Blogs

I love baseball. I played catcher in school and my idol was the late Yogi Berra, whose famous saying was “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” And our 2015 crop is over!

Believe it or not, we will be picking grapes probably by the 10th. Our first pick will most likely be Pinot Grigio from Santa Maria which will go to Toccata. Our Pinot Grigio crop in Santa Maria is excellent but in Los Alamos, about 1/3 of the crop did not develop. The resulting loss is over 75 tons of fruit.

Just returned from a wonderful trip to Bordeaux, France. It was a great experience to see some of the finest vineyards in the world. We were accompanied by the nicest people you could ever meet. When you think of Bordeaux, you think of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon but Merlot really dominates with over 60% of all the plantings. As a grape grower, I was surprised at how cool and wet it can be. I’m always amazed at the variety of conditions under which people can grow grapes. I was impressed with the care given to their vines and with the 500 years of history.

Our vineyard is moving rapidly due to the warm winter. We are doing things in the vineyard that would normally be done 30-40 days from now like shoot removal, mildew spraying, weed control, and, the most scary, preparing for frost. Normally we protect by running our sprinklers. With water being short, we are trying some alternative methods like heat, wind, and cold air removal machines. After having good rain in December, rain seems to be bypassing us. The next worry will be water for irrigation.