2009 Bog Archive Pt. 2                     

2009 Blog Archive                         

2008 Blog Archive Pt. 2                       

2008 Blog Archive Pt.1                            

2007 Blog Archive                            

2006 Blog Archive                           

In the Vineyard:

           At Iron Horse "Estate Bottled" means that the winemaking begins in the vineyard. Our location in Green Valley represents the very best soil, climate and aspects for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay (for both sparkling and still). Our goal is to grow the best winegrapes we should be growing and we do that through what we call "precision winegrowing." All pruning, canopy management, irrigation, cover crop and even harvesting decisions are determined on a block-by-block (and sometimes even vine-by-vine) basis, considering both the vintage at hand and the long term needs of the land. In both our older vineyards and new plantings we use the best tools technology can give us and up to date viticulture - balanced by our 30 years of experience and passion. 

Everything before November 2009 has been archived.

I am attempting to make this ‘blog’ a real blog, one that allows for comments and maybe even a RSS feed.  Try http://lgsterling.wordpress.com if you wish to comment and/or get an RSS feed.  Be advised, it is definitely a work in progress.

January 8, 2010 (Twenty ten)

I was actually close to being happy.  It looks like we’re going to get some form of health care reform soon, as to whether it’s perfect, who knows, but it’s a start, and we’ve started pruning.  While pruning may appear to be, and can be work, there isn’t anything that is more gratifying than looking back over a well-pruned row, and no better way to beat the recession blues than being the one who pruned the row.  The guys love to prune and they are very good at it, which is good, as pruning has to be the most important annual vineyard task.  According to Prof. Ron S. Jackson: “It [pruning] permits the grape grower to establish a particular training system and regulate individual vine yield.  Pruning can permit the selection of bearing wood (spurs and canes), and thereby influence the location and development of canopy growth.  This can affect grape yields, health and maturation, as well as pruning and harvest costs.”

Note carefully the underlined word, ‘affect.’ Recently an accountant was surprised how we can’t seem to program our blocks to consistently yield five tons per acre.  Please understand accountants are not bad, often they are good, this one accountant, meh, he clearly fails to grasp the challenges of growing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the cool, cool, Green Valley of Russian River Valley.

How we ‘affect’ yield depends first on the initial layout and training of a vineyard, the more bearing wood, the more potential fruit.  Then, when pruning, the more buds left, the more potential shoots, which means more potential fruit.  When pruning a cordon trained vine we usually cut the shoots down to two buds (one if the vine or position is weak), which means we’ll only get two shoots per spur, which, to some, means that we are reducing our potential yield per acre.

What the accountant doesn’t understand is that simply leaving more buds out won’t always result in more grapes, or, and more to the point, even if we have more grapes, those grapes may not ripen or taste good (and forget about taste great).  Most likely we’ll just have more wood, leaves and shade.  That said, in certain blocks, where we prefer using the fruit for sparkling, we are experimenting with a ‘modified cane’ pruning system.  Basically we leave, where possible and appropriate, more buds, in the form of a cane, on the cordon, so we’ll get more shoots and thus hopefully more grapes, which, because we don’t need for them to get as ripe, are more likely to make excellent sparking wines.

However, we can’t use the system everywhere and in the end there are simply too many variables, like the weather, pests, competition, inadequate light, vigor, etc. also ‘affect’ yield.  For example the vine below has some kind of fungal issues so a whole position (maybe two shoots and four clusters) was lost.

Like it or not, the accountant is going to have to accept that what we are doing is complex.  What we are trying to do is to find that balance point between yield, vine health and flavors all the while trying to cope with nature and a very finicky crop.  As was noted in a recent contribution to American Journal of Enology and Viticulture, “The Flowering Process of Vitis vinifera: A Review,” M. Carmo Vasconcelos, corresponding author:

Seasonal variation contributes to enormous variations in yield and quality, in particular in cool-climate viticulture.  Compared with 16 crops analyzed over a 58-year period, grapevine was found to have by far the highest seasonal variation in yield (32.5%), nearly twice that of next closest crop…

Further:

The flowering of Vitis vinifera spreads over two seasons.  The numerous variables affecting each step of the flowering process throughout the 12-month period between induction and anthesis result in a high variability within the bunch, the vine, and therefore the vineyard block.

See, I’m not making up excuses for poor performance.  Personally, I think when we look at our recent press and reviews, the number of visitors to the winery and club members I get the feeling we are succeeding.  Here’s what Michael Broadbent had to say in Decanter Magazine about Iron Horse wines: “The wines were a revelation: an excellent 1996 sparkler was refined as was one of his [Barry Sterling’s] best-ever Chardonnays, the Rued Clone 2006: unusually pale, dry, above all, elegant.” I mean, please, if there’s something wrong with the wines let me know, I’m easy to find.  Just call the winery, or send me an e-mail, LGSterling@ironhorsevineyards.com.

To finish on a up note, here’s an artsy shot of my wife’s new kitten, she’s a Savannah and very cool.

December 14, 2009

I shall skip any seasonal greetings because for me 2010 has already begun - even if it’s still 2009 and there doesn’t appear to be consensus as to how we should speak 2010, is it two thousand ten, or twenty ten? personally, as one who until 2000 referred to every year as ‘nineteen’ I prefer ‘twenty ten -  as we’ve started pre-pruning.

It’s been pretty cold and when dry, and relatively warmer when wet, in short the usual not normal, so, all sorts of weird mushrooms have cropped up.  If you know what this one is could you send me an e-mail c/o Info@ironhorsevineyards.com.  I’ve been told it’s a Satan’s Boletus, but I don’t think so because the stem isn’t red and the cap is.

Focusing back on the vineyard, winemaker David Munksgard and I attended a talk by Andy Walker organized by Daniel Roberts, specifically on flowering and set. Dr. M. Andrew Walker(seen below with the pointer) is the Professor and Geneticist Louis P. Martini Endowed Chair in Viticulture Department of Viticulture and Enology Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at U.C. Davis.  He knows stuff and can explain stuff as well and is really adept with a pointer.

Understanding flowering and set is important as it gives us a better understanding as to why our crop yields can vary so dramatically in some years and not in others.  For example, C1, a Chardonnay block (the source of both Sparkling and UnOaked Chardonnay) and part of our Thomas Rd. vineyard, the five-year average yield per acre is a respectable 4.4 tons, but the actual yields have been (starting 2005) 6.51, 6.19, 3.36, 2.98, and 2.96.  For P7, Pinot Noir, the average was 2.79 the actual yields; 2.87, 4.00, 3.22, 2.34, and 1.53.  If you graph the numbers (and I have) no clear pattern emerges, which just proves, yet again, that ‘past performance is no indication of future results.’

Now during the talk I took a lot of notes, but there were a lot of concepts that were new to me (as well as new words, like ‘ramify’ (“to split up into branches or constituent parts” or “to send forth branches or extensions”)), and trust me there’s no way I can compress three hours of material delivered by an experienced and distinguished professor in a simple ‘blog’ like this, but the gist, as I understand things now, is that the process, so to speak, all starts with the now dormant or ‘latent’ compound buds, like the one below, which is earlier than I had thought and which means even now, in December, temperature is important.

What we have here is not just a single bud.  Inside, waiting to ‘break,’ is a primary bud, two secondary buds (much less fruitful) and next to it, a lateral bud (which is, I believe, non-fruitful).  What is fascinating is that a complete compressed shoot is in the process of being formed.  By complete I mean before bud break, within the primary bud, there will be (granted very, very small) buds and nodes (about 6 to 12), leaves, tendrils and clusters and within the mini buds the material for next year’s clusters, etc.

But, even if all goes well in terms of the bud development and bud break, things can still fall apart, or go well, during flowering and set.  According to Prof. Walker the key to a decent crop is “heat, heat, heat, heat and more heat – and everything else,” both at formation, flowering and set.  So while in December we may want it to be cold (although not as cold as it has been, 19F) and we may want it to stay cold so the vines will ‘rest longer,’ we’ll want a warm Spring, then a not too hot Summer and so on.  Which means that it’s really hard to come up with a weather wish list.  The fact is everything about growing grapes is a lot more complex than I’d like.  To quote my favorite cool climate viticulturist, Prof. Ron S. Jackson:  “The shoot system of the grapevine has an unusually complex development program.” (But not without good reason.)  “This complexity provides the vine with a remarkable ability to adjust its development throughout much of the growing season.”  In short, while we try to influence grape production through pruning, shoot thinning, removing laterals, irrigating, fertilizing and providing nutrients and protection against frost and pests, the vines will adapt to a given year’s weather and other environmental factors.

Separately, and unrelated to the vineyard, we had a great Thanksgiving in New York City.  I got to see super heroes like Spiderman…

And supersized sandwiches such as this Brisket and Pastrami monster at the Carnegie Deli…

And the meatpacking district is the place to be, take it from one who’s never been cool, hip or even remotely with it.