S1 EP0002 - In The Vineyard Transcript
The first in our bi-weekly look at what is happening in Finger Lakes Vineyards with Chris Missick
At Viti+Culture, we offer a window into the world of grape growing, winemaking, art, philosophy, culture, and everything that goes in to living a thoughtful, good life. In our bi-weekly interview shows, we feature interviews with leaders in the wine industry, the arts, philosophy, music, and a variety of other topics. Throughout season 1, we will also offer bi-weekly discussions on what is happening in vineyards, what wine growers are thinking and concerned about, and what it is like to have a window into the life of the practitioners of the wine industry. Season 1 will run from April to August, and season 2 will start in November, where we will begin our bi-weekly discussion on winemaking. The cyclical approach of what we do, examining the growing season and then focusing on winemaking after harvest, will be highlighted here as we share what happens in our daily lives in this little slice of heaven. What we do in the Finger Lakes has analogs to every wine growing region in the world, but our timing may be a little different. The Finger Lakes has a propensity to have some warm summers, and the diurnal variation, or the length of the day and the amount of potential sunshine, is greater here than in more southern locations like much of California. The winters can be long and cold, and sometimes brutal. The length of our seasons, combined with the diurnal variation, means things can happen faster during the growing season here in the Finger Lakes, and that will impact our timelines.
These talks will be a crash course, and will be coupled with our upcoming crash course book series that is meant to give the novice a great introduction to these topics, and share with those who are experienced in this industry what the challenges of cold climate grape growing can be.
Throughout this podcast, we’ll be talking about the phases of the grape vine – as we live them. Some folks create clever pneumonic devices to remember these phases – one, such is “Barrels of Extremely Funky Chardonnay Barely Blended Satisfactorily with Pinot to BeCome a Very Mutant Delight.” The first letters of these words stand for Swollen Bud, Bud Burst, Early Shoot Growth, Flat Leaf Stage, Cap Fall, Bloom, Berry Set, Pea Size, Bunch Closure, Veraison, Maturity, and Dormancy. Throughout this podcast and YouTube broadcast, we’ll explore each of these phases in word and image. You’ll see what the term refers to, you’ll hear what the viticulturalist is concerned with, and we’ll do this together as we experience the 2021 vintage.
Some episodes will be short, some long. I’ll take you into my vineyard, and the vineyards of my friends. Feel free to ask questions along the way. Just leave them in the comment sections of Apple podcasts, Substack, YouTube, or send us an e-mail. This first episode is being recorded as we await in anticipation, the growing season to begin.
So where are we now, here in early April, and what are people thinking? It depends really, on where you are with your vineyard. There are basically, three points you can be at. First, you have some land where you would to plant grapes. Second, you have ordered your vine material, and you planting this year. And third, you have a vineyard, whether it is in its second year, or thirtieth year. Let’s take a look at what people are doing.
If you have a piece of land, and you have decided you would like to plant grapes, it’s important to get understanding of what the soil is like. Soil tests basically require reaching to a soil testing company, and receiving a shipment of small boxes based on the number of soil tests you’ll want to do. You’ll want to take samples from all over the site. Taking samples usually just requires removing the first layers of topsoil, digging a small hole, and filling up the box provided. The testing company will be able to give you a breakdown of important information for your site – the nutrient load of thee soils, including nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, the pH of the soils, and the soil profile. All of these are important to help you decide how viable your site is for planting wine grapes. In our soils book, which will be released soon, we explain all of these key facets in much more depth. Depending upon your results and the prior use of the land, you’ll consider planting crops that will impact the nutrient load of the soil. For example, legumes such as soybeans and clover, will help rebuild the amount of nitrogen in the soil. Before we ever planted our vineyard, we worked with a local organic farmer for four years to help rebuild the soil health, and ensure our baby vines would get a good start.
If you have gone through the efforts to understand your soil in previous years, you’ve probably decided that now is the time to plant vines. In the Finger Lakes, we deal with a lot of water and rainfall. For us, it is more important to get excess water out of the vineyard, because as we say, vines hate wet feet. Drain tile installation relies on an understanding of the topography of your land, and is basically just perforated pipe that allows the water to move through and be evacuated from the site. Drain tile was actually invented in the Finger Lakes, and as a result, we’re home to the drain tile museum. So prior to planting, you’ll want to get that drain tile installed, and then do a final prep of the land to get the vines in the ground.
In some instances, a vineyard may have been installed the previous year, and with our relatively mild winter between 2020-2021, you’ve seen your vines are ready to be trained up onto the trellis. As a result, you’re probably installing your trellis system now. This is a crucial step. You’ll want to do this before the buds on the canes swell and bud break occurs, because you don’t want to inhibit this years growth by damaging those buds. In the coming weeks, we’ll be going into these topics in detail.
Finally, this time of year, everyone in the Finger Lakes is finishing up the last bit of pruning on their vines. Because our temperatures can get so low in the winter, we tend to prune our vinifera vines later into the winter, or the first few weeks of spring. The extremely cold temperatures can damage young buds, we experienced this in 2014, and that damage can result in harm to the buds, which will be this year growth and fruit. A grape vine bud actually contains three buds – a primary, secondary and tertiary bud. Fruit will generally grow primarily from the primary bud, which is also the most susceptible to damage. The tertiary bud will support the growth of the canopy, but will rarely if ever produce fruit. Waiting until later in the season to prune means that if we have an extreme cold event, we will have the option to leave more buds on the canes to ensure we will get some kind of crop that year.
For those new to grape growing, it is astonishing to see just how much growth can come from a grapevine in a given year. It’s also important to remember that it is only the canes which grew in the previous year will actually produce fruit. If we did not prune, or even if we do not prune enough of the vine, there will be so much growth in this growing season that the vine would be nearly impossible to maintain. All of the extra growth will be vectors for disease, the leaves – which we call the canopy – would have a hard time drying out, and the vine itself may be stressed by all of the energy it expends. Looking at a vine that has been pruned may make it feel bare, but it is one of the most important tasks we do every year.
For now, aside from pruning, which is largely complete, general maintenance will be the order of the day. Repairing trellis’, conducting some vineyard floor maintenance and perhaps seeding for a cover crop, and thinking about the application of some pre-emergent sprays are all on the minds of growers. It is also the calm before the storm, before bud break happens and the vinegrowth kicks into high gear.