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Hope he's not a member of the NRA like me, it would hurt his sales!

IMG_20190520_115202301_HDR.jpg I found a touch of bloom on the sunny side of a few Pinot vines yesterday. I'm not shocked, but overall it's less than 1% bloom. IMG_20190520_115230851.jpg I checked in on the ladies crew to make sure suckering was going okay. A couple of them needed a bit of instruct...

Whether you're flowering or not, this weather is probably having an adverse on next year's fruitfulness. Supply could tighten up beyond this year. Can you share a little more information about this? Next year's crop is being formed inside the canes of this year's growth. The spring and early summer...

Cherry growers are getting their asses handed to them. Strawberries getting wrecked. I can only guess MANY types of California agriculture are not enjoying this untimely amount of very heavy rain. I'd venture a guess that we've already received more rain in 4 days than what we average for the four m...

Here's our new gal named Gypsy, from Sonoma county animal shelter. Just hit 3 inches of rain for the storm.

Update at 9:45 pm: over 1.60 storm total. We've also had winds well over 35 mph. Seems you in the morning. Hold on folks!

Did payroll this morning and then went to Santa Rosa to see a movie and get out of the house. Got home about 5:30 to find furniture blown around and some summer potted plants knocked over. Went to 3 animal shelters today starting the process of looking for a new dog. Peewee died over 2 years ago and...

I'm going out on a limb to say this will be a defining moment in the 2019 vintage. I talked to a grower rep today and certain varieties are in various stages of bloom in parts south. Cold temps and copious amounts of water to the root zone is not a recipe for good fruit set. Glad I'm not blooming ye...

I saw a Facebook post today showing Chardonnay in Napa in full bloom. Would love to hear from others as to their situation. I just looked all around my 5 different varieties and am happy we're not blooming yet. Now looks like 4-5 days of rain coming with high winds and amounts up to a couple of inch...

The weather folks I listen to are saying that we're in for a series of cool rain events this coming week. Predicting up to an inch of rain in our farming region. Things could get quite interesting. Glad we're not blooming yet!

Hard to see with a cell phone pic but the frost damage is super hard to see even in person. I'd call this a non-issue. It happened in an area of about a quarter acre among a 13 acre field.

Merrill what are you going to have your guy spray this go-round?

One of my men said he found a tiny amount of frost damage from the two day event we had last week. Ill try to snap a pic to post soon. Looking 10 days out things look pretty good. My guess is that we'll start some bloom in the next 10 days. I'd really like to get 4 sulfur sprays out there before blo...

......drink a beer with Brett Favre!

Not so fast folks! Temps in our coldest fields dipped down to 32 this morning and we wound up protecting 13 acres of Pinot for a couple hours! Neighbors had wind machines running as well. Can't drop your guard in farming!

Roederer and few other folks use them in our area, I need to see one in action!

Sean Devaney wrote: ↑
May 1st, 2019, 8:20 am
Is it my imagination or is this early for clusters to be forming? Maybe a Gruner thing?

Yep, good catch. I should have called them flower clusters. They're not real clusters yet! Going to guess we're 3 weeks or so away from bloom.

Gruner clusters are forming.

Second round of fungicides starting tonight. No copper this pass just sulfur. The shell game is where to place the men and women's crews so that they're not near the fields that are getting treated. The next few days show a cool down which is great for sulfur applications and no fear of burn. Still ...

We started turning soil the last two days. Soil moisture is decent in the top 8 inches. Today I had my bilingual safety consultant give training to the crew. Spent an hour on sexual harassment which makes me feel like a dinosaur. We do have women on our crew but they work in different fields and are...

Dare I jinx it but clear sailing for the next week weather wise! Yeah baby!

I'd guess that they might be sold out of the '16 GW by now? The CH is pretty cool stuff too. From my jobsite all made in steel. Nice texture and acid balance. Coming soon is a Pinot from Day Ranch (yes the other jobsite). I haven't tried it yet but Toby, winemaker/owner is pretty pumped about t.

Well it's full on from here on out. Sucker....mow.....spray....repeat. soon we'll add disk and lift wires to the mix also. 9 hour days and 5 hour Saturdays for the next month at least. Hoping we're done with frost.

Warm weather is here! We hit the low 80's the last two days. The field crews had good Friday off today but the two tractor guys were out there after midnight applying the first fungicide sprays of the season. A mixture of copper and sulfur (organic if anyone cares) . They will continue Saturday but ...

Here's what happens after the frost. If you don't manually break off the damaged shoots which in CA we don't, the vines will take a bit of time and push secondary shoots. These will have MUCH less fruit or not at all. It's the vines trigger to survive. They will also push other shoots and suckers fr...

I did something I seldom do, peeked ahead 10 days into the forecast and see no rain. I spoke to a winemaker buddy yesterday and he expressed great concern over late budbreak and slow growing vineyards. He gets fruit from notoriously late spots and said when he looked at some sites yesterday they had...

Hopefully Champagne hasn't had any bud break yet either. Last night: https://www.instagram.com/p/BwOdMkBgdzt/ This picture although shocking is what happens when overhead sprinklers are used for frost protection. You can see the sprinkler streams above the trellis in this pic. The ice coats the vin...

Interesting video of early morning straw fires to fight the frost in Chambolle (Antoine Amiot-Servelle’s IG). Third year in a row they have had to deal with mid-April frost. https://www.instagram.com/p/BwPf3bxolYz/?igshid=nyv4wlfye48x Funny how air quality govt folks worry that my three 15 year old...

Accuweather says 11:00 am start time today. I could bitch about it but then I see those poor guys in Burgundy and I feel pretty lucky to farm where I do.

That's so hard to see. Watch for pics the next few days as it usually takes a short while for the damage to show. Terrible.

Calling for .25-.50 inches tomorrow. I'm not thrilled but hopefully it's the last wet spell for a while. I saw folks already spraying sulfur and made me apprehensive. Not shaping up to be an easy year.

All vines tied not a moment too soon. Both tractors mowing. Crews shifting to other tasks. Time to drop wires and trellis repair. Looks like no precipitation or frost the next 4-5 days (an outside chance late today) and maybe even some warm weather soon. I had a pallet of sulfur delivered yesterday....

Up at 3:00 this morning to see temps in the upper 30's. Luckily it didn't go under 36.

There's a feeling of frost in the air. Chilly north wind blowing today. Going to have a meeting with my guys just to make sure all things ready. Still no equipment in the field yet.

Warm and somewhat wet the past couple of days. Tractors are poised but not running. Gonna be a sh_t show when it finally stops raining. I can only hope all equipment will hold up when it finally gets deployed. Tractor guys gonna ring up some heavy hours soon.

jcoley3 wrote: ↑
April 5th, 2019, 7:27 pm
Huh. I would've guessed Lolonis as the label you were looking for. Interesting bit of wine history, either way.

You are right on the Lolonis folks and the lady bug label.

This is not an obituary but still shows the remoteness of Mendocino county. Dennis Patton is possibly one of the most influential characters in Mendo winemaking in recent history. With all due respect to Charlie Barra and John Parducci, Dennis started a winery in 1981 with no money and a dream. John...

I'm happy for you Ben. Kind of like getting your first football team job and going straight to the world champs.

Putting the pedal has helped. Amazing when you get the whole team focused on a goal. Super proud of my crew for hauling ass on the tying.

Going 9 hour days until we have all our vines tied. Getting a little frantic. Some blocks just about dry enough to turn some cover crop .....and here comes some more rain. Hope it's not the theme of the vintage.

Chard is OUT!

Peas and beans continue to move. Weather still looks crappy the next 10 days. Might be a Burgundian year in Anderson Valley.

A nice clear and somewhat warm weekend will only tease us as more rain predicted for Mon/Tues. Oh well!

Went over to good friend and mentor John Scharffenberger's house yesterday. He taught me so much early in my career. He lives about a mile away from my job in Philo. This pic of Indian paintbrush, a native wildflower just stunned me so had to stop and share

Thanks Ed, I wasn't TOO far off with my guess of 125%. It is what it is. Do I wish it was 78 degrees and sunny? Hell yes! I'm pretty well caught up with office stuff and getting a bit stir crazy like most everyone else in these parts. Turkey season starts Saturday! Another one of our redneck activit...

Although it's an inconvenience at this point in the season it's far from a problem. The cover crop is getting pretty tall but it's still not quite ready to mow/till. Even if it was ready we can't get any equipment down the rows with how wet everything is. Also we generally don't start spraying any s...

More rain tonight.

Just saying it's nice to have your neighbor do your frost protection for you. If that's an attack YOU have a problem. Oh and I might be a redneck....but is that a bad thing?

I did venture out yesterday to check out the Cabernet buds - nothing happening. And yes, it is raining again. As was mentioned above, the rain means warm temperature, so no need for frost protection. But frost protection is usually reserved for April in these parts. I will never forget 2008, when w...

We had a third of an inch overnight but sounded like more. Raining at a brisk pace right now.

It's on now. Chard bud on 2015 planting of clone 17. We are officially on frost watch now. Need to hurry and get these things tied to the wire!

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