Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: 2009 July

Hello,

Now let's see, where did we leave off... Ah yes, we are preparing for the harvest of the year!

Well, the vines are certainly doing their part. They have full vibrant green canopies, enough fruit to make at least one bottle of wine (each), and enough photosynthetic surface to power a small factory. Wait a minute, they are small factories! They just have not been signed up for "cap and trade" yet. I bet those Cabernet vines could use the credits.

Thankfully our Congress is in recess, if only for a month, and is taking time to attend local "Town Hall" meetings. This is the citizenry's opportunity to provide direct input and "Specific High Intensity Training" to our elected representatives. I encourage everyone to vigorously participate, regardless of your rootstock choice.

Now, let me tell you what it has been like here for the vines in July 2009. We have recorded about 532 degree days for the month of July, providing a total of 1,100 degree days since the beginning of the growing season on April 1st. This compares with 531 degree days last July and comparative total of 993 degree days for 2008 (consistent, no?) and 1,054 degree days for 2007. In 2006 we had accumulated 1,246 degree days through the end of July. Personally, I think consistency is usually the hobgoblin of large homogeneous organizations, or disorganizations like... Congress, but I digress.

During July, our highest high was 101.0 and our lowest high was 997.1 Our lowest low was 41.0 and our highest low was 43.9 degrees Fahrenheit. The rainfall for July was a blowout of 0.93 inches and was 0.90 inches above last July's rain of 0.03. Rainfall since April 1st through July 31st was 7.93, and is 5.20 inches more than last year's growing season to date rainfall of 2.73 inches.

Let's explore degree days for a minute. Conceptually, degree days are the way humans try and understand the vines response to temperature, and more importantly the growing season in total. The traditional formula is to average the high and low temperature of the day and subtract 50. Resulting positive number gives us the degree days for that day. The vascular tissue of the vine (think sap in a tree), is usually pretty dormant below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. So we make this a baseline in our calculations.

Here is where I differ from the traditional program. I use data loggers to take temperature readings every 20 minutes, day or night, rain, wind or shine. This gives us the average temperature for the day, and we download the information each month for a monthly total, and finally an April through October summation (Northern hemisphere growing season.) This gives us a more accurate reading of what the vine is experiencing. That, and we simply ask them.

August will bring the third, and hopefully, final hedge pass. We are thinning and making all the necessary preparations for September 23rd. This is the 105th day past flowering.

Ernie