2013 West Coast Weather & Vintage Thread

How did we get 10 days into the new year without a 2013 Weather Thread? I saw someone on the harvest re-cap thread asking, and for sure we need one.

I went to post mainly because today is one of the coldest days I recall here in Napa Valley. I mean, all day! It has yet to hit 50 degrees on my shaded deck - more like 48. That’s cold for us. And at after 3:00, we have seen the warmest part of the day. The sun has been shining all day, but it’s just plain cold.

The ground is still soaked - we had some rain late yesterday before this cold blew in. Lots of rain and lots of cold is the winter of 2012-2013 so far. Good for the vines and the upcoming growing season.

I have to say I am enjoying the quiet here in the Valley. Few tourists (not that we don’t love you and need you) and little to do in the vineyard until we prune (not for at least a month). There is plenty of time to watch the birds and the jack rabbits, check out the wines in barrel, watch football, and make plans for the rest of the year - including BerserkerDay!

Merrill, thanks for opening up the 2013 season! [cheers.gif] How is your 2012 Black Cat looking in the cellar? One question I have is, after the larger than normal crop for many in 2012, do growers expect 2013 to be on the lower production side? [scratch.gif] Anyway, hopefully 2013 will be a great vintage on the west coast!

I have not looked in on the 2012 for a few weeks - it is on my list for next week. I did order a couple of new French Oak barrels (Marchive and Nadalie) and will taste barrel by barrel to decide where to put them ( the entire vintage is in my own “neutral” barrels since pressing - but once-used or twice-used barrels still put plenty of their stamp on the juice). I did a little fine tuning on the 2011 barrels recently in preparation for some early trials to see where the Special Selection will come from, and how much of it there will be (typically 25-35 cases - not much).

Yes, it would be typical to have a lower production year in 2013 - I think for most of us, higher production would be impossible! That was a big one, 2012 was. For everyone around here. Big and very, very good.

Very good chance to have another big crop (although I’m not calling it) as sunlight on buds and canes last growing season was optimum, which could lead to high cluster counts and size.

WTF knows at this point, but its fun to speculate.

My smaller crops were 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010. 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011 were all larger crops. Uhh…broke the pattern with 2012. Do we start over with a new cycle now?

Another night and day of very, very cold temperatures. It is 9:00 a.m. here, and the thermometer outside my kitchen window is reading 28 degrees. More of the same is in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow. There are crews out pruning: some just doing a first cut, others doing the full prune.

Sh!t 19 degrees in Boonville this morning and I’m out of town. Emailed my guys about draining pumps and freeze prep, hope we didn’t break too many pipes.

Thankfully here in Healdsburg, the cold snap seems to be reaching it’s nadir, with balmly mid 60’s forecast for Winter Wineland next weekend.
I love working in my winery, but man it’s been a trial the last few weeks, since the temps inside here are in the lower 50’s and have even dipped into the upper 40’s a few times.

Jeez, Casey. With so many more years into this than I, I would have thought you would have prepped accordingly.

All those years at Eaglepoint (where I lived on the property) all of these jobs were mine. I would put on the rain gear and grab a shovel during the early storms and check ditches and drains. Now that I’m a commuting (and somewhat executive) farmer there’s a different feel for me now. I can’t just walk out the door to check on things. I’m very lucky to have some pretty solid guys living on the site who are pretty capable, but not dialed into email. I’m still the boss, and with that comes the worry. I’m paid to worry about the farm and I’m good at worrying. As it turns out, we’ve had no problems, but I did a great job worrying about all of them.

Geez, Casey, we gotta get together! I wanna see the furrow in your brow! [wow.gif]

We’re in mid-winer mode: A couple of guys painting inside the tasting room getting ready for new renters, two guys pulling the engine on one of the ranch trucks, two more picking treated stakes out of the Reisling field we just pulled, two more chopping brush. Whoever’s left is pruning. All the dry weather has me feeling we’re a bit ahead on pruning, thus sending some guys for other tasks. I’ve been working on changing our fuel supplier (7 propane tanks, 7 different diesel tanks) which should save us quite a few $$ moving forward. 25 inches of rain recorded so far this season.

That’s a great typo, Casey.

It’s pretty dry now, and it seems maybe we are pulling out of the extreme cold, although it was below freezing again last night. The temperatures in the mid 60s yesterday provided great relief. This has been the coldest run I ever recall - night after night 25 degrees. My heating bill is insane.

Looks like some more rain hitting the northern CA coast - hopefully it will be welcome. pileon

Jim, I’m ready for some more. Not that things are getting that dry but its nice for some warmer temps. We had our safety meeting the other morning in the barn and it was 23 degrees.

We have a nice, light, steady rain here right now. Given that all the yard irrigation is drained and off for the season, a bit of rain is very welcome. It should also give a nice boost to the cover crop between the vines - some of the grasses and clovers were looking a bit stalled and starting to yellow. It should also give the wild mustards a chance to really pop, which of course is a traditional sign of the beautiful off-season here in Napa Valley.

And to Casey’s point, the rain brings higher temperatures, which right now is welcome for comfort (and lower heating bills).

Time for an update:

Tasting room about a month from ready for the new renters. Lots of guys pruning on both parcels. With this dry spell we’ve got lots of brush mowed and my weed spray guy is going his job. Got all of the pressure treated stakes separated from the vines in the old Riesling block that we pushed, now time to get them hauled away has hazmat! I pruned by myself for a couple of hours this afternoon in a Chard block that we’ve converting from cordon to cane pruning. I was enjoying being a farmer today with temps in the 60’s, the sun out and little wind. BYW the dog decided to nap in the truck while I was working.

Thanks for the update Casey! What makes these threads so interesting and valuable to me is hearing from someone who is on the ground whom is connected to the synergy between the farmer and the winemaker. Cheers!

Spent some more quality time with my crew today doing some cane pruning in Gewurtz. Cane pruning is not as easy as cordon and some of these guys need supervision. Looks like maybe a quarter of an inch headed our way. Manzanita blooming here.

Casey - what factored into your decision to move to cane pruning from the cordons? I have not yet set a date to prune; I’m going to put it off a few more weeks. With the size of my place, we can easily get a small crew in and out of there in one day (with me out there bossing them around - if I stay in the house, even faster).

The cover crop is looking pretty good right now - over a foot high, and the fava beans are just starting to set their flower formations. No white yet. The jack rabbits that have not been taken by the coyotes are finding the height of those plants to be just about perfect for their daytime napping.

A little bit of white blossom on the Manzanita - those things grow fast! The mustard is not full-on yet - or maybe not just a big mustard year. When I go to the winery on Friday I will have a better look up and down the Valley.

Glad to hear PeeWee has her priorities straight.