Harvest is Approaching

The vineyard is now past full veraison, and varieties such as Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot are near harvest. I have a few picks scheduled for the end of this coming week. So, it seems we have a slightly early/average harvest for 2023.

July was very warm, and the first two weeks of August were the same. Then, in mid-August, temperatures climbed, and we experienced several extremely hot, dry days. The result was some fruit shrivel, though not much. We anticipated a potential problem from the heat due to freeze damage to the vascular system during December and proactively applied water to the plants every day of the heat spell. I believe the extra water helped us avoid high levels of heat damage and protect both yields and fruit quality.

We have the crew removing clusters now. We have completed all the Merlot blocks, and most of the Chardonnay and fruit quality looks excellent.

Veraison Underway

We are beginning to see some veraison in the vineyard, a berry here and there, and If things keep moving as they are, we will have an early-to-typical veraison and hopefully harvest. Cluster morphology looks very good. Smaller and looser clusters suggest excellent wine quality.

Most of our canopy management is complete, including leafing, and we will soon begin to adjust for crop loads. I am trying to hold off on this until we are further into veraison due to potential issues from the winter freeze bud damage. Fruit will tend to ripen according to the bud type producing the fruit: primary, secondary, or tertiary. Secondary and tertiary grapes usually develop after the primary shoot. This will show up during veraison and allow us to choose the best and most uniform fruit for the highest quality wine. We will begin adjusting crop loads now in a few blocks that have produced excessive clusters per plant.

In short, the vineyard looks very good, and we expect a much earlier harvest than is typical. More soon.

Weather Keeps Us Guessing

Bud break looked like it was going to be early for 2022. April was reasonably warm, buds were beginning to swell, and I anticipated the start of things the third week of April. But, about mid-April, we got hit with cold weather and snow, and the cold temps hung around, so bud break is now later than usual, beginning in May, and is just about complete. The cold weather we received in mid-April caused a small amount of damage to the primary buds, even though there were no leaves out yet. The damage was minimal.

Unseasonably cold has continued, and last night temperatures reached as low as 31 degrees, so we started up the wind machines at 3 am. We expect similar conditions tonight. Since I arrived at  Stillwater Creek in 2011, this is the first time we have had a freeze after, or during, bud break. This unseasonable weather somehow figures, though. We had the hottest summer in history in 2021, so why not throw a little unseasonably cold weather at us this spring? I think this is why they call it farming.

In other news around the vineyard, we have installed our double-sided weeder bar on our tractor, another step in our efforts to promote sustainable farming, and we will soon begin shoot selection. Another vintage is upon us.

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Cool Weather, Then HOT!

We are well into the 2021 growing season now. April was reasonably mild/warm, and bud break was a little earlier than usual, with full bud break in early May. The first week in May was warm then became cooler than normal the second week of the month, with the cool weather persisting through the end of the month. Due to the overall cool May weather, shoot growth was slightly less than normal, though still adequate. The first week of June was very warm, but as in May, the temperatures cooled during the second week and remained cooler than average until the last week of June. So, shoot growth was a little behind normal due to the cooler temperatures in May through the third week of June. Then, during the last week of June, we experienced a heat event with temperatures climbing as high as 115 degrees. The extreme temperatures continued into early July, cooling down to the upper 90’s to low 100’s July 5-10; still very hot.

We shut down all canopy management activities during the extreme heat, such as shoot positioning and leaf removal activities, to avoid fruit and leaf burn. As a result, the vineyard came through the high heat event with little damage. We also irrigated the entire vineyard daily to avoid heat damage. Keeping continual water on the vineyard and shutting down canopy work saved the vineyard from sun and heat damage.

Bloom began during the second week of June, and during which time we experienced very high winds. The high winds accompanied by the cool weather yielded a lower bloom set in the Cabernet Sauvignon, which already had low cluster counts this year, so that Cabernet Sauvignon yields will be low. Sauvignon Blanc cluster counts are also down this year.

Royal Slope is Washington’s Newest AVA


The Royal Slope is Washington State’s newest American Viticultural Area the TTB announced today, exciting news for wineries sourcing grapes from Stillwater Creek situated in the heart of the new AVA. The designation will differentiate the growing region from other areas of the Columbia Valley and help consumers further appreciate the quality and distinct character of the wines.

The Royal Slope, a sub-appellation of the Columbia Valley located on the south-facing slopes of the Frenchman Hills, is Washington State’s 15th AVA. It encompasses over 156,000 acres in Grant and Adams counties. The growing region is classified as warm but not excessively hot, in part due to the area’s elevation — 1,300 feet on average, compared to 600 feet on the Wahluke Slope, an AVA 15 miles south. These factors, along with the AVA’s steep, south-facing slopes, define the growing region.

Veteran Washington winemaker Mike Januik first visited Stillwater Creek in 1999 to consult on the vineyard’s planting. “I was immediately impressed by the site’s elevation and soils,” he recalls. “Unlike other growing regions surrounding the area, Stillwater Creek’s soils are distinguished by a large amount of fractured basalt. At an elevation of 1200-1500 ft., the soils found here are unlike soils deposited by the Great Missoula flood in neighboring appellations, further differentiating the Royal Slope from other vineyards outside the boundaries of the AVA.”

Stillwater Creek is also distinguished by its exceptional selection of premium varietal clones, including seven clones of Cabernet Sauvignon (2, 4, 6, 8, 47, 169 and 191) and four clones of Syrah (1, 174, 300 and Phelps). The site’s varying topography creates diverse mesoclimates, allowing a wide range of grape varieties to thrive here.

A Late June Report

Though bud break this year was earlier than 2019, bloom was later than 2019  due to cold, rainy  weather that started in mid-May and persisted through mid-June. In fact, we are receiving our first warm days of the year this week. Yesterday was about 90 degrees.

In a week I will report on fruit set. I am sure that there will be some shatter due to the weather we had during bloom.  I like to see a little shatter because these berries fall off the clusters, and it opens up the vine to more sunlight and better coloring of the fruit. 

The vineyard looks excellent at present. We are ahead of schedule on leafing, along with our second pass of cordon suckering. Whenever possible, we want to have the leafing complete before the berries become large — my preference is by the times berries are pea-sized. This allows the berries to acclimate to the sun and heat resulting in thicker skins that are more resistant to burn later in the season. When leafing is carried out too late and the berries are large, the fruit is more susceptible to sunburn and heat stress.

Another important tool that we have to create better fruit quality at this time is to minimize the vigor of the vine. Around the time when the berries are pea-sized. they are going through rapid cell division. If we can limit the total number of cells in the berries, we can keep berry size down; and smaller berries typically make better wines.

Vintage 2020 to Date

The weather in April was on the warm side and led to an early-average bud break, but the rapid development of buds from early bud swell to the unfurling of the leaves was unusual. With warm and dry weather, the vines exploded into bud break with little separation in bud break between varieties.

The weather following bud break remained warm until the second week of May when temperatures cooled, and it began raining frequently, with rainfall intervals becoming more frequent of late. To combat the wet weather, we are paying extra attention to canopy management. Our crew has completed cordon suckering and is now working on a leafing pass. An open canopy is crucial to a healthy vineyard and wine quality, and we are ahead of schedule here.

Denise Bonilla, who will be taking over for his father Regulo next year, has been doing a phenomenal job working with the crew this spring. Congratulations to Dennis who earned his master’s degree in Viticulture from Washington State University this spring. The crew is working efficiently and effectively under his leadership, and we are taking extra measures to keep everyone safe through COVID-19. We take temperature readings of every crew member before the work day begins, people are working at least two rows apart on all operations, vehicles are being sanitized regularly, and social distancing is followed during break time and lunch.

Bloom is now underway. We’ll have to wait and see if this season’s rain will impact fruit set, as it often does. A slighted reduced set, meaning fewer berries remaining in the cluster after pollination, can lead to high quality fruit. Slightly looser clusters allow light to penetrate the vine, developing fruit with high color pigmentation.

 

2019 Mid-Season Growing Report

Bloom is behind us (see dates by blocks), and we have now completed cordon suckering, trunk suckering, shoot positioning and hedging, and the leafing process is well underway too. Following leafing, we will begin crop load adjustments. So far, the canopy and fruit look great, and shoot growth is excellent. Here’s today’s look at Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, along with a few pictures of Sauvignon Blanc. 

Fruit set has varied around the vineyard due to rains and high winds during bloom. For the most part fruit set is good, but there are a few areas where it has been light. We will begin cluster counts soon in order to make adjustments for target crop loads.

The weather this year has been a little unusual. In general the temperatures have been slightly cooler than normal and have either been very warm or cool, with extreme fluctuations. Along with the temperature swings, we have had numerous thunderstorms, but I am happy to report the vineyard is free of mildew that sometimes accompanies such conditions.

Weed control has been a bit of an issue this season, in large measure due to the constant winds that have accompanied extreme temperatures. Because of snowy, cold temperatures conditions in February, weeds did not begin to grow until after bud break. We are finally getting control of situation, however. The purchase of two weed eaters and hand-mowing where needed has helped.

Fast Start to 2019

The first major benchmark of the 2019 growing season is behind us. Bud break is complete, and like 2018, it proceeded rapidly. Dates for bud break by block can be found here.

The weather has been very warm this spring and we now have up to 4” of growth in some blocks. I began irrigating last week and am applying some nutrients to give the vines a boost, including boron, potassium, phosphorus, zinc and calcium. These are very important nutrients for the beginning stages of growth, so we are coming in early with them. 

Calcium and boron are particularly important at this point in the year. Calcium helps move water and nutrients through the vine and creates strong cell walls. It is also very important to the photosynthetic process. The boron helps with early season shoot growth, creating strong vertical growth while minimizing lateral shoot growth. When boron levels are deficient, shoot growth is stunted and many lateral shoots tend to grow; this is not a great combination for wine quality so we begin adjusting for it now.

View photos.

Pruning Underway Despite Weather Delays

We usually start pruning the first or second week of February, but we started about two weeks later this year due to cold, snowy weather throughout February and into early March.

Prior to February, the weather was mild with very little precipitation. I was concerned about a potential early bud break and set up the crew to begin pruning the first week of February. The day we were to begin work, temperatures dropped into the single digits and it began snowing − much too cold for the crew to work. These conditions lasted through much of February and though the weather wasn’t ideal, we began pruning in mid-February, with over a foot of snow on the ground. Last week, the weather finally made a dramatic change, and daytime temperatures were in the 50’s.

Pruning is progressing well. The crew is doing excellent work, and we hope to be complete with this by mid-April. Most of last year’s crew is back again this year, a real plus for the 2019 growing season.

Despite the challenges, the snowy weather has made for some beautiful scenery across the Royal Slope and Saddle Mountains. Enjoy the view!