California is running out of water

This could be a record bad year for wines, which could result in decreased supplies and increased cost across the board. In France, they are predicting 30% lower yields than normal due to the late frost early in the season. In California, they are reducing their yield on purpose by cutting some of the grape clusters off to concentrate moisture in the remaining clusters to save the crop altogether. 

Many of the classic winemaking towns have restricted water supplies. Some have even denied farmers access to the reservoirs completely. Nearly 1000 landowners in Mendocino county were told there wasn't enough water for them. An emergency law passed enables the government to prohibit people from diverting water. All these people flocked to the sunshine in the west without considering if they could survive there. What to do when you have millions of people and drought for two years in a row? The Russian River valley known for its vineyards is in dire straits with farmers trucking water to their vineyards. The Dixie Fire in the Sierra Nevada is the largest wildfire in Calfornia's history. 

When the NY Times does an article about vineyards suffering, you know it's bad. But it's a really interesting article about two different methods of growing grapes. One manages the vineyard without watering and other interventions, the other waters in interesting patterns. It seems that watering in vineyards causes the grapes to keep their roots shallow. Avoiding watering encourages the vines to grow deep roots in search of water thereby increasing their resilience to other climatic conditions and pestilence. 

We've decided not to water and once again we seem to have made a decision that makes sense without us knowing so scientifically. But it makes sense to me that if vines grow long above ground they would have to grow long roots below ground to anchor themselves. And they do. 

Curiously, when we first moved here, there were no mushrooms growing on the land. Since we planted trees, we've got many varieties of mushrooms popping up all over the place, suggesting that the earth is returning to a natural vegetative state and the fungi have moved in. That means the land is healing itself and for that I am grateful. Land that has fungi should retain moisture better and should also drain better as they add structure to the soil that enables penetration. 

As of the 12th of August, at 122 mm, we've already had twice as much rain as in all of June or July. The grapes are finally getting plumper. But do they have the time to get to a nice size before veraison?

 

PS Hamel Family Wines switched their vineyard to dry farming with excellent results. 

More work on the Polytunnel

 

We now have electricity and water in the polytunnel. It's really nice to have those done. Without water, I couldn't bring any plants up. But it was a big job. Alex had to dig a ditch from the field to the garage and around three sides of the polytunnel. That's a long way. 

First, the yellow drain pipe around the polytunnel for drainage. Then an electric wire from the garage to the tunnel and up into the field for the electric fence. Finally, a water hose from the field down to the tunnel and on to the garage. 

I shlepped stones and clods of dirt to fill in when all was confirmed in working order. Finally, I topped it all off with the remaining soil that had been dug up. 

Alex has straightened the door surround which got flexed when the plastic was made taught, causing a poor fitting of the doors. Then he continued with building the shelving and stand for the farmhouse sink. It's all coming together. 

My rotating composting drum has arrived but it had a broken wheel which was replaced by the company within a couple of days. Now I just have to continue to level the soil so we can finish the floor. 

Polytunnel works

 

Alex bought wood and supplies from the Coop last week and we schlepped it all up the hill to the polytunnel. While he continued to dig a trench up to the water trough, he also started to build the raised beds. 

He's brought electricity up to the tunnel and water down from the field, although the water is not quite plumbed yet. He found an old disused farmhouse sink at Ross, which I have cleaned up after years of being neglected in the barn. That we shall set up by the door. It will do just fine. 

I have rescued a stainless steel table we had been using in the nursery as a rooting table and cleaned that up to use as a potting table in the tunnel. Alex is planning to build shelving along the east wall. The progress is slow but steady. 

Now that we have electricity and soon will have water, I can start setting up the seating area. Table and chairs, potted plants, peach tree, Avocado tree, Fig tree, Rose of Sharon, Acer (red), Kiwis, Citrus tree (to be added), eating grape. What else?  Possibly a hammock or two...

Now that I am fully vaccinated, I'll feel free to go shopping for more stuff in a couple of weeks. 

The science of wine

Original edition cover.

Current edition.

Being a scientist by training, I would naturally be attracted to the scientific side of things, although I do believe that viniculture is as much an art as it is a science, perhaps even with a little witchcraft thrown in. Maybe like in the book Blessed are the Cheesemakers we should be humming the Sound of Music to the grapevines to make them grow luscious grapes.

Anyway, this title -- The science of wine -- by Jamie Goode caught my attention.  Curiously, the first edition has a subtitle FROM VINE TO GLASS. The second edition in the photo has the same subtitle and was published by University of California Press and is being sold for $39.95.  The copy I purchased has the title Wine Science and subtitle The Application of Science in Winemaking. Personally, I prefer the simpler from vine to glass which says it all without redundancy. The publisher's name, Mitchell Beazley, also appears on the cover of my edition, which is confusing as I have never heard of that imprint and it looked just like another author's name. That version is available on amazon for $23-26 and shows it being shipped from the UK. Not to be confused with the Wine Science, Fourth Edition: Principles and Applications (Food Science and Technology) July 7, 2014 by Ronald S. Jackson which sells for $122.45 in print and $77 in Kindle. All versions are hardcover. Confused yet? I was but it is worth the effort.

Current edition, different publisher?

The fact that the second edition was released April 1, 2014 makes it that much more interesting to me, as it's not only April Fool's Day it is my namesake day. Yes, St. Daria's Day is April 1. But I wonder why they changed the title. The edition I have shows up with a publication date of April 10, 2014.  So what made them change it between April 1 and April 10? It may be that one is published in the US and the other in the UK but why would both be available in both places. And why change it to a title that is already in use. Plus the author released a Kindle only supplement which has the chapters that were cut from the second edition but appeared in the first edition. Among them was the chapter on the effect of global warming, so naturally I had to buy that, too.

But anyway, I seriously digressed.  The book is divided into three sections. In the Vineyard, In the Winery, and Our Interaction with Wine.  That makes a lot of sense. As I sat down to read it, I was pleasantly surprised by the author's style. It is not overly scientific but rather quite readable.  The author's own knowledge and experience is supplemented by analysis of the most current scientific literature and interpretation by experts in each of the fields. It is a rich mixture of fact and opinion that he presents the reader.

The first part covers everything that affects the vineyard from the biology of the plants, terroir in terms of soil structure and climate, the interaction between roots and elements in the soil, key diseases and pests, different theories of plant management, biodynamics in the vineyard, moisture control and stress, and trellis systems, pruning and canopy management.  In a short 87 pages, I felt the author had imparted a wealth of knowledge that would serve us well in growing the grapes for the first few years.  I will come back to this book time and again.