Winemakers Notes 2012 – 8500 Dry Creek Rd

Welcome all to the wine world which is welcome all to farming !

Jack asked for a summary of my thought s how the 2012 winegrowing  year is shaping up.

Synopsis – Climatically speaking this year has been, to date , more like a “ normal “ year than we  have seen for some time. The relatively mild spring, ample rains in mar / apr followed by mild to warm temperatures have given us a larger crop than we’ve seen in years, and so far excellent quality.

Overwinter – Nov – Feb

Fall to winter started mild but finally developed cold weather and freezing nights that insured good true dormancy. It is important to get true dormancy, the vines sleeping until the ground temperature approaches  50 or so degrees. This is the best time for pruning as this time assures minimal chance of infection when the canes are cut.

Early Spring  Feb – Apr

Cold weather allowed plenty of time to prune before the vines awakened. Early on there was a concern of the paucity of rainfall, but March and April made up the deficit to bring most areas into the normal category. The rains did a nice job of saturating the ground and assisted in warming the soil to some extent. We saw normal vine activity in March and appropriate timing for bud burst in April.

Budbreak to fruitset  April – June

Normal budbreak , cool nights and clear days has given very clean wood, clean buds and excellent fruit set ( crop size ) compared to the last few years. Clear days and breezes have kept mildew pressure quite low over the spring push and somewhat aggressive vine growth.  As the pollination finished and the first indications of crop size became apparent, it became obvious that even with nominal fruit thinning, the crop size would exceed the last two years ( weather holding )

Fruitset to veraison June – August

Fruit set has been heavy and required thinning to bring the vine in balance. In traveling around the county I am seeing quite a good crop in all varietals, and excellent quality. We have seen a number of very hot days, but to this point, specifically in the 8500 Dry Creek ranch, the canopy management and irrigation regimen has prevented any real stress in the vines. The old vine zinfandel next door is showing all the characteristics of an old vineyard with some stress, but relatively even veraison across the vineyard and good berry development. Our pinot noir is in an area nice proximity to the pacific ocean and this areas does not see “ really “ hot days. Fruit load in the pinot is nominal to this point and very clean. The sauv blanc is in excellent condition. Most all varieties are in the last stages of veraison and there seems to be a growing separation in anticipated harvest dates of the varieties we are making wine from this year. The earliest should be the sauv blanc perhaps beginning September together with one block of “ old vine zin “, this should be followed closely with the petite sirah off the ranch, then the bulk of the zin  followed end of month ( sept ) or early October by the pinot noir and the last of the zinfandel.

Summary

Overall this year is looking similar to 2005 / 2007, both relatively warm years and good harvests. To this point the fruit could not look better. Key of course is always “ will the weather hold ?”  Part of the answer to that question is the fact that to this point, the weather is offering a harvest in the month of September, a month historically, we do not usually see adverse weather.

In the next three weeks we will have the first opportunity to get a feel,  “ a taste “ if you will, for what we might expect from the wine made from all this fruit .

M Gulyash