March, Mowers, and Mulching

Even though the 20th of March is the official day, it is clearly spring. We can hear the sea lions barking with excitement, the Robins are bathing themselves to look good, woodpeckers have found the loudest piece of manmade tin to rattle against, and so many of our flowers are in bloom. Sorry Easterners, it's awesome on the West Coast.

Our vineyard and winery chores also know it's spring.

When I posted last, we were making our pruning cuts. Now, we are pulling the wood out of the trellis wires and tying the new canes down that will produce this year’s grapes. We are at 50% complete on this last step. All will be completed by April Fool’s day. My bet is on March 27th for bud burst.

Over a one day period, wood is pulled, canes are tied, and rows are flailed and mulched. We don’t burn our last year’s wood, it is all mulched back into the rows.

After the field personnel leave at night, the rotary flail does the first pass, making wood flat and in smaller 4 to 8 inch pieces. Next, the Kubota zero-turn mower, with a mulching kit, goes over the row. This machine is amazing. Sold to us last year from Russell at North Island tractor, it has cut our mowing times by 1/8. Fine cutting around the winery, or mulching down the row, it will do all of that at lightning-fast speeds, significantly reducing fuel use and increasing quality of mulched organics to the vineyard.

No, I don't own a Kubota dealership, just excited about efficiency and reducing our footprint.

All the varieties are looking awesome! The original owner, Bill Montgomery, did a fantastic job choosing the some 50,000 root stock, 85% from a nursery in France. Thank you, Bill.

Next time, winery talk.

Cheers,
Layne

Good Soil & Pruning Equals Happy Grapes

No, it’s not really spring, yet. We have no control over this warm weather, so we are pruning very fast.

In just eight work days, we have completed 80% of the pruning cuts. And, we converted from cordon pruning to cane. Cordon pruning brings vines out of old wood, while cane pruning brings vines out of last year’s growth. This style will prevent any old, woody taste to the grapes, keeping the fresh and lively, ultra-premium wine we strive for.

The vines are also attempting to push buds, but with a little weeping from the cuts they have slowed back and will avoid any damage, if a forsaken frost shows itself.

Viticulture expert Theo Siemens, of Okanagan Crush Pad, recently visited our vineyard to analyse our structure, so we can forge on with sustainable farming methods, and ethical organic practices. Besides training all staff in pruning techniques and canopy management, he performed an assessment of our four horizons of soils, right down to the mother rock.

Within the four horizons, we find distinct, non-typical earth for this area. These zones are respective to a glacier deposit, or till.

1st horizon - very little peat, and four to eight inches of top soil
2nd & 3rd horizon - sand, some large rock, gravel and pebbles, with some loose dry clay
4th horizon - very hard layered clay with mother rock.

We are seeing root formations from the vines, in most cases, down to the 4th horizon. That’s great news! What we don't see is any water holding, or pooling in these layers, even after the substantial amount of rainfall we have had. More awesome news.

The contact with minerals for the roots, and great permeability and drainage in the soils, gives us a great terroir opportunity to have complex and distinct tastes in our wines.,

If you’d like to know more about our operation, and the lifecycle of our vines, pop in to our Cellar Tasting Lounge, or shoot me an email, at Layneat40KnotsWinery@gmail.com.

Cheers,
Layne