Beginning of ripening

It has been a while since my last post and there is a lot to be told.

There has been a lot of work in the vineyards, as this growing season has not been very easy. There has been rain in december and temperatures have been lower than average, and pressure of powdery mildew (the “good weather fungus”) has been high. We’ve been able to eradicate the few outbreaks we had, and the grapes have started to ripen, which means the end of the risk of new infections. Now we have to be alert for grey rot, or botrytis bunch rot, which can be a serious threat to the Syrah especially. Due to the cooler weather, we're about two weeks behind schedule compared to a normal year. maybe this means a more relaxed harvest, as not everything will ripen at once, like last year.

Last year’s experiments are showing good results:

One of the things we tried to do was to get a more even budburst and growth of the shoots of Cabernet Sauvignon. When pruned early, normally the last two buds left on a cane grow much more than the other ones (a cane having 6 – 8 buds). When the whole cane is left intact at pruning, and is shortened while budburst is about to occur, the shoots grow much more evenly.

The effect of a late re-pruning is slightly devigorating, not in the least because it promotes fruitfulness, and the fruit takes away energy from the plant. We therefore only tried it in the more vigorous parts of the vineyard, and we’re very happy with the results.

The first picture shows a typical Cabernet cane, with weak and absent shoots in the middle. Note the poor bunches in the middle as well, compared to the ones on the last two shoots (to the left).

The second one shows the result of the experiment: smallish, but good and evenly colored bunches along the entire cane!

Applying stable manure has also worked well for those plants which were not growing much. As a result, I observed earthworms last year, a sign of healthy, living soil. Only Carmenère is still a bit reluctant to grow, but there are signs it is improving. We need the roots to go deeper in search for water and nutrients. Last year we saw a shallow root system, and it will take a few growing seasons to promote new and deeper root growth.

Liming the soils has given good results too. Even though the soil is not poor in calcium, lime (calcium carbonate) can help to free nutrients and change the pH of the soil, which has a profound effect on the roots.

The last experiments have to do with a fungal disease which attacks the wood of the vine. The symptoms are stunted growth, with yellowing margins on the leaves, as can be seen on this picture. Note the healthy leaves and bunches on the right.

The fungus penetrates the wood through large pruning wounds, such as this one:

Unfortunately, the symptoms are only clearly visible in summer, but not when pruning in winter. To overcome this, we’re busy marking with a plastic ribbon each plant showing singns of the disease. When pruning, these plants can be treated differently. Basically, they’ll be cut or sawn off, until clean and healthy wood appears. The resulting wound will be dressed with fungicide paste, and hopefully the disease can be kept at bay.

Labor has been scarce, although so far we've had little problems. Only after bud burst did we have a little delay on the de-suckering. But the other day, driving through the village of Graneros, I saw these signs, virtually crying out for people to harvest fruit, like peaches and nectarines, that's ripening at the moment, promising generous weekly pays and so on. Clearly the gentleman sitting at the bottom didn't think this was worth the effort. Hopefully, by the time we harvest our grapes, he'll feel more enthusiastic!