It's June 1st and there is plenty to be done in the vineyards. We didn't get an intern this year, mainly because we don't need one. I'm full time with the winery now and caught up on the major projects.
This week I'll head up to Chaine d'Or and finish thinning. Doesn't look like the Cabernet will need as much as the Chardonnay. We've been steadily pruning the spurs on the Chard so that they aren't so high into the wires. It means selecting the best looking shoot from the cordon and letting it grow so we can turn it into a new spur.
I'll need to check on the Sesson vineyard in Morgan Hill. It's a year behind schedule, but the site is vigorous enough that I think we'll see huge improvements this summer. We might even get some cordons trained, that'd be fantastic.
The Crimson Clover vineyard is likely still in flower right now so I'll leave it alone for another week or two. I'll go check it, but I anticipate that I've got some time before I can thin and I hate to make a special trip just to sucker - I can do that while I'm there cleaning up the shoots.
Harrison's Vineyard looks great, we checked in with Mark last weekend and Arastradero is caught up too. The 'estate' vines are still flowering, but I'm getting ready to start pulling cordons down in the Mourvedre. I'll dose them up with water pretty good this summer and then let them take off on their own after that - a few are lagging behind, but I'm not surprised given the shaded spots up by the magnolia tree.
For my sis-in-law about Cropping:
Each mature vine will have up to 10 spurs (5 on each side of the main trunk). Each spur will have 2 shoots and each shoot will carry 2 clusters of grapes. So for example, the Mourvedre vineyard I have at the house, which is 25 plants, will produce 1,000 clusters of grapes.
{25 plants x [2 clusters x (2 shoots x 10 spurs)]} = 1,000
When we say how we'll crop the vineyard, we are talking about the method of pruning or training we'll use to control that final number.
Some winemakers and winegrowers may choose to have only one shoot per spur and only one cluster per shoot. In the example above, the yield would be 500 clusters.
I keep joking with Paul that I want to crop the heck out of the Mourvedre, 2,000 clusters!
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Some winemakers and winegrowers may choose to have only one shoot per spur and only one cluster per shoot. In the example above, the yield would be 500 clusters.
{25 plants x [1 cluster x (1 shoot x 10 spurs)]} = 250
Have you considered doing a Google map showing the location of your various vineyards? I know some of the owners might have privacy concerns so some approximation may be in order, but I think it would be interesting.
Are you guys planning on ever doing a mourvedre or is it always going to be part of the Haut Tubee?
Stefania is out in the vineyards today so I'm drafted to reply! I think most of our owners have privacy concerns actually. One vineyard won't even show correctly on Google or Yahoo Maps, it's blocked for security reasons.
We'd love to do a Mourvedre. The replanting in the yard should give us enough fruit to do a single barrel just from the home. I'd like to do that to really get a sense of what the fruit can do. If we can keep sales growing and I'm feeling that I can sell 40-50 cases, we'll start doing a Mourvedre from another source as well.
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