Vineyard Notes

Winter 2008

             The weather so far this winter has been cold and rainy.  It started out dry in December, but January and February have hopefully brought the rain that we need to renew the ground water supply.   The vines enjoy the cold weather, which helps them to prepare for the new growing year.   Pruning started in December and was halted for awhile during the couple of weeks of off and on rain.  The vines that are more suceptable to Utypha are pruned later to avoid any contamination from the  Utypha spores that float over from the coastal areas with the fog.    This is also the time of year that we do alot of maintenance in the vineyard on the irrigation systems, trellis systems and repair on any vineyard equipment.  We try to also keep up with the weeds and insects, which is an ongoing job.    In order to prepare for planting 4 acres of Viognier this Spring, we are removing some old vines and preparing the soil for the new vines.  We are looking forward to a great growing season this year that will produce vintage wines.