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Yikes!! Not what you want to see in the forecast just as buds emerge... Up here in Templeton, I am hoping the weather guys are right and it stays at 34 as the low.... fingers crossed for you (and me)

We had two inches - mostly overnight- and now we are scheduled for intermittent showers. Loving every drop!

350 in one session- I’ll bet you are sore! I’m pretty sure rain is headed your way to give those plants a nice drink - and you get a breather :)

Well, it took three days but the vineyard is all mowed. I mowed each section twice - the first time in the morning at four inches - as high as the mower would go. I’d then have lunch and take care of other stuff while the plants stood back up again. Then, around 2, I’d mow again at 2.5 inches...

Well, how things change in a month! I started mowing the cover crop yesterday- look at the difference between this picture and the one in post 204. In many places the crop is higher that the cordons - e.g. more than 36 inches!

Welcome to WMT! As for mixing and matching the rows, I would put some kind of marker on the support post designating what it is - and make a map of the vineyard so you have the same info on paper as vineyard markers fade over time… trust me on that one - fabric ribbons, paint, and sharpies...

Thanks. I often have empties for a month or two. I like to bottle in July or August and then reuse the barrel with the harvest that fall - so typically adding wine in September or October. That window of time has been the subject of much discussion- store it full of something so it doesn’t dry...

One topic which doesn’t seem to have a single answer - just a lot of opinions here in the local home winemaking community is how best to store a barrel between uses. So what do you put in a barrel that will not be needed for wine for say 3-6 months? How about less than a month?

I don’t usually press this early. As long as it is descending steadily, I don’t like to mess with progress. Only exception where I pressed “early” was the problem child when the Brix started bouncing back up during the day and down at night. We were stuck with that wine at 8ish at that point.

Progressing nicely! And yes, Templeton is the town just to the south of Paso. Home to the “famous” Templeton gap which is a space in the coastal mountains between the Paso region and the coast. This gap allows for the cool ocean breezes in the summer time which cause our large diurnal shift.

We’ve had nice weather the last few days - even hit 80 yesterday. As a result, bud break is here. Saturday there was one Grenache vine with visible leaves (picture below). Yesterday, there were too many too count. All of the varietals except the Mourvèdre had at least one vine with visible...

Thanks… since we hit 80 here yesterday, I wasn’t sure if the ambient temperature was impacting your measurements. It sure is impacting my grape vines - bud break galore yesterday.

Given the recent temperatures in California, I’m curious what the ambient temperature is when you take the temperature of the ferments. Would it be a hassle to include that in your measurements?

Nice to see the project moving to the next stage!

Btw - on the trellis system - all you need for year one is a piece of rebar five feet long. Two feet goes in the ground, 3 feet sticks out. If you want to progress beyond that, adding end posts plus two wires, one at 15 to 18 inches (which carries the irrigation tubing) and the second at three...

Yes - I understand you don’t have plants yet - that’s why I said the next round of plants. You will have some failures in your cuttings - if nothing else, the gophers will get their share. The layer approach might help next year in terms of filling in the gaps in your rows. Grow tubes protect...

Hi Codfish I don’t have any experience with rooting cuttings but you might find this video interesting for creating the next round of plants: https://willowcreekwineco.com/farm-updates-&-recipes/f/farm-update-3524-layering-vines As for trellising Cab, what I see locally is cordon trained -...

Welcome to WMT!

Holy cow - perhaps you may need to sacrifice some of the lovely pH and water back....

So a few stats on the "Problem Child" which is what we now call the 23 Zin... We picked up a little more that 1200 pounds of grapes the morning on September 12th and crushed by lunch. We then drew a sample and took it to one of the local labs (joys of living in the Paso Robles area is we have...