I can’t believe tomorrow is June 1st! How did that happen? We started the month of May in perfect shape with all our shoot thinning done and the vines growing steadily and evenly with shoot length at less than 3 feet. Hurrah!
On May 10 we headed to Colorado for Andrew’s graduation from Colorado School of Mines. The weather was perfect for commencement on Friday and we celebrated afterwards with a bottle of the inaugural vintage of Cabernet Franc (2014). We spent a few days in the area and then headed home to Texas on Tuesday.
As we neared home we wondered how the vines would look (we don’t have a webcam yet, it’s on the list) and anxiously awaited our first sight. Wow! While we were enjoying ourselves, they grew to the top wire and beyond.
So we were back to work with no time to waste – leaf pulling, cluster thinning, and shoot thinning and positioning (again). The rule of thumb for our site is ‘leaves pulled by Memorial Day’ meaning the fruit needs to be exposed by then in order to avoid sunburning the berries. We made another pass to remove small shoots and excess clusters. Once the shoots go past the top wire we also need to wrap them on the wire so they don’t overhang and shade the adjacent rows. We’ve been working non-stop to get everything ship-shape. All the varieties are showing good fruit set and cluster size looks to be average to large, so barring late summer rains or hailstorms we will have plenty of fruit to harvest!
Malbec after leaf pulling and cluster thinning
