Vineyard Update

So we are into June now, and the vines are pushing our shoots like crazy.  Volunteers are busy keeping things in check, ripping of suckers and tying up the canes.  For this year we decided that we not let anything flower or fruit, so we are also pinching off any little clusters that form.  We want to keep the vine concentrating on growth and root production at this point.

Nice spacing on nodes

We can always use more volunteers for this work.  We have tried to break the vineyard down into rows with volunteers "adopting" the basic maintenance on a particular row (or more!).  At this point we have 21 rows, with only 11 being looked after.  If there is anybody out there willing to help, let me know and it will much appreciated.

Winter Damage

Winter kill on Cab Libra

On closer inspection, we actually sustain a bit more winter damage then initially thought.  A number of the canes that we laid over got hit hard, with little or no bud production.  On most of these we had to start over again from lower shoots.  It was an especially cool winter and new vines are so fragile they could not handle it.  The worst hit variety was the Blattner "Cab Libra".  It sustained damage in close to 35% of the row.  We are hoping there  will be some action from shoots coming off the roots and a better success rate next year.

Events:

We had a very successful Red Wine and Food Pairing session on May 31, presented by Linda Harrop and myself.  We had 10 participants involved, tasting Gehringer Brothers 2012 Pinot Noir, Skimmerhorn 2011 Marechal Foch and Kalala 2009 Organic Zweigelt.  The Zweigelt was by far the choice of all.  Thanks to all who came out and the Burton Learning Centre for sponsoring the event.  Maybe a Sparkling wine event in the Fall?

June 20-21 is Burton City Daze.  ALGGS will be working with the Burton Barleys Baseball putting on the beer garden.  Come on out and support the event, loads of activities, dinner, music etc.  If you are interested in helping out  in the beer garden, let me know.