Vintage Update: 2024 Earth Day and Bud Break
Hello and Welcome,
It’s that time of year in the Willamette Valley. Spring has sprung and the Pinot Noir vines are breaking bud. It won’t be long now until we have the vineyard bedangled with tons and tons of wine berries. And we are ready. The pruning is done, the wires are slack and the agricultural equipment is greased and ready to go. How far it goes, however, remains to be seen. Vintage 2024, Bring It On!
Earth Day is Upon Us
Monday, April 22nd is Earth Day this year. It’s been a while, but we still remember when Kermit the Frog sang: “It’s not easy being green.” But it is getting easier. Back in the day, a green car was what Steve McQueen drove in the movie Bullitt. Not to be outdone, the Chrysler Corporation of old introduced Sublime Dream pigment. Available for 1970 only, paint code FJ5 was more commonly referred to as “Bug Juice Green”. Make mine a Hemi please.
How times have changed. Today green means that your fully electric Ford F-150 Lightning can power your house. You can plug it in during a power outage until the power comes back on, and then leave it plugged in to charge it back up. And if you are using a solar array, that is about as green as you are going to get these days.
As a side note, air travel is not really that green. Consider we are taking the remains of dinosaurs from a millennia ago, and putting their combusted remains at 35,000 feet. Not that there are any charging stations at that elevation, but there has got to be some innovation in this direction. Maybe somebody needs to look up that Gene Roddenberry guy and figure out how to make a transporter work. Or mine some crystals off planet Dilithium. As a species, we did get the mobile communication device to work. Maybe not as soon as other species, but as they say, there is no evidence to support that.
Preview of Coming Attractions
Right. We are here to grow wine. Not just any wine, but that heavenly elixir, Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. And Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Meunier, Syrah and Viognier. Cabernet Franc is still a glimmer in Ernie’s eye.
Today we have bud break. That is when the first new leaves unfurl to greet the vintage head on. Somewhat of a coming out party to remind us that those 35,000 dead looking vine trunks out there are not really dead after all. Well, a couple might be, that is just Mother Nature culling the herd.
It’s all very exciting, shiny and new. Ernie is out mowing the permanent grass rows and turning the soil in our nutrient recycling rows. The vineyard smells like freshy turned earth and it is just divine! He follows that up with our summer cover crop planting of buckwheat and vetch. We grow these little plants with the noble purpose of feeding our vines. They give their all, and he tills them back into the soil just before the fall rains.
April Showers and Pinot Noir Flowers
Flowering is the next big thing in Vintage 2024. Flowers typically spring forth on June 15th. But it can vary widely in the Willamette Valley. The warmer the spring, the earlier the flowering. That may not always be the case, but smart money bets that way.
Flowering is a significant event in the life of the winegrower. For Willamette Vally Pinot Noir, we count out 105 days from flowering and mark the calendar “CLUSTER PLUCK.” Depending on the growing season it may be a few days either way, but 105 days is pretty farming close to where we are going to be.
Fortunately, each variety has its own program and if the rains don’t wash us out, we can schedule each and every one of them into the winey. First, they all get weighed and then we ferment the sugar out of them.
So, get out there, grab a shovel and turn some soil! It will do you, and the earth some good. And for those who believe, Friday is National Hemi Day (4/26). They are out there roaming the asphalt jungle and haunting local drag strips. Newborns are rarely seen. Not as many as there once was, but not yet extinct. Their days are numbered, even the green ones…
Kindest Regards,
Dena & Ernie
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