Veraison

Just a touch ahead of schedule, which is surprising because the blackberries and plums were a bit later than normal and summer has progressed fairly enough so that excessive heat has certainly not been cause for a hastening of a vegetative 'throwing in of the towel,' the grapes have colored up and started softening. Zinfandel is persnickety as hell so you'll see green berries and black, shriveled raisins on the same plant even at harvest, so at veraison is no surprise. But the vineyard as a whole is definitely shifting from second to third gear... right now. The correct answer to the 'Intro to Viticulture' exam question "When do you harvest?" is "When your winemaker tells you to." But on this full moon I anticipate that he instructs us to start on the next.

Crop looks good. Berries seem a little smaller than normal; number of clusters looks a little higher. Stands to reason because spring 2006 was warm and sunny after a very wet winter, facilitating good cluster / tendril differentiation from the anlagen, yet winter 2007 was relatively dry, stressing fruit production, especially for unirrigated vines.

The novice's lessons learned from the 107 year old section:

1. Kicker canes are utterly useless for old, moderately erect vines if the goal is increased trunk vigor. By the time foliage from shoots from buds #3 forward on the unpruned canes have unfurled and start contributing to photosynthate production, the vine is well into shoot production and water transport, favoring traditionally preserved buds and, unfortunately, suckers. The other leaves have already unfurled and matured. I hypothesize that this is a function of gravity versus xylemic adhesion. I doubt I'll ever test that hypothesis.

2. Kicker canes are useful (but only in as much as they're intended as new trunk) for fallen vines, as long as the fallen vine is still moderately vigorous. Whether one or three kicker canes were preserved, and regardless of whether the basal buds on those canes were removed, and regardless of whether suckers were removed regularly through the growing season, the kicker canes (hereafter referred to as new trunks) responded with stronger cane thickening relative to suckers. Fruit load can damage (or at least misshape) bearing shoots, particularly on fallen vines whose new trunks had their lower buds removed.

3. A spike in the population of gophers is followed by a spike in the population of rattlesnakes, not a spike in the population of gopher snakes. Gophigure.

4. Severe pruning (1/3 # preserved shoots) of fallen vines, without preservation of kicker canes for new trunks, intensified the dominance of suckers over the 2-3 year resurgent arms. Perhaps new root systems have been established over the years. Perhaps the head still retains cohesiveness even if up to 1" below ground level.

5. Persistent removing of suckers only noticeably benefits (shoot growth and fruit production on) moderately erect vines.

6. A largely feral, Siamese barn cat is arguably the most beautiful creature on earth.

7. If the vine is low in vigor, whether fallen or erect, it does not respond well to any of the treatments.

8. Nothing beats a good hat.

Good enough results. In short, trying to arrive at the one best strategy is a deceptive errand. There are three, including expanded use of the 'replant that spot' solution.

For moderately erect vines with moderate vigor: Normal pruning, no kicker canes. Cut suckers regularly through the year. Restake just in case.

For fallen vines of moderate vigor: Restake with two kicker canes, to have the dominant one chosen at next year's pruning as the new trunk. Do NOT cut suckers over first growing season, as they do not seem to detract from new trunk growth, while obviously providing significant photosynthate contribution to trunk / root reserves as well as fruit production (keeping vines in production during rehabilitation is strongly preferred). Also do not remove buds from new trunk below new head on either candidate shoot as would be done on replanted vine. After year two or three they can be treated as above.

For low-vigor vines, whether fallen or moderately erect, replant. These should be treated like the blank spaces (missing vines), which account for 10% of the vineyard anyway.

As a final note, I'll simply add that Vitis vinifera seems to enjoy attention and company; few things compare to getting snockered up on homebrew and napping in a field of ancient grapevines.