Bloom is here!

Finally, the vineyard is in bloom! We walked (actually, we ran) down the rows and enjoyed the most subtle, delicate and fragrant scent of the vine flowers. The first caps have detached and set is around the corner.

You couldn't believe how fragrant the scent of these vine flowers is! The brown spots are the detached caps. The cluster on the left has not  bloomed yet.

We ran into this huge gopher snake on the ground while walking the vineyard -- can you tell it just had eaten a gopher?? :-)

The vineyard crew is busy removing unwanted shoots -- which you can see on the ground

We are definitely ahead of 2011 (probably by about 10-14 days) and 2010, which is a good thing. The last two years have been so late! But we are behind 2007, 2008 and 2009; however, slightly ahead of the 10-year average. This is the peak time of work in the vineyard, to get the vines properly trained for best results at harvest: shoot positioning; removing extra shoots from the cane; suckering (i.e., removing the 'suckers' or shoots that grow off the trunk);  weeding, mowing and cultivating the soil; moving up the wires to accommodate the growing shoots; and after set, pulling leaves to open up the canopy.  With the warm weather, the vines are growing quickly and a myriad tasks are required -- but the crew is doing a phenomenal job and the vineyard looks wonderful!

Bloom is coming close!

Yesterday we went to our Sonoma Coast Vineyard, Doña Margarita -- things are happening quickly there, too!  The vineyard team is working as fast as they can to remove the suckers and keep the vines tidy, so the unwanted shoots do not sap out the vine's energy; we want them to concentrate that on the fruit!  With the hot weather this week, the vines have come a long way; we expect bloom to happen in a couple of weeks or so. This is our favorite time, because the entire vineyard exudes the most wonderful scent of the grape flowers!

Look how long the internodes are! That's because of the growth spurt due to the warm weather. It's been either rain or hot this spring!

That's back-breaking work, but necessary -- removing the suckers, which you can see on the 2 left vines that are not cleaned up yet

The bees are back -- and the vines are growing quickly!

Everyone is so excited -- we got our bee hives back!  We lost both hives a few months ago to this shocking disease, CCD or Colony Collapse Disorder. Have you heard about it? It seems that the Neonicotinoid pesticides are doing away with a large amount of the bee population. And even though our vineyard is organic, since the bees travel up to 3 km they can bring it back from nearby conventional vineyards.  It's a horrible situation!

Meanwhile, with the recent warm weather following the rains, the vines are growing by leaps and bounds.       And the vineyards look beautiful!  Very uniform and manicured, thanks to the great work of our vineyard team. If things go well from here to harvest, we could have an excellent crop.  Hah!  Wish we had a crystal ball ...

The cover crops are in full bloom and looking gorgeous. We have different crops planted throughout the vineyards, selected to best suit each parcel. Pretty soon we will mow them or till them into the soil, depending on the needs of each block. But for now, we love to run amid the beautiful flowers!

Bud break is finally here!

The rains finally came, and in no small buckets! It has been raining almost non-stop since mid March -- just after Mom left for Europe. She was gone for three weeks, then came back for a week and was off again, this time for a week's vacation helicopter-skiing in Canada with Cristina (what a tough life she lives!) and just returned last Sunday. We enjoyed seeing our sis for a few short days, but now she is back to work in Paris.  We did want to go heli-skiing with them, for we love the snow, but no way they would take us...

The first leaves of Chardonnay are unfolding in the Don Miguel Vineyard

And in the Sonoma Coast's Doña Margarita Vineyard, the buds are just starting to open

We ran and ran in the Doña Margarita Vineyard -- Mom had a hard time keeping us still for a pic!

Today we went to the Doña Margarita Vineyard; it rained really hard last night so everything was very wet -- which we love, of course! Running in that vineyard is a dog's dream... especially since the sun was shining and it was a beautiful morning. And then, guess what, it hailed in the afternoon. This weather is so insane!  We've had almost 50 inches of rain this season, but 2/3 of that in the last four weeks. OK, now the rain can stop! In the vineyards it's a beautiful time, when the vines come to life after the long winter rest. The tiny leaves are so cute, all even and bright green! But it is also the time when they are most susceptible to deer, one of our natural enemies here. Last year someone left the vineyard gate open up at the Doña Margarita Vineyard and 4 deer came in -- in a couple of days they devoured more than an acre, which meant a loss of over $20,000 for us!

 Pruning is almost done, just on schedule!

 

One good thing about the lack of rain (about the only one, we hear) is that the pruning has continued almost non-stop, so we're right on schedule. And the vineyard team has done a terrific job!  We feel bad for them on the cold days -- they don't have, like we do, a natural fur coat!  But they do bundle up pretty good.  Except for their fingers, which they need when they tie the canes to the wires; that they need bare hands to do.

  The cover crop looks gorgeous in our young plantings of Syrah and (behind) Tempranillo  

  The organic cover crop consists of peas, vetch and barley.  The peas are starting to flower!  

  The pruning is all done; now all is left to do is the tying. In cold days like yesterday, it's a no fun job! 

 Did you know that's what a mole looks like? 

Did you know the difference between moles and gophers?  We just learned about it from Zach, our viticulturist: moles are blind and only push the earth up, but don't eat the roots so they're not damaging to the vines.  Gophers, on the other hand, are really bad guys -- they devour vines!  It's so sad to find from time to time a vine that's totally dried up and dead - the work of a gopher.  Since we're organic, we cannot use poison (and we wouldn' want to -- that's not good for puppies!!) so we set lots of traps and we catch quite a few of them.  And we also have built owl houses, which attract the barn owls; gophers are their favorite meal, thankfully!

 Moles do not make holes or eat vine roots--this is the work of a gopher-- the bad guys! 

This is a gopher -- one of the guys we don't like!

Pruning as fast as we can!

With the unusual good weather, we've been able to get quite a bit ahead with the pruning.  The vineyard crew has been working non-stop from 8 to 4!  We only have five in the team tough, so it's not going very fast. The shortage of workers seems to continue on since harvest , unfortunately -- but thanks to the rainless days, we are on schedule. Rain is forecast later in the week, though -- but we need it, so no complaints!

The vineyard crew deep into pruning

Almost all of he 'Earthquake Block' is pruned!

With the Chardonnay vines already pruned, our home overlooking the vineyard looks beautiful in the mist

We love jumping over the cuttings with our friend Molly - Tony's dog

And Bonita can't stop running on the cover crop!

We heard Tony say that we got a glowing report from the CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers) inspector, on his annual visit to renew our Organic Farming certificate. he does spend a long time checking everything!  The CCOF does actually an excellent job in keeping organic certified farmers in check -- did you know that their organization's organic certificate is the strictest in the entire world??

Our first visit to the vineyard in 2012!

January 10, 2012
It's been a while since we last told you about what was going on in the vineyard! Well, Mom wrote the Harvest Report right after we finished picking (while she was in Spain!) and after that, not much happens until pruning time - which is now. So we had our first visit yesterday, with Zach and Tony and the vineyard team, at our Dona Margarita Vineyard in Sonoma Coast. Here are some pics to illustrate it:

The team (minus Mom, taking the pic) reviewing the vines to decide on the pruning

The cover crop of barley we planted right after harvest is growing very nicely!

This poor little bird had the bad luck of crossing Bonita's way! Thankfully we rescued him -- but can you tell what Boni & Chico are thinking??

We had a ton of fun digging the ground for gophers -- can you tell from my nose? -- and almost got one, honestly!

And after the visit, we went down to the stables and visited with our friend Kristen, the trainer - and her dogs Riley & Mayday, our good friends!