The Wolf Creek Blog

Frosty Buds… Not the bottled kind.

March 29, 2012 | 5:45 am

Spring is my favorite season. Each passing day grows longer and warmer. Wisps of new leaves and dog wood blossoms cloud the woods, and the lawn is a lush carpet of green shag. I start planting my garden with renewed dreams of perfect weed free produce, and the mountain of manure behind the barn is spread upon the waiting fields. The work in the vineyard begins slowly when the days are cold and snow filled. Then it increases at a logarithmic pace as the sun arcs higher each day until soft leaves grow upon the trellis.
I have learned to watch the plants near the vineyard to gage the progress of spring. The grape sap flows when the crocus bloom. The flea beetles snack on grape buds when the red maples are shedding their dead flowers all over my car. The vines start to bud when the first lilac flowers open.
The early heat of this year’s spring has compressed all these botanical milestones. The tulips are confused. The cherry trees can’t decide if it’s April or August. The vines are budding early.
In a normal year (I say that as a joke, because there is no normal year in Ohio) the vines bud out the first week of May. The average “frost free date” (the average last day below freezing for an area) for our vineyards is between May 1 and May 10. The past few years the buds have unfurled the last week of April, early, but have avoided and frost damage. This year we are in for a long haul… or as grandpa used to say… “a long row to hoe.”
While it did get into the uppers 20’s last night, 99.9% of all our grape buds are still dormant. Swollen but not fully exposed, they can endure the sub freezing temps in the forecast. That dormancy is, however, temporary. The vines sit on a cliffs edge. The safety of being curled up asleep, will soon tip to the fragility of being exposed and vulnerable to the elements.
I used to lay awake at night hoping the cold would stay away. I’d dream up ways to keep the vines from freezing. Burning bales of hay, giant quilts, strings of Christmas lights. None of them where ever practical… Alas, after almost 30 years of grape growing I’ve learned that our vineyard rarely gets frost, and when it does we can still count on some fruit. A little faith, a deep well of farmer optimism, and a glass of wine helps. I sleep better now…
And when the lilacs bloom this year, I can only hope the frost will not return until after the harvest in November.

Cheers,

Andy

By Andy | Posted in Grape Growing | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

February Showers Bring March Flowers?

March 12, 2012 | 12:13 pm

The sun is out, the crocus and daffodils are blooming, and I swear I just saw some honey bees. I almost have to do a double take when I look at the calendar. Maybe because, like most Ohioans, I’m still expecting winter to finally show up and dump a few feet of snow on us. Possibly because after a string of brutal winters and strange summers I’m not sure exactly what state I’m trying to grow grapes in.
Almost everyday I am asked what this lack of winter is doing to the vineyard. The short answer is… It’s mostly good, but that can always change… It’s Ohio…
The main benefit from a mild winter is that the dormant pruning of the vines can proceed more efficiently. Most winters the bulk of the vines are pruned between the middle of February to the middle of April. This year however the American and hybrid varieties are all pruned and most of the European varieties will be finished in the next week.
The mild temperatures should help increase 2012 yields because it avoids injuring the buds that already harbor this year’s crop. With the wet weather of last summer I was already concerned with the possibility of increased winter injury and bud damage. However, with the current patterns that scenario has hopefully been averted.
The main concern now is an excess of warm weather causing the buds to break very early. Once the vines start budding, usually the end of April, they are vulnerable to spring frost. While there is always the danger of frost, this years warm weather is likely to increase that risk.
So as we begin to bottle the 2011 wines we’ll hope the weather in 2012 will be cooperative. As I look at my calendar, yet again, I hope I only have about 180 days until the start of the 2012 harvest.

Cheers

Andy

By Andy | Posted in Grape Growing | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Pruning Lessons

March 28, 2010 | 3:11 pm

I am a self-proclaimed vineyard guy. The vineyard is my religion and my temple. I call it therapy. My idea of a relaxing afternoon is spent in the vineyard pruning. Turn off the phone. Listen to nature…. And stuff.

Perhaps that is why I carry around my pruners everywhere. They are the rod and the staff of my trade. The hammer and nails…. Not only are they handy for effectively trimming a vine down to five buds per linear foot, but they can be used to tighten screws, open cans of beans, and dispatch mosquitoes. My pruners are the tool I cannot live without. For some it’s a cell phone. For me it’s a worn pair of Felco #8s.

I embark on this quest with a suitcase of clothes and my trusty pruners. Hoping that somewhere along the way I shall find a vine or rusty can of beans that needs help. I quickly find that many of the vineyards in Burgundy are already pruned. I am told this is because “the winters in France are long and most vignerons can only stand to be shut up with their wives for so long.” I am also told that “you need a license to prune” in France, but I’m skeptical. I think this is something they tell les tourists.

In the village of St. Pere near Vezelay there is a small winery near the church. The proprietaire, I call him Jean-Something because everyone here is Jean-Something-or-Other, leads us to his cave for a tasting.

We sample from old barrels. The wines are young and interesting. Then almost in passing he declares his wife needs help pruning the vineyard. She stands in the corner of the cellar holding the corkscrew. She’s wearing a skirt, leather boots, and a jean jacket, and looks like she’s dressed for May…it’s March. I have six layers of crap on, and my teeth are chattering. Despite the Burgundy sorbet pumping through my veins, I spot my chance and volunteer.

Before I know it I am careening up a dusty road to god knows where. We pass some Charolais cattle grazing in a field, and a sign for a gite down a goat path. We round a bend and drive past what looks like a cemetery for appliances and broken down Peugeots. Chickens scatter. We stop on a hill South of Vezelay, and admire the neat rows of un-pruned vines. Waiting….

I recognize the system, and set to work as my friends watch. I make a cut. I go to make another cut. Then I am told I am doing it wrong.

Jean-Something groans and stops. “My children must eat, and I must pay the bank,” he says. I am slightly amused but play along.

He begins telling me that I can only leave so many buds, and the cut must be so many millimeters this way or that. I make another cut. I ask him to explain. I make another cut. There is no explanation…only groans.

By now it becomes clear to me that if he pruned the way I do he would have been done back in December. It also becomes clear to me that if I want to grow grapes the way the French do I don’t need a license. I need to be French. Alors…I give up.

The wife in the skirt stoops down with boots, skirt, and cigarette in hand to prune the vine next to me…as only a true French man or woman could.

By Andy | Posted in Grape Growing | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (1)