an update from east Pete

More work in small barn getting 2nd level ready to store rest of the lugs. Lugs on trailer to take to Charlotte Hall (hereafter CH) for cleaning. Believe they should be sqeaky clean before storing in barn. Cleaned out stall holding Pallets, now SCAG parking.

Measured corn field site of Lot 13. From north end to apple tree on south end, are in corn this year was approx 2.2 acres. As need be this could be expanded some by moving up the hill toward the house by another 25 ft. That space will provide an additional 1/3 acre and will help get out of the shade of the big Sycamores and other trees on the south east.

Charlie will call Mike R- and inform him that field will no longer be available for his use and that we would consider hiring him to help us prepare that field for grapes if he is interested. We also need to know from him what pesticides/herbicides and other amendments he may have used. We did not have time to auger various locations to test for hard pan.

Gish brothers help most appreciated.

I attended a show and tell at the POL Winery for the 5 Commissioners, town Council, County and Town Staff, MARBIDCO, AG DEV Commission etc. Very well received. Some Chamborcin must perking away in the box containers. If you stick your head in the carbon dioxide will clear the sinuses big time. Bob Schaller introduced me as a spokesman for our family and the success of Rootstock 09 that was so impressive. Also favorable mention of our crops fermenting in the tanks. The Commish knew who we were when told of vineyards on Golden Beach Rd. Pat, Rich, Caroline, Steve, James, Mary and Joe Wood, David, Chris Bologna also helped. And Steve McHenry of MARBIDCO, and Christine Bergmark of SMADC were there for the first time. A very positive session. They all want us to make very good wine! and be successful.

E-Pete

there it is

ok...quick update:
We harvested 5074 lb of Vidal Blanc about two weeks ago. It came in at a solid 23 brix, with acid and pH in, what the wine maker called a "respectable" level.
As the King of Germany said to Mozart: "well, there it is."
There it is, indeed.
The first commercial harvest after six years of growing, and many prior to that in the planning and development stages.

but wait! there's more!
Queued up next is an estimated 1,000 lb of Viognier. The fruit may not have the level of sugars, but I'm impressed with how well it has held up in this very wet, very disease-prone year. Maybe it's the thick skins, but something has allowed this fruit to stay relatively clean, well past any date where it would have normally been pulled from the vine.
Beautiful stuff.

and then, something wonderful

rain.
it kept coming. a few short weeks at midsummer the clouds tarried and the ground dried out, leaving us to think the worst was over. But, like a tide leaving the shore only to flood back, the clouds returned bringing the rains steadily every few days.
Rain. Sun. Heat. Humidity. Rain.

So here we go into our final run for the season: Harvest and crush just around the corner.
Any grower will tell you, if given only two weeks of perfect weather during the year, to have it be the two weeks before harvest.

For two days the air is dry, sunny, and warm during the day, then dropping cool at night. It's only two days, but all it takes is a string of twelve more to turn an entire season around.

09 Harvest and Stomp Romp poster

to commemorate our first commercial harvest, i've designed a poster—and i think it may be the start of a new tradition. take a look—what do you think?

advice from the doctor

Dr Joe Fiola is the Maryland State Viticulturalist. He's a wealth of information and energy regarding growing grapes in Maryland. Below is his advice for growers on judging harvest readiness. I think anyone who enjoys wine will find his advice valuable and insightful.

• The critical principals here are that high quality wine is the confluence of fruit derived flavor and aroma components and for red grapes also the reduction of immature tannins.
• These do not necessarily correspond to “desired” sugar and acid ranges.
• The highest priority needs to be the quality and quantity of varietal aroma/flavor in the fruit.

• Simply stated, to obtain a desired characteristic aroma or flavor in the wine, it must be present in the grapes at the time of harvest!
• By regular, continuous sampling you will learn through experience the succession of aromas, flavors and textures that each variety goes through.
• Depending on the degree of ripeness red grape characteristics can range from green and herbaceous to fruity and “jammy.”
• Therefore the individual sampling must be diligent to monitor for that aroma and/or flavor in the sample.

• The next highest priority, especially for red wines, is the texture of the grape tannins in skin and the seed.

• These quality and quantity of the tannins determine the structure, body, astringency, bitterness, dryness, and color intensity of the wine. Mature tannins are critical to the production of quality red wines.
• The degree of ripeness and polymerization of the tannins will determine the astringency and mouth feel of your wine.

• This can range from the undesirable, hard and course tannins of immature grapes, through to the desirable, “supple and silky” profile of mature grapes.

• Procedure:

• Select a few random grapes and place them in you mouth. DO NOT look at the cluster when you are choosing the grapes because you will tend to pick more ripened berries.
• Without macerating the skins, gently press the juice out of the berries and assess the juice for sweetness (front of tongue) and acid (back sides of your tongue). With experience (and comparison against numbers from lab samples) you will be able to reasonably guesstimate the Brix and TA level of the grapes.
• Next gently separate the seeds for the skins and “spit” into your hand. The color of the seeds gives you a clue to the level of ripeness. Green seeds are immature, green to tan and tan to brown seeds is maturing, and brown seeds are mature. Ripe seed tannins are desirable as they are less easily extracted and more supple on the palette.
• Finally macerate the remaining skins and press them in your cheeks to assess the ripeness of the skin tannins. You will be able to “feel” the astringency (pucker) of the skins. The less intense the astringency the more ripe the grapes.

• A good way to practice is to first sample an early grape variety such as Merlot and then immediately go to a later variety such as Cab Sauvignon, and you will feel the difference in the acidity, astringency and ripeness.

• Of course, other factors must still be considered, such as the total acidity and pH

• Generally you would like to harvest white grapes in the 3.2-3.4 pH range and reds in the 3.4-3.5 range, as long as the varietal character is appropriate as described above. Remember the enologist can do a good job adjusting acidity but it almost impossible to increase variety character in the wine.

• Brix or sugar level is good to follow on a “relative” scale but levels can greatly vary from vintage to vintage.

• In some years the grapes will be ripe and have great varietal character at 20 Brix and another year they may still not have ripe varietal character at 23 Brix.

• Disease/Rot - Monitor to see if the grapes are deteriorating do to fruit rots or berry softening.
• Look at the short and long range forecast.

• If it looks good and the grapes have the ability to ripen further, then there may be a benefit to letting them hang a bit longer.
• If the tropical storm is on the way……
• When grapes are close to optimal ripeness, it is more desirable to harvest before a significant rainfall than to wait until after the rain and allow them to build up the sugar again afterwards.

Follow Lot11 Vidal Brix via Widgenie

ger measured the brix level of the vidal blanc in lot11. 16 brix! we're hoping the hot weather will slow the development until the Port of Leonardtown is ready to accept our first commercial crop. I've updated our widgenie widget, but i'm bothered by how widgenie reads the date in my xls sheet—what a long datastring.

son of sony camera bit the dust this past week. we're picking up another vineyard camera this week. you should see lot11—looks like a big spider with OCD settled into the acre. i thought the netting went up much easier than previous years—faster, as well. patience, patience, patience is needed when putting up that net. the more hands, the better. i think it would have went like silk if we had two more adult hands available.

any takers?

birds

The vineyard netting goes up this weekend.
We have two acres to cover with netting that will run over the top of all the vines so that people and equipment can get underneath and work unencumbered. We have new netting this year that is much wider than our existing stuff: It covers six rows at a time. Some feel it'll be too much to handle. I feel it will be easier to deal with than the narrower netting that only covers three rows at most.

Stay tuned for the final analysis!

early veraison

the rains stopped, and everything dried out in July. The vine have stopped putting their energy into growing shoots and have now turned to ripening the fruit. It's so dry, in fact, that grampa has been watering the new vines in lot 12 by hand this week. It amazes me how quickly the situation can flip from soaking wet to drought in a few short weeks. I'm sure the excessively well drained soils have something to do with it.
The red grapes are already beginning to take on color, and the whites are turned from their young green to translucent yellow. All this is happening a good two weeks earlier than last year--quite a surprise to me. This season has been unusually cool and led me to think veraison would be delayed, if anything. It could be the lack of very hot days (95+ degrees) has meant the vines have been able to put energy into the fruit a lot more, rather than shut down because of the heat.
This adds an interesting twist to our expected first commercial harvest this fall: The winery may not be ready to process the grapes if they come in two weeks earlier than expected!