0.65/lb for half a ton or more, or $0.70/lb for smaller quantities (minimum 250 lbs). If you haven’t tried touriga yet, you’re missing some wonderful, dark, fragrant wine.

Summer has certainly arrived in the Sierra Foothills, with lots of warm temperatures and cloudless skies ever since the official kickoff in late June. We didn’t need to step outside to know the heat has arrived; we needed only check our faucet. In keeping with a now 3-year tradition, our well went out of commission exactly when we needed it the most. This time, it was the expensive news that we didn’t want to hear: the pump was dead, requiring replacement. Still, this was far better than the worst news, which would be no more water in the well! As it was, we only had 3 days of inconvenience as we started, relatively late given the wet spring, regular irrigation rotations in early July. The heat has actually been seasonable and not excessive, with few days reaching the triple-digit mark, which should allow for good fruit development.

The vines look very healthy as of this point in the season. It is a solid sea of green right now, and the vines are in good balance. The primitivo crop is rather light, so much so that there is clearly no need to drop fruit in that vineyard, which is unusual for us. The primitivo bunches had a lot of “shatter” this spring–loss of small berries after bloom–leaving relatively small, loose clusters. This should be good news for those buying our primitivo, as we anticipate particularly ripe, concentrated fruit to be the net result. Until last year, we grew a little zinfandel adjacent to our primitivo, and the primitivo consistently produced smaller, looser clusters than our zinfandel clone. In fact, the appearance of the clusters was the only way we were able to visually distinguish the primitivo and zinfandel vines, apart from consulting our planting map. So relatively loose clusters are normal for us in the primitivo, but it’s more pronounced this season. We don’t anticipate any surplus crop.

The barbera also looks very good, as we were able to beat back, thanks to a new mechanized acquisition (our most recent “last” capital purchase for the vineyard!), aggressive weed growth adjacent to the rows that benefited from the unusually high soil moisture into late spring. We think we saw some benefit from our experimental “kicker canes” in the barbera, as the shoot growth was slightly more restrained than last year despite the greater soil moisture this year. Unlike the primitivo, the crop was moderate to heavy in the barbera, so we have just today completed one good round of fruit dropping in the barbera, removing 0-40% of the main fruit clusters, with the degree of fruit drop adjusted by vigor of the different barbera blocks and clones. We left seconds this year, reasoning that removing primary fruit clusters gives us the most “bang for the buck”. We are pleased to have been able to complete fruit dropping ahead of veraison, as we should enjoy the full benefit of limiting the crop load and concentrating flavors. “Dropping fruit” can be a painful operation for farmers trying to make a living (as it simultaneously costs money and decreases yield) and, if vineyard help from visiting family is any indication, unfathomable to the non-farmer. However, as we don’t rely on our vineyard to put bread on the table and want our grapes to produce outstanding wines, we much prefer it to the alternative: mediocre fruit.

Veraison is just beginning in our tempranillo which, true to its name in Spanish, is one of the earliest ripening reds. There is no indication yet of veraison in the barbera, primitivo, or touriga, consistent with our expectation of a late harvest. We have several more weeks and probably one more preventative treatment for powdery mildew ahead of us, and then we begin playing defense in earnest against birds and squirrels.

The rain has stayed away in June, and it has been sunny and pleasant in the Sierra Foothills with temperatures on the cool side of normal–very much like last June.  We haven’t seen any days with temperatures in the 100’s yet this year, and no one here is complaining.  All of the varietals have now been through bloom, and the berries are visible and beginning their period of rapid growth, while shoot growth slows.  Petiole samples from bloom have been sent off for nutrient analysis, with results expected soon.  Weeds are having a field day with the moisture left by the late spring rains, but nothing that a mower and a few dozen hours can’t fix. 

This year in the barbera, our most vigorous-growing varietal, we experimented with a “kicker cane”—a cane from the prior season that is not pruned off like it would normally be in the off-season.  This single cane pushes all of its buds, forming an unwieldy, multi-branched structure which draws a lot of the vegetative energy of the plant for its growth, presumably at the expense of some growth in other shoots.  The cane is then cut off like it normally would have been months earlier.  While it added significant work to make an additional pass through the vineyard to remove the kicker cane, we think it may have been worth the effort to reign in shoot growth.

On the fair circuit, we are pleased to announce that our 2008 estate primitivo took a gold medal and “Best of Class” designation at the 2010 Amador County Fair Home Winemaker’s competition.

The 2010 growing season has been marked by an unusually cool and wet spring, following on a cool winter.  After another inch of rain on Friday, May 28–quite late for these parts–it appears that we may finally get into a dry and warm seasonable weather pattern.  Consistent weekly rainstorms in late spring like we have experienced would normally wreak havoc on our powdery mildew prevention program, but it’s been so unseasonably cool that even powdery mildew didn’t like growing, and we remain in great shape on that front.  The cool weather also caused vines to push very late this season and then kept growth in check until recently.  The net result of this has been to give us an extended period of pleasant temperatures to catch up with or even (perish the thought) get ahead of needed vineyard operations.  Though it’s bloom time and not budburst that approximately sets the time of harvest, bloom has not yet come, so it’s pretty clear that it will be a later-than-average harvest.  We have accordingly pushed back the estimated harvest dates. 

On the competition front, fair season is getting underway with submissions and judging.  Among the early returns, we are pleased to announce that Obscurity Cellars of Fair Play, CA earned a gold medal and “Best of Class” designation for their 2009 Primitivo Rosato in the El Dorado Fair commercial wine competition using early harvest primitivo grapes from Shaker Ridge. Winemaker John Smith successfully navigated several unexpected turns in both the grapes and winemaking to create a delicious best-in-class blush style wine.  Oakstone Winery additionally took a silver medal for their 2007 primitivo and a bronze medal for their 2007 barbera, both made with Shaker Ridge grapes.  All three wines are currently available for tasting and purchase at Oakstone’s tasting room in Fair Play.