31 replies to this topic

[Jeff White]

I'll start another and try to keep up with it this year.

2012 started balmy but our first artic blast is now upon us. Howling cold winds all night and continuing this morning. A 20 foot, 10 inch diameter sycamore limb came down over night and was blocking part of the road as I drove in earlier.

[Jeff White]

1/3/12

Snow this morning. Came in and left fast. About a half inch. 15F tonight. I'm heading south.

[Jeff White]

Cold rain here yesterday, a wet 41F. Chilling to the bone. Would rather it be snow. Making headway into pile on my desk.

Snow is in tonight's forecast, possibly 1 to 2 inches. Sunny and in the mid 50's today.

[Jeff White]

25F at 6AM with a forecasted high today of 36F. Yesterday, fierce winds blew but it's calmed down now. Fine pruning started on Wednesday. I'm heading out for a sunny and brisk day of it. A couple of hot eggs and bacon first.

[DonRocks]

I had a wonderful bottle of your 2009 Sauvignon Blanc tonight at Element.

[Jeff White]

I had a wonderful bottle of your 2009 Sauvignon Blanc tonight at Element.

Hey, great to hear this, even greater if this means you stayed over, are still in town and visiting today!

[Jeff White]

Great day cane pruning yesterday. We finished our young Merlot and started on some young Cabernet Franc vines. Knees do take a beating as the fruiting wire is only 18 inches off the ground. We leave the canes a little long right now and make one final cut when tying them down in March.

[Jeff White]

Fortuitous weather I am having, with lows in the 20's, last night it got down to 18. I've moved a couple barrels of Late Harvest Petit Manseng outside to cold stabilize naturally...and cheaply too.

[Jeff White]

Ice, sleet, snow, rain yesterday and some drizzle today. Temps down into the mid 20s. Warmer by Monday,up into the mid 50's with rain...wacky. Bottled our 2011 SB on Friday, 527 cases including 40 cases of 375's. Grassy, tropical, very crisp with moderate alcohol at 12.7%. These grapes came in before the September rains.

[Jeff White]

Our mild winter continues, although it's 28F this early morning. But we've not seen any single digits this year and are running about 10 degrees warmer than usual for this time of the year. This makes one concerned, not about an early bud break which probably will happen if this trend continues, but more catastrophic would be a sudden deep freeze as the bud and plant vascular tissue is not as cold hardy as it was back in December. This of course is all "what ifs" and nothing has happened yet but thinking about the possibilites allows mind games to play, late at night, when you're weak and most vulnerable. I recently awoke to my first 2012 vineyard nightmare. I'm in the vineyard, it's January and we still have much to prune. But what's this? Green shoots are everywhere and in need of thinning and tucking already....PANIC!! Then the comfort of coming to my awake senses. All is well.

We are almost finished pruning our young vineyard, a little over 1.5 acres of Cabernet to go. Then it's on to the old vineyard, 6 acres of open lyre. In the cellar we're cold stabilizing 3 wines to be bottled in March and about to begin blending trials of our 2011 reds. Just got building plans in the hands of a few prospective contractors. We're expanding the building this year, adding two 20 by 30 foot rooms, one below grade for fermenting and barrel aging reds and one above grade for tax paid case storage.

[Jeff White]

Having sustained rain this morning...but would have made a beautiful snow storm had it not been 72F yesterday...the first day a February.

[Jeff White]

Snow! It's actually snowing! Started last night and is continuing this early morning. Very light, still not covering the grass and also not sticking to road surfaces. But we'll take it. Supposed to be around 28F tonight. Just back from Charlottsville, attending the Winter Technical Meeting of the Virginia Vineyards Association. Lot's of good information this year. One thing reported by our State Viticulturalist was that cold hardiness tests were conducted on sample buds and they were good down to below zero. So all this warm winter weather we've been having has not started the thawing of our vines. Knock on hardy wood.

[Jeff White]

It's February and Japanese Cherry trees and daffodils are blossoming in Washinton DC. A little snow here last night and today, 19F tonight. Wacky start to 2012. 1.5 acres to prune then lots of tying before a most likely early spring. Always exciting, farming!

[Jeff White]

Pruning is complete...yippee! Tying has begun with most vines getting one final snip to adjust the length of the cane. The weather continues to be mild and dry and it's looking more and more like an earlyish start to 2012. Early means April 1st, normal means April 15th and late means April 30th. We'll be ready.

[Jeff White]

One of our Eastern Meadowlarks has returned this early morning and is calling out for love. Winter...what we had of one, is fading and Spring is happening!

[Jeff White]

Our winery mockingbird has returned, singing from the top of the cupola yesterday morning. 70's this week, near 80 today. Upper 40's at night. Buds are all still hard and tight, though. Only Cabernet Sauvignon still to tie.
It's beginning to look a lot like springtime!

[Jeff White]

March 15, 2012...currently 81F. At least it's not humid...but that's coming soon. We're down to an acre of Cab still to tie. Pruning cuts are dripping. Next 7 days looks twenty degrees above normal. Still, buds are tight. I'm guessing April 1st for Merlot/Cabernet Franc.

[Jeff White]

Bud break is imminent. Lots of swelling buds in our young plantings of merlot and cabernet franc. I even saw tiny leaves opening at end of cane bud positions. I also noticed some flea beetle damage, but not enough to act. With this heat and the weekends upcoming rains these varieties should be out by early next week, if not sooner. Time to start working on my farmer's tan.

[Jeff White]

Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Manseng buds are now flea beetle and climbing cutworm susceptible and receiving damage. Putting on first spray of the season this evening. We've heat, and rain coming over the weekend. Things should jump next week.

[Jeff White]

32F and no wind early this morning down at the winery. Have not been up in the vineyards but suspect it's warmer. Looks like we dodged one.

[Jeff White]

Everything is out now, with the exception of Cabernet Sauvignon, but even the Cab has fat soft buds on the verge of opening. It's cold out this morning, currently 37 and the forecast is for 32 tomorrow morning. Last night, between our two vineyards we burned a huge pile of prunings and other cut up trees from around the farm. Not sure if it helped but it was fun. Me, my crew, pizza, rose wine, some Guinness and a bright moon. We're lighting an even larger pile tonight once the winds calm.

[Jeff White]

Another cold morning, 31F was the low. No damage. Whew! Could not light the other pile of prunings due to high winds. And now the forecast shows the potential for a hard freeze the mornings of the 13th and 14th.

[AlexC]

Thanks for creating and maintaining this thread. I just breezed through it and got quite a visceral look at the front lines of winemaking. Keep it up!

[Jeff White]

Another cold night/morning in store for us...for the next 3 mornings. Low 30's. Winds will be up too, negating any thermal inversion that usually protects my high mountain site. Bottom line is, this weather is normal, what we've experienced all winter was not and we normally do not have leaves exposed this early in the year. Just finished mowing between and under the rows in the lowest part of the vineyard. Hope it helps.

[Jeff White]

Got down to 33F in the lower vineyard this morning. But tonights the night. Freeze warning for our area, with a low forecasted at 32F and we are usually a few degrees colder than the forecast. Hopefully the winds will die down this evening making it safe to light a huge prunings pile just outside the lowest part of the vineyard. Thinking that by morning this fire will not be punching a hot hole in the sky but adding just enough protecting warmth above the vines. Have to be extremely careful as fires are burning all up and down the east coast in these dry conditions.

[Jeff White]

We dodged the frost of last week. Coldest morning marked at 32F. About 2 more weeks to worry. Shoot thinning starts today in CF and Merlot. Will leave 3 or 4 shoots per cane, or hopefully by harvest, 3 to 4 pounds per vine, around 2 tons an acre. Spray season starts next week post thinning.

[Jeff White]

Rain yesterday. Rain today. SNOW tonight, 1 inch possibly. A little uneasy about how 1 inch of heavy wet snow will settle on 10 inch long fragile shoots.

[Jeff White]

It's been a while...

The last snow was only above 2600 feet. Below, all was green with leaves and above, white tipped mountain tops, weird looking. We've made 2 trips through all the varieties except CS shoot thinning. Currently making our first pass through the CS. All looks good. Weather is becoming more normal, some rainy days and some sunny days,70's/80's during the day and 50's/60's at night. Shoots are anywhere from 2 inches - CS, to 10 inches - everything else. Once the soils warm up a bit more everything will explode with growth.

[Jeff White]

Bloom started here on May 16. 4th and 5th leaf Cabernet Franc are now in full bloom, about 2 weeks ahead of normal. '96 planting of Cabernet Franc is about 50%. Merlot also around 50%. Applied critical Botrytis bloom spray over the weekend...now 3 days of rain. Strange and cool year so far. My hottest spray day was way back in March. Serenaded by a whip-poor-will early yesterday morning.

[Jeff White]

4th and 5th leaf Cabernet Sauvignon are in full bloom, again, about 2 weeks early. 18th leaf Sauvignon Blanc is at 30% and 17th leaf Cabernet Sauvignon is still at pre-bloom. Unfortunately we're having a rainy time of it...3 inches so far this week.

[Jeff White]

Heat, upper 80's to low 90's and drier, more settled air coming today and for the next week. Heading out now to apply bloom botrytis spray to young Cab. Final bloom spray tomorrow, SB and old Cab. Beautilful Mountain Milk Weed also in full bloom.

[Jeff White]

I know...it's been a while. Pretty nice stretch of weather coming: http://forecast.weat...gov/MapClick.ph ... &map.y=109

Sunny, warm to hot during the day and cool nights with low humidity. This is similar to 2009, a wonderful year to work in the vineyard and make wine in Virginia. Fruit set went well and is behind us now. Hedging has begun and we are still tucking, tying, weeding, spraying and mowing. Throw in leaf pulling in a week or so and it's called June. "The" month in Virginia viticulture to be on top of things.