7/12/2012
We've been dripping the vineyard most all this week, vines are in great shape. We are setting up to do some thinning.

The reasons I haven't started to thin yet are still plenty of time to thin and fruit still hard and green, will be softening soon, but still fine for now.

In any event we will drop fruit in the next 10 days or so.

Watson's Old Zin vines stressing and a little dry. Not being too aggressive in this regard as we will be sorting out raisins and he will be losing tons so to some extent it is in his best interests to keep the plants from stressing too much ( water stress ) Watering at this time (before veraison ) doesn't change the ( ultimate ) fruit chemistry, AFTER veraison it begins to unbalance the potassium / magnesium and other fruit chemistry. There is extra fruit hanging this year (they did do some thinning on Watson) so there is no concern about having enough fruit.
 Beyond that, the vineyard looks pretty good, being farmed a " old school " for my tastes. Not aggressive with nutrient levels ( compost or fertilizers ) and more pro - active about developing a better canopy to keep the fruit better protected from burning / dehydration.