Winter maintenance

So even though there is not a whole lot going on in the vineyards right now, one thing that we are focusing all our attention on is pruning. We started pruning about a month ago and we will continue to prune all through the winter until budbreak in March. Pruning is an important step in winter vineyard maintenance. It removes the old, dead growth from the vine to make room for the new growth in the spring. Because this is all done by hand there is a special technique and it can be time consuming. This photo was taken this morning. We were pruning the south block of Chardonnay and all the vines and ground were covered with frost.
This time of year frost and cold weather are actually desirable and benefit the vines. The cold weather will help the vines go to sleep and become dormant. It is during this time that they are storing energy and nutrients for the spring. All we need is some rain and we will have a good start to the new growing year.
On the other hand frost can be very dangerous when the shoots are starting to emerge at spring time. The frost will kill the buds and the new, delicate growth. This is what happened this past spring and what effected the crop sizes of this year’s harvest. I think that all vintners, including myself are hoping that Spring 2009 starts out with some warm weather.
~ John Bacigalupi