Proof of Concept

The Story Continues....

2011-01-08T21:54:00.002-05:00

The story of our start up vineyard continues now at:

http://thevineyardwife.com/

Which I've set up as a blogazine giving you an inside peek into our vineyard, the wines our grapes produce, the people we love, the sights we see and the food we eat.

Please visit, bookmark and let us know what you think!

Notes on a growing season

2010-10-20T19:42:00.002-05:00

Strange days.
The season started off promising, with an unusually early and warm spring. Gentle showers periodically brought welcome moisture to the growing vines through April and May.
June came with clear skies that did not end until well into August. The days were HOT and DRY. At one point, even the hardiest, oldest, most well established vines showed signs of being thirsty.
We thought the whites would come in early, but I think the heat and drought delayed ripening, so they came in about the usual time. Each variety had scattered raisins within the clusters. Very sweet, dried fruit that added considerable sugar concentration to the final juice.
After that the rains came.
Reds that were two weeks away from harvest at the beginning of September remained that far away well through October as one wet weather front after another moved through. No hurricanes, no tropical storms, just periodic, steady rains. The temperatures turned unseasonably cool at this time, helping to keep the fruit and canopy healthy the whole time.
We'll harvest our last four varieties this weekend: Touriga Nacional, Tinta Cao, Mourvedre, and the other half of the Marsanne we left hanging before the rains.

It's been a while...here's an update from west pete

2010-08-26T21:29:00.000-05:00

Saturday:

- we were able to get samples for all varieties; VB brix have gone down
slightly with recent rains so outlook for harvest is likely Sept 11 or later

- all but one row in lot 12 have high catch wires run; ran out of wire on
last row and did not have time to respool; watch for wire on the ground in
that row if you mow

- still a few rows in lot 12 where we need to tie up the vines to get them
off the ground or off of other vines; focus on eastern 10 rows

- cleaned bottles at CH house for 2009 vintage

Sunday:

- inspected lot 12 perimeter for possible future acreage

- did not spray

- rain starting around 1030

- GB bottled much of 2009 vintage; need shelf space for them

- PB worked 8 hours at winery pressing Cayuga and recruiting
pickers/stompers

Monday:

- 1/8th inch in gauge at farm; seemed like more than that at house and at
winery

- grass is growing like crazy

Bottling Day is Scheduled!

2010-03-22T20:47:00.001-05:00

It's the very first vintage for Port of Leonardtown Winery!

west Pete situation report

2010-02-10T19:34:00.001-05:00

Another 4 or 5 inches of snow here before it seemed to stop around 3:00 today.

I think what I will do is get Bill to drop me off at the farm Friday morning and then I will dig out the barn door, get the tractor out, and start trying to plow some access paths so we can try to get in and out of sheds, barns, vineyards, and house on the weekend.

Then I will just drive the tractor to my house and plow my driveway. Can return it when someone else can give me a ride back from the farm.

I will talk to Samuel after I firm up my plans with Bill tomorrow and see if he wants to come over. We can split tractor, shovel, and fireman duties. He would have to walk or get a ride both ways, though.

Thought about trying to do this tomorrow, but I think it will just be too rough on the roads and weather to try then. Plus my work schedule is better with Friday and I don’t see much advantage to starting a day early.

Does anyone know how we are stocked on diesel fuel?

over head netting

2009-12-08T21:49:00.002-05:00

ok,
if you follow this blog, or you live on the east coast, or you are fan of the The Weather Channel, then you know it's been a challenging year, weather-wise, in the vineyard. Now that the growing season is done and the vines have dropped their leaves one might expect the drama to recede.
I wish I had the camera with me this weekend to post a picture of the scene after an early-season snow fall hit the vineyard before we had a chance to take down the bird netting that did such a great job of protecting our crop during veraison. It's an impressive sight: sharp daggers of posts suspend drooping netting that touch the ground in long, snow covered valleys running down the row middles.

an update from east Pete

2009-09-30T21:55:00.001-05:00

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

2009-09-24T22:35:00.004-05:00

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

2009-09-01T20:46:00.003-05:00

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

2009-08-26T22:43:00.000-05:00

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

2009-08-26T21:41:00.002-05:00

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

2009-08-09T22:55:00.002-05:00

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

2009-08-06T20:50:00.002-05:00

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

2009-07-25T20:45:00.001-05:00

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!

growing like vines

2009-07-11T21:11:00.003-05:00

host: This season is so wet...
sidekick: how wet is it?
host: It's so wet the cordons are growing roots! (queue laugh-track)
host: It's so wet everything is growing like vines! (queue laugh-track again)
host: Lot 11 looks like someone dropped a hundred pounds of fertilizer on it! (queue raucous laugh-track)
sidekick: Yiii-yoh!
host: The mildew has a rain jacket! (more laugh-track)
host: The ground hogs wear swim goggles!
sidekick: fertilizer...heh!
host: Seriously, though. Tomorrow, I'll be spraying the vineyard from a canoe! (and the laugh-track)
sidekick: don't forget the life jacket!
host: [quizical look at sidekick] I...[another quizical look]...I was walking through the rows today when a group of lateral shoots surrounded me. I thought they wanted my money, but it turned out they wanted to pay me to prune out a group of competing laterals. (queue raspberry-track)
sidekick: how much?
host: A vineyard manager from California stopped by the other day and said "dude, you forgot to turn off the water." (applause)
sidekick: and the fertilizer!
host: [to sidekick] careful where you step. (laughter)
sidekick: uh-oh. I need some boots. (less laughter) That's a wet season!
host: It'll take a heroic effort to produce a quality crop this year.
sidekick: you can do it.
host: [dissenting look at sidekick] Thanks for the vote of confidence. So you'll help?
sidekick: I don't drink wine. (queue laugh-track)
host: Oh, you just have a bottle collection in your dressing room, I suppose.
sidekick: I don't drink wine in rainy weather.
host laughs.
queue the band.
host: we'll be right back folks!

rocket man

2009-06-15T22:02:00.001-05:00

This weekend witnessed the maiden voyage of the farm air blast sprayer. Its ongoing mission: To provide effective disease protection, prevention, and eradication on grapevines during the growing season. To do so in the most economical and as environmentally friendly as possible.
Improbable? maybe. A worthy goal? you bet.

So far, this sprayer has not let down.

The day started early. There was a lot of systems check necessary to get things off the ground:
tractor fueled and ready: check
shed power operational: check
water pump working: check
now hook up the sprayer and leave the bay...
easy now...easy...
baaaaaah, baaaaaaah, bah, bah...
bombom bombom bombom

Honestly, I think the whole theme from 2001: a space oddyssey is overused, but in this case I totally have a right.

Donned in coveralls and a white environment helmet complete with air-hose riding on a tractor that's pulling a grey and orange rocket. I look like an astronaut towing my own personal-size launch vehicle to the pad for lift-off.

The exercise went great! All the vines got sprayed at a critical time during the growing season where the fruit is at its most vulnerable, and the weather is doing all it can to promote disease infection.

It's a fine piece of equipment.

rain, rain go away...and come back when you can't stay so long

2009-05-29T21:36:00.001-05:00

It's been a week of daily rains. Last weekend the Vidal Blanc was in the early stages of flowering, all the rest were a few days off. It's a critical time in the vineyard. A fungal infection in the flower at this stage can prevent the berries from setting, or can lay latent in the berries until they begin to ripen in August. At that point the fungus will wake up and consume the berry just as it approaches full ripeness.

The work continues, either way: We should be able to finish up the shoot thinning on the Viognier this weekend, and hopefully run the last catch wires in the Vidal Blanc block to begin shoot positioning. Our part timer was supposed to work by himself for the first time during the week this week putting in J-staples for the catch wires. We'll see how he did tomorrow.

shoot thinning

2009-05-17T18:23:00.001-05:00

Finished the shoot thinning of Vidal Blanc, and just in time! Any more time and the shoots would have been too set to easily remove from the cordon. We were able to do the job by simply plucking the extra shoots by hand, a much easier and faster task than using clippers to remove them.
The earliest varieties (Seyval Blanc, Vidal Blanc) are in the late stages of inflorescence development. An inflorescence is the part of the shoot that develops into the grape cluster. It contains dozens of little buds that will open into tiny flowers.
I anticipate next weekend to be the last one before most of the varieties begin to flower.
The new vines in lot 12 are doing great! It's been a wet spring with frequent rain, giving these vines a chance to grow and develop a root system. The uncut rye grass hides most of these vines. In fact, the whole field looks like a green savanna with posts. Rarely is a vine taller than the grass around it. The rye is not terribly thick, though, so a dappled light makes it through to the vines. I expect by mid summer the vines will start peeking out over the rye.

shoot thinning

2009-05-13T19:42:00.001-05:00

The sun decided to make a stand and drive off the gray clouds after ten days of rain and cool temperatures. During that time the soggy vines yawned and stretched. Some sending out new shoots from fuzzy buds, other extending on the green growth already started. It seemed on Saturday that every viable bud put forth a shoot, or two, or even three.
Spent the day removing the extra shoots in the proofing rows. The half acre of Viognier was a bit behind, with the shoots expressing a leaf or two, but sometimes still breaking bud. I Decided to let it go for a week.
The Vidal Blanc in Lot 11 had shoots consistently reaching the 8 inch wire. There was just not enough time to thin it. East Pete has been working it today, and I plan to be there Friday to hopefully finish the job.

walking the rows

2009-05-11T11:00:00.001-05:00

Last weekend, after working all day on a lab build-out, and previously dedicating a lot of time and energy to getting the new vineyard blocks prepped and ready, I toured the proofing rows.
It was late in the day. The sun was just falling behind the treeline to the west, casting dappled shadows across the vineyard. The heat of the day was being lifted away by a mild breeze.
Making my way between the first rows and saw the new shoots pushing out, some putting out the first leaf, some working on the second small leaf.
I paused as the feeling of a new cycle impressed upon me. For a brief moment the rush of demands and work fell away and all was right in the world.

Which of Our Whites Pair with Dandelion Burgers?

2009-04-22T20:07:00.012-05:00

left, the townie raised bed garden sprouts dinner

Its early spring and everyone without allergies are happy, happy and i am no exception. i love green. i crave green. being originally from the mighty MO (zone 5 is NOTHING to laugh about, gents. its bitter cold, there) i am used to changes in the season and i welcome the signals of seasonal onsets. but as i grow older, how difficult late winter becomes and how i welcome spring!

after a year of eating dangerously and exhibiting the waistline to show for it, i find i want to eat spring. i want to eat fresh, green, slightly tangy—slightly bitter—above all, lean. banish stews, split pea soup in a dutch oven, pot roast with root vegetables! give me fish, asparagus, field greens....GIVE ME DANDELION BURGERS!

at this pronouncement, the swelling music should give way to a screeching of a record needle skipping across an LP (if you are younger, your ipod is just sitting there, silent)

but there is a wealth of foraging one may due in early spring and yours truly sits on the tip of the foraging iceberg, waxing eloquently about the virtues of dandelions. ehow.com offers a multitude of articles about this weed, check it out: http://www.ehow.com/how_4533673_eat-dandelion-greens-health.html or this great article: http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/kallas82.html

truth be told, it was the edible chesapeake online recipe that caught my imagination: http://tinyurl.com/c88ofx dandelion burgers? why not? at the most i've wasted some crackers and sunflower seeds. at best, i've taken care of the weeds in my townie garden.

boy2 was my companion throughout the dandelion adventure—being at that age where anything is possible and nothing is to be missed. all along, he kept a running monologue of WWMD? What Would Ming Do? comes from ming tsai's pvodcast: http://www.simplyming.org/rss/vodcast.xml which i catch on itunes and boy2 watches religiously. WWMD and boy2 corrected my onion fine chop skillz, so thanks, ming!

here, boy2 crushes the crackers for the dandelion burgers. and mixes the dry ingredients with the wet ones. the online recipe is pretty simple to follow. and since it was successful, i suggest using white beans or field peas as a binder. these burgers call out for indian spices or asian flavorings. carefully review your dandelions for little critters—we found two discombobulated ants and a tiny inch worm in our collected blossoms.

after you carefully review the blossoms and mix up the ingredients, its just a matter of shaping them into patties and giving them a fry in a heart-healthy oil of your choice. tonight i served the dandelion burgers on a bed of baby dandelion greens with grilled scallops and a condiment of thai chili sauce. oh. wow. so. tasty!

ger broke out a bottle of our 07 viognier—which was really perfectly floral perfumy and decadently round, but needs a little acid. so then he broke out our marsanne—which i am currently sipping and am contrasting against the viognier. both are not oaked, but the marsanne is spare when comparing to the viognier, has a bit more acidity and less perfume. both of our whites went perfect with our spring clean and lean meal. how content are we!

blessings upon you all—may you cultivate early spring dandelions and eat them while sipping the perfect wine pairing. may you have young babies or young at heart to go off on culinary adventures and may you always wind up at the dinner table with those you love, eating food you love and sipping wine you love.

bon appetit.

inflection point

2009-04-17T23:43:00.004-05:00

these people came.
In pairs and groups.
Singly and together.
Some brought equipment:
tractors and augers, a post pounder.

Some came a short distance, others from very far.

We assembled in a place simply named, as if without emotion or sentiment, lot 12.

Lot 12 was plain field the morning of April 3. A gauze of winter rye beginning its spring run lent the ground some faint color. By the end of April 4 it appeared much the same way.

In the mean time these people came and dug and planted and shared and laughed.

They left behind in that field 2400 plants.
I do not know what they took with them, but there is a lifetime to find out.

In Days Past

2009-04-17T17:55:00.002-05:00

since rootstock, we've been concentrating on getting the posts pounded into the ground in lot12. i'll try to get ger to post a pic of how beautiful and tall they are.

last weekend, ger sent me into the proofing vineyard to finish up the touriga pruning before it became too late in the season.

i looked unhappily at my previous indecision—i had left some long lateral shoots intact so ger could decide if he wanted to keep those instead of the established cordon. but there is just too much work for him to be everywhere, so he sent me back to the touriga with his confidence. and support. i wasn't any more ready to make a decision, but i went about it as best i could. when i snipped off a lateral cane, deciding to forgo a larger cordon cut, i immediately regretted my decision to wait for gerald. the snipped cane weeped copious amounts of sap—the vine was already coming out of dormancy. curiousity got the better of me and i decided to taste the clear liquid. what would it taste like? would it be sweet, like maple sap? wait, is it posionous? hee. i was able to shake several large drops into my mouth.

nothing. tasted remarkably like nothing. evidently the vines put all their sweetness into the grapeberry!

i did my best with the rest of the lateral canes and tidied up the pruned vines on the vineyard floor. then it was time to quit the farm.

this weekend, ger left early to go to the southern maryland wine growers coop meeting. i'm staying at home with boy1&2 and working hard on my final projects in: 1) macroeconomics—propose a plan to help spain's unemployment!—and 2) negotiations—a multiparty negotiation paper and a finished workbook!

while i welcome having a break with the boys, i'm sad to be without both husband and vineyard during this beautiful weekend.

Rootstock Coverage

2009-04-13T20:59:00.003-05:00

if you would like to see the official rootstock09 website, please visit: www.rootstock2009.com
[thanks, lyrel, for the putting that together!]

for those that would like to read more, please visit: http://www.somdnews.com/stories/04082009/entefea164507_32191.shtml

thanks to everyone for sending in your images, posting them on facebook and giving us your feedback!

Thank you, all, for your Rootstock 2009 support!

2009-04-12T11:13:00.009-05:00

wow! its really been difficult to put into writing how we've felt about our friends and family giving so much of their time, support, and good spirits in making sure rootstock09 was a success. ger and i've been talking about it all week—breaking out in grins and spontaneous hugs as we relive april 4th. there was a ton of prep work that the family supported these past few weeks and we'd like to express a special thanks to uncle pete, dad and uncle charlie for their support and hard work throughout the week that allows ger and his brother pete to concentrate on the vineyard and keep moving forward.

as for our friends—thanks to all of your efforts, over 2,400 vines went into 2 acres in one beautiful day. thank you, thank you!

the weather was gorgeous but windy. 'round 6am we had 5 auger crews out digging holes—3 on trackers and 2 hand augers in order to prepare for the planting crews. thanks to our tractor crews: uncle charlie conrad, tom spooner, roger lavoie, and WCpete—our tractor drivers and our auger guiders: sam, kayleigh, and raven. special thanks to our hand auger crews: randy and mike on the two man and john fox on the single auger. hand augering requires quite a bit of upper body strength!

lot12 was soon dotted with holes ready for the planting crews. ger and pat isles [volunteer educator, maryland grape growers association/head of the facilities committee, southern maryland wine growers cooperative/vineyard manager at summerseat and all around great guy!] prepped the roots and gave the volunteers instructions as to how to plant the vines properly.

had been running back and forth all morning—coordinating the food prep and delivery with lyrel, coordinating shirts, nametags and welcoming attendees with kathleen—so when i ran up and over the hill the planting was well underway. and what a sight it was! all our good friends from college, work and the wine growing community were scrambling about the field, united in fellowship and vines. it was too much to take in, so i plunged into the planting melee and started snapping pics of everyone and thanking, thanking them. we estimate around 50 people were able to participate in the days event. it was awesome to be able to share with our friends what occupies a good portion of our lives and dreams.

special thanks goes out to bruce perrygo (maryland grape growers assoc. coordinator) and caroline baldwin (vp for maryland grape growers/southern maryland winegrowers coop) for their expertise and row management. towards the end of the petit verdot, several friends, bruce and caroline noticed we were in danger of having a few partial rows of the two different petit verdot rootstocks and the potential mixing of the barbera. i remember bruce standing in the field like a sentinel, coordinating with our planters and maintaining field order like a true general. we'd also like to thank rich fuller and his wife grace, for volunteering their time and energy to the task.

after we had a lunch, rich fuller, president of the southern maryland wine growers association gave an update to the crowd about the port of leonardtown winery and offered an investment opportunity in the winery. if you are interested in investing in the winery, please contact rich @ fullergnr@verizon.net

after lunch, we headed back into the field to finish planting the barbera. this is where i want to thank everyone again—i know its hard to work after lunch! but the bet part was the little ones, now that the tractors and heavy machinery had left the fields, were able to participate. ger and i settled into planting with our friends and later remarked how cool it was to hear the different conversations people were having as they planted. fathers and grandfathers talked with their children and grandchildren. co-workers learned a little more about each other. complete strangers laughed and shared their lives and how they were connected to this crazy enterprise. what an awesome day!

read all about our exploits in the post!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/10/AR2009041003907.html

I

Happy Rootstock 2009!

2009-04-04T05:01:00.002-05:00

The day is here! We're in the wee hours right at the start of Rootstock 2009. Today over 75 people are expected at the vineyard to plant 2,400 vines in lot12. We'll plant 1,200 each of petit verdot and barbera vines. There will be t-shirts, a hot lunch, and a day of gorgeous weather for the attendees—plus those that complete the rigorous training will receive the Official Rootstock 2009 Certificate of Completion!

Thank you, friends of the vineyard for your support! Looking forward to seeing you there!

prelude

2009-03-30T20:48:00.009-05:00

The clouds threatened all day but the rain, like a woman dressed for a most formal event and being careful as she walked, held her garment just over the wet earth. Then at twilight the fog gently fell, muffling the rush of any cars passing on wet pavement, and leaving me listening to the spring frogs peeping by the thousands after waking from a long winter's sleep.

Less than Two Weeks to Rootstock 2009!

2009-03-24T21:26:00.004-05:00

We have been busy preparing for the big event April 4th, 2009! 2,400 vines (1,200 barbera and 1,200 petit verdot) will be planted in our lot12. as you may remember, lot12 has lay fallow 2 years after being cleared.

Gerald has been thinking, and hoping, and praying...planning and dreaming each night about his vineyard. he tackled the project plan, assigning each family member tasks needing to be done to make the event a success. we've been working diligently towards that end. we've confirmed an attendee list, installed the deer fencing perimeter, received the posts, tidied the houses, ordered our shirts, planned the lunch, got tables and chairs and marked out the field.

and that's the short list—there has been much work on the farm that's been done by dad, Charlie, ECpete and WCpete in order to help us prepare for the event. Everyone is pulling hard and we're hoping the weather will cooperate and give us a beautiful day for planting.

the pruning is now finished and i'm done with my midterms, so i'm hoping to blog a little more frequently. i missed telling you about the pruning clinic that kathleen, boy1, and i attended—let alone the annual meeting and the awesome dinner in ellicott city, md (thanks WCpete, for watching boy1&2)! ger just finished the intermediate grape growers workshop today, but i haven't heard much about it since it was class night—and immediately after dinner he set up the projector and i laid out the Rootstock directional signage.

whew!

A good days work

2009-02-12T20:11:00.003-05:00

The Viognier pruning is moving along nicely. The training does not have as much drama as the often brittle Vidal canes. I find Vidal Blanc canes tend to snap if pushed too far, and one must take special care not to force the would-be cordons to lie down too straight on the wire. Viognier, on the other hand, is more flexible and yields to the trainers' hand without the heart-ache of breaking off what would have been a fruitful arm.

Rootstock 2009!

2009-01-16T00:24:00.001-05:00

GER102: Pruning the Vidal

2009-01-03T20:48:00.003-05:00

We ended up at the vineyard this weekend, instead of my parents, as i have come down sick again. second weekend in a row, but it cant be helped. i slept all day yesterday and while i felt ok enough to go down to the farm today, we got there pretty late—around 1:30-noon. ger has scheduled the lot 11 pruning to be finished within 3 weekends, so its important to be at the vineyard. with the 2 acres to be planted in april, its important to use every weekend we may.

ger gave me a second lesson in pruning the 2 year old vidal in lot 11. up until this time, i had thought that the thicker canes were the ones to establish along the cordon wire, but that's not exactly so. some of the thicker canes had more than a hand's width between bud breaks. in those instances, ger had me look at a less thick cane that shot off from the thicker cane. if the buds were spaced tighter than the thicker cane, i was to clip off (oh boy) the thicker cane and train the thinner cane along the cordon. ger said that this would give us more fruit in less space with room to grow along the cordon for next year.

my head was too thick today to really feel like i would be making good decisions, so i made the best decision of the day. i told ger i would get the vines prepped for his final decision and training to the cordon wire. this meant i would choose which canes would stay and which canes could be snipped. if i couldn't decide between a thicker cane or a thinner cane, i would leave both and strip down the rest of the canes. it most likely wasn't the most time efficient way to work the pruning, but i felt better when i didn't have to struggle bending the vines to the wire—thats a bit nerve-wrecking when i'm feeling on top of my game.

uncle pete came over to check in and help us finish the last row. they had just returned from the west coast. he said they watched bottle shock on the plane—man, i wish that movie would show up on fios on-demand, but i don't think its gonna happen.

in the end we finished two rows, with a third of a row somewhat stripped. we'll work tomorrow, as well. i think we have 9 more rows to go. ger is in the wine room, racking the 08 and the boy1&2 have just finished roasting marshmellows. i planned on making bread pudding and working on kayleigh's sailor valentine, but i'm thinking maybe its just time for bed.

Pruning Lot 11

2008-12-29T17:02:00.002-05:00

this past weekend, gerald taught me how to prune and train the two year old vidal vines in lot 11 to the cordon wire. its the best type of work possible: its both physically and mentally engaging—each vine is quite different, so the work is never quite routine—and when you are done, you can look down a row and say, "i did that!" plus, the vines look clean, sharp, and autere and the rows have a feel of discipline to them.

the work was not the easiest of work, tho. i was very conscious of my lack of experience and was worried i would make a wrong cut or break a cordon. gerald is a gracious teacher—very patient, always ready to stop work to answer a question or to weigh in on a choice i was about to make. it had to be hard, since it took him away from work himself. pruning the vidal went a bit like this:

assess the vine structure and determine which of the possible cordons you will keep. you only need two.
trim back the cordon vine, snipping where the vine's diameter is the thickness of a pencil and right before an unwanted bud. this gives the last bud that you do want a fighting chance and also tells you if that cordon is alive. which you want to determine before you brutally snip off all of the remaining, unwanted cordons.
strip the vine of the extraneous shoots, leaving the straightest cordon, possible.
train the cordon to suck it up and grow as upright as possible. we do this by straightening the cordons and then securing them to a bamboo pole that is secured to the cordon wire.
cross the cordons across each other, making as small of a V as possible. that's tricky. the cordons didnt often want to be trained in the given direction. they were stiff from being dormant and they are thick. one needed to have a firm, but gentle hand in shaping the cordons to the wire. i followed gerald's lead very closely. sometimes i wasnt sucessful or too fearful and he would have to come back and rework the vine a little bit. it became better as it went on.
review the vine and admire it. snip off any old dead growth that was missed and move on to the next vine.

as we pruned, gerald pointed out the pruning at the bottom of the hill where uncle pete (ec pete) was working. uncle pete had remarked to him that while the work wasnt hard, physical labor, the thought and the shaping does where him out. by the end of the day, i knew exactly what uncle pete was talking about.

i know gerald was happy to have us out in the field with him. i love to work with him in the vineyard, especially in lot 11. its a big, sweeping field, with big sweeping work. we were able to prune 2 and 2/3 rows of the vidal, working from 10am til 4:30. this was the longest period of time i've been able to work in the field. ger was gunning for 3 rows, but boy2 is still small and rather tender. the boys are good sports, always, working and playing next to us, attempting to build tree houses by themselves, playing with each other and napping in the truck cab. but done is done. sunday, gerald worked in the wine room, racking the 08's and making me taste very green wine while i struggled to find just the right typeface for the port of leonardtown winery.

the best part of saturday was talking to gerald—planning and dreaming and laughing and teasing with each other. and then gerald took us out to arizona pizza for dinner and that was the best part—eating and relaxing with the family. and then we went home and that was the best part—gerald laughing at me in the all pink flannel pyjammies the boys bought me for christmas...with the bonus headband.

Wine Fest Great Fun for All

2008-12-28T21:56:00.003-05:00

http://www.thebaynet.com/news/index.cfm/fa/viewstory/story_ID/10297
way back in october, gerald volunteered to participate in wine-making demos for Wine Fest, held at the Sotterly Plantation. the link above tells you all about it, plus ger is featured in several of the photos in the accompanying slide show at the end of the article. he is a handsome guy, that one.

Postcard from the Sabbatical

2008-12-25T16:34:00.003-05:00

we're a little too sick, a little too tired to check up on this, but we believe half-way through the harvest and on into november, the little blog machine postings sputter stops until sometime in december. this break is a little longer than previous years (all two), but we are still all about the vineyard and producing wine.

ger is working the wine, getting a jump on the pruning, and is preparing for the great april planting—tentatively called rootstock'09. i'm polishing the port of leonardtown winery logo, discovered the joys of twittering, and recently finished my ethics class. boys1&2 are doing great—learning to read, playing the trumpet, making gingerbreadhaus, finishing football, and PLAYING Wii!

merry christmas and happy holidays to all! ger and i raise a glass of prosecco to you all.

i hope you are all blessed in your lives as we are with ours. visit soon!

Sangiovese 2007

2008-11-29T12:10:00.004-05:00

While shopping for Thanksgiving this year, I came across a Virginia Sangiovese 2007 from Afton Mountain Vineyards. A 2007 release? Already? Could it be?
Having recently sampled our own 2007 and finding it happily fruity and delicious but still maybe a bit young(?), I had to get this bottle to compare our own against something of commercial quality.
There was immediate anticipation of the match-up: Two wines, same grape, same Mid-Atlantic region (them west of Charlottesville in the Blue Ridge, and us South of Washington close to the Chesapeake Bay), same year.
So it was we popped the Afton Mountain Sangiovese cork over Thanksgiving dinner...and...

There is something in both of these wines that someone tasting blind could, possibly, draw a conclusion that they are borne from one in same grape variety. I also think there is a distinct difference between these and their Tuscan counterparts. Both MA wines have strong red fruit flavor of cherries. Yes, that's a hallmark of Italian Sang, but all the IS I've sampled always hinted at cherries. These MA Sangs actually, well, sang out "cherry". I'm sure in Italy the wines do the same, but I'd guess they keep those wines for themselves and the stuff that makes it across the pond is merely a semblance of the original, like making a copy of a copy of a copy: All the basic information is there for sure, but the elegance and clean lines are gone, lost in the translation from original to copy to copy-of-the-copy.

Procrastination

2008-10-14T20:40:00.004-05:00

i've got plenty to blog, with over 1,600 pounds of seyval/vidal/viognier/marsanne/sangiovese harvested, processed and stomped. we had plenty of people helping with the harvest and stomp. i have plenty of images and stories—but i'm procrastinating. its that time of year and i always dork posting harvest. i'll get to it. meanwhile, enjoy my phrase-stylings on twitter. yes, i will get to it!

this weekend, we harvest touriga and tinte cao. looking for stompers!

No Harvest this Weekend

2008-09-13T15:26:00.002-05:00

EC Pete tested the vidal this past wednesday and due to the cooler weather and rain, the harvest has been put off until next weekend. ger is thinking that next weekend will be a large harvest of several varieties and wants us to be there. this weekend we are smushing in time for my family, as all my family is born in the month of september. ec pete and ger's dad will pick up the slack in our absence and next week, everyone will be down--including wc pete, who is flying back in to help out with the harvest.

next weekend, i will create another widgenie widget that tracks our red varietal brix levels. we started last week, but i don't have the stats with me. stay tuned!

Diversions

2008-09-06T07:02:00.004-05:00

hanna canceled boy1's football game, but gerald will keep his plan to travel to the vineyard and continue with the brix testing, ph testing, and inspect the vineyard to make sure all is well. i'll call him tomorrow and get the brix in order to update the widget.

i'm keeping my plan to give the boys a bit more variety in their weekend diet of farm, farm, farm. we're staying home, out of the weather, near their friends, and later we will experiment with the homemade cheese kit we purchased from the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company — mozzarella cheese in 30 minutes! (i'm hoping it will be easy and tasty enough so that i can work my way through leeners.com's cheese making web pages!) i stopped making our own bread due to the heat of summer, but i think i might crank up a batch so that we can make our own pizza tonight. too bad i went with a flower garden this year instead of my usual tomato patch, or we could competely imitate barbara kingsolver for one night!

Tracking Hanna

2008-09-04T20:42:00.000-05:00

2008 Seyval Harvest

2008-09-01T08:23:00.009-05:00

Despite the 8/10 an inch of rain the night before, gerald tested the brix of the seyval, munched a few grapes and announced that the seyval harvest was on. so gerald&i, dad byrne, and uncle pete gathered in the proofing vineyard early on saturday and harvested the seyval blanc. the weather was overcast, cool, but humid. everyone was ready to harvest quickly and process the grapes back to pete&lyrel's farmhouse. our hoped-for lugs did not come through, but we had our buckets from the previous year and with 2 previous harvests under our belts, felt comfortable that we would be able to harvest without issue.

three quarters into harvesting 361 pounds of delicious white grapes and we realized we did not have enough containers. the boys decided to send me to the hardware store with boy1&2 for more containers. half way to the store and my surprise visitors—my mom and dad—called to tell me they had arrived. for boy2, this was especially funny: "your mom and dad? your mom and dad will be at the farm? mimi? grandpa? but why would they be at the farm?" it tickles the 5 year old when the world does not operate on its usual spin cycle. upon seeing their mimi and grandpa, the boys wanted to show the farm off and so ger's dad was then dispatched to the hardware store.

we gave a tour of the proofing vineyard, the treehouse in progress (and the desperate need for a zip line from the treehouse to the tobacco barn), lot 11 and the second year vines, the christmas trees their daddy planted when he was a boy, and the pawpaw patch. after the tour, we walked back up the big hill, met up with the harvest crew and headed back to pete&lyrel's house for grape processing.

this harvest was a little unusual. if you look at the sea of seyval berries in the photo above, you will see tiny, hard little grape berries among the clusters of seyval. gerald speculates these hard green little grape berries are the product of the unusually wet and extremely hot weather during bloom. uncle pete wonders if it isn't part of how the varietal grows—but at any rate, ger decided that what we were calling the "little green bebes" must not enter the crush. so the hand processing of the grapes included the removal of the offending immature grape berries. and there were many immature grape berries to be removed.

here is the 2008 sevyal processing gang. harvest was over by 10am. we started the processing shortly after and did not finish until after 4pm. we sorted the grapes, but found that there were so many immature green grapes, that it largely became a huge hand destemming operation. luckily, the back porch is wide, cool, and catches nice breezes. all sorted and destemmed grapes went into the big grey crush tub, newly purchased for this harvest. 361 pounds would take forever to crush in the small, crush diva stainless steel tub. the white trash bags in the grey tub contained bags of ice to keep the berries and juice chilled. after the sort and partial destemming, i jumped into the tub and started the stomp. i stomped and stomped. we realized that all the berries wouldn't be crushed in the large tub—there was too much room for the berries to escape underfoot. ger scooped out juice, berries and pomace, strained out the juice and sent me stomping the remaining pomace/berry mixture. i think we finished the crush about 7pm. by then i was stickier than i had ever been. i had crushed by foot and by hand. at one point, i considered crushing by just rolling in the tub. i was tired. so much for the goddess of stomp! ger and his dad started the pressing after i had crushed enough berries. i got dinner going about 7pm, but they didn't finish until after 8 with the press and processing of the juice.

throughout the day, the largest part of the conversation centered around enthusiasm for the port of leonardtown winery, the need for larger capacity equipment, and the need for a larger labor pool. heh. it loomed large in our minds.

the boys and i do not make up a full time, dedicated worker the likes of gerald, pete, uncle pete or dad byrne. we will also engaged elsewhere for the season, so i would like to extend a personal invitation to all friends of the farm—no matter their age or ability—to help my husband and his family get through this awkward, middle stage of growth. there is plenty of work for all. if you are a local friend of the farm family, its probably best to contact bernard byrne in order to coordinate labor.

posting, such as it has been for this year, will likely become more sporadic, as well, but keep checking in. thanks to all. its been fun.

Seyval Harvest this upcoming weekend!

2008-08-24T21:40:00.002-05:00

The brix levels are in and gerald says we will harvest the seyval next week!

Prepare to be Zazzled.

2008-08-16T22:27:00.005-05:00

another blog not about the vineyard? what's going on? football season has started and practice coincided with the august southern maryland wine growers cooperative meeting. momma&theboys stayed at home and gerald covered the meeting and vineyard work. unfortunately, no brix measurements this week. maybe next week.

but take a look at this!
i know! so before you ask, what is that?, i'm going to tell you. these are women's mini-slip on keds and custom notecards. i opened a zazzle.com account and, using the french oak barrel photo, created a custom designed shoe. and then for good measure, i created a notecard using the french oak barrel, as well. if you would like to see the ourvineyard product line, visit: http://www.zazzle.com/pd/find?qs=ourgirl

There, you will see the custom products i made today. check in every once in a while. boy1 and i have some cool ideas. maybe you'll find something you like!

What's up with the Widgets?

2008-08-14T21:11:00.004-05:00

have you noticed the widget on the left? its a widget that will track the brix of our grape varietals as we progress weekly through to harvest. i made it in widgenie, a widget maker that creates animated charts from an excel spreadsheet. its simple and easy to use. the best part is that you can grab the widget code and embed it into your own social media. whenever i update the widget, your embedded widget will update, as well. so feel free to grab it and share with friends. widgenie recognized our blog's use of their product in their latest email.

you'll also notice that you can now subscribe to an RSS feed of the blog. and if you like, i also offer a widget blog feed that's quite pretty. i made that one in spring widget—that's where i found the RSS feed of Mike Steinberger/Slate Wine Articles. Mike writes really well and i enjoy all of his articles. spring widget is easy to use and i recommend using it and sproutbuilder, another widget maker.

feel free to share!

Veraison

2008-08-10T08:21:00.012-05:00

veraison is well underway

Veraison started a little over two weekends ago in the proofing vineyard. the seyval is well underway, as it is our early grape. they are delicious! those boys can grow some lush seyval. the rest of the grapes are turning their colors, but taste of tannin and green peppers, so boy1 and i concentrate our attention to the seyval until ger shooes us out. the sevyal tastes tartly of apple and cinnamon. its a great treat to eat a grape berry you know is ripe and warm in the late morning sun. but we do this all in the name of developing a sense for when the grape is ripe, of course.

the weather is unseasonably cool and crisp, so much more like september than august. where are our dog days? ger is happy for both the cool weather and veraison, which signals the vines to STOP WITH THE VINE AND LEAF GROWING and concentrate on the fruit ripening. from here on out leaf canopy management should be easier. after we put up the netting last saturday (a whole other post) we woke up the next morning and culled the grape clusters. for a layperson like me, it looks wasteful. that's alot of grapes in that cart. we do add them to the compost, but culling is necessary. we want to concentrate on producing the best grape berries and so by cutting the third cluster (ger was at times, more aggressive) of every lateral shoot, the vine then concentrates on ripening the remaining clusters, producing a sweeter harvest. gerald is also pretty happy with the cool weather, which he says will slow the ripening and produce a more complex flavored grape.

wc pete returned back to washington this past week. the leaf canopy is still quaking from the heavy hand of his unmerciful rule. i'll post about the netting, next.

this weekend, we have begun testing the brix level of our grapes.

Home Port

2008-07-21T21:50:00.002-05:00

ger's christmas present gets put to good use.

Ger has determined that his small french oak barrel will be used in our first attempt to create port-like wine. to the left you see the barrel being prepped. the barrel was dry, so the first step was to fill the barrel with the cold, 10,000 year old water (thanks, pete and lyrel!) from the aqueduct under charlotte hall. the water swelled the wood together to give it a tight fit. the water was emptied and the barrel plugged until the ingredients were mixed.

ger and wc pete mixed 100g or tartaric acid, 5.625lb of cane sugar, 7 liters of 40 proof brandy into a blend of our '07 harvest. our blend consisted of 3 gal. touriga, 1 gal. tinta cao, 1 gal morvedre, and our big dog: 3 gal. sangiovese. they then topped the barrel off with another .5 gal of our mourvedre. since the port will be aged in his barrel, we expect the colour will oxidize to tawny and hope the wine will take on a soft, nutty flavor. all of this happened in late june/early july, but i've been waiting for my summer grad class, information management, to finish so i could post without guilt. about a week or two later, gerald drew a sample from the barrel and a sample from a small, control bottle that wont be oaked. we all could taste the difference that oak brings to the wine. and i'm with lyrel's opinion that what wine is offered in American markets is often heavy on the oak. but for the port, i liked both oaked and non oaked. the oak seemed to smooth out the wine and gave it a spiced sort of taste. to this simple tongue, it tasted like it was on its way and ger and i traded that "hee, this is so cool" grins.

now it is a patient wait. ger estimates it might take the port 3 years to mature in the oak. he's looking into that part. me, i look forward to being back at the townie and enjoying our own fortified dessert wine on those crisp, cool, late fall evenings. we'll pore a small bit into a glass after we've had a bit to eat and settle into conversation—maybe we'll even be able to sit in our backyard and admire the colours of the sycamores and watch nature prepare the lake for the winter.

i feel cooler already.

Long Hot Summer

2008-07-20T09:16:00.000-05:00

WC Pete is in town and he's working hard in the vineyards. canopy management, working the lateral shoots and more. the family has joined him for the summer, so we have plenty of kid power and playmates for boys1&2—for which they are grateful. the days are long, hot and humid, although this year has, on the whole, been cooler and wetter than the previous years. ger has been in the wine room working the whites and reds. i'm pretty happy to report that the wine from last season's harvest is coming along tastily!

Taming New Frontiers

2008-06-29T08:54:00.014-05:00

hazy early morning in what we refer to as lot 11, the vidal vineyard, or the east vineyard

Our frontier acre of vidal is looking a bit more tame—a sort of civilization of shoots is growing from the lunar landscape of the previous year. the frequent rain we have been receiving has been a blessing in making sure the tender vines make it through their first year, so we haven't had to worry about getting water up the big hill. its been a pretty wet season so far.

compounding the lack of blog posts has been our heavy scheduling of graduations, boy2's birthday, maryland vineyard field days/girl1's birthday, momma's summer grad class [information management!], and boy1 fracturing his toe in two places. our precious vineyard hours on the weekend have been getting chewed up from bleed over of our weekday life. west coast pete has arrived just in time to get the leaf canopy management under control.

here is the last image i have of work i've been able to contribute to the vineyard. right after the several weekend of weekday bleed overs, boy1 fractured his toe and was unable to go to the vineyard. yes, those are plastic ties. remember when i was part of the bamboo stake pounding brigade? now the vines are starting their disciplined life of training to stakes, wires, and trellising. i walked the vidal vineyard, twisting the plastic ties around the bamboo stakes and the first cordon wire.

that day gerald worked in the vineyard with me, reviewing the health of the leaves and training the tender shoots to the bamboo stakes with plastic tape. the plastic tape is gentle to the vines—it doesn't cut or tear into the vine—but holds them firmly to the stake so they have good support as they clamber up to the sky. boy2 and i will be happy to have boy1 able to be back in the vineyard again. boy2 will have his playmate again, and i will be able to participate in the vineyard more fully. right now, i've been limited to taking images and doing an occasional walk-thru. but its also been great hanging with the boys outside the vineyard, working on my coursework, and catching up on old hobbies.

Love is in the Air!

2008-06-06T10:20:00.001-05:00

connie's post
spring is here, and with it comes the desire for procreation. even the ladybugs are getting into the act. hope you are in love this spring, too.

Paw Paws!

2008-06-05T21:32:00.003-05:00

connie's post:
I can't tell you how happy i was to discover the young paw paw trees in the tall tree clearing. the clearing is a small circle of empty space and sits at the base of the far field and ends at a dry creek bed. it is nice to walk into, as the shade from the tall trees makes the little alcove cool and inviting.

paw paw trees are small, under canopy trees. in the early fall, they bear fruit that tastes like banana pudding. that is, if you can manage to get to the fruit before the squirrels do! i have been searching for a stash of paw paw trees for a while, so it was exciting to discover a patch right at the farm!

i was introduced to paw paws by my paternal grandpa. i remember when i was a little girl, we went on a little hike up the small hills next to the big river, where my grandparents had retired. my grandpa pulled a paw paw off the tree and with his pocket knife, sliced open the fruit. he must have known about the stash, since he pulled a teaspoon out of his flannel shirt pocket and scooped the fruit out for us to taste. by then, i was used to foraging for blackberries, persimmons, and walnuts—but i still remember the utter delight in discovering something so delicious to eat in the forest. it was like a little treasure.

i look forward to introducing the boys to paw paws. they were not initially enthused about persimmons and the pucker power unripe persimmons have. i do think they will enjoy the paw paws better.

bon appetit!

Linking to Mondavi

2008-05-16T19:59:00.003-05:00

Robert Mondavi died today at 94, a life well lived. here are a few news article links:

Oats

2008-05-14T18:58:00.004-05:00

Raley has oats sown in the fields this Spring. They're growing up tall and green and lovely. The vineyard season is in full swing now. Buds began to break early April during a warm spell. There was one night that came close to 32 degrees, and that was all we've seen of old man winter since. The weeds threatened to get ahead of us, but judicious control measures have put them in check and have allowed us to concentrate on the vines. Current focus is on shoot thinning: our pruning efforts this past winter were informed by a year's experience and it shows. We have many more shoots on each vine this year, and can now go through the vineyard picking just the right density for the season. Once we have the vines down to 4-6 shoots per foot of cordon we'll begin the task of positioning each shoot to grow straight by taping it to the lowest catch wire, which is located about eight inched above the cordon wire.

100th Post! New Vineyard Planting

2008-05-04T09:12:00.004-05:00

yes! we are still here. i won't make my excuses, as you already know: grad school final project, strep throat (me and boy2), life, life and more life. here is a link to my final project wiki: Collaborative Nonprofits. i recommend using wikispaces for any project. i'm a total convert.

back to the vineyard.

it was a typical blustery april day, threatening to burst into tears or sunshine at any moment. uncle pete, gerald, a friend of the farm, had spent the morning digging holes with the auger and preparing to plant. ger then prepared the rootstock for the planting session. he poured this clear mixture of something and water into painter buckets. it had gruel-like consistency and it protectively coated the rootstock to keep them from drying out. uncle pete and fof (friend of farm) started planting the vines and ger picked up the boys and i from the farmhouse, where i had been working on my final project. we headed out to the proofing, east and west vineyard with the rootstock in buckets and planted 225 vidal, viognier, and nebbiolo vines. i wish i didn't have a no child photo policy, as boy 1&2 found a mud puddle and the ensuing mayhem was captured digitally. the boys ended up wearing the entire puddle and the men wished i had been their mother, as they said they were not allowed to get so muddy growing up. which i dont believe for a moment. i didn't mind it as long as the shoes were off. muddy shoes are the worst. but the boys were satisfied.

we filled in the holes from viognier vines that didn't make it in the west field. we planted nebbiolo in the place of the shiraz, which had suffered crown gall. ger and fof loaded the hand auger into the back of uncle pete's truck and we headed east, to lot 11. once there, uncle pete drove the truck with the hand auger back and forth and wherever there was a dead vine, they would stop, pull out the hand auger and drill a hole. i followed behind, planting the vines as i went.

there was some back and forth between the three men as to how to break it to me that my planting skills were lacking. something about fear, or not wanting to make me mad, or what, but i have no idea where they would get that idea from my general sweet and demure disposition. uncle pete, being a military man or having drawn the short straw, was sent to negotiate a truce for a battle that never happened, and once i was given a refresher in proper planting, i went about fishing among men again. the day was long, but nice. that hand auger is heavy, i can attest. i helped ger drill several of the last holes and it was hard on the shoulder i dorked up earlier in the year. i made a mental note to get into the doctor and more importantly, start working out again. the farm work has always been easier when i'm used to physical labor.

A Bouquet for Lyrel

2008-03-23T17:14:00.005-05:00

Mimi's irises make their debut at the farmhouse's wet spot out back

Lyrel, so that you may enjoy this post, I will capitalize where necessary and be on my best behavior. Promise. I'm sending you a virtual bouquet (see left) as spring has burst all over your farmhouse in the form of Mimi's daffodils, snowdrops, vinca and irises. Its quite lovely—a postcard that says, "Wish you were here," in yellow, creme, white and lavender. Boy2 and I couldn't resist them and took a cue from a house brownie that had left several bouquets for us to enjoy the week before. The weather at the farmhouse was chilly enough for a fire, but sunny enough that we both could scamper about, searching for the best blooms to cut. Don't worry, I taught him to be a good steward of blooms and we cut a couple from each mound, oo-ing and ah-ing as we went along. Mimi had planted many different varieties I had often admired in the catalogs and its so nice to see them all about the grounds. I then cut some of the tigergrass for greenery and you have a very pretty bush that has the most tiny little white blossoms all along their long stems—they became sweet accents for the bouquet. I don't know if you can see them, they are delicate little things. We carefully arranged them in a parfait glass and then took the bouquet's picture against Aunt Judy's painting in your dining room. Then we had to flee, as they were unexpectedly aromatic and Momma couldn't take it. Hope you enjoy it as much as we. Ps. Your rosemary made it through the winter!

Home

2008-03-16T09:02:00.003-05:00

Where have we been? its been a month without a post. is nothing happening at the shoestring vineyard?

of course not. plenty of things have been happening outside. pruning, for instance, is finished.

well, that's certainly blog worthy. where are the pics? where is gerald's commentary?

in the camera and in gerald's head, respectively. west coast pete was out for a week, and ger, west coast and east coast pete pruned; modified two rows from a vertical shoot position trellising to a lyre trellising system, and attended the annual maryland grape growers conference. ger said that was a good meeting. they stopped and saw uncle charlie (never seen in this blog) on the way back. ger has planned and started construction on the bay build out. the cleared site has been cleaned of sticks n' bits and has been seeded with rape seed to help with the erosion.

so they have done quite a bit. why can't we see what's going on? where are the tales of minutia you spill when you have nothing else to report? oh, and the farm diary. we havent seen posts of that for at least six months.

yeh. ive been thinking about that farm diary. i need start transcribing again. as far as the other stuff, as soon as the camera cord and i can find each other again, i'll at least post the slides. tales of the ordinary and other minutiae will have to wait. sadly, our townie is in need of repairs and maintenance, and i am now committed to seeing that it happens. we had our first family weekend without the farm since we went to disney two years ago. it was short, but felt good.

so thats where you've been?

yeh. home. just saying home gives me that happy, hopeful feeling. ger and i hope everyone is blessed to have a home falling around their heads as they pursue many, many adventures, as my family does. and thanks for asking and the interest. i'll catch up again with you soon.

Dreaming of Very Vine Things

2008-02-11T21:16:00.001-05:00

a man can dream, can't he?

connie's post:
Here, ger gets dreamy over the cleared fields possibilities. He's taken soil samples. He's walked the field, counting each step in order to calculate a rough estimate of the field length. He looks at how the sun travels across the field. and he thinks. and plans. and dreams.

but there are considerations to be made. here you see where the other side of the vidal acre meets up with another hill, forming a very shallow hallow. hillsides are great for cool air drainage. this hollow has a disadvantage. at the edge of the cleared field is a road that cuts across the farm land. the road dips a little to one side, the cleared side. water run off is causing erosion and is making ger and brother pete think about the implications. ger is considering planting the area with vines, as the hollow slopes down. he thinks the vines on the high side along the road might do okay. he's thinking of what variety(ies) he might try, but first needs to get an actual measurement of the field to know how many vines he can fit into the field. within the next two weekends we are going to plant that area with rape seed as a cover and hope for a good snow.

Discovery!

2008-02-10T08:39:00.000-05:00

i find my first arrowhead, ever!

connie's post
Boy2 had his trusty shovel and toolbox at the base of the vidal acre, and was playing where many of the cleared trees are being turned into firewood. i, his faithful momma, kept an eye on him while i tried to make myself useful in what area the boy roamed. that meant plugging some of the holes under the small critter fencing, created by water erosion from some rain storms we had earlier. as i was gathering the rocks and a few remmants of the vidal fence posts, i kept scanning the ground as you can find some pretty cool things. like this lichen bit, here at the beginning of this paragraph. just really graphic looking.

and then i see it!

an arrowhead, made from white quartz!

i never find arrowheads!

now i'm that nine year old tomboy in moccasins and pigtails, i'm so excited. weeee! i show boy2, who is equally excited, but who wants to hold it and put it in his pocket. uh-uh. i don' think so. i found it. (totally regressing) i show it to ger's dad and he says i should look around for more—usually you find more than one. eventually, i find something else in white quartz that looks like it might be something a small scrapper like thing, but then again, it could be just an oddly broken, flat white quartz. i bet the erosion uncovered the arrowhead. finally i give up and try to help dad chop firewood, but its just more or less dad taking a break while he watches me flail away—doing a real hatchet job (heh) on the helpless log—until he takes pity on the axe and takes it back.

i take the arrowhead out of my pocket and rub my thumb over its meticulously chipped edges. and i look up and think of stealthy indians crouching among the tall trees, tracking the deer through a foggy day a long, long time ago. if i was that tomboy in moccasins and pigtails, i would have given the arrowhead to my favorite boy. i think of my favorite boy, pruning vines in the proofing vineyard with his uncle. i gather up boy2 and we walk up the path to his daddy.

Perspectives

2008-02-09T11:14:00.001-05:00

blackberry shoots spring out of the compacted earth

connie's post:
Its a warm february and life is thrown off by the confusing hot and cold signals nature is blowing our way. while the new vidal vines are doing their best to hit the snooze button and ignore the warmth, we have new plants growing to fill the tall tree vacuum from the previous year. most of them look like weeds and a few look toxic (check out those mushrooms!)—no doubt some are—but as the adage goes, a weed is just a plant in the wrong spot. above you see the start of a promising blackberry bush and there are many more of them. i'm planning to transplant them this march, down at the bottom of the hill to take advantage of the water run off. i like walking through the vidal acre, pausing and looking at the new plants, and it would be great to have a plant field guide to identify them all. i also have plans to resurrect the growing trays at home in order to get a head start on growing lavendar plants. i'd like to see how they would fare along the deer and small critter fencing. i think that's the thing with february. one gets antsy for green of any sort and then all of the sudden, you are growing mesclun in window trays. well, ok. that's me. i really dig having a southern exposure kitchen.

the post installation project in the vidal acre has been completed and the geometry of the posts in the field always makes me think of environmental art. while the proofing vineyard is cozy and intimate, the vidal acre in its infancy seems freakishly frontier-ish. it's wide expanse of dirt, sprouts, and tall fence postings and it reminds me of my childhood driving family vacations out west. the silliness of scale is only enhanced by the field being hemmed in by the surround acres of tall trees.

currently, we are in the middle of pruning our vines and that will be the subject matter for my next post. we have a much, much, larger job than previous years and we are learning quite a bit as we go.

The Talk Tall Trees Make

2008-01-28T21:07:00.001-05:00

the exposed tall trees by the vidal acre.

Connie's Post
Often gerald will comment on how he feels the vineyard talking to him as he tends to it—he's referring to the high hum of the wind over the cordon wires, but i suspect he hears other natural conversations as well. and no, i don't think its odd, since i've experienced it as well—the sound of birds and wildlife telling you what time of year it is or the demi-roar of the wind as it whips over the fields of corn like wind on a sea.

i heard a new conversation on sunday, as gerald measured the fallow acre with his feet. the tall trees along the vidal acre were once supported by many other tall trees until last winter, when large sums of money took down a large portion of the wooded area. the tall trees that now stand at the edge are a bit cranky, being exposed as they are. the wind rushes over the hills and bends the tall trees heads together and they grunt and squeak their dissatisfaction at their new exposure while the supporting side trees murmur their sympathies. as i walked up the hill to my husband, i gave them a nod and a rueful shrug—sorry, but knowing what was done is done.

i hope they will grow stronger.

Doors are Done.

2008-01-27T16:58:00.001-05:00

Dad and Uncle Pete (East Coast Pete) in front of the new doors

Connie's Post:
The machine shed bay two doors were completed the weekend of 21 jan, so consider this post from the way back machine. remember when mike and his crew came down to the farm and poured the floor? that bay. as you can see, the wise guys are pretty proud of their handiwork.

momma&theboys visited her momma&dad over the three day MLK weekend, so now you know what ger does for fun when by himself. i know, i worry about him, too—but really, he only had two days of fun instead of our three. ger reports this picture is the ending of a very long project that stretched across bits of time during the fall and was undertaken by custom door wizards, dad (BB) and uncle charlie (CC, not pictured)

to create very large, very custom bay doors, the two wizards first put up three horizontal boards across the bay. then they bolted vertical boards to the horizontal boards and attached diagonal boards on the inside to maintain the integrity of the doors. they sawed the one VERY LARGE DOOR in half, vertically. then they hinged the outside of the door edges and viola! custom doors. since the two doors were once one door, they had some trouble as the designed doors were a snug fit and ended up overlapping (just a tad) each other, the top and the bottom of the bay. the doors wouldn't close all the way. so at this point, ger, dad, uncle pete took the doors off their hinges, cut a half an inch off of the top, bottom and where the doors meet to finish the project off. then they rehung the doors to a perfect fit and to the relief of all.

we are looking forward to additional dry storage of our equipment and gear!

Podcast Review: The Wine Scout

2008-01-26T09:44:00.000-05:00

Connie's Post:

The winescout targets wine/foodie people who like to do those weekend festivals and tour wineries. i'll admit, i have a soft spot for a shoestring start-up, so when i came across wine scout and found they are a (relatively) local enterprise in glen allen, va, i gave a quick woohoo and subscribed immediately. the wine scout has an interesting premise: people can sign up their favorite wine event—possibly even special guest host their own podcast—and the wine scout then covers and posts the event.

the podcasts on itunes and in their site's catalog are audio, but if you visit their site: thewinescout.com, you can see a featured video of fredericksburg, TX. the podcasts are older—the last podcast is from the summer of 07—but on their site, they also have more current blog posts, so i consider it still active. i like having wine scout as part of my winecast mix as the podcasts are more relaxed and cut on the fly, not as slickly produced as a few of the other podcasts i've reviewed. wow. note to wine casters everywhere: the world has enough bottles being popped or glasses clicking together as a start or finish to a podcast. resist. resist.

winescout currently covers east coast wineries and events and that's a rare thing in podcast land. i listen to winescout to hear about wineries from a consumer perspective and hear how the featured winery presents their brand, their culture and their products.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

previously, on what was once a vineyard blog—but now more like an endless review of the content on my ipod—i reviewed crushpad's crushnetTV podcasting. and while i am so in love with everything crushnet, i was disappointed that the content was not compatible with my ipod classic. i still enjoy watching it online, but there is nothing like content to go. so, i shot them a quick email, thinking i'd just alert them. here is their prompt, proactive reply:

On Jan 17, 2008 8:11 PM, Alan Baker <alan@crushpadwine.com> wrote:

Hi Connie.
We figured out our problem but there is not an easy fix since we have to create new versions and post them. WE can do that easy enough but it means that everybody who has signed up for the feed will have to download all the new versions or they won't load...
yargh!

I'm working on it though, and your feed should start synching to your ipod soon. I just need to figure out how to wrangle things in a way to cause the least hassle for you and other subscribers.

Thanks again for the heads up.

Alan Baker

so stay tuned and rest comfortable, knowing alan is diligently working the issue.

Winecast Review: Wine Spectator Videocast

2008-01-13T07:21:00.000-05:00

Connie's Post:
I subscribe to my blogs through itunes, so the wine spectator icon will take you there but you really need to visit Wine Spectator Online as the website will completely spoil you. these vodcasts offer slick, professional produced bite (sip?) size information about a wide range of wine topics. between crushpad and wine spectator, i am learning at a rapid pace. wine spectator online has organized their videos by region, editor's tastings, wine people, learn wine, food pairing, dining & travel and special reports—so anyone can dig deep into their favorite subject or skim along all the subjects easily. wine spectator is pretty seductive for all its professionalism and the vodcasts allows me to gather information from all these wine experts and safely roll my eyes when they drop other experts names that they have studied under to establish their own credibility. and really to be fair, that also protects me and the wine professional from my own dorky questions and newbie attitude—so its a win-win all around!

Birthday Weekend

2008-01-12T16:09:00.000-05:00

Connie's Post
January had a bitter bite as i grew up in mighty MO. Zone 5 without global warming and nothing to stop the winds sweeping off the prairies will do that to a winter month. i remember short days of white, grey and black and pressing my nose against the window, sad to see the ice that kept birthday parties with relatives to a rarity. Nowadays, january is unexpectantly warm in maryland (zone 7 and a high of 50°) and birthdays are more pleasant. before we headed down to the farm on friday, we had a momma's birthday, special edition of backwards night. backwards night is subversive element we made up when there was just boy1, and is a revered treat for boy1&2. its very simple. we go to the mall and eat an ice cream cone with sprinkles FIRST (gasp!) then ride the indoors carousel one or two times and then eat dinner. whoa! blows your mind, eh? dessert first? decadent!

i was in the mood for decadence, though, and the best part was when we had dinner at saigon cafe (pho or grilled pork?) and the boys sang to me happy birthday together. that was the best. when we arrived at the farm house, it was still cold, but ger quickly made a fire and it put us right to sleep.

today we all went to the vineyard and while gerald made plans and measurements to finish the tool shed room walls, i walked the vidal eastern vineyard to see how the sleeping vines were faring. i remember walking the vineyard the year before and thinking of what a lunar landscape we had made in taking out the big trees and burning the debris. it looks a bit different now. the vines are sleeping well and for every yellow flag there is now a post, awaiting the cordon wiring for the vines to scamper up. vegetation is growing between the vine rows, all sorts of odd plants i need to look up and some grass as well. there are blackberry shoots struggling out of the compacted earth, with purplish sticker canes and leaves. they will have to be taken care of, as they are growing in the wrong spot, but they got me to thinking. i bet at the bottom of the vineyard hill, along the deer fence, i could put in several blackberry vines. they would be situated just right to take advantage of the water run-off and they would have the benefit of full sun and being inside of a fenced off area (muha-ha). so im going to look into that further, in mid-march, when it is best to transplant them.

after gerald and boy1 finished their preparations for the tool shed room, they joined me and boy2 in the vidal vineyard and we put in the remaining posts and removed the big rocks we dug up. ger and boy1 are now back in the vineyard, working while boy2 and i remain at the farmhouse. i'm working on a logo for a friend. later on, we will have champagne and ice cream cake. heh. i've waited my whole life for a birthday like this. thanks.

Vineyard and Wine Podcast

2008-01-06T20:55:00.000-05:00

Connie's Post:
It was the Christmas that the adults jumped up and down in glee and wonderment at their gifts and the children opened their mouths and stared at us. to be sure, the kids got great gifts, but this year, the adults received their secret hearts' desire. gerald bought me the ipod classic (wooohooo!) and swears it is as bad as the day we got wireless internet. it reminds me of dr. seuss' oh the places you'll go! book. the world is completely in the palm of my hand. i'm even starting to break gerald's resistance to the pod culture with all the cool content i'm churning up. when i first started looking into podcasting i thought the audio cast would be plenty fine. TURNS OUT I'M WRONG!! well, don't get me wrong, i still really appreciate the audio only casts of long lectures (itunesU!) or coffeebreakSpanish.com (learn spanish in 20 minute increments!)—perfect for the workday commute. but when i have downtime and can watch as well as listen, i'm all over the videocasts. i'm subscribing to tons of podcasts and as i go along, i'll let you know what i think of each.

Crushnet TV — Inside Wine Making. crushpad, the ultimate mashup between web, a brick and mortar site, vineyards and wine—think of it as wine 2.0.— brings us this truly great subscription with plenty of west coast-oriented vineyard interviews and wine making action. this weekend, ger and i watched the pruning 101 and pruning vines at eaglepoint ranch march 12 2007 episodes. it made us wistful, as our vineyard as been put to bed and lies dormant. crushnet TV takes the viewer to the vineyard, explains the process of preparing, growing and harvesting the perfect grape. then they go to crushpad, located in san francisco, and show what it takes to turn those perfect grapes into perfect wine. crushpadwine.com is a great enterprise—they provide wine enthusiasts a great education and practice in making wine at a fraction of the cost—so that anyone (most of us) that can't afford a vineyard and winery can still participate in a very satisfying and meaningful way within the wine industry. crushpad isnt just for those seeking a vanity bottling to give during the holidays. wine businesses using crushpad commerce are receiving significant attention. here is a few postings from the crushpad commerce page:

Commerce News

Wine Spectator Awards 92 Points to 2004 Jean Edwards Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Stagecoach Vineyard
"Intense and vibrant, with wild berry, raspberry and black cherry fruit that's vivid, rich and concentrated without being heavy or dense. Drink now through 2012. 300 cases made. —J.L."

Dain Wine Scores 92 Points
Crushpad is excited to announce that Dain Wines Brosseau Pinot Noir received 92 points from Robert Parker at a recent wine evaluation.

Belated Resolution

2008-01-05T17:08:00.000-05:00

gerald gets his first wine barrel for christmas!
photo from beer-wine.com

Connie's Post:
January, 2008. a happy new year to all checking in and all those who keep faithful tabs on the vineyard blog. gerald has been faithfully posting as he can in between work, the vineyard, the boys and the townie. i have to say, fiscal management and freelance absconded with any precious minutes i might have had to record the latest updates of the vineyard. it had been a rough ride. now, with an A in fiscal management and closing down my freelance business, i'm resolving to blog continuous all throughout 2008—this means harvest, crush and fermentation.

this year, i was able to gift gerald a recoopered french oak 10 gallon wine barrel from beer-wine.com. it was hard to tell who was more excited, gerald or me. it was extremely difficult to keep the barrel a secret. i had it delivered to the townie and luckily the boys&i arrived home earlier than gerald. it was comedy and chaos as we pulled up to the townie. my parents had just come up for a visit, boy1&2 were talking on my cell phone to their dad on his way home and i tore up the stairs, trying to lug the box up the three flights of stairs to the loft closet before gerald made it home. we lost my cell phone in the process and haven't been able to find it since. gerald is excited—he has been making wine without oak, as he wanted to get a baseline of what the grapes themselves had to express without it. He's thinking that this upcoming year is the year to try the additional layer of complexity that oak barrels add to the wine process. This upcoming year will be a big year, as we expect we will have enough proofing grapes to contribute to the Port of Leonardtown Winery, as we are members of the Southern Maryland Winegrowers Cooperative. stay tuned, our little vineyard is growing gang-busters!

gerald was able to get to the farm over the holidays with the girl, who hadn't been up since we practiced moving the big rusty tank into the vineyard. they built a spray boom, which i haven't seen yet, but on the tow behind the sprayer there will be a boom with two sprayer nozzles on each side. gerald will be finishing that up soon, in time for spring. on the shoestring vineyard, the largest portion of winter is preparation for the upcoming season.

this weekend, the whole family was here, but it ended up a bit raw for momma and boy 2. gerald has been reviewing the farm log from 2007. last year at this time, we had a heat wave of 72°F on January 6th. fortunately, it is not that warm this year—today's high is 43° F. but as i mentioned, there was a bite to the wind that made boy2 and momma long for the farm house, fire, and wireless internet. while boy2 and i stoked the fired, watched power ranger episodes on utube and researched kaizen events, boy1 and his dad made progress on the second bay, getting the wallboards up. they worked well with each other.

we will spend the night, tonight, and head back to attend the open house gerald's dad holds at the beginning of the year.

december around the vineyard

2007-12-10T19:50:00.000-05:00

quiet, in contrast to the hustle of crush and primary ferm, drifts through the vineyard these days. Careful use of 'quiet' should be taken here, as a vineyard is mostly quiet, even in the busiest months. It is mostly silent sunshine, whispering breezes, and (occasionally) hushed rainshowers. December, especially, is a quiet time, as folks concentrate on inside work and preparations for the coming growing season. The shaggy vines stand sleeping in their rows as the cold air of winter moves in, the dropping tempature nudging them further into well earned slumbering rest.

In the wine room, BB hooked up a small space heater. The room is tucked in a corner of the house and not heated directly. Lately temperatures have been dropping a bit low for the wine's comfort. Unlike vines, the wine gets cranky when temperatures fluctuate. The heater is small, but should be adequate to keep the room a cozy 55 degrees. The trick was setting the gauge to maintain that temperature, as there are no markings on the thing. BB started the heater Friday night, and monitored the room the entire weekend, making adjustments all the while until he was satisfied he hit the mark; slow, patient work.

wunderkind and other activities

2007-11-26T20:47:00.000-05:00

context:
Mike, sibling #3, doesn't make it to the vineyard often.
the previous 1.25 hp auger lasted about two weeks before it died, to be replaced with 8.25 hp 2-man unit. I worked this one with West Pete this weekend. Just about spun us around helicopter-style a couple times. Got 2/3 of a hole done before we broke it (see below).
First time with the new wine room, and temps are a concern. Pretty stable so far, though. I admit to being pretty pleased with the reds at this point. In keeping with my approach of tampering as little as possible with the fermentation to better get a sense for what the grapes can express naturally from their place, the malolactic ferm was skipped in all the wines.

and now, the latest goings on relayed from West Pete...

Yesterday Mike put in the remaining 20 end posts on the north side of lot 11. He also hung the doors in the wine room, fixed the auger after Gerald and I stripped a bolt, got the generator working for dad, put the baseboards into the concrete floor, cooked a steak dinner for seven, and probably made it to the legion in time to catch the Missouri-Kansas game. We probably won't see him again until next November.

Today Dad and I got the rest of the end posts done on the south side. One hole ended up out of line and may need to be redone. We also got a row of the smaller posts put in. There are probably about 60 remaining to do. The new auger works pretty well, though several times it has gotten stuck where it either took three people or lots of leverage to pull it out. Happenned with both the 6 and 8 inch bits. I am not sure if the two man auger is going to be manageable when we put on the extension to dig deeper holes for fence posts, though. Its really hard to move around and we might want to consider our options.

Gerald and I racked most of the reds last night. None of them seemed like they were in trouble, and a couple had some good flavor to them already. I've seen the temperature in there get down as low as 48, but usually its in the 50s.

I don't think anyone remembered to check the rain gauge this weekend, but I think we did get some rain last week at some point.

Dad and I may be able to get the remaining posts in to lot 11 tomorrow if the weather is reasonable. He is planning on staying until Tuesday afternoon.

-- Peter

sleep

2007-11-19T22:06:00.000-05:00

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

For Your Ear Buds

2007-11-18T10:06:00.000-05:00

Grape Radio—if there is one reason why an ipod shuffle is on my list, this website is it! i've listened to a few of the casts and they are of a good length, detailed, and satisfying. they also will post vodcasts as well— always a treat. i stumbled on this while searching vineyards @ utube—yes, i was taking a break from my paper!—and i recommend this sincere site to everyone interested in what goes into the bottle.

a bene placito!

A Reason Why Port is Served at the End

2007-11-14T18:22:00.000-05:00

Connie's Post:

It is evening. we are at the townie and gerald is making ham quesadillas to go with the vegetable soup reheat. we both have a glass of port, as this time of year, port is very nice. i'm relating stories from work, so gerald finishes his glass early and opens a bottle of sangiovese for our meal—a totally respectable bottle of il canneto 2004 sangiovese di toscana. he hands me his glass for a sip. mind you, i'm still sipping my rich, lovely tawny port. i sniff and sip the sangiovese.

"after the port, this smells like ketchup and tastes like nothing." i grouse, handing the glass back.

"you must immediately post that comment on the blog," answers my husband. "i suppose that's why port is always served last."

and so i do, as i know its been a month and a half since i last posted.

to our faithful readers of the blog: do not lose heart, keep checking in. i plan to do several way back posts to chronicle the harvest and the status of this year's vintage. plus, its november/december, post hole digging time—don't want to miss that! pete flew all the way from the west coast to participate, so that gives you a sense of importance post hole digging has on the shoestring vineyard. same photos as last year, different acre and i believe at least one man is wearing different clothes.

i apologize for the infrequent postings. my fiscal management class has eaten up more time that i thought it would! this weekend, it will be different! it will be different.

harvest

2007-10-01T19:41:00.000-05:00

Rage - Goddess,

sing of the rage of Peleus' son Achilles

murderous,

doomed,

that cost the Achaeans countless losses

hurling down to the House of Death so many men's souls,

brave fighting men,

but left their bodies carrion for the dogs and birds

and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end.

First of the Ferment: White

2007-09-23T18:40:00.000-05:00

Gerald's Post:
here

What Haven't I Stomped?

2007-09-10T18:18:00.000-05:00

Connie's Post
Just the reds left, now. three weeks ago, we stomped the seyval. the following week we stomped the marsanne. this past weekend we harvested and crushed the vidal and viognier. for gerald's birthday, i purchased Oz Clark's Grapes and Wines. its a great book, full of grapey traits, terrain and history. love the intro paintings, truly. so i thought i'd quote and comment upon oz regarding the white grapes we are growing.

Marsanne. oz calls marsanne and roussance the saimese twins of white rhone grapes, of which the marsanne is long reputed to be the clumsier of the sisters, but oz sees her inner beauty. the wine the marsanne makes is best drunk young (minerally, citrus peachy flavour, unless they are ripened fully on the vine. the wine produced from fully ripened grapes, when aged a good while, become "darker in colour and more complex in flavour. (aromatic, honeysuckle, oily nutty and heavyweight)" mmmm. we had fully ripened marsanne. i wonder if i could wait? but you have to be careful. in too hot a climate(!) you get a flabby wine. in too cool a climate (heh, not here) its bland and simple.

Vidal. wow. oz gives a small paragraph for our french hybrid. vidal was my favorite, a while back, before seyval vied for my attentions. he states vidal's big claim to fame is its use in canadian icewine, nice but without the elegance of riesling icewines. i dunno. give me its "four square appeal." my brother just gave my best friend forever, walsh, a bottle of canadian vidal icewine. i was impressed. i'm angling for a taste of the sweet stuff, but at the same time my brother gifted me a lovely bottle of spanish red, so i have no complaints. but i will be on the lookout at wegman's for my own bottle....

Viognier. oz reveres our norma jean and calls her a "silver screen sex symbol that many wanted, but few could have," and describes her thus:

If you wanted serious swooning wine, with teture as soft and thick as apricot juice, perfume as optimistic and uplifting as mayblossom, and savoury sour creamy richness like a dollop of creme fraiche straight from the ladle of a smiling farmer's wife—in other words, a wine which just oozed sex and sensuality—Condrieu, from Viognier grape, was it.

if that wasn't enough, in the historical background, oz writes its rumored that viognier takes its name from via gehannae, the road to hell. gehenna is the name given to the main public rubbish tip in jerusalem. a silver screen goddess from hell....yeh. that's inspiration in a bottle.

First of the Harvest and Crush

2007-09-02T18:30:00.000-05:00

is there a prettier sight? here is the seyval a week before harvest.

Connie's Post:
Football, freelance and domestic chores kept momma and the boys at home the august 19-20th weekend, so lyrel stepped in and helped bring in the seyval harvest. the seyval is the earliest grape we harvest in the proofing vineyard. gerald measured 35 pounds of the grapes from the one row and thinks he may have dropped too much fruit when he went through the row to thin excess clusters. as a result, it didn't take long to harvest, but they were able to break in the harvest knives i gave to gerald for christmas. LUCKY! even better was the lack of rain to mess with the variety's development. shortly after harvest, we received 2.5 inches of rain over two weeks, so not too bad. the other varieties will wait until september to harvest and gerald is happy about that. he worries about the nights being too warm for the ripening. i still worry about rain. please stay away, tropical storms. we'd like to continue to have good harvests.

they brought the harvest back to the farmhouse and cousin charles was named godlet of stomp. here you see lyrel and charles having a great time with the crush. gerald says the 35 pounds of seyval equaled 2.2 gallons of precious juice to be turned into wine. no. odds are you aren't going to find this nectar of the gods at your local wine purveyor. currently, it is in the fermentation stages. this year, we are handling the crush and fermentation at the farmhouse. continuing with the great shoestring vineyard tradition, we have neighbors stopping by to give the wine in making a stir and check the specific gravity. lyrel has loaned us the craft room (move over, kiln!) and set gerald up with an air conditioning unit to regulate the temperature better.

here is to the start of a better year!

Our Net Gains, Part Deux

2007-09-02T17:04:00.000-05:00

spider-vineyard man, spider-vineyard man, does whatever a spider-vineyard man...can....

Connie's Post:
As you may remember in a previous post, we added bicycle rims to each row's end post to help facilitate the netting of the proofing rows. we pulled the netting out of storage and placed them along the edge of the rows, under dad's careful supervision.

peter then scooped up the edge of the netting with a board and we drug the nets across the wheels and then down the vineyard rows. at first we were pleased, the wheels worked according to plan, but the dragging soon showed disadvantages.

number 1 on this hit chart was the constant hitting snags. at first, we worked patiently with the catching on the protruding nails, hammering the nails back down or the catching on bark of the locust posts, carefully tugging back the netting from the post. soon, however, our patience ran thin and it became quite aggravating. not only did you have the snagging, but you had to be careful with the netting staying in place over the rows—one slip over and you had to work together and throw the netting back over the side. boy1 became a big help, guiding the netting over the wheel and keeping the initial snagging to a minimum.

finally, after many grunt, shouts, grumbles and a few reworks, the job finished. here is pete, again, but this time with a swimming pool cleaner. yeh. anything goes at the shoestring vineyard. we aren't sure we will use the dragging method next year. there was talk of going back to laying the nets down the rows and then throwing them over the rows. it isn't an easy job, but the results are worth it.

Getting in on the Ground Floor

2007-09-02T16:53:00.001-05:00

randy outside the machine shed at the outset of the project.

Gerald's Post

nine yards of fiber reinforced concrete...

mike and his buddy r. form it up before it sets...

cleanup after a solid day's work...

the newly finished shop floor.

note the six inch lip marking where a storage room will be.

and thanks to Mike M. and his buddy from wVa for their help. See you in another ten or so Mike.

Unorthodox Methods Produce Net Gains

2007-08-12T10:47:00.000-05:00

an unorthodox solution in the process of addressing a migratory problem.

Connie's Post:
We find our vineyard under the migratory path of birds and—as so many other vineyards find necessary—we need to foil these hungry berry predators. we've hung used cds from the posts and wires--the cds catch the sun and the flashes deter the birds a bit. our favorite method is to net the vineyard at the start of verasion. how funny that i did not mention the wrapping of the proofing vineyard the previous year! we thought about how to improve the process of spreading the netting across the vines. perhaps you remember the hmmm files post?

after gerald's dad spent that time separating the tires from their rims, he attached them to the tops of the locust posts. then gerald and his brother, pete, ran a steel wire along the tops of the row. last year we used plastic string, but it was too light for the weight of the netting, which ended up sagging a bit. the metal wire is sturdier, but requires more labor to pull it taunt. after gerald pulls the wire tight, pete secures the wire to the post. then we ran the netting over the top of the wire, next post.

How to Back a Big Rusty Tank into the Proofing Vineyard

2007-08-05T20:34:00.000-05:00

Empty Nest

2007-07-29T09:24:00.000-05:00

momma bluebird patiently waits for us to close her birdhouse.

Connie's Post:
I hadn't posted in a while, so i'm now playing catch up with you. three weeks ago, our first bluebirds were fuzzy, with some pinfeathers.

then two weeks ago, our babies sported all their feathers and looked ready for their first flight.

a week ago, we opened our bluebird house to find an empty nest.

good luck, babies! come back and raise your babies in our box.

Veraison!

2007-07-29T08:59:00.000-05:00

Veraison! the tinte cao berries start to turn.

Connie' Post
Veraison is a highlight of the wine grape growing season. i get that yipee! feeling and a big smile to see the berries start to turn their colors. veraison is a signal that the berry growth is done and the ripening process has begun. what triggers veraison isn't understood, but from here on out, the sucrose and fructose levels will increase until harvest. We will start to measure them in brix units, remember? Acidic levels will also increase, and we will measure those as well.

different grape varieties ripen at different times. remember the mysterious case of the disappearing seyval? turns out the seyval ripens the earliest out of all of the proofing vinifera varieties. and. it. is. yummy. vidal, i am so sorry, but you clearly have competition in my heart for favorite white grape. we'll have to net the seyval a little earlier than the rest, as i'm sure the birds love the berries as much as i do. and i do.

Seyval. my new favorite flavor.

600 bamboo stakes

2007-07-28T22:21:00.000-05:00

Connie's Post
In the eastern vineyard, a whole acre of vidal is growing well, despite the drought conditions. many of the vines are coming along so well they are in need of staking, to keep the tender young vines off the vineyard floor. each individual vine will receive its own bamboo stake, impaled into the ground on the north side. we'll then tether the vines to the bamboo stake with gerald's plastic ribbon tape dispenser. Later in the season, we will set up posts to run cordon wires so future vines can scramble up the trellising with ease.

yep. there is no time like july to stake 600 vidal vines. there's no better persons to get the job done than your brother pete, uncle charlie and your wife. pete and uncle charlie has pounded their stakes into the ground during the week. the last few saturdays, i've hit the vineyard and have taken my turn. if i look a little hot and weary in the pictures kayleigh snapped for me, i can tell you, yes i am and it is very easy to over heat and become dehydrated. i can also tell you there are 29 vines to a row. in the lower part of the vineyard, the ground is very hard and compacted from the heavy machinery clearing the area this past winter. it took 40 minutes to work my way down a row. now as we have moved up the hill, the ground is quite a bit easier to work with. i got my time down to 30 minutes a row. its hot work, though, as there is no shade, just open ground to cover. boy1 is a big help. he takes giant armful of bamboo stakes and lays them out in the field for me, one to each vine.

i like the hot, hard work and being along in the field. i thought i would get a lot of thinking done, but lately i would have made the Dali Lama proud in that i've just kept my mind on my work. no extraneous thoughts. i hammer with my whole arm, not just from my elbow. after three blows, i work the rebar around in the hole, so that the ground gives a little and i can pull the rebar out when i'm done. i do this because the first time i just pounded the rebar into the ground all at once and then i had my doubts that i would be able to get it out. but i'm stubborn and i won. i repeat the pounding and pulling on the rebar about three times before i pull the rebar out of the ground and quickly push the bamboo in before the hole in the sandy loam collapses. i rap on the bamboo stake, give a little pull to make sure the stake is secure and then i move on. this work gave me the worst blisters of my life, despite having wore gloves through the task. giant, watery blisters on the sides of my index fingers, my thumbs and oddly enough, a blister that covered the entire pad of my baby finger. my hands were the talk of the monday production meeting as i clumsily tried to hold a pen and take notes.

i think i'm happy about doing the hard work because its about being strong and persevering when it would be so easy to say to my husband, "you'll have to figure out how to do this." i'm glad to have spent this past two years training with my marine friend. the work is easier because he's made me stronger than i have ever been. it makes this girl feel powerful and i like being farm strong, if not gym strong and Muscle and Fitness Her beautiful.

The Hired Gun

2007-07-08T20:51:00.001-05:00

Somewhere, Sergio Leone must be shedding a tear.

Connie's Post:
The stranger was called into the vineyard. Grimly, he assessed the situation.

there was undesirable elements growing in the vineyard. the shoots had grown beyond the top cordon wire. the growth must be stopped.

it was for the good of the grapes.

he bowed his head...was it a prayer for the soon to be dying? was it gathering of inner strength to finish the job quickly? the vineyard grew eeriely silent.

as if in a zen state, the hired gun assumed the warrior position. slice! slice! a rusty blade flashed and glinted in the high noon sun. the stranger worked as if a man possessed, striding down the rows of the proofing vineyard. in his wake fell the offending shoots, silently collapsing from where they once grew.

and then, just as suddenly as the hired gun had appeared in the vineyard—he strode off into the sunset. his work was done for another day. the grapes would once again flourish.

The West Vineyard in 5 Easy Shots

2007-07-08T20:50:00.001-05:00

Connie's Post:
Here is a slide show to give you a sense of the west vineyard. it starts from the far western edge, lined with a corn field. there is a large barn there, but we don't use it. the second barn is where boards are stored. both are former tobacco barns. the vines in the front of the second barn are the 2yr viognier. next is the tool shed and the more mature proofing vine rows. then the proofing field ends on the east side, lined with a christmas tree field and stops at the little white house.

Weekly Entries, 23 June-7 July

2007-07-08T07:18:00.001-05:00

From the Farm Journal:
23 June 07, GB/CB/BB/PC: low mid 80s. low humidity and breezy. brilliant! CB+PC pulled leaves on east side of rows in proofing vineyard. GB did trellising maintenance and trained viognier vines up stakes. MB (ger's brother, mike) arrived with RM&KM (randy, kathleen's husband and kathleen) brought vince. checked out machinery shed, discussed pouring concrete for bays 1&2 floor. MB/MR/KR/V left for charlotte hall house to finish LB (lyrel, ger's brother peter's wife) bathroom renovation. don't tell. its a secret surprise for her when she shows up this friday. C contemplated her circumstances with PC and came to a resolution. G going to Linden Vineyards tomorrow.

22-25 June 07, BB: removed large stone from lot 10. built and installed lower extension for lot 11 gates. prepped water on wheeler (code name: WOW) trailer to permit moving trunk forward so trailer full of water can be towed up hill. Capped line parts in lot 10. 25 June 07, CC/PC: overcast, sunny in pm. .1" in rain gauge. still sometimes hot & humid 71-89°. CC mowed extensively, PC pulled leaves in west vineyard. finished east side 4 rows, 4-7. 8&9 to go. CC paid Will for clearing east vineyard land which PB financed. very, very dry! but th vines appear to be holding up.

28 June 07, BB: picked up repaired auger in warranton and pt it in the shed. no rain in gauge.

30 June 07, GB: pretty sunny in am. breezy. shower at 2:30, dropped .01" in gauge. sunny afterward. hedged vines in proofing rows. BB pulled leaves along row __. Paul (Uncle Peter's son) and T toured the vineyard w/their three daughters. Paul offered his girls for the fall harvest crush. very good. CB/boy1&2+cousin charles came over from charlotte hall after lunch and picked up shoots and leaves from vineyard floor. bought 100' soaker hose. watered first 4 rows of viognier. need to return 50' of hose. has a leak. PC pulled leaves, row 8.

3 July 07, CC/PC: partly cloudy. very dry. CC trimmed christmas trees all am&pm. PC picked leaves row 8&9 west vineyard and worked on watering and trellising 2yr. viognier. Jim came by to work on disc, needs another part.

5 July 07, PB/BB/KC/ChB: sawed tops of too tall posts in w. vineyard. capped most of remaining posts. drilled holes in bottom of remaining caps for ease of installation. laid out piping/hosing to permit big water tank & tow to fill up simultaneously during rain storm. light showers as PB was finishing.

6 July 07, BB/PB/PC: deep watered new plants in lot 10, capped remaining posting in lot 11. hung some wheels in 11. gravity feed for lot 11 is no good. water doesn't come through soaker hose. used 1 hp pump.

6 July 07, BB: 1 mm in gauge. attaching it to WOW via a tailgate or trailer extension. watered 2yr viognier rows 5-12 with T probe boosted by 1 hp electric meter. one outlet hose big tank worked well. takes a lot of hose through.

7 July 07, PB/ChB/GB/CB/KC/JB/TB/BB: hot, dry day. BB raised height of cross piece on w/vineyard gate. mounted pump platform on rear of WOW. PB+GB started netting cables over w/vineyard rows. GB+PB+BB+KC practiced backing WOW into vineyard. CB+JB pounded bamboo stakes in east vineyard, 5 rows done. JB+ChB did running chores and had adventures. KC+boy2 were two peas in a pod and stuck together, helping BB and GB+PB.

Natural Allies, Part Two

2007-07-07T18:17:00.000-05:00

oyster shells amid the christmas tree field at the farm

Connie's Post:
Previously, i discussed helping along the bluebird population of the shoestring vineyard as a natural way to keep grubs down and give the vine one less thing to compete against. another natural ally in growing the perfect grape is the oyster shell. they creep up out of the soil all through out the farm, but most are found in the christmas tree field right in front of the farm house. gerald's dad, bernie, tells me its due to the turn of the century owners, who would consume the oysters and then toss the shells out into the field, leaving them to break down slowly, slowly over time. they and all the following owners and tenants of the farm would till them into the ground or run over them with a mower. the oyster shell "sweetens" the soil as it breaks down. we haven't performed an analysis of our soil to see the exact benefit, but here is a related article that gives you the idea what benefits the oyster shell brings to the grape:

http://www.ajevonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/50/1/1

recently, i've gathered up some of the oyster shells. they are starkly white and have a great texture. i've got a large round mirror that i'm encrusting with the oyster shells and some of the round pebbles commonly found on the property— so we'll have a bit of my husband's family farm history on the wall of our townie.

the oyster has played a large role in st. mary's and the chesapeake's past. while suffering a decline in population due to excess nitrogen and fertilizers in the bay, the oyster has many allies in this area, working together to give a little help to their friend.

Mike Brings in a New Toy

2007-07-07T17:29:00.000-05:00

Mike and Randy visit the farm for an upcoming project

Connie's Post:
Mike, ger's brother, and randy, kathleen's husband stopped by the vineyard last weekend to check out the vineyard, discuss an upcoming vineyard project and help lyrel with her bathroom renovation. in the process, they learned a bit about canopy management. mike took a look at the leaves and shoots lying on the vineyard floor and brought out the big guns: its a mighty mac vaccuum/mulcher! in no time at all, the machine and mike did a demo in the proofing vineyard, the machine sucking up and mulching at the same time all of the materials uncle pete and i had left on the vineyard floor. i have my own version of a might mac, but i call it boy power! they don't mulch and they are about as noisy as the mower. they require a fill'up at the wawa gas station, but prefer subs and gatoraid to ethanol.

Corn is a Grass

2007-07-03T17:48:00.000-05:00

I recommend to you the Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

Of note was the investigation of corn. If you have looked at food labels lately, you'll notice a heavy reliance on corn and corn derivatives. I'm talking about high fructose corn syrup. In Pollan's book he discusses that although corn is a new world product, revered by native mexicans, its present day americans that can claim to consume so much corn that it literally shows up in our DNA. We are literally walking corn chips:

"There are some 45,000 items in the average American supermarket, and more than a quarter of them contain corn," he reports. Indeed, corn and its array of byproducts have so successfully colonized the U.S. diet -- and so dominate the diets of the animals consumed here -- that Americans have ripped the title of "the corn people" from Mexico, where corn was originally domesticated and remains a staple. Because of corn's rare carbon signature, Pollan writes, it's possible to discern from flesh or hair samples how much corn contributes to the formation of human bodies. "When you look at the isotope ratios, [U.S. residents] are corn chips with legs," a biologist tells him.
—grist.org

Happy Birthday, America. Eat fresh, local grown corn on the cob instead of a processed high fructose product, drink plenty of water and celebrate the hybrid grass we call corn.

if you want to feed your head, i recommend the following slate.com article:
http://www.slate.com/id/2169867/fr/flyout

Balance

2007-07-01T20:34:00.000-05:00

Gerald's Post:
reflections on my 2nd pilgrimage to Linden Vineyard.

Jan 2004 I visited Linden Vineyard for the first time, attending a seminar on starting a vineyard. Stretching up the side of a mountain in the Virginia Blue Ridge, it's a picturesque place. The entrance is off a small road at the base of the mountain. You wind your way up the long drive through row upon row of vines. It's not one series of rows lined up the side of the mountain, but rather plots of rows, arranged in every direction according to the contours of the earth and the particular variety of vine and trellis system implemented. Jim Law, the owner, grower, and wine maker, is a Virginia viticulture pioneer whose vineyard reflects his work at experimenting with all nature of variables in his efforts to learn as much about producing the highest quality wine the combination of land, climate, and vine can offer. About half way up the mountain sits his winery/tasting house, elegant in it's simplicity of rough hewn support beams and open, airy space. It's an excellent setting to sample wines without distracting accessories, yet still offers you one of the most picturesque overlooks you'll find along the Blue Ridge mountains.

The purpose for the current trip was to attend another seminar by Jim Law: Established Vineyard Management.

It was a fantastic day to be in a vineyard. A weather front had come through the previous day and pushed out all the heat and humidity, making the day breezy, warm, and dry with lots of sunshine and some puffy clouds. A lot of the day was spent inside listening to lectures on vineyard management, but we did make two expeditions into the vineyard for some 'live action' teaching.

Walking into the classroom, Jim had a white board at the front with one word written on it: balance.

Everything about the seminar flowed from this one key concept: The vine must be in balance to produce the best grapes.

the rest of this message are my notes and memories from the seminar...
Europeans achieve balance through experience. They have literally thousands of years of experience figuring out which varieties grow best in a particular area, at a specified spacing, using a certain training system, and with some amount of fertilizer, etc, etc. In dry areas like California and Chile, balance is achieved through controlling water. Turn the water on and the vines grow. Turn it off and they stop growing.

The Eastern U.S. does not have a depth of experience to draw upon. Nor, with the summer and autumn storms, can we control water to any great extent. There is not enough experience to really know what works best. We are all pioneers.

How Vines Grow:
Sink/Source = Vines have Sources of energy production and Sinks of energy expenditure.
Sinks = Grapes, New leaves, Old leaves (over 60 days), interior leaves. All take energy away from the vine and grapes.
Source = Healthy, mature leaves.
In an ideal world, vines should stop growing at veraision and put energy into ripening grapes.

a.m. vineyard tour, remembered notes...
Leaf pulling and its relationship to wine structure:
white wine structure comes from the acids. Sunlight reduces acids in grapes. No leaf pulling on western side of vine rows.
red wine structure is in the tannins. Sunlight increases tannins and complexity. Pull leaves from both sides of the rows (but not at the same time).

Spraying for Downy Mildew, Powdery Mildew, and Black Rot: Clusters are susceptible for about 4=6 weeks after flowering, then immune. Has to do with cell maturity. Same applies to 4 week old leaves.

Competition: Vigor can be controlled through weed competition and red dwarf fescue (grown in area under vine rows).

Soil: Maybe "perfect" soil isn't so perfect. If pH is a bit off, but it keeps the vines from being too vigorous, is it a bad thing?

Lunch = sampled several offerings and settled on a glass of Seyval Blanc to go with my Sheetz cold cut hogie. In retrospect, probably should have gone with a red. The guy pouring my samples told me a fascinating story about how up until the 1970's all wines were blends of different varieties because it's nearly impossible to produce a 'complete' wine from a single grape variety. Robert Mondavi decided to market single variety wines, I guess in an attempt to differentiate his wine from the competition. The strategy caught on like wild fire and now people are more familiar and comfortable with varietal wines than blends. Recently, in a masterful twist of marketing genius, Mondavi has begun introducing the wine consuming public to his new premium "blends".

Canopy Management Calendar:
Winter pruning: Most labor intensive activity. 30=40 hours per acre. Cane pruning and Cordon pruning. Five years ago, Linden was all Cordon pruned. Today almost all of the vines are cane pruned. Cane pruning inhibits Phomopsis, which develops in old wood (cordons) and over 20=25 years reduces vine yield and eventually kills the vine. Cane pruning also produces more fruit and clusters, which might be good or might not. It's also more labor intensive than Cordon pruning. Vines have apical dominance, which means they like to grow from the ends. On a cane pruned vine this means that shoots will generally grow shoots at the end of the cane and near the trunk, leaving the middle of the cane empty. The longer the cane, the more empty space. Generally canes

Dormant Tying (for cane pruned vines): Attach cane to cordon wire.
Shoot thinning: May, when vines are 4=6 inches. Jim leaves 2=2.5 shoots per foot.
Shoot Positioning: Jim has 1st catch wire at 8". Uses a single wire (rather than two wires with the vines fed between them) and secures the shoots to the wire with tape. Doing this can really 'set' the vine and make future positioning much easier.
Leaf Pulling: Pull disease susceptible varieties first.
Hedging: When shoots are 2' above the top wire. The idea is to have about 4 feet of vertical canopy.
Cluster thinning: End of Jun/Early July. Also called "green harvest". Do again at veraision to remove unevenly ripening clusters. Remove 'secondary crop' growing on lateral shoots higher in the canopy.

Grape/wine quality and quantity:
At low quantity (<= 1 ton per acre) wine quality is low. Increasing harvest quant increases quality up to a point, beyond which quality begins to decline. In August, grape growers in Europe go on vacation. At that point the grapes are ripening, the vines have stopped growing, and there's nothing left to do but wait for harvest.

Weeds: Good for competition to control vigor. Good for biodiversity: Maintain predators. Bad if they grow too high. Bad for new vines that do not have established root systems. Chickweed: low cover that competes with other weeds. Chokes them out, then dies midsummer. Crab Grass: Takes up water to shut down vine when you want it to stop growing.

Post emergents: Gramaxone or RoundUp in a back pack sprayer. Pre emergents: apply late winter. Being used less and less because of long term effects on soil structure. Jim no longer uses. Saw soil changes he did not like.

Diseases DM = active when dry, likes heat. PM = Wet weather, 60=80 degrees. BL = Wet weather , 60=80 degrees. takes 7=10 days to see. Fungicide classes Systemic/curative = Strobies: absorbed by vine. protection for 14 days. Does not rinse off after rain. Resistance problems: 15 sprays max. Tank mix with other products to prevent resistance. Critical time: late May to mid July. Jim does not use Strobies due to disease resistance in his vineyard. Nova and Elite = systemics vs PM, BR< Manzate = DM. NOT a systemic. Will wash off. Sulfur = PM. Mixed with Nova/Elite for resistance. not a systemic as well. Prophyte = Systemic with 96 hour kickback. (Gets rid of infections started 96 hours prior to spray). Use after a rain event for kickback. Mix with non systemic for resistance. Grapes: Susceptible to PM for at least 6 weeks after flowering, BR 4 weeks.

Leaves: Older leaves become resistant. New leaves in mid/late june are important during ripening. PM and DM can wipe out a vineyard. Best disease control article is online at U Cornell by Wayne Wilcox PM is hardest to control, use 'big guns'. DM is trouble in wet years. BL not hard to control. Botrytis = Grapes become MORE susceptible as they ripen. Likes WET and COOL conditions Sour Rot = secondary infections. smells like vinegar. thin skinned grapes susceptible. Likes WET and WARM weather. Bot spray at cluster close. Grapevine Yellows = trx'd by a leaf hopper. Not controllable. Site specific.

European Red Mites = populations stay low without spraying. Will boom when insecticides are sprayed, kills their predators. Cutworms/Flea Beetles = feed on swelling buds. Scout for pockets of damage. Not a problem most years. Grape Berry Moth = Grub burrows into grapes right after flowering. Several generations a season. Mainly vineyards by woods. Causes one or two berries in a cluster to rot. INTREPID controls GBM specifically. Site specific problem. Pierce's Disease = Bacteria trx'd by leaf hopper. Cannot survive cold winters Grape Root Borer = Unknown if it's a big problem. Larve feed for 2 years on roots. Japanese Beetles = Spray according to damage, not populations. Young vineyards more susceptible. Soil Optimal pH for growth is 6.0=6.5. But do you want optimal growth on a vigorous site? Nitrogen = No test available for soil. Need to test plants via petiole analysis. Potassium = can make high pH, high vegetative taste in wine. Magnesium = Hi K inhibits Mg pickup in vines. Wild plants can be soil indicators: Broom Sage means low pH, etc.

ok. That's about it for now. Sorry for the plethora of equals sign usage. My keypad is missing the hyphen key.

New Addition to Our Family

2007-07-01T07:30:00.000-05:00

the bird haus has new owners!

Connie's Post:
We had noticed several bluebirds flying about the farm and decided to help a family out. our bird haus has been claimed by a family. gerald snapped these pictures, one each saturday, so in two weeks we've gone from four eggs to three, maybe four chickies. the momma and daddy are a little slow to warm up to a human presence in the proofing vineyard. if you walk by the box, they panic and flee in a quick rush. we look forward to getting more bluebird houses established along the west vidal vineyard.

Canopy?

2007-06-30T20:49:00.000-05:00

John Kelso: Hey, Joe, what happened? Joe Odom: Oh, that Jim Williams went and shot somebody. Canapé? —Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Connie's Post:
Appropos of nothing, that movie quote. except when gerald and i are working in the vineyard at a certain time of year and the discussion centers upon the amount of leaves the vines are putting out. then we get the giggles. and a seemingly innocuous word, "canopy" becomes mangled...meaningless...as we adopt outlandish southern accents, imitating the characters from the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. the topic of our discussion?

leaf canopy management.

if you google leaf canopy management, you'll find many entries—many serious entries— regarding the care and techniques in working with the vertical and lateral shoots, the vine spacing, the types of trellising, the leaf removal from the east facing side to maximize the warming morning sun while protecting the grape clusters from the hot afternoon sun and at the same time, improving air circulation.

this is not that type of article.

here you see uncle pete and gerald looking through the leaf canopy. gerald had just finished telling uncle pete the best balanced canopy is where you can tell what shirt someone on the other side is wearing, but you can't see that person's face. just make you want to smile, doesn't it?

all goofiness aside, gerald had been to a vineyard management seminar at the linden vineyard (located in virginia), the previous sunday and learned quite a bit regarding how to work with the vineyard and the vine. being new to vineyard management, i don't profess to be an expert. i cannot even say i remember everything gerald spoke about while showing us how he needed to have us tend to the vines. what i am presenting today is a simple story of how uncle peter and i interpreted gerald's brief demonstration when we managed our rows' canopy. canopy management in the vineyard is a process of keeping the vine in balance throughout the growing season and essential to producing a grape in balance. an exuberant proliferation of leaves, while to a casual eye may seem like a thing of beauty, does nothing for the grape produced. the heaviness of leaf production can shade the grape clusters from the sun, resulting in impeding ripening affect the flavor structure. The lack of sun affects the color of the skins of the grapes, and since the grape skin contributes mightily to the color and flavour of the wine, you need that skin to reach its maximum potential. by removing the necessary leaves and lateral shoots, air circulation is improved and disease like rot and mildew can be prevented. remove too much, though, and the grapes could get sunburned or not ripen well. its a delicate balance.

first, gerald said it was important to remove the east-side facing leaves below the grape clusters. removing these leaves will help expose the grapes to the morning sun, a gentle warming action. later, when the sun rises overhead and starts on its western descent, the overhead and western facing canopy will protect the vineyard from the harsher afternoon rays. here, you see gerald demonstrating for uncle pete how and where to snap off the leaves and which lateral shoots should go. i came into the vineyard a little late on the demo, so uncle peter then gave me a recap of how to remove leaves and shoots as gerald moved on to his other vineyard chores.

the next series of images shows uncle peter demonstrating how you needed to look into the vine's canopy, find the grape cluster and start to work around, snapping off the leaves in front, making sure you don't accidently grab the cluster itself, and removing the shoots that were growing sideways (lateral). once you did this properly, there was the eastern-exposed cluster. uncle pete and i worked our respective rows that afternoon, snapping and pulling on the vines.

the last two small pictures are the resulting before and after picture. first, you'll see the canopy is dense and the clusters are shaded. the next image shows the cluster are now exposed and the air circulation has been improved. once i finished my row and looked back, i really got a sense of accomplishment.

i also feel i am beginning to understand the different varieties of grapes we are proofing grow in different ways. like the sangiovese—wildly exuberant—the row is like the big blond labrador retriever of our east vineyard. seeing the first row of the proofing vineyard just puts a smile on my face as i enter the vineyard. now, though, i see we need to put more discipline into the training of our puppies. on the other hand, we have a variety like the marchand—clearly the well-disciplined standard show poodle of the vineyard. here is a picture of a nicely structured marchand vine. i think this is how we'd like the vines and their vertical shoots to be placed. exceptionally pretty with the afternoon sun illuminating the leaves.

A Simple Matter of Taste

2007-06-29T07:48:00.000-05:00

Connie's Post:
Mike Steinberger? Pretty entertaining writer regarding wine. I've linked you to a previous article where he discusses writing about wine and the terminology. Here is another link to a series of Slate.com articles and here he discusses the physiology of the oenophile—what is taste and what it means to be a supertaster. Bon appetit!

Do You Want to be a Supertaster?
The Physiology of the wine critic.
By Mike Steinberger

Southern Maryland is Flat

2007-06-28T16:49:00.000-05:00

Extremely flat. but south africa is not. i know it has nothing to do with the farm or vineyard, but just go along for the ride:

From the "HMMMMM" Files

2007-06-26T20:58:00.001-05:00

Leaves as Large as a Married Man's Hand!

2007-06-24T09:06:00.000-05:00

Ginormous leaves, the size of a married man's hand appear in the vineyard!

Connie's Post:
Its another pleasant valley Sunday today. i have only one task to accomplish today and no filial duties. The boys are at grandpa bootcamp and my husband is attending a Linden vineyard workshop. the rest of the day stretches in front of me like the rolling Kansas plains did when i was young and my family would embark upon a driving tour of the west. gerald laughed at me stretched lazily on the blue couch and quoted a line from office space:

"I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing, and it was everything I thought it could be."

and i did do nothing til 9:45am. then i cranked up the mac. my nothing today is to get caught up on the blog. then we'll see what other nothing i'll get into. i sorted through the june 9th images. just a few more and we'll have that series done. which is a good thing. i have many, many new images and stories just waiting.

June 9: State of the Proofing Vineyard

2007-06-24T08:44:00.000-05:00

Weekly Entries, May 26-June 19

2007-06-23T22:57:00.000-05:00

From the Farm Journal Archives:

26 May 07, GB: HOT. 90s. No rain. GB weeded around 2 year old viognier vines. KM & CB weeded around vidal vines. BB hung bicycle wheels to end posts to facilitate netting the vines later in the year.

27 May 07, GB: Sunny hot. no rain. BB & GB used trailer, picked up cub cadet mower from TSC Mower @ Charlotte Hall. Moved water tank to E. vineyard—GB truck could not get enough traction to pull tank up the hill.

29 May 07, BB/CC/PC: 70-80s. breezy. beautiful. stacked popular lumber. CC piled up dead christmas trees. BB culled christmas trees for burning, mowed around trees.

30 May 07, BB: thinking about changing input section of 1/2 hp pump to one inch fittings. might eliminate loss of prime when irrigating. i suspect that when diameter in = diameter out & we pump downhill, the gravity sucks out and moves water than the pump can pump in.

2 June 07, GB: cloudy & warm. upper 80s. no rain. GB thinned shoots and trained vines in W. vineyard. BB water vines in E. vineyard.

3 June 07, GB: RAIN! inserted blue tarp liner in tank behind lab. BB covered w/mesh to catch leaves. fixed dead bolt latch on back door.

5 June 07, CC/PC: beautiful day—clear. humid to start, alot of breeze 1.0" in rain gauge. hung back door screen. packed up trash in shed to take to dump. finished stacking lumber by old barn. trimmed & trained vines in W. vineyard. not finished. mowed E. vineyard. cross wire and height wires. vines look good.

9 June 07, GB: made it down by 2pm, Boy1 had TaeKwonDo belt ceremony. one belt away from black belt.

12 June 07, CC/PC: 70s & 80s, light breeze, average humidity. no rain in guage, it was upside down. Picked up trailer at Peter's William brought his bill for the east acreage, Jimmy came, too. Their Ma had a bad fall while going down their back porch. Charlie picked up culled trees w. trailer. Peter tied up all shoots close to ground in E. vineyard. Huge clouds today, very lonely. Need rain. vineyard looks good. German wasp damage to Nordsmanns—striking!!

16 June 07, GB: BB put filters in outlets on large water tank cut back branches along field to lot 11. GB arrived in afternon, after MGGA field day @ summerseat. worked in W. vineyard, training shoots in rows 1-9. mowed entire W. vineyard. nice day.

17 June 07, GB &/BB: HOT breezy. not too bad. BB cleaned mobile tank, flushed w/water. East side of rows needed leaf pulling.

19 June 07, CC/PC: 70s & 90s. cleary hazyhot, light breeze. found Melvin's home, spoke to wife. He is barn man, catch him there between 4-5pm. fascinating place. CC mowed. PC picked wine grape leaves in E. side of rows in W. vineyard. Fishied row 1, started row 2, slow going—gets to the back after awhile. Tomorrow is CC's 75th birthday. hurrah, hurrah. lets have a jubilee.

Shine, as Children Do

2007-06-20T19:23:00.000-05:00

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

A Return to Love, by Marianne Williamson.

2007 Virginia Field Day Notes

2007-06-20T18:13:00.000-05:00

Gerald's Post:
This past Saturday I attended the the MGGA Summer Field Day at Summerseat Vineyard just down the road from us in Charlotte Hall. Pat Isle, the vineyard manager, hosted the event.

Summerseat dates back to 1732 and is unusual for SoMD in that it was an interior plantation. Most plantations were located on the water, as a necessity for transportation. The primary dwelling is listed in the Marland HIstorical Trust survey no. SM-181. The property is now held by a non-profit organization dedicated to it's preservation and promotion of mankind's connection with the land, plants and animals.

The current vineyard at Summerseat is a 1/2 acre testing site with many different varieties planted, usually in groups of four vines, although there are a large number of Foch, Vidal Blanc, Norton, and Chambourcin. Smaller numbers of Viognier, Sangiovese, Petite Verdot, Vignoles, Dolcetto, Mavasia Bianca, Nebbiola, Petite Sirah, Cabernet Franc, and Barbera.

There was some Shiraz, but it was replaced, as it didn't do very well.

The Viognier looked good, although crop can be light. Joe Fiola commented that BUD NECROSIS often occurs with this variety in the fall, and is generally not the result of frost or freeze in the late spring.

Pat noted his Grape Root Borer populations and control methods. I have not investigated this on our site, but plan to find out how to do this.

Joe Fiola of UMD gave a talk on vineyard management practices:

Tight-clustered variety prevention
pinch off the bottom of the cluster before berry-touch (now). When it rains, the water will run out the bottom of the cluster instead of collecting inside the cluster and promoting mold development.
Bunch thinning
Should be done just before veraison to get to final cropping levels. Drop all clusters on half-length shoots, as these will not ripen anyway.
Spraying
pH of water can make a difference in efficacy. Read product labels for details. Need to test pH.
Nitrogen
Vines use stored N up to bloom. Then must get it from the ground (or leaves via foliar fertilization). Bloom/post bloom is optimal time for N application. Petiole analysis is the best means of determining nutrient requirements in the vine.
Three Reasons for leaf pulling
- 1) Ripen clusters
- 2) The buds lowest on the shoots this year will be the fruiting shoots next year, but will only be fruitful if they don't get shaded this year.
- 3) Airflow and sunshine inhibits disease conditions. There are two kinds of sunlight: Morning (cool) sun, and Afternoon (hot) sun. The cool morning sun is good for clusters, as it dries them quickly and does not heat or burn the clusters. Afternoon sun tends to keep the clusters warm longer, preventing development of character flavors, and can potentially burn the clusters. With this in mind, leaf-pulling to open the canopy and expose the clusters is a two-stage process. Leaves on the east side of the rows should be pulled 2 to 4 weeks post bloom, which is now. Leaves on the west side of the rows should be pulled just prior to veraison.
Canopy density
A good rule of thumb: When looking through a row at someone on the other side, you should be able to see what color shirt they have on, but not be able to identify the person.

Next came a short MGGA business meeting.

Bruce Perrygo mentioned the grape growing survey results are available online at marylandgrapes.org and includes variety recommendations.

Emily Johnson gave an update on the CPPP. Due to Homeland Security rules changes, there are certain pesticides that cannot be broken out of their packages for distribution. This means that a few products require individuals to purchase unreasonable quantities, unless some legal method of breaking up the packages can be found. The example given was Quintec, which comes in a ten-bottle package, but which a single bottle would do for one vineyard for an entire season.

Jan Ricki gave a treasurer update. There is grant money available from the state for grape growing related projects, but they have not recieved many proposals on how to spend it. Send in ideas.

Joe Fiola hosted organoleptic testing of varieties grown in the UMD test vineyard in Upper Marlboro. I sampled a very unusual Pinot Grigio. It had a fruity aroma and pronounced apple taste. While not what people think of this variety, Joe commented this style was quite common in Southern France and NW Italy. Ann DeMarsay of UMD gave a talk on bunch rots and passed out samples of common diseases.

Primary pathogens are things that can infect healthy grapes - only fungi can do this. Common ones are: Phomopsis, Black Rot, Botrytis, Ripe Rot, Bitter Rot, Macrophma Rot. Secondary pathogens require an entry point caused by a primary pathogen, mechanical injury, or wildlife damage (bird pecks). Management practices include: Planting resistant varieties, loose clusters, less vigorous, hybrids, natives. Good canopy mgmt - shoot thinning, hedging, leaf pulling, cluster thinning. 7-10 day spray schedule through post-bloom 10-14 day schedule thereafter, depending on disease pressure and weather. PM resistance is documented to FLINT after 15 - 20 total sprays. (I use this one and have about 6 total so far.) PM is becoming resistant to SI's (that's a class of fungicide, of which Nova is one. I use Nova intermittently.) Ben Beale of the Cooperative Extension Service gave a very good spraying demo, including different types of spraying equipment. Everything from backbacks to airblast sprayers. Demonstrated proper personal protective equipment and processes, and sprayer/tractor calibration. Pat Isle's sprayer was on display. He has a similar one to ours, but has modified it with a single verticle boom with three nozzles. Looked great. He pulls a 50 gallon tank with a 23 hp riding mower. I spoke one-on-one with Dr DeMarsey about our Tinta Cao vines that have fan leaves. I offered to send her pics of them and have done so. She mentioned that certain varieties of blueberries do well in the heat. I always thought they were more of a cold weather crop. She received her doctorate for research on blueberries, so she probably knows something about it.

That's it for now. If you made to the end of this message I commend you on your fortitude.

High Wire Act

2007-06-19T18:54:00.001-05:00

proofing concept vines reach the top wire

Connie's Post
Gerald took this shot right before i went to the HOW conference. the proofing vines have reached the top wire. soon, we will start working on weaving the wayward growth back to the wires and keeping the renegades from creeping on the ground. reweaving keeps the vines from attracting disease from the ground and being hit from the mower. plus, a general sense of discipline about the place is nice to maintain...

here is a shot that will give you an idea of the width between two of the vineyard rows. the second image is to show you the contrast of size between the 4 year old proofing vines and the starter viognier, on their second summer. how quickly they grow!

In verbis vini veritas?

2007-06-18T21:22:00.000-05:00

Connie's Post
While i'm recovering from my mind exploding at the HOW conference (four new ideas to present to clients! one new product line to offer clients! creativity completely refreshed!) and the virginia beach art festival (three new fine art ideas! why am i so busy?!), i found this slate magazine article for your enjoyment:

Cherries, Berries, Asphalt and Jam. Why some wine writers talk that way by Mike Steinberger

i really enjoy mike's wine column and this article makes several interesting points. i come from the point of view that the simpler the explanation, the more truth there is in it. as i get older, i also understand in order to see the truth, there is usually more than one explanation. mike covers both of these statements in writing about wine writers with strength and humor. bon appetit!

gerald has taken many photos while i've been out, so the posting mania will begin again soon. stay tuned!

The New American Gothic: Irish Needed to Apply

2007-06-11T17:20:00.000-05:00

Bernie and Kathleen pause from their labors inside the Vidal vineyard

Connie's Post:
Here's to the new American Gothic: gerald's father and sister working together to help establish a new addition to the vineyard. during the memorial day holiday, kathleen and i spent that saturday working in the vidal acre. she hoed 'round each newly planted vine—saving the plant having to compete with the weeds and in reward for her efforts, received several hard-won blisters. i carted off the remaining piles of debris and then picked off the inflorescence the new vines were trying so hard to put out. gerald's family pulls together and every bit of help is welcomed on the shoestring vineyard. that being said, it was a long hot day. next time i'll remember to bring my big floppy hat, too.

here, kathleen, our modern farm girl, sports the necessities for working the vidal acre: sturdy shoes; the trusty orange-topped hoe my parents gave me when i was 9 or 10; ineffective blister-preventing work gloves; the aforementioned big floppy hat, and a cell phone. the cell phone is critical for men to call the womenfolk, requesting lunch be picked up and also critical for women to call the menfolk, requesting boy1 bring them fresh, cool water. the shoestring vineyard does have a system of hierarchy and archetypes, no matter how i may rail against them when i feel they are applied to my direct disadvantage.