Merrill, “happy 2012” - I’ve been reading about the lack of rain. The good news is you still have about three months to get wet! Thus, I hope the normal CA winter/early spring weather patterns arrive soon. Wishing that 2012 turns out to be a great year for CA wine.
The ski conditions are as bad as I have seen them in the sierras, there is a Red Flag fire danger warring up there right now.
It has been so cold in Boonville my firewood pile has been shrinking to fast to make it thru spring frost season.
We need lots of rain for so many reasons, but tasting room traffic is not one of them.
Mostly very cold nights, warm days, and not a drop of rain. At this point it is getting nerve-wracking. The winds seem to dry everything out even more. Right now it is 72 degrees at my place…on January 8th.
What this means to me at this point in my growing/winemaking experience (with 12 vintages grown and made)is that it will be a b**ch to farm, my household water use will be troublesome to manage (everything on property runs off one well), but the wines will probably be just fine. I’d settle for a vintage that produces a wine of the quality of the last 12 vintages (my 2000 included!).
Like they say when your team gets way behind in a game, at least it’s early!!
Definitey a disaster in the making for ski resort owners and folks looking to fill reservoirs, but for the vines, there’s still plenty of time. Most of the rain we get in a normal year doesn’t benefit the vines anyway. Only a percentage of normal is required to fill the soil profile (e.g., probably 12"-15" where I live, whereas an average year is 50+"). The rest just makes a trip to the ocean.
A reasonably wet February and March, with a late April soaker or two, would do the grapes just fine. It may be whistling in the graveyard, but I’m still feeling like the storm door is going to swing open, and stay open, soon enough and long enough to get the job done in the vineyards.
You’re right that it is definitely different down south.
You might be surprised though how little precip is necessary to reach field capacity. Tests confirm (I don’t have the link handy) that for soil profiles that are a reasonable mix of sand, silt and clay, 1" of precip will create field capacity to a depth of 7". Of course, that changes with soil type, and the total moisture capacity is dependent on total soil depth. Technically speaking though, as little as 6"-7" of rainfall can do the trick with vines of normal rooting depth.
Just as important as total rainfall, however, is how fast it comes. It is easy to see why 5" of rainfall in ten 1/2" events spaced 5 days apart will leave the ground a lot better off than 15" of rain that falls in a 72 hour period. In other words, whether it’s northern or central California, if the storm door opens for at least a few months, and the precip events are relatively frequent, total precip can be way off of “normal” and still work for us growers. That’s no solace for ski resort operators and water companies, but at least we’ll be able to make good wine to ease their pain.
Our issue right now is that we planted 13 acres of rootstock on the hillsides of our home ranch last year intending for them to be head trained/dry farmed. We put in temporary drip lines to get them started, but pulled them at the end of the season. Now we are facing having to put them back in, or maybe having to delay grafting.
Linda, I can see why you’re not keen on the dry spell.
How about letting the rootings fend as best they can this season and then do a Fall budding? With two years of root development, normal rainfall next winter, and a quick start to growth in the Spring, you might see plenty of action third leaf and a crop of sorts fourth leaf. Ah, the power of positive thinking . . .
BY THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK THE RIDGE RETROGRADES WEST OF THE DATELINE AS
A ZONAL FLOW GETS ESTABLISHED ACROSS THE PACIFIC INTO THE PACIFIC NW AND CALIFORNIA. IN FACT…THE FLOW BECOMES MORE ZONAL ACROSS THE PACIFIC AND US THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK. A SERIES OF SHORTWAVES EMBEDDED IN THE ZONAL FLOW WILL BEGIN TO IMPACT THE DISTRICT STARTING MID WEEK…WITH THE GFS LAYERED PRECIPITABLE WATER OVER 1.25 INCHES BY NEXT THURSDAY. IT LOOKS LIKE THE ONLY QUESTION IS WHEN WILL THE RAIN START…WITH THE BEST GUESS STARTING IN THE NORTH BAY WEDNESDAY SPREADING SOUTH AS NEXT WEEK ENDS. BOTH THE ECMWF AND THE GFS ARE INDC WET WEATHER THE END OF NEXT WEEK AND INTO THE FOLLOWING WEEKEND (JAN 21) FOR THE DISTRICT.
Another 12 weeks of the same and we’ll be just fine . . .