2009 Growing Season on Spring Mountain

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Permalink Reply by Ron Rosenbrand on September 4, 2009 at 8:26am

Spring Mountain Vineyard 2009 growing season recap
After back to back drought years in 2007 and 2008, we were hoping for some much needed rainfall this past winter. As the months went by, it was very evident that this would be a third consecutive drought year. By the end of January we were actually farther behind in rainfall to date than in either of the two previous years. It was looking disastrous for us. Lower York Creek reservoir was empty and our wells were close to dry from the previous growing season’s use. February saved us as we picked up 15 inches of rainfall. Still well under normal but it made a big difference. March and April were drier than normal and things in the vineyard were drying out fast. By mid April cover crops had turned brown and pressure bomb readings were already beginning to indicate the need for irrigation to the vines. May 1st brought an unusually wet storm to the area! We received 4.05 inches of rainfall by May 6th. You’d have thought I had just won the lottery dancing around for joy as the rain was falling. A FREE irrigation from Mother Nature. Wow, was that ever timely. This was only the 6th time since weather recording started in St. Helena that we broke 4 inches of rainfall for the month of May.
April is the month where things get crazy busy in the vineyard. Suckering is a very time sensitive job which always forces me to increase crew size to keep up with it, especially as temperatures warm and vine shoots grow as much as one inch per day. The seed heads on the cover crop have matured nicely and we start mowing it down. I always walk a fine line waiting for the seeds to mature and not letting the cover get to brown and dry. If you don’t let the cover crop mature, by mowing too early, then you lose the plants ability to regenerate itself for the following year and summer annual weeds and winter perennials take over choking out the cover. If you wait too long there is increased fire danger. We also begin our mildew prevention spray program using strictly organic preventative sprays. We begin fertilizing all blocks through the drip system (fertigation). The vines have really nice growth right now, but then again, everything looks strong and healthy in the spring. Cluster counts are down somewhat from last year. That is entirely expected as the vines struggled for water last year when the bud primordia were developing with this year’s crop.
Bud break was a little later than normal, about 5-7 days. Cool weather during bloom made the bloom period last 10 plus days. This is probably the reason Merlot shattered so badly this year. It seems like Merlot is always coming up with a reason for poor set. The rest of the varietals at Spring Mountain Vineyard set nicely. Nice full clusters, no shatter issues on these.
As is normal in the Napa Valley, there is usually no rainfall during the summer months, so vineyard irrigations are a must at SMV. We carefully monitor C-probe and pressure bomb readings as well as pay close attention to visual appearances of the vines. Irrigations are based on these readings and then carefully planned so we can make it through the growing season without running out of water for the amount of crop that we are trying to mature.
June was much cooler than normal with a solid 3 weeks where temperatures for the most part stayed in the 70’s. Early July also ran cool but had a strong heat wave with 5 days over 100 degrees. The cool weather was great for conserving water as the vines coasted through that period. However, cool weather also increases our risk for mildew. We were on a great spray program, everything was going according to plan, and we still got mildew infection flare-ups in a few blocks. When we found them, we quickly opened up the canopy and applied Kaligreen, which is an organic wash that kills mildew. It worked well and there was no quality damage from the whole mildew problem, just more work. The July heat also helped to kill the mildew. Mildew spores will actually starts to die when temperatures hit 104 degrees. The heat also burned a few leaves and did some minor damage to some exposed clusters, but nothing out of the ordinary.
August seemed to be the most normal month of the growing season. We had our usual warm periods followed by typical cool downs. On average though, the growing season was cooler than normal over the whole period. This actually pushed verasion a few days later than normal. Harvest for SMV now looks to be some 10-14 days later than normal.
So we wait for the vines to mature flavors. We haven’t picked any fruit so far as of today. We will start with Sauvignon Blanc, probably next Tuesday.
Here’s to a great harvest season.
Cheers,
Ron Rosenbrand
Vineyard Manager
Spring Mountain Vineyard

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