2016 West Coast Vintage Weather Thread

Well, I guess its my turn to kick this thread off.

Lots of folks in wine country feeling a bit relieved that we’ve had some pretty decent rains so far this early winter. Some serious cold temps the past month as well.

However many of the seasonal creeks that I watch and monitor have already stopped flowing again. The good news is that there is a good looking storm series headed this way.

Good luck to everyone who tills the land, crushes the fruit and peddles the juice in 2016!

It’s about time, Casey! Almost 16 hours into the new year before a post! [wink.gif]

Wishing all the growers a good 2016! [cheers.gif]

Hey Ken, happy new year to you and yours. Sasha pushing me hard to go to the new and improved HDR this spring. Maybe I see you guys there? Sure that I’ll go.

Happy New Year to you and your family, Casey! I’m sure I’ll be at HdR one way or another, so hope to see you there.

Serious south winds blew all day and even picking up defore dark. This usually means a strong storm headed this way. Hope so.

Happy New Year to all who read this thread!

I woke up to rain this morning, and from what I heard, it will be a regular thing this week.

From one not ITB, best to luck for all growers this year. I feel that these annual threads provide more information (and easily more drama) than a book on wine production, and should be a must-read for anyone who signs up for the board.

[quote="I feel that these annual threads provide more information (and easily more drama) than a book on wine production, and should be a must-read for anyone who signs up for the board.[/quote]

And a must read for anyone crazy enough to contemplate becoming a winemaker/grape grower [wink.gif]

And a must read for anyone crazy enough to contemplate becoming a winemaker/grape grower [wink.gif][/quote]
Hey, these threads have convinced me I want to remain a wine consumer, not a producer!

All I can say is that it is a great life, as long you can handle the vast unpredictability. And for those of us who are self-employed, thoughts of regular paychecks are like “visions of sugar-plums” dancing in our heads. [cheers.gif]

But Owner’s Draw can be like crack. flirtysmile

Just a hair over an inch in the past 24 hours and much warmer out there now. Should be getting 3 of my guys back from month long holiday vacations. Now we just need to figure out how to prune between storms!

Casey, what did you do in the winter of 1998, prune in the rain or wait until March? I can’t remember exactly when it stopped raining, maybe it was mid April.

I keep trudging thru the vineyard with a shovel during and after storms expecting to find some runoff that I need to address, but the soil just keeps sucking it up. There are creeks running on three sides of the vineyard, and there is a trickle starting to come out of the subsurface drainage, so I’m sure saturation isn’t far off, but the ground has been even thirstier than expected.

I remember all the rain in '98. We had lots of erosion concerns at Eaglepoint back then. It was a similar situation in that we only had 65 acres to prune, but there was only 4 of us. I think we spent lots of days in rain gear and rubber gloves. You know the deal: if your hands, head and feet stay warm, you will be warm.

Now I have 180 acres and 11 of us but spacing is tighter and more wires as well as more cane pruning. It’s gonna be a struggle this year especially if we have an early spring. Probably going to get my 5 person ladies team pruning 25 acres of new/young vines where the cuts aren’t big.

Is today Wednesday? So much rain!

I had an appointment up on Howell Mountain this afternoon, and it had been raining all day there, but not the deluge we had at my place all day. I’ll say it again: when it rains in Napa Valley, my area get slammed.

I saw vineyards in my neighborhood going under water by a few inches, and water was to the top of the ditches that run alongside the road. But not at my place. I had what was probably the third or fourth biggest standing water sighting on my property in 15 years, but it has yet to move into the vineyard. The driveway which, if it went on, would end up in my St. George block, was totally puddled. But this ground is thirsty, and it appears able to absorb all this water - at least for now.

Let’s see what happens tomorrow. Temperatures are hanging in the 45-50 degree area - nasty and cold for these parts.

My place dried out very well in the sunshine today. I actually got out to measure the cover crop: 8-12 inches.

So Thursday was sunny and dry, Friday was cloudy and dry, but by midnight it was pouring again. Today, Saturday, it is raining pretty steadily, but lightly enough that there is no puddling - the water is going immediately into the ground. The temperatures are hovering around 50 degrees, still.

Major league winds blowing here at 1500 feet out of the south. Funny thing is I think the storm for tomorrow is kind of falling apart. Expecting two different fronts to hit us maybe starting late Tuesday then again Friday.

The spelling of this year’s thread title has a nice working class flavor. (“Tread” = trudging the rows in the vineyard?)
Given the current climate, we could take this flavor a step further and call it the “Wetter Tread.”
That’s how we would pronounce it in the Midwest, anyway.