Author: Missy Gudal

First up this season is the Sauvignon Blanc.  We believe that the high temps and strong sun caused some of the fruit to ripen early and begin to raisin.   Some raisining is okay, but since it appeared to be progressing rapidly the winery suggested we do a partial harvest this morning (Thursday) of the vines with raisined fruit.  Thanks to the speedy work of friends, neighbors, and volunteers from Lost Oak Winery we harvested about 40% of the fruit this morning (3,134 lbs).

 

 

Although we’ve had very little rain the vines have been on a tear since May, growing from the mid-wire to the top wire (and beyond) so fast that I would swear they are growing while we sleep!

Last season we began using palissage on all the red grapes.  It’s a fancy word of French origin (word and technique) for the practice of wrapping the shoot tips on the top wire as they grow.  In former years we hedged the shoots when they grew beyond the top wire, but this can lead to a crowded canopy because when the growing tip is removed it stimulates the production of lateral shoots which can in turn block sunlight and air which are especially important in the fruiting region when the grapes are ripening.  Hedging also makes the use of bird netting even more difficult because the nets get caught on the severed shoot tips, and since it is already a challenging task we are heartily in favor of anything that makes it easier (or at least less difficult).   Last but not least palissage is thought to control overall vine size – if you’ve been to our vineyard you’ll know why we find that appealing!   While we haven’t conducted a scientific study on our site, we have noted that since we began using palissage the number of lateral shoots has decreased and overall vine size/vigor  has been reduced.

We were hoping to implement  palissage in the Sauvignon Blanc this season  as well but the vines grew so fast that we had to hedge them.  In previous seasons this too was a fairly laborious task.  Due to the narrow aisles we had to pile the cuttings on the ground and carry them out by hand or pile them in a wheel barrow and cart them out.  But wait – didn’t David build a handy dandy narrow wagon that we used for pruning season?  Eureka!  He is now a master at riding in the wagon while wielding the battery hedge trimmer, and I am honing my skills at operating the old 180 mower smoothly in low gear.   Don’t fret – the hedge trimmer has an automatic shutoff,  David is not nearly as close to my head as he appears to be in the photo, and we both know that neither of us could do this without the other so we are very careful 🙂

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

 

 I’ve seen swarms pass overhead in previous years but this is the first time they have chosen our vines as a resting place.   Troy the beekeeper told me that they are at their most gentle in this state (I’ll take his word for it).  If I understood his description correctly, the queen is somewhere in the mass and they hang around her while various scouts fly around and look for a suitable new home in nearby trees or houses.  Many thanks to Troy for being willing and able to provide a new home for them.

Spring in the vineyard is a wonderful time!  The vines are all awake and pushing shoots rapidly.  Grapevines are a lesson in delayed gratification – the quantity and quality of this year’s shoots and fruit were determined by how well we cared for the vines last season.  If we provided adequate water, food, disease prevention, and sunlight (shoot thinning, shoot tying, prevent excessive shoot growth) including during the post-harvest months, then we will be rewarded this season with healthy and bountiful vines.

We’re happy to report that things are looking good for 2018!   We had some very cold winter days while the vines were dormant which will hopefully reduce some of the pest populations and also meant the vines did not wake up too early.  The vines began bud break in mid March.  We had a close call on April 7 when our weather station recorded 33.2° F at 11.00 am but fortunately the temp did not get lower and we have seen no evidence of damage.   So begins another season of trying to keep ahead of the vines (aka ‘whack-a-mole’).

All this warm weather means we need to get the pruning finished!  We completed the pre-pruning back in January (we used a hedge-trimmer to cut them  above the second wire).   Then we started the rough pruning and are pushing hard to get finished before budbreak.  For the Sauvignon Blanc we have to select canes of the right size to lay down on the wire, for all the other vines it’s about leaving the right number, size, and location of spurs.  We’ll know how well we did a few months from now when the vines have budded out and the new shoots are (hopefully) filling the canopy.

 

 

With the forecast calling for showers last Sunday afternoon we opted to lay down our pruning shears and pick up sharpshooters and shovels instead.  Our goal: to install an additional 200 feet of irrigation pipe to water young vines that are mixed into the more mature vines in the block.

Let’s follow a rabbit trail briefly:  I have no idea why but David has always used the term ‘sharpshooter’ to refer to the long narrow implement that he uses for digging trenches.   Retailers tend to call them trenching spades or drain spades.  Here’s a detail many of you hope to never learn first hand – according to industry experts, a spade is for digging  and a shovel is for scooping.

Another handy tip you may never wish to use:  pvc primer/glue stains can be kept off your hands if you wear cheap cotton gloves over disposable nitrile gloves.

While the overcast skies and cooler temperatures nixed our pruning, they made the day more bearable for gluing pipe joints and digging.  With this part of the job completed we are ready for a return to sunny skies and hours spent pruning.

 

You’ve asked us to let you know when the wines are available for purchase.  Lost Oak Winery announced their latest wine release on January 24, 2018 which included Cabernet Franc 2016 (from our grapes here at Burning Daylight Vineyards).   If you can’t get to the winery in person, you can order from their website (http://www.lostoakwinery.com/product/Cabernet-Franc-2016).

Out of state purchasers may use the Vinoshipper website: https://vinoshipper.com/wines/lost_oak_winery

Sauvignon Blanc 2016 is also still available.   Happy shopping!

 

The  2016 Sauvignon Blanc was a Bronze Medal winner at the 2018 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition!  

Many thanks to Lost Oak Winery for taking such excellent care of our grapes, and congratulations on winning a total of 5 medals at the 2018 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition – One Gold, Two Silver, and Two Bronze!  Check out the Lost Oak website for details on all their medals  http://lostoakwinery.com