Checking on the Vineyards

With the start of bud break at home it was a good idea to get out this weekend and check on the other vineyards to see how they are doing.

We stopped by the Sesson vineyard and Crimson Clover. Both are still dormant, with no bud break yet. There's some fine tuning we'll need to do on the pruning. Stefania will likely go out this week or next to get that done. Just a few plants with cordons that are too long or too weak and need to be taken back.

The Sesson vineyard will need a mowing before we can work on the pruning there. The Crimson Clover vineyard had just been mowed and looked really great.

The big news for us was a new vineyard resident at Crimson Clover. As I was walking the rows I noticed that there was very little gopher activity. Just a few mounds in one spot. When I got over to the final row we saw why:


You can't really see much except for a little debris hanging out of the box, but someone has moved in to the owl box we installed. Easily a highlight of the weekend in the vineyards for us.

I also got to check on Chaine d'Or. The Cabernet Sauvignon there is still dormant, but the Chardonnay has just started to bud. Jerry mowed the vineyard on Thursday and it looks really great. We will probably have to mow one more time this season, but for now it's in great shape.