2019 West Coast Weather Thread

[Paul Gordon]

Thunder and lightning Friday night along with a tenth of an inch of rain. I was hunting all weekend. Nice to take my mind off of work. Hunting thread over on Asylum.

Pinot coloring up Fast. Sparkling folks are going to want samples soon I'm sure. Still holding to September 6 or so start date.

By coastal California standards, it was a good sized lightning storm Friday evening. Quite a number of strikes on the coastal range in northern Sonoma and Mendo, and inland around Ukiah. The spotter planes and helicopters were busy Saturday morning with a small blaze above Sea Ranch and one close to Elk. Fortunately they were quickly extinguished.

Paul

[Casey Hartlip]

Going to do our first sugar tests this morning.

[Merrill Lindquist]

We are firmly into a heat wave. 100 degrees in the afternoon, and staying warm into the evenings. Lots of irrigating going on - I always like to do it ahead of the actual heat, so mine was done by Monday.

The color is at perhaps 80-90% at this point.

[Casey Hartlip]

My three Chard samples were between 13.0 and 13.5 which puts us about 16 days out for 19 brix. Ramping up the anxiety level just a touch. This big moon the last night or so has been messing with my sleep patterns but I'm happy to report I'm not having dreams about harvest quite yet, which is great.

Once harvest starts I'll be sleeping in the guest room of our house as I'm up and down all night. I also get up at 3:30 am to get to work by 5:15. This will be the first harvest where ALL harvest days will begin at 5:30 am (we adopted this practice halfway through last season).

[Merrill Lindquist]

We were at 100 degrees plus this afternoon - with a miserable high of 104. That is when the electricity went out for around 3 hours. Staying inside and cool was the primary motivation. Water conservation was also in the mix, as the booster pump only takes water to the house when the electricity is working.

Ah, life in Napa Valley.

In the cool of the morning I tried a handful of well-colored berries from each block of the vineyard. St George at 21 Brix. 110r at 18.This does not represent the entire vineyard, of course. I still have pink and green berries within some clusters. Bu this is about where we were last year.

[Merrill Lindquist]

Temperatures were slightly higher today - I saw 106 and 108 briefly.

[Casey Hartlip]

Well....CRAP!
After yesterday and the 13 brix stuff I was feeling ok. But I had an uneasy feeling about a young Chard block destined for bubbles and another Pinot block that goes to Shramsberg as well. The Pinot is a quad system that has great exposure and canopy.

The Chard tested 16.4 and the Pinot at 15.7. At 2+ points/week (not to mention this warm weather, and this point in the ripening curve) we're 8-10 days out for harvest 2019.

I wanted to go do a couple more fun things like a night on the coast and another Giants game, but the noose has tightened. We will have a gradual start with a few easy days which is always good. Equipment wise and physically we're ready but mentally I'm not. So CRAP, here we go anyway.

[timmy roos]

We are 18 Brix on our sauv blanc. A little ahead of last year but not by much

[Casey Hartlip]

More fun preharvest projects.

Hot and dusty. Getting us tough for harvest I guess. Drain tile in a replant field.

[Karen Troisi]

Stagecoach CS yesterday - there will be another pass and some clusters will be dropped but this looks heavy for our block.