Year 5 of my backyard vineyard (and I still only have a vague idea what I'm doing)

[Brian_Gilp]

Follow up on last season’s harvest, the summary of which is copied below. We didn’t wait the three weeks for the reds as there wasn’t going to be anything left if we did, picked what little remained after two weeks. What remained was mainly petit Verdot and tannt with a few random bunches of other things that somehow survived the squirrel attack. Brix at harvest was 16.5. Let everything soak for a day, added sugar to bring brix to 19 and pitched yeast. Pressed off after a day. Pressing in this case is using a mesh strainer and a potato masher as there was only enough for one gallon plus a 500 ml bottle.

Many years ago, we switched over to only making sparkling. The vineyard has a shading problem that delays harvest and then the late season rains lead to rot problems, reducing both yield and quality. Picking weeks earlier for sparkling avoids most of those problems.

This weekend we bottled what little we harvested last year. Nine bottles of white and five bottles of red. As feared the white at this point seems like it will be one of the best vintages to date. Surprisingly, the red was so good that we should have bottled it as a light still red for immediate consumption. It would make a perfect summer red but unfortunately, we didn’t taste the sample I pulled until after we added the sugar and yeast culture. Lesson learned but I would have never guessed that 16.5 brix tannt and petit Verdot would not taste harsh. Now we wait for it to sparkle but rarely does the wine get worse at this point. Most get better and some improve drastically. I expect both of these to be some of the best wines we have made, just so little of it that it won’t last long. The wife has labeled this vintage “Year of the squirrel “

I did buy new nets that hopefully will work to keep the squirrels out this year. They feel as heavy as my old nets that worked for years before degrading. It is sold as both bird netting and mole netting. If these don’t work, I will have to move to more extreme measures next year.

Tenax S-38 Bird Netting 14' x 100' Black 2A140267 | Tenax Fence

@Brian_Gilp

This is a very long post.

This has become the most frustrating vintage in over a decade. I hesitated to post this as I don’t want to whine but decided to do so for those who have been reading this and think, hey that seems like fun. Generally it is fun but then there are years like this.

At the start of the season, I count many more dead vines than normal. Some of this is expected as I have had crown gall in some of my reds for a long time. But this seems to be something more as there are dead vines where I don’t find any signs of crown gall. As things progress, other vines are stunted and there are distinct patterns of dead/stunted vines in the vineyard that point to bigger issues.

Next is fruit set. Fruit set is always variable. What makes this year different is the number of vines that don’t have any fruit. I have 20 viognier vines and counted 8 clusters total. Barbera isn’t as bad but still light, made worse by the small bunch size. The Chardonnay did set the best crop to date as did the tannat. The Sangiovese is the only one that would be considered heavy.

When the Japanese beetles set in, it was like no other year. This is my 16th vintage and I have never experienced anything like this. My normal control is to pick them off and put them is a bucket of soapy water. Most years that works fine with picking every other day. This year, I was picking hundreds and maybe thousands off every morning and there would be a greater number the next day. Finally had to admit that pesticides were going to be needed. The leaf damage was severe but mostly contained to the highest part of the canopy that I allowed to grow higher than normal thus limiting the impact.

About the same time came the heat wave and the drought. In most years water isn’t a problem. Dry farming works fine. I have one small section that has soil with low water holding and had to dig out the soaker hose to keep that section from suffering drought stress.

There is a plus side to all of this. Generally my biggest issue is downy mildew. But with weeks without rain and unseasonably low humidity, there is no downy at all. The extra canopy height therefore isn’t a problem and I can keep it longer than normal and make up for much of the loss.

The heat resulted in a bit more sunburn than normal but nothing severe. However, it accelerated color change. Normally, I have weeks from when I first see color to when the slowest ripening grapes are showing. This offers time to get nets on without extensive wildlife pressure. This year, everything started turning at the same time. I netted everything in three days but only because I left one quarter of the vineyard without nets. I netted the rows with the most potential. The squirrels and birds made short work of what wasn’t needed.

And yet somehow, the fruit that remains, is some of the best looking fruit I have ever had.

If only that was the end of the story. Unfortunately, it is not. The squirrels have found ways into the nets and eaten large parts of what was covered. Sometimes they find weak spots where I didn’t fully snug something. More often they just tear a hole in the nets and go through that way. The nets are old and apparently degraded over time as in prior vintages this wasn’t as much of a problem. There is always some loss but nothing this extreme.

We harvested whites yesterday. Normal yield is about 8 gallons. We got 2. Half is from the petit manseng as the squirrels mostly left that untouched. They ate nearly all the Chardonnay and large amounts of the other whites. The two gallons taste great, which makes it even worse.

The reds won’t be ready for another three weeks, if there is anything left by then.

[bruced]

Interesting to read these posts. Thanks
Imagine doing that for a living!

[Brian_Gilp]

@bruced

Imagine doing that for a living!

To be fair, a significant portion of my issues are due to this being a home vineyard and not a business. If it were a business, the site would be one where I don’t have shading issues, which creates ripening problems but also increases mildew pressure. Also, the vineyard would be substantially larger and should reduce the Japanese Beetle impact by spreading the damage over more vines. The rows would be spaced farther apart and the trellis higher to increase leaves per vine, sunlight, and air flow, again helping with ripening and mildew. And lastly, if commercial, the vineyard would most likely be fenced and I could easily include dogs as a squirrel deterrent.

Being commercial doesn’t make the issues go away. There is a local vineyard that I have yet to visit but friends who have tell me they have wildlife issues. Our humid summer with high overnight temperatures are still a challenge. Managing vigor is a challenge and wider vine spacings should make that more difficult or require split canopies. But the biggest challenge is financial as the prices that are needed to be profitable are hard to justify for the quality and it forces most to grow grapes that consumers know and avoid grapes and or styles that work best here.

[bruced]

I guess I was thinking about making a living from farming in general. No end of problems outside your control.
Glad you are having fun with it!

[P_D_e_r_d_e_y_n]

I think i’ve said the same thing in this thread @bruced ,with every vintage I have more respect for the people who have built their livelihood on this and the incredible expertise they have.

Unfortunately this year that respect was dealt in a painful dose from mother nature so I’m here to commiserate @Brian_Gilp…

The season started off incredibly promising as bud break occurred a week earlier than any year so far and the grapes appeared healthy and in abundance, this was going to be my biggest vintage yet and I was already plotting ordering a new carboy to fit all of this juice.

Pictures from May 31st

The next week our weather shifted to extreme humidity from southerly winds which pump gulf moisture our direction, couple this with temps around 95 and all it took was a week for the black rot to start raging and destroying everything, and boy does it happen quickly. In a matter of days things took a turn and I estimated at least a 50% crop loss. It has since gotten worse and I believe it to be 90-100% now.

I have been spraying every couple of weeks and pruning bags and bags full of excess growth of the vines and I just don’t know what else to do. I think perhaps I’m not using the best fungicide for this problem, I’ve been using Captain Jack’s Orchard spray but it appears I will need something much stronger if I’m to keep up this endeavor. I am considering pruning everything back to about 6 spurs right now to let the vines rest and then when they go dormant this winter I spray everything (trunks, ground, cordons etc) and hope for a fresh start next year. Growing grapes, especially in this climate is really trying and as I’ve learned it’s the same amount of work whether you get a crop or not

[Brian_Gilp]

From the information I find, copper should be effective. I spray mancozeb early and then captan through most of the season. As mentioned before, I didn’t get my black rot problem under control, until I got all the mummies, prunings, and dropped leaves addressed. I had problems with getting everything removed so eventually went to burial by adding weed mat covered with rock mulch. It didn’t get me all the benefits I hoped for and it has created other problems but that gave the vineyard the fresh start it needed so that the sprays are now sufficient to keep the black rot under control.