Dover Canyon Winery

WindowWeather.com

We are enjoying some gentle April rains, welcome for several reasons.  As many of you know, our 2008-09 rainfall is about half of what we normally receive, at just 11" as opposed to our average of 22".  Another inch or two of rain will be gratefully accepted in the water banks that underlie our hills, and which supply our wells.  The cool, cloudy days encourage the ground moisture to leach downward into our water aquifers instead of burning it off as evaporation.  And most importantly, this warm, rainy weather means no danger of late killing frosts like the ones we had last year!

Our vineyards have been hand-hoed and are now clear of cover crop and weeds.  We've had to watch the weather closely so that our crew could finish the hoeing before the rain arrived.  Not only is it wet and miserable to work in the rain, but the ground becomes so heavy and wet that it simply isn't efficient to get a crew out there. 

We rely on several sources for weather forecasts, including Weather.com, Weather Underground, NOAA National Weather Service, and our locally-owned weather stations placed in vineyards throughout the AVA.  But our favorite, and most accurate, is what we jokingly call "Window.com"—our own common sense and experience.

Rain predictions on the major sites are frequently inaccurate for our region.  They are based on weather patterns moving into the Sacramento Delta or toward Los Angeles, so as wind currents change, rain will drift to the north or south, or is delayed by several days, or simply doesn't materialize. 

But by learning to "listen with your skin" we can tell by the smell in the air, the feel of moisture and temperature on our skin, and even the appearance of the skies when rain will arrive.  And we can do it with an astonishing degree of precision.  Of course, the easiest prediction of all is when rain arrives in the early morning, and we walk outside with a cup of coffee, look at the sky and say, "Yep, it's raining today."

CQ3: How will California's drought crisis affect you?

Today's customer question is:  How will California's drought crisis affect you?

Pictured below: Lake Nacimiento March 2009

 

As many of you may already know, the Governor of California has declared a state of emergency.  This is the third year that CA has been significantly short of rainfall and snowpack, parching inland grazing land and affecting the state's supply of natural water resources.  University of California economists estimate that the state will lose 40,000 agriculture-related jobs—without water, livestock operations will have to reduce production, many older 'hardwood' plantings (fruit and nut orchards, cane berry crops) will be torn out, and our 'salad bowl' crops like greens, celery, tomatoes—all of which are very dependent on irrigation—will also have to be reduced.  The beef and dairy industries have been particularly hard hit, between a 70% reduction of CA range grass, and the higher fuel costs of 2008—many cattle operations truck their livestock to states or regions where pasture is available, and then to the mid-West for stock sales.  And once a herd has been reduced, it takes years to re-establish. 

The San Joaquin Valley, a warm inland region whose top ag industries include raisin grapes, almonds, dairy and beef, calves for resale, pork, cotton, peaches, and tomatoes has suffered the most and over 20,000 acres of land prevoiusly planted to row crops have gone unplanted or simply abandoned.  Also in 2008, a lawsuit based on the Endangered Species Act prompted a federal judge to order a severe reduction of pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which supplies water to the 450-mile long California aqueduct.  The order reduced water supply to inland and southern California communities, ranches and farms by 75%!   Losses to California farm industries were pegged at $308 million by 2008, and are increasing this year as more and more reductions take place.  The state is losing product, revenue, businesses and jobs along with its water.

2009 Vintage Begins: The Soft Blessings of Rain

Our fall and early winter vacillated between warm, springlike weather which encouraged the cover crop, and crisp, cold, dry weather which is subsequently hard on the tender cover crop. The dry weather made it easier for workers to cut canes and clear the vineyards in anticipation of pruning, but we really need water. We were glad to hear the soft patter of rain all night. 

It was only half-an-inch, according to our rain gauge, but when added to the 3.5 inches we received earlier in the fall that gives us 4 inches so far on Vineyard Drive.  Still a ways to go to reach our annual average of 22-26 inches, and our rainy season usually ends in mid-April, so we have only two months in which to make up the deficit.

Fortunately (or wisely, as we picked our site precisely for this reason) the soils of the central coast are calcareous, with lots of underlying limestone. Limestone provides superior drainage during rains, and has the unique property of wicking it back up during hot weather. Our zinfandel vineyard is head pruned and dry farmed. That means there is no irrigation suppy at all. And our syrah, which is leggier and thirstier,  needs only a gallon per vine before heat spikes.

We are not too concerned about the vineyard as we have planned and planted for drought cycles. Our farming practices incorporate mulching, composting and the use of cover crops to sustain the health of our soil and conserve water. But we are worried about the house, lawn and garden. (I will change the selection of my garden plantings this year, and probably move the tomato plot down to the creekbed, where the topsoil is deeper and there is a little ground moisture.)

In normal years, our property receives 22-26 inches of rain, which equals over 5 million gallons of water. Our estimated annual usage for our dryfarmed walnut orchard and vineyard, including home use, is less than 400,000 gallons. The remaining 4.5 million gallons fill a seasonal creek and pond, and contribute to our local water table.

End of 2008 Harvest

The end of the 2008 harvest brought glorious, warm weather which made working outdoors a joy.  Left, a half-ton bin of syrah is dumped into a fermentation tank.  You can see the blue spa covers we had custom built for our tanks—they are great for punchdowns because they are sturdy enough to walk on, easy to fold back for access to the fruit must, and they provide a tight seal around the top of the tank.

Although it was a balmy autumn and the quality of fruit was exceptional, it was a grim vintage for growers.  As we reported last spring, nearly all the California winegrowing communities were hit with killing frosts in April, late enough that most canes had pushed and were exposed to the burning cold.  Many vineyards had to reprune to encourage new growth, or simply cut off the burned growth and wait for more buds to push out. 

A few weeks later, Napa was hit with triple-digit hot, hot, hot temperatures.  Early heat like this shocks the vines because the new growth is still tender and the canes are thin—the plants are growing quickly and somewhat leggy.  While we were sympathizing with our friends in the north, those of us in the central coast were also, selfishly, hoping that this "freezer to fryer" weather pattern would not drift south.  Alas, it did. 

Between the late freezes, searing spring heat, and unforgiving Mojave heat in August, vineyards across much of California suffered crop losses of 30% to 50%, sometimes even more.  According the wine press, what this means is the quality of the remaining crop was very high.  But this is not entirely true. 

2008: The 'Limited Vintage' Syrah

Our 2008 vintage began last spring with killing frosts. Two weeks later, extreme heat waves.

The first reports of killing weather trickled out of Napa and Sonoma, where many vineyards lost over 30% of their spring growth and potential crop. Ho, we thought, at least we’re safe. But two weeks later, Paso was also visited by extreme cold, with a heat wave to follow. Although the damage in Paso Robles was not as widespread as to the north, many crops were affected by the frost. Our syrah crop was reduced by about 30%—and that is just the start of this season’s saga.

If spring weather is cool, an occasional frost does very little damage, because fewer fruitful buds have developed. But in a spring with fluctuating warm and freezing weather, more fruitful buds and canes have already started their spring growth and will be burned off by freezing temperatures. Some varieties are picky about where they will push fruitful canes out. Zinfandel is not picky and will push fruitful canes out of basal buds and even overlooked wood from the last pruning.

May followed with heat waves in the 90’s to low 100’s. While a May spike is not unheard of, heat waves continued into June, which is very unusual. Early waves of heat affect berry development—first, the heat may cause the flowers to drop off before the berries are fertilized, resulting in half-fertilized clusters; and secondly it impacts the budding plant’s health and the amount of sugar in the vine for developing berries, resulting in very small berries. In the early season, the vine is pushing outward and it needs a steady supply of moisture and nutrients in order to provide carbohydrates for new shoots, leaves, flowers and berries. By the time August heat arrives the plant is well established and accustomed to steadily warming temperatures. An awkward spring, with vascillating cool and hot temperatures, encourages rapid growth and then cuts off the carb supply to support it. This may result in leaves drying off early and underdeveloped clusters and berries. Our headpruned zinfandel has less leaf mass, shorter canes and shoots, and it’s "hut" style leaf canopy shades the roots and protects much of the vine from hot winds and transpiration loss. The syrah, which is leggier and more vigorous, was more affected by the swings in temperature.

2007 Harvest Wrap Up

It's been a busy eight weeks--harvest started in early September, but then a heat spell and cooler weather following the heat delayed further picking until October, when it all began coming in at once!  In the meantime, we were also packing and labeling hundreds of Fall 2007 wine club orders.

This year we had planned to purchase less fruit than usual, but the vintage looked so good, we ended up buying more fruit than ever before.  At right, zinfandel clusters from Benito Dusi's 90-year-old vines are being gently forked into the crusher.

All the fruit this year had exceptional pigment--Dan was especially pleased with our estate fruit.  Most of the central coast was reporting lower tonnage this year, but both our estate zinfandel--which is dryfarmed and head-trained--and Benito Dusi Vineyard--also dryfarmed and headtrained--produced significantly heavier crops.  Although since these vineyards typically produce limited tonnage in the first place, any increase in cluster load is significant.  And with the quality of this year's fruit, also cause for excitement. 

At left, you can see the red-brown stems from a Dusi zinfandel cluster.  This is a sign that the zinfandel vines and clusters have had time to fully mature.

Some vineyards, including Dusi and our estate vineyard, were picked in several different passes so we could bring in the fruit at its peak of ripeness and balance.  With only a few weather hiccups, we enjoyed warm days and cool autumnal breezes throughout harvest.  (None of those grueling late nights and freezing temperatures we remember from recent El Nino vintages.)  Dan kept the fruit coming in at a steady pace so each day's work could be accomplished in a reasonable amount of time--which meant 10 hour days for me, and 12-14 hour days for Dan. 

Below, you can see the whole berries falling from the crusher into the fermenting bin.  Our crusher/destemmer is set to a slow speed, so rather than macerating the berries as they pass through, the equipment simply rips the berries from the stems and drops them more-or-less whole into the fermentor.  A good deal of juice is extracted simply by the weight of the grapes themselves.  (The crusher ejects the stems into another bin and the stems are then dumped into compost piles at the edge of the vineyard.) The bins are inoculated with yeast and lined up in the winery to ferment for 10+ days.  The bins will be punched down by hand twice a day, and when they have finished fermenting, the fruit is poured into a press.  The juice, which is now elementary wine, is extracted and barreled down--the grape skins are removed to the compost area, where birds and wild turkeys come for happy hour.

Harvest Begins!

A quick vintage update:  after a week or more of blistering hot weather, temperatures are cooling down at night to the mid-fifties, and today is very windy and cool, definitely sweater weather.  However, vineyards all seem to be getting ripe at once! 

Harvest begins tomorrow, with arrivals of cabernet franc, petit sirah and possibly zinfandel.  Emails and faxes from growers are coming in daily.  Dan is also getting ready for bottling, so as fast as he is emptying barrels, fruit will be coming in to fill them. 

As many of you already know, we are open to the public Thursday through Sunday.  On the days we are closed, Monday through Wednesday, we will be very busy with harvest duties, our September bottling, and wine club packing.  If you wish to stop by on those days to pick up your wine club, you are welcome to do so (and we'd love to chat for a bit).  However, please make an appointment 24 hrs. in advance.

May 2007 Weather Update

With the warm, dry spring we've been having, the weeds came on strong and were threatening to go to seed early, so we hired a small crew of three to tackle hoeing before the weeds propagated.  They did an amazing and very precise job of hoeing not only around the base of the vine, but all along the vine row and out about a foot on each side in perfect strips. 

We have also been seeing a lot of gopher activity, and we lost about 30 of our best vines in the center of the zinfandel vineyard, as well as some more struggling vines near the vineyard border, and yet more in the syrah.   

Generally gophers are very active in the spring when they are breeding.  When the neighboring walnut orchards are tilled in late spring, that also drives gophers toward our peaceful vineyard.  But gopher activity is much worse this year than in the last two years, so we purchased a whole box of gopher traps and put one of the crew to work catching the critters. He caught 20 in one day on one acre. 

Bud break and flowering proceeded sedately, unhampered by spring frosts, rain or wind.  So different from last year's long and late rains.  The occasional reports of early spring "storms" turned out to be gentle whiffs of rain that dispersed over northern California and bypassed Paso Robles altogether.  Our  lack of rainfall this year may cause water deficits later on, so we have watered the syrah lightly.  The headtrained zinfandel is dry farmed, and is therefore on its own.  We'll just have to see what the vintage gives us.

Pruning

This week it's supposed to climb to the high 80's, low 90's--perfect weather for the Zinfandel Festival this coming weekend.   But, alas, our region has received a paltry 8-10 inches of rain so far this year, instead of our usual 22 inches.  Hopefully we will get some more rain this spring before the vines flower.

The zinfandel was pruned in February; the cover crop is just starting to get leafy, and will need to be mowed soon.  There are no buds on the zin yet, just hard-headed, stubborn nodes. We have yet to finish pruning the syrah, but we'll accomplish that chore immediately after bottling. The syrah is on an easterly slope, facing away from the afternoon sun, and sloping down into our creekbed, so it will be exposed to frost if we have a sudden reversion to cold April weather. The late pruning (while not exactly planned to be this late) will help to delay budbreak past our last anticipated frost dates.

2006 Harvest Update

Harvest is winding down this week as we bring in the last few lots of grapes, including estate zinfandel, Benito Dusi old vine zinfandel, and some grenache, syrah, and mourvedre from Melange du Rhone Vineyard.

As you know from our summer vintage report, we had a cool, rainy, and elongated spring. August was also unusually cool, and then September brought cloudy skies with an occasional whiff of rain. Although this year was not as heat-challenged as the infamous El Nino / La Nina cycle of 1998-2000, many growers were biting their knuckles by early October. Would there be enough heat and light to ripen the vineyards? Obedient to autumn’s changing day-length and colder night temperatures, vineyard foliage colored, dried, and dropped. Canes withered and turned red.

Nevertheless, with patience, October brought more sunshine and some temperately warm days. The long cool growing season has granted us a harvest of small, tight berries, with intense pigment and spice—berries with lots of hang time, luscious skins, toasty popcorn-like seeds, and lignified stems.