Vineyard Progress

Posts are in, irrigation is in . . . Where are the vines?


After one cool and wet start to June, the month turned around and finished strong with temperatures over 30 and some days close to 40 for the past ten days or so. There seems to be a slight cooling trend at the end of the week but still plenty of sunshine.

The cooling trend will be welcomed by the crew at Township 7. Due to a few unavoidable delays, there are 1300 Merlot plants that are still waiting to get in the ground. The heat of the past couple weeks pretty well put the stop to that activity so the hope is that Thursday and Friday will present the right conditions.

Is it too late to plant? Probably. We're certainly going to get a higher mortality rate over the winter as the new vines won't have the opportynity to prepare themselves as they would have had they'd been planted in mid-May.

Elsewhere around Township 7 Okanagan we're catching up with the tucking and raising the training wires on the trellis system. The fruit set looks encouraging.

















Pinot Gris sets up for 2006.

I never thought a winemaker would be this busy in June

I must have led a very sheltered life.

Despite having been in the wine production business for about ten years, I'd never experienced what I'm going through this late spring-summer.

Usually the cellar is a quiet place for me at this time of the year. A little tasting, a little lab work, some planning sessions for the coming vintage; a time to reflect on the past and look forward to the future.

This year saw an ownership change of the winery that is my prime focus and with that came responsibility for the whole 7 acres, inside and out. It doesn't sound like much but remember I'm the inside guy. It's been a steep learning curve. I've called in some favours and asked a lot of questions. Sure, I'm behind schedule. But it looks like most farmers are.

I've got one year old and three year old blocks of Gew and PG to tend. They need training and tucking. I've still got some wires to pull and anchors to install. We had to hand weed an acre of Chardonnay in a block we've nicknamed the Bayou because it sounds better than 'swamp'. We had to hand weed because I missed the envelope where I could nail the weeds with Round-Up and still miss the year old vines. We were inside wasting our time bottling or something.

I've got 1300 Merlot sitting in cold storage that should have been in the ground a month ago. Hopefully they'll meet the dirt on Tuesday.

I've got deer fence going up tomorrow and posts being pounded for the new Merlot.

I've just about completed the sub-surface irrigation for the new block with Scott Robinson's help and we figured it out by digging up some of the established lines and eyeballing the results.

I've got a nice tan on my face, neck, forearms and legs below the shorts and above the Blundstones. Just like a farmer.

Wine labeling and vine enabling . . .

If it rains we head inside the winery and label. Township 7 and other small wineries often bottle 'shiners' - bottles without labels and foils - because the technology we have is too slow to keep up with the bottler. Or perhaps the labels are not ready yet. So we label at a later date.

This is our little MEB benchtop labeler. A couple of weeks ago the drive spool (as indicated) bearings seized and it had to go to the wine machinery hospital. She works fine now. Thanks to the guys at CellarTek for the help.

If the sun shines we head outside. We've just completed our early suckering. We take all the shoots off the vine below the fruit wire. This allows the vine to concentrate energy in the remaining vines and allows us to kill all the weeds around their trunks.

Perhaps these photos will illustrate this.

before

after.

Communication for Wine Maker is Key

I'm considering updating my phone.

I'm looking at the UTStarcom 6700.

One of the US manifestations of this unit is the Sprint PPC6700.

Anybody have any comments?

Like the PDA format and the slideout QWERTY keyboard.

Are they tough?

What about the phone quality?

I'm back!

Took some time to look at what I was trying to accomplish with this blog.

At times it seemed the blog was running a part of my life. It was like I was writing to deadline back in my old journalist days but this time I wasn't getting a cheque. (USA = 'check')

I realize that to make this blog a commercial success I would have to generate a substantial revenue. This would take a lot of time and energy. That would accomplish two things:
1) it would take away from my primary focus - producing great wine for my clients.
2) it would take away from my family involvement.

Thanks to the readers who have commented on this subject. I respect your opinions.

I will continue this blog. The focus will narrow and the posts will be less frequent. I'll be writing on wine issues as they are intimately connected to what I am doing on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis. As always, I encourage the readers to subscribe to the RSS feed and avoid having to constantly check to see if I posted.

Rethinking the Wine Blog

There's considerable discussion going on over at eGullet about the value of blogging with regard to wine.
Some people say it's all a lot of drivel, others think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.
It's probably somewhere in between.

Since I've been away from it all for ten days in the sub-tropics, I've been trying to decide whether to continue this blog or not. It takes up a lot of time.

I think I'll take some more time and then announce a decision in awhile. If I continue, it will probably mean a re-organized and re-focused effort.

Winery Loose Ends In Process of Being Tied Up

Nice headline. Now that's good English. Nice syntax.

Heading out for a little holiday early next week. This means leaving the ship with the first mate and making sure the crew is informed and inspired.

Taking care of a labeling schedule, readying some Chard for cold stab and protein stab work.
Organizing some packaging requirements for Township 7 and a couple of the other interests I work for who will all be bottling in mid-May.

After some deliberation and tasting (repetitive) we've decided to get the Township '04 Syrah out of barrel and start final blending trials. We feel the oak contact is pretty well where we want it.

Out in the vineyard the major work with the existing vines has been accomplished. I haven't checked the numbers but I think it's been a cool spring and we still won't see any serious bud break for awhile at this rate. The last empty acreage will be prepped and planted over the next few months and the contractor will be in to do the rough work while I'm gone.

Spring Wine Festival Coming Soon

Heading to the research station today to help with some judging for the Okanagan Spring Wine Festival.
If you're free on the weekend of May 5,6 and 7 you should check out this great event and take an opportunity to taste some new releases. A lot of the wines haven't hit the store shelves yet so it's a unique situation to get a sneak peek of the new offerings.

Wine Weekend Wrap-up

Here's a few things to check out over the Easter weekend. By the way, this is the official start of the rose season for me. I love picnic shoulder with rose and cold creamed potatoes and 'gus. I know, it's a freak show of spring time madness but that's what rose is made to handle.

I like this guy's way around words.

Hey, look! A survey course of the wines of Canada. And it's almost free of shortcomings and aberrant portrayals of the truth!

Eric the read of New York. Okay, not that funny a pun.

The Giz has his latest picks of top BC wines.

I'm off to Whistler for some end of season frivolity on the slopes.

Rare Winery Site For Sale

Are you or someone you know looking for a winery site?
This one is on the west side of the Okanagan valley, North Oliver area, a half block off Highway 97 near King Tomato and the gun range turnoff.
This unique setting has three seperate adjoining titles in a mixed of pine treed slope, open farmland and craggy mountain side. It's a dramatic site with two dwellings and crown land on the west boundary.
Should this interest you be sure to contact me soon for more information.

Vintage 2006 - Your Next BC Wine Is On The Way.

After a couple solid weeks of effort in the vineyard I feel we're ready to welcome the new growth.
A mild and dry weekend has produced a lot of movement in the vines and I'm seeing some increased bud size. A couple more weeks and things should be popping in the rows.
I don't know for sure but I suspect this spring has been on the cool side. Certainly cooler than last spring.
Everything is pruned and tied; there are a few odd jobs like trellis wire and irrigation tweaks and the occasional post here and there than needs work. And raking.
This morning has brought a steady light rain. That's good timing.
In the cellar we're beginning another bottling week. Our 2005 Rose and a 2004 Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon blend will be packaged as well as our 2005 Seven Stars - the proprietary name for the sparkling wine Township 7 produces. Of course, it won't be released until sometime in 2008. It spends around three years aging on the yeast deposits before getting cleaned up and corked.

Wine maker aims for global clout

Wine maker aims for global clout

We all know China is poised to take over the world during the 21st century, in the wine world it may happen sooner than later.