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Walking the Vines with Mitchell.

Published by crushpad at Jul 01, 2009 - Comments? None yet

One thing is for sure; growing wine grapes is never boring. 2009, like most years in the recent past, is one to keep you guessing. We started with another dry “rainy season” and then caught unexpected and significant rainfall in May. As soon as folks comment on the cool, springtime weather, we get unusually hot spells in May and late June. Toss in a season with very high powdery mildew pressure and you’ve got potential for sleepless nights. It’s what growers thrive on.

As I walk the vineyards now, I’m seeing berry size variability becoming a little less obvious. Grape varieties that ripen earlier are sizing up from little BBs to pea size. As a whole, we are about 5-7 days behind in growth than the 5-year average. Canopies look good and in some cases, the canopies are more full than I’ve seen in recent years. I find this interesting since, if you recall, we had shorter than desired shoots at bloom.

Presently, many growers are exploring both foliar and water applied fertilizer. Remember though, it’s all about balance in the vineyard, on the vine and in life.

Mitchell

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Fulcrum Pinot Top Scorer in New Wine Spectator

Published by crushpad at Jun 29, 2009 - Comments? None yet

When you're keeping company with Foxen "Sea Smoke Vineyard" and Peter Michael "Pisoni Vineyard" you know you're in the upper echelon of Pinot Noir.  In the most recent issue of Wine Spectator the 2007 Fulcrum "Split Rock Vineyard" Pinot was a top scorer with a whopping 94 points, the same as the aforementioned wines.  James Laube writes:

A gorgeous young wine with impeccable balance, this zeros in
on a tight core of ripe cherry and wild berry fruit, with shades
of mineral, pebble and loamy earth. Full-bodied, well-structured,
complex and persistent. Drink now through 2014

Fulcrum is the work of co-founders David and Christina Rossi with consulting wine making support from Crushpad's Chris Nelson.  David is certainly one of the most hands-on Crushpad clients, routinely doing most of his own wine making work.

You can also listen to a podcast with David on VinVillage Radio.

We've been on quite a roll lately with the critics which you can read about here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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Open House: Reflections on Theorems, Tacos and Wine

Published by crushpad at Jun 23, 2009 - Comments? None yet

We are adept at all things mathematical. Being a winery means weights, measures and calculations are in our blood. But, it just doesn’t add up. We’ve run the numbers from Saturday’s Open House this way & that and still can’t figure it out. Imagine 1463 attendees sampling 39 wines while consuming 2221 tacos and only breaking 2 glasses? Even Spock would raise an eyebrow and declare “Illogical”. 

The wondrous day of tortillas, wine and intact glass is a testament to you: the friends, neighbors and just plain curious who joined us via webcam or in person on Saturday. Thanks! (We understand 6 wine glasses were broken in the homes of webcam viewers during the event).

In addition to the wine and tacos, Magnolia’s photo booth was a focus & click hit! Check out the photos. http://picasaweb.google.com/petertower/SF20090620Crushpad#

If you were unable to celebrate with us on Saturday, cancel all appointments for the middle of June in 2010 so you can join us next year.

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We’re #1!

Published by crushpad at Jun 15, 2009 - Comments? None yet

We're honored to be on the 7×7 magazine Best of the City: Food & Drink List this year.  We're right there with our new covert, organic and spontaneous lunch spot neighbor Kitchenette (it rocks) and the new Michael Mina restaurant with the almost painfully amazing Burgundy-centric wine list, RN74.

I'm quite certain we crushed the competition in our category.

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In the Vineyard with Mitchell

Published by crushpad at Jun 09, 2009 - Comments? None yet

After spending considerable time walking vineyards, a few of things are becoming clear.  First, the vines are catching up on developing the optimum shoot length / node number.  Second, due to the May rains, there are an abundance of lateral shoots on most all varieties. Finally, there are an abundance of clusters. Lots of them.

In Burgundian varieties, berries are between BB and pea sized while Bordeaux varietal berries are about the size of a BB. Many clusters have persistent caps. If these caps fail to dislodge or fall off, it could create challenges, but there’s nothing to worry about at this point. Over the last few weeks, California’s weather has been about as changeable as a newborn’s diapers and the threat of powdery mildew has been high. However, despite the conditions, I have not heard of any outbreaks or problems.

The focus in the vineyards is still spread out over weed control, disease control and canopy management. At many sites, the 2nd sets of wires are being positioned on VSP systems and hedging the canes is not far off. Many growers are walking vineyards looking at vine water stress levels to get baseline reference points to determine if and when to start irrigation. The priority right now is to open the vine canopy for disease control and to allow light on the interior wood and clusters. This is important for fertility of the buds for next year and to develop many of the favorable characteristics we all look for in the fruit to make great wine.

It’s about the time of year everyone starts to get excited about the vintage because folks begin to visualize what could be. Well, don’t get all knotted up just yet my friend, we still have a ways to go. But, it’s looking good at this point.

Thanks-

Mitchell

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The craziest vineyard you’ve ever seen

Published by crushpad at Jun 06, 2009 - 3 Comments and counting

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Rockroom Rocks Wine Enthusiast Critic

Published by crushpad at Jun 04, 2009 - 1 Comment so far

Rockroom Cooperative just grabbed three, count them, THREE 93 point scores in the new Wine Enthusiast.  Noted wine critic and blogger Steve Heimoff absolutely loved the Pinot, Chard and Syrah from Rockroom.  The best part is that the Rockroom wines from 2007 and 2008 are even better.  Rockroom has super colletion of wines going.  By the way, if you don't already read Steve's blog, you should.

2006 Hein Vineyard Pinot Noir (Anderson Valley); $44.

(93) The dryness and length of this Pinot Noir make it especially recommendable. It just feels lush and important in the mouth, offering a wealth of cherry, raspberry, currant, mocha and spice flavors, with a meaty note of beef jerky. Should develop for a good six years in the bottle. —S.H.

2005 White Hawk Vineyard Syrah (Santa Barbara County); $38.

(93) The vineyard is noted for the quality of its Syrahs, and this one is right up there, although as currently constituted, it’s a bit too young. Shows thick tannins and very ripe flavors of black- berry jam, cassis, cherry liqueur, melted dark chocolate, violets and a wonderful appliqué of cedar, finished with crunchy black pepper. Better by the winter of 2009, with slow-braised short ribs. —S.H.

2007 Alder Springs Vineyard Chardonnay (Mendocino); $38.

(93) This is a very fine Chardonnay. It displays crisp acidity that boosts and brightens ripe flavors of pineapples, pears, green apples and kumquats. Oak adds welcome notes of smoke, buttered toast and spice. Only 25 cases were produced. —S.H.

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Seawind Wines on Vin Village Radio

Published by crushpad at May 27, 2009 - 1 Comment so far

Ken Dunkley, the founder of Seawind Wines, was recently on Vin Village Radio discussing his philosophy on cool climate Pinots and Chardonnays.  You can listen to the segment here. 

Seawind is also a member of the new, and quickly growing, San Francisco Wine Association.  Definitely keep your eyes on what that group is doing.

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“2005 Concerto rivals any Cab…”

Published by crushpad at May 27, 2009 - Comments? None yet

One of our longtime clients, Peter Kitchak, recently got a nice write up in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.  Check it out!

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Bloom and Fruit Set… A Vineyard Update from Mitchell

Published by crushpad at May 25, 2009 - Comments? None yet

One of the most influential and uncontrollable things growers deal with is the weather. Luckily, it’s been cooperative. A result of our collective good fortune has been a significant progression of bloom from last week.

Blocks on several properties for the earlier ripening varietals are now through bloom and have completed fruit set. If the weather stays as predicted, we should have very good fruit set in 2009. Between fruit set and veraison, lay a critical period where we can affect the berry size by how we work the vines. Managing the leaf canopy and soil moisture will play key roles in the final cluster appearance and chemistry.

I am seeing good leaf color on Bordeaux varietals. Pinot Noir also looks good and we should see the Chardonnay leaves move out of the yellow phase shortly.  Syrah looks very good. Overall, the shoot length is a little short for being this close to bloom, but definitely adequate for the vine to be able to complete fruit set. I suspect we will have our desired shoot length relatively soon.  Because of the May rains, I see many varietals are now pushing laterals. Growers will need to manage their canopies to prevent them from closing in and causing too much shade in the vine’s interior. That would reduce fertility for next year and increase disease pressure. Additionally, on some varietals, having a canopy closed in may prolong the problem of methoxypyrazine, which produces vegetal character in wine.

Many vineyards that use a VSP or vertical shoot positioning system have moved the first set of moveable wires in place to train the vines and a few sites have even moved the second set of wires in place.

I am optimistic in what I’m seeing at the sites and the next few weeks will show us a lot about the vines.

Mitchell

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Cindy Cosco in Shiny Wine Magazine

Published by crushpad at May 22, 2009 - Comments? None yet

Our very own Cindy Cosco was recently featured in the May issue of Sommelier Journal.  Many of you know Cindy as the head of our lab at Crushpad.  What you might not know is that Cindy also has her own nascent wine brand named Passaggio, or “passageway” in Italiano.  Her current release is an absolutely delicious, unoaked Sonoma Chardonnay with no malo.  Its bright, refreshing and extremely well balanced.  It’s also bottled with a ZORK closure.  Later this year she also plans to add a Sonoma Pinot to her portfolio.

Her wines are already available at Ferry Plaza Wine Merchants in Napa and San Francisco as well as her website passaggiowines.com

Sommelier Magazine has graciously allowed our readers to access this article for free.

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My First Blog Post

Published by crushpad at May 20, 2009 - Comments? None yet

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Here Comes Bloom

Published by crushpad at May 15, 2009 - Comments? None yet

Bloom is just around the corner. Even though bud break was about 5-7 days later than average, we're seeing hints bloom is about to occur. Technically, bloom is when 50% of a cluster has the calyptras dropped so you can see the stamen. The number of clusters showing this condition on a vine is a factor growers take into consideration before they declare that bloom is taking place in a vineyard block. The current heat spell will certainly speed things up. The 600 degree day mark is another indicator that bloom is surfacing. The impact of temperature can not be overlooked because the time necessary to complete bloom is directly influenced by temperature. Typically, faster bloom periods result in better fruit set.

The series of recent rain storms offered mixed blessings. While the storms certainly helped replenish the upper soil profile, the flip side is that we have seen weed pressure and the threat of powdery mildew.

Overall, shoot growth looks good. I'm still seeing quite a bit of yellowish color in areas where Chardonnay & Syrah grow. However, I suspect those soils will warm up and dry out a bit more and the leaves will color up.                        

Very soon, the first set of movable wires on vertical shoot positioned vineyards will get moved upward to catch the young growth. Timing this right can be tricky. If you wait too long, the tendrils begin grabbing the adjacent shoots and the canopy becomes tangled. But, if you act too soon, you don't get enough shoots above the wires. Nothing is as simple as it seems. Then again, if high-end growing was simple, vineyard managers could find themselves on a list of endangered species.

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Crushpad Internship Program

Published by crushpad at May 12, 2009 - Comments? None yet

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Mother Nature’s Bi-Polar Tendencies

Published by crushpad at May 08, 2009 - 4 Comments and counting

Mother Nature is displaying bi-polar tendencies. After having gone back to winter for an additional 2-4 inches of rain and much cooler temperatures in the North Coast, she’s bounced back into spring with a string of beautiful days with temps hovering between 65 and 70 degrees.

Throughout the Central Coast vineyards, we are seeing the first evidence of bloom. This is not a complete surprise, since we are presently around 600 “degree-days” for Chardonnay. Degree-days are a measure of the heat units above 50 degrees F during the 8-month stretch between March 1st and October 31st. Last week’s cooler temperatures slowed down vine growth a bit, but the current heat is putting us back on track.

The threat of powdery mildew will keep growers on their toes over the next few days. Thankfully, the decision making process for when to spray for powdery mildew has become quite sophisticated. A mildew expert at UC Davis designed a model that determines the level of risk for any given 24-hour period. Spore release, temperature, relative humidity and a host of other measures are considered in the model, which can be monitored by most vineyard weather stations. The vineyard manager simply accesses the program from their computer when reviewing weather data and verifies the spray interval or makes changes depending on the threat level, wind and other factors. It’s integrated pest management in action.

Green pruning, also known as suckering, is in full swing and clusters are starting to elongate on grape varietals that develop earlier. While walking through Chardonnay blocks, I’ve seen many of the clones have small clusters so far. The overall cluster number looks good, with lots of 2 cluster shoots and some 1 cluster shoots. Growth will need to perk up a bit to be at optimum length by bloom. However, we will be all right if the weather cooperates. Keep your fingers crossed!

After green pruning, it’s common for some fertilization to take place. Nutrients can be applied directly to the soil, but are often incorporated through an irrigation system or by foliar feeding (spraying). Deciding which nutrients are needed is typically based on analysis of the soil, leaf petiole analysis or visual symptoms.

Mitchell Klug

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