Eugenia Keegan

So, what does this mean, the latest (or in the case of France, the earliest) harvest ever?  The season of the grapevine is like that of any other plant.  Certain conditions, in this case soil temperature, set off a chain of physiological events, kicking off the annual cycle of the plant.  This year 2011, we have had a cool, wet spring (as we did in 2010)  followed by a VERY mild early summer.  This past weekend, the final weekend of July, we had a string of days with temperatures from the high 70’s to the low 80’s, clear, low humidity, and a very slight breeze.  Perfect grape growing weather.  But this weather should have started a month earlier. Coupled with a cool spring and therefore a late bud break (first signs of new life) the whole cycle runs tardy.  For Oregon this means harvest (there is a formula that predicts harvest based on the flowering portion of the cycle, when the actual berries are fertilized and formed) should start around the last week in October and finish around the end of November.  One should assume that around that time of the year we will  have lower temperatures and rain.  So, can anything be done to facilitate earlier ripening?

Sadly, not much.  Solid heat for as long as possible is very important to staying on track and maybe pushing things along a day or two.  When the temperature is too high, over 95-98 ambient degrees the leaf surface is well over 100 degrees.  The vine realizes that it is expelling liquid faster than it can possibly find replacement H20 and the vine literally shuts down. Hot weather is not an opportunity to play catch up.

One technique that is frequently used however is leaf pulling or leaf removal.  Leaves on the east or morning side of the plant are stripped from the fruiting area that lines up along the lower catch wire.  This exposes the front side of the cluster to greater sunlight and opens the foliage to help lower any mildew pressure by allowing breezes to pass through the canopy.  This measure does not come without its potential of a downside however, most notable is berry susceptibility to sunburn if there is a heat wave. In my experience the birds seem to find these exposed berries a little more quickly as well.

Before Leaf Removal at Ribbon Ridge

After Leaf Pulling at Ribbon Ridge

So what do we do?  Drink a little rosé, do a sun dance, hit the river, and prepare for a late, potentially wet season.  Up until now, 2010 was the coolest vintage in history.  The reds are bursting with red/blue fruit backed by ripe tannins and juicy acid.  The whites are simply spectacular:  bright stone fruit flavors sparkling with racy acidity.   Another glass of rosé please.

Well, we have been through this before. Somehow my adventures in France seem well, just like adventures. My life at home just seems like life. People routinely remind me that what I am doing is very cool, and fun, and of interest, and then when I am reminded to get to the blog so much has transpired that I am much too far behind to “catch up”. So, who the hell cares that every moment is accounted for and that it is all in chronological order? ME, that’s who. I will now get over myself and get back to blogging!

This is a most odd year in grape growing. Getting tired of hearing that? This is the earliest year in recorded history in France and the latest year in recorded history in Oregon…..yes, later than last year, the epic late year of 2010. Good news for me is that I can be present for both my French harvest and back in time to participate in the Oregon harvest.

Bloom in France was complete by the middle of May (yes, including Bordeaux). At that time the vines in Oregon were just waking up. Bloom in Oregon started around the first of July.

Bloom, July 7, 2011 in the Heart of the Willamette Valley

And after an extensive vineyard “tour” with old friends around a remarkable series of vineyards in Eola-Amity and Carlton, there is still some bloom in action in the higher altitude sites (July 26/27, 2011).  Here are a couple of the more spectacular views from these sites:

Carlton Hills

Eola-Amity

Additional Vineyard Beauty Contributed by Man

Additional Beauty Contributed by Mother Nature

My Pal Brock Downloading Weather Data

I should be apologizing repeatedly for not posting for ages, but something keeps me from getting this done (the posting, not the apologizing!). Not sure why. I am always pleased after I have chronicled what I am doing. But then there is this nagging sense that my days have no significance and this is egotistical bullcrap. Either way, I do enjoy it once I put my focus heretois*.

After working on the pruning videos I realized that the two styles of pruning shown were very useful and applied to many situations, but were not specific to the so-called premise of this exercise, Old Vine Grenache. The older bush pruned or spur pruned vines are fundamentally handled the same, but the look is very different. I asked my good friend (with whom I am having dinner this very evening….might be just the kick in the tuchus that I needed to post), if he would kindly help me demonstrate pruning for the style of growing common to most old vines (not just grenache).

Here is Jean-Marc Espinasse of Domaine Rouge-Bleu (http://rouge-bleu.com) with a demonstration of head/spur pruning in his outrageous Old Vine Grenache vineyard, Lunatique (the sound is a bit rough but the images are lovely; listen carefully for a first class pruning lesson):

*hertois: some knockoff of the legalese heretofore, heretowith, etc. But here, is is is.

Read All About IT. Yes, I think that this warrants that kind of headline. Somewhere in the back of my mind was the obvious next step in blog survival, videos. What grabbed that video thought from the back of my mind and launched it into cyber space? It was a simple discussion of what we in the production side of the industry take in quotidian stride, the annual cycle of the grapevine. It was February for heaven’s sake, the winter sun was out and the countryside was full of activity. Vineyards were being pruned throughout the Willamette Valley, the first of many activities that will end in another harvest.
It became as clear as a lens with vaseline that it was the time to focus on video.

OK, so that was a ……. start. But please let me introduce you to my video guru Dan Kaufman.

He has been instrumental in taking these adventures from that above to this below. Video #1: