(2014 Wine Grape Growing Season Notes From Kiler Canyon
Vineyard, Westside Paso Robles)
What's Happening in the Vineyard
Growing Season Timing:
The dates of bud break (first opening of buds into leaves) and flowering are
good indications of whether the growing season is early, normal or late. Syrah and Grenache plants were at 50%
flowering two weeks ago 5/07/14. This is approximately 3 weeks
earlier than normal for the past 5 years.
Right now, these same Syrah and Grenache vines have reached fruit set
which is when the grape flower has been pollinated and now forms a tiny
berry. An indication of the degree of
fruit set is what percentage of the flowers have turned into berries.
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| Grenache fruit set 5-28-2014 |
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| Grenache bud break 3-15-2014 |
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| Grenache flowering 5-14-2014 |
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| LXV Shiraz/Syrah block, Kiler Canyon Vineyard |
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| Grenache, Clone C, Kiler Canyon Vineyard |
Water: The growing
season has been wonderfully cool, leading to less need to irrigate and vines
with almost no exposure to heat stress at this time.
Last year, we started honey bee keeping and have become aware
that many man-made chemicals applied to vineyards are very toxic to bees. So, a year ago, we stopped utilizing chemical
fungicides in the vineyard. As a result, all of our powdery mildew sprays are natural materials such as stylett oil, sulfur
and etc. More on the (etc.) and bees in a
later writing.
Future Weeks: Next in
the vineyard, these new berries need to grow to full size. The period for cell division growth in the
grape berry is about 6 weeks. This is a
critical period in the development of a berry as it is the largest factor determining
berry size which we like to be as small as practical. The smaller the berry is larger the berry surface
area/volume ratio becomes. The large
surface area/volume ratio leads to increasing influence of berry skin vs berry
pulp on the characteristics of the fruit and increased concentration of the
fruit at harvest.
Conclusion: So If this temperate weather continues, I am looking forward to a banner growing
season with much room for the extended hang time required to get each varietal to optimum ripeness.
Cheers,
Don Hofer
About Don Hofer: Don Hofer retired as a research chemist from the Research Division of IBM in 2000. At IBM he pursued
the research & development of materials for semiconductor lithography. After retiring Don planted 25.5 acres of wine grapes on their property in Kiler Canyon, Paso Robles. In addition to continually learning the art and science of viticulture, Don has the hobbies of honey bee keeping and furniture building. He says his new goal in life is to become a master furniture builder.
LXV Wine sources two clones of Syrah (including the Estrella clone) from Don!
