Amalie Robert Estate Climate Update: 2010 May

Hello and Welcome,

This is the climate update for the month of May 2010. "What a long, cool Spring it's been..." Or something like that.

Despite having an earlier bud break on April 16, as compared to April 22nd in 2009, we have had a cold and wet month of May. The result is "Cabin Fever" and a late bloom period. Bloom is also known as fruit set (hopefully), and that is when the clock to harvest starts ticking. Typically, we need about 105 days from fruit set until we are getting busy in the winery. The longer we wait for bloom, the later the harvest will be. From a farmer's point of view this translates into higher risk of fall rains, bird damage and bunch rot. But it is still early, and June looks to be quite nice. Hope springs eternal.
Here are the numbers. We have recorded about 85 degree days from April 1 through May 31. This is significantly less than the 200+/- degree days for the same period in 2007 thru 2009. During May, our highest high was 82.3 and our lowest high was 77.4 Our lowest low was 31.7 (brrrr) and our highest low was 32.5 degrees Fahrenheit. The rainfall for May was 2.64 inches and was about 1.60 inches less than last May's rainfall of 4.24 inches. Year to date rainfall is 25.51 inches compared with last year's 18.96 inches.
It's what makes the grass grow - rain that is, and we have had plenty of that. As luck would have it, Ernie was able to recycle last year's cover crop including the pruning's and drill in the new summer cover crop blend of Buckwheat and hairy vetch before most of the late May rains arrived. The result is a pretty nice stand of cover crop that will provide cover for beneficial insects over the summer.
Our next key event is bloom, aka fruit set, and that is typically around the 15th of June. Based on the weather so far, it seems that bloom is about as far away as the next global warming summit. But just in case it sneaks up on us, we are raising our first set of catch wires and clipping the shoots in place. When the heat wave hits, the vines will explode with growth. It is not uncommon to see nearly an inch of growth a day under hot conditions with adequate soil moisture.

If anyone needs a few minutes of "office vacation" time why not tour the erma? http://www.ermunch.com/projects/winery.html Outstanding content and a hip new design await your visit. A mouse click away will LEED you there, and NO carbon footprints left behind for the Green Police to track you down!

Kindest Regards,

Ernie