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Vineyard

A collection of 402 posts

October 2007 Vineyard Photo Album

I had a little free time yesterday, and spent an hour or so wandering around the property and taking some photos. I've organized them into my first attempt at a Typepad Photo Album, available at the left and as "Vineyard Photos - October 2007". A few

Grenache Harvest Photos

As we'd hoped, the rain from the end of last week was followed by cool, sunny and breezy weather, and the half-inch of rain that we got didn't have any negative impact on the hanging fruit. This week, we're bringing in the rest of

Harvest, Week of September 24th

The weather in Paso Robles warmed up last week, and we started harvesting in earnest. We've brought in most of our Syrah, the first big chunk of Grenache, and are finishing up Grenache Blanc. Viognier and Marsanne are in. I'd estimate that last week, we brought

Harvest, Weeks of September 10th and 17th

2007's harvest got off to an early start, driven by a dry winter and resulting low yields, and spurred by the warmest stretch of the summer in mid-August. Since we've hit mid-September, though, it's cooled off here, with daytime highs in the 70s, marine

Harvest 2007 Begins!

The 2007 harvest is underway. As I've written about this year, we've had a relatively unusual year for weather, with a very cold, dry winter delaying the beginning of budbreak and flowering, and then a remarkably moderate summer, with few days over 100 and no extended

Hand Harvesting

While my wife was in the hospital this week with our second baby, we were lucky enough to be paired in the post-delivery room with an acquaintance: the well-respected Central Coast grower relations director of a major international wine consortium, who I've known for several years, and whose

Veraison!

This week, we're seeing the first signs of veraison in the vineyard. This means the clock is ticking... we figure on an average of about 45 days between the end of veraison and the beginning of harvest. (Veraison is the French term for the point at which berries

Cool climate? Hot Climate? Paso Robles is both.

There is an ongoing debate, being waged in the wine press and trade, as to the benefits of cool-climate viticulture. The evidence tends to support that wine grapes tend to do best at the coolest limit of their range, perhaps because there, the grapes stay on the vine longer than

Old (1950s) Vineyard Photos

I had a treat in my email today: a nice note from Bob MacGillivray, who grew up in the ranch house across the street from Tablas Creek, and whose family owned the land that is now Tablas Creek from the early 1940s until 1989. He and his brother John recently

Organic weed control

It's the time of year when we start to worry about weed control. The winter's rains are all but over, and the organic vineyards are dry enough to get a tractor into. If we get the weeds now, before they go to seed, it makes our