I am pleased to report that temperatures have balanced out a bit since my last submission. Shoot growth has taken off and it looks as if we may be out of the woods for frost with any luck. The cold mornings in April meant for losses in Napa Valley and the entire North Coast for that matter. The reality of the situation is that grape prices will be affected in 2008 and beyond, while many growers have no fruit to deliver this vintage. When a shoot is frosted it literally looks as if it was hit with a blowtorch as pictured below.

Sizing up all of this damage is quite time consuming. In my travels it does appear that much of our affected acreage will ultimately bounce back from this. However, moving forward this season we will need to be more liberal with irrigation, vine nutrition inputs and cropping levels will need to be kept to a minimum in all frosted zones. The vines will in a sense be in “recovery mode” this year. The photo below shows the vines response to the damage just 13 days following the frost event. New growth has pushed and while these shoots will track behind and ripen less crop, the long term sustainability of the vines in this block on Mt. Veeder will not be affected.

The crews are moving through our vineyards at the moment suckering (removing any unwanted growth). We have decided to postpone this work in frosted blocks. This way we allow new growth to push and potentially we have more options for what gets left on the vine and farmed this year.

So this is what we’ve been up to for the last two weeks, short of putting on our first sulfur sprays for mildew prevention and beginning to check our irrigation systems for any required maintenance. Let’s hope for continued consistent weather.

-La voz del Monte

Hello again. Last we spoke I made mention of the cold temperatures seen this spring. Well the frost protection effort in the Napa Valley has continued. Unfortunately, temperatures this last Sunday and Monday mornings were cold enough to cause damage to much of the Napa Valley. Until this last weekend we were winning the battle. We could say that our efforts were paying off in that little to no damage had been suffered.  To summarize – it’s been lots of coffee, lots of quick naps in the pickup and a lot of sleepy eyed vineyard managers around here. And now, here toward the end of the frost season, cold enough temperatures to result in damage.

What next? Well there’s not a lot we can do except continue to be ready for more cold weather. Shoots that were completely frosted will fall off the vine and secondary buds will give rise to new shoots and, ultimately, crop. In other areas damage occurred to just the tips of shoots. Vines will likely grow out of this and crop potential may not be affected. However, shoots that arise from secondary buds will track behind shoots arising from primary buds. This makes for an increased need for precision management through the season to minimize variability. In the end we need to know if clusters on the same vine are tracking differently in terms of maturity.

This week I want to give you some insight into what happens during a typical frost event in our vineyards. The morning begins with the phone call. This is almost the hardest part. Being drug out of bed at 3AM  by a computer generated voice connected to a thermometer on the other end of the phone is about as bad as it gets. But I guess you can call it a necessary evil. Somehow you need to know it’s time to go. Once you’re in the truck the race is on to get to your first stop, NOT STARBUCKS, THE VINEYARD, there will be time for coffee later. The first stop is always the “known coldest” spot on the ranch and nine times out of ten it’s also the lowest section of the vineyard. Cold air finds its way to the lower points. We use both fancy weather stations that transmit data back to PC’s and good old fashioned mercury thermometers placed strategically amongst our vines to monitor temperatures.

Most of our vineyard sites have anywhere from a half dozen to ten thermometers to check. So once you’ve made it to the 1st thermometer at the low spot, out of the truck you go, flashlight in hand. If it’s cold enough, that’s where you start the 1st machine. Once the motor is throttled up, the prop mixes the cold air below with the warmer air above as it spins around 360 degrees. The net is only a few degrees warmer. But this is often enough to protect a vineyard from damage. From there you keep working across the vineyard toward what typically runs warmer. The first few thermometer checks give you a pretty good idea about what you are in for. By that I mean you quickly know if you are running behind or not. Wind machines work best when they are started at the right temperature. The idea is to keep a vineyard warm, not to warm a vineyard up. So a certain amount of buffer needs to be factored in when making the all important start-up decision. This means that machines are fired up above the freezing mark. With thousands of grapevines staked up on our colder sites, too much is at stake to run it any closer. Most frost mornings at our south Napa Su’skol vineyard (pictured above) see wind machine run times of anywhere from 3-6 hours. Once the sun comes up you’ve made it! Well, most mornings anyway. That’s the thing about frost, you just never know what Mother Nature might throw at you. And in all honesty that’s what keeps it interesting.

-La voz del Monte

Each spring the start to the grape growing season brings the beginning of another vintage and so another chapter in the history of grape growing on Mt. Veeder will soon be written. I am excited, anxious and hopeful to see what spring on the Mountain has in store.

The first week in April 2008 has seen a handful of chilly mornings. As temperatures dip toward the freezing mark, the threat of frost damage in our vineyards is very real. The wee hours of the morning are spent keeping a close eye to the dozens and dozens of strategically placed thermometers throughout our vineyards. This allows us to initiate frost protection measures at precisely the right time. We must get through this critical period to ensure a crop at harvest time.

Next week the first pass through the vines with the crews will kick off. The de-suckering (removal of un-wanted shoots) will get our developing vine canopies started as we begin to fill the trellis wires.

It’s good to see the vineyard staff moving with a “spring in their step” as the days get longer. The fruit we will harvest this year is the culmination of efforts from every person that makes up our vineyard team. Our success lies in being good listeners. Listening to what the vines need, listening to each other and listening to the Mountain.

- La voz del Monte