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Journey to Harvest:
05/15/2009
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Journey to Harvest – Springtime in the vineyard
 Tiny clusters of buds blossom in May and with luck will be harvested as grapes in September. The race to harvest is on The new shoots are all two to four inches and growing every day. The growing cane tips have tiny pink and green fuzzy leaves. Just beautiful. You can already see the tiny clumps of buds that will become the bunches that we will harvest this fall. They are so new and tender that a late season frost could be a disaster. So we have disced down the winter weeds and clover cover crop to let cold air move more easily down hill and away from our hillside vineyard. Plus the disced soil absorbs heat during the day that will help mitigate the frost later at night. We have put on the first organic spray to eliminate mildew spores. We are on our way. I hate to throw cold water on this enthusiasm, but sometimes I see our journey to harvest more as an obstacle course through a huge set of hazards that Javier and his zinfandel vines and Marie with her Sauvignon Blanc vines will have to navigate, with me running alongside. Insects, diseases, hot spells, cold spells, not enough water, wind, sunburn – all can threaten the crop if they occur in too great a quantity or at the wrong time. When the vines and I were both younger we used to be blindsided by these disasters. Now we grimly set our jaws, make preparations and defenses, and just plunge ahead and hope for the best and maybe even a turn of good luck! And now the report from our two vineyard committee chairs – Marie with our Sauvignon Blanc and Javier with the Zinfandel report. Marie’s Sauvignon Blanc Report It has been three months and we are all still slapping each other on the back with continued joy about wine from our grapes being served at President Obama’s luncheon. But to get on with the New Year...we have had a continued stream of winemaker visitors out here trying to decide how the grapes from each of our blocks would be divided between different clients at harvest time. They think some of our grapes are better than others – better flavors, better aromas. The Old Patron has made a series of colored maps showing exactly which of our rows go to whom. Plus they have been busily putting different colored tapes on the end vines of each row. Frankly we vines think they are crazy. We have had to put up with static from the Old Patron and his manager Chuey about the amount of grapes we produce but never anything but praise about our quality. Frankly we think they should focus on their winemaking skills and let us vines do our jobs! Javier’s Zinfandel Report The new head-pruned block is looking more dapper then ever. All the rusted metal stakes and cross arms from the old trellis system have been removed, and new short stakes installed at each of our vines. We now have a giant pile of old metal gear that will have to be sorted and saved for some future use. We are so proud of the appearance of our new vineyard. Several of our grape clients have been out to review this work, and all are impressed. We are also getting ready to welcome new Zinfandel vines to the ranch, that will be grown without irrigation water! In other words, the same way as the early zinfandel growers in the 1860 to 1900 time frame grew grapes. If we can learn to do this economically we will have made a giant step towards sustainability. Plus some of the best zinfandel in Sonoma County is grown in ancient, last-century, dry-farmed and head pruned vineyards. A Little Ranch History To help make ends meet, my predecessor here worked in the quarry high above the Kunde Vineyards, hand chiseling basalt cobblestones used to pave the streets of San Francisco. This was brutal work, hand splitting pieces of basalt and gradually working them into individual rectangles approximately seven inches square by five inches thick. It must have been difficult and frustrating work because an almost perfect stone would have been broken or chipped just as he was about to finish it. We know this as we find a number of ‘almost’ perfect cobblestones around the ranch. The pay was 2 cents a completed coble. (If the price of oil-based asphalt continues to climb, there may be an opportunity for a new business here!) The completed cobblestones were hauled down by teams from the quarry, and loaded on a train at the Lawndale Station which was located near the intersection of Buckeye and Lawndale roads. If you would like to learn more about this great job opportunity, read Jack London’s book “Valley of the Moon.” The hero has a job hauling stones down from the quarry to the train station. Owner, Indian Springs Ranch and Vineyards Email: george@kenwoodpress.com |
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