Vineyard
The Vineyards – 2006/2007
During the 2006 and 2007 growing seasons, our vineyards took a firm hold on advancing maturity. With our vine structure having been established in 2004 and 2005, we concentrated on extending all cordons (the arms on each vine) to the fullest length our vine spacing will allow, which is about 2.5 feet in each direction. This establishes the ‘fruiting zone’ where our grape bunches will develop. Cordons of 2.5 feet in length produce between 8 and 12 ‘spurs’ per vine. (A ‘spur’ is the growth that emerges from a cordon ‘node’, where 2 bunches or clusters of grapes are created) If we average 10 spurs per vine, each vine will establish about 20 grapes clusters. This is the fruit production level we seek, and have designed into our vineyards. Remember, grapes are nourished through the same root systems, trunks and cordons, whether there are 20 clusters per vine, or 120 per vine. The fewer there are, the more concentrated the energy is directed to each cluster, allowing for maximum development of the grapes and their flavors.
Our 2006 harvest brought us 28 tons of our 5 Bordeaux varietals. With these 28 tons, we crafted 1,750 cases. This expansion of tonnage from 21 in 2005, was due to the above mentioned vine maturity and cordon lengthening. As we gain added cordon length every year on every vine, we see additional nodes appearing, and each new node added with this lengthening, brings 2 more clusters to that vine. Approximately 75% of our 14,500 vines have reached full length. The tonnage increases as more vines mature and extend further. Once full length is established, the existing clusters that develop each season bring added size and weight. The grapes themselves do not necessarily grow larger; there are just more of them per bunch. Grape size is determined by climate, location, soil types, drainage, elevation, temperature etc.
We desire our grapes to remain small, thick skinned and concentrated with flavors, keeping the juices in the grapes minimized. The actual juice of the grape is the least important factor in wine making.
In previous years we have explained our VSP system. (Vertical Shoot Positioning) This system provides a ‘movable wire’ ability to direct the shoot growth that emerges from the ‘spurs’. (which emerged from the cordon nodes) As each shoot grows upward from the spur and cordon, it gains leaves. Each leaf emerges from a newly developed ‘node’ in the shoot stem, effectively establishing a ‘mini’ cordon growing upward. As the shoot grows and additional nodes bring more leaves, the shoot becomes heavy with leaf growth and begins to lean to the side. Once the shoot reaches about 16-18 inches, it is no longer growing upward towards 12 o’clock, but at a 45 degree angle. To return the shoot to the upward position, we raise two wires that are attached at the rows ends to the ‘end posts” and are hanging about the height of the irrigation hoses. These two wires are lifted and placed into clips, located on the interior steel stakes about 8 inches above the ‘fruiting wire’, to which the cordons are securely tied. This clip placement lifts the shoots from the 45 degree angle and re-positions them in the upright position. We lift the wires two more times before their full height is reached.
Management of the trellis systems are a key factor in quality grape production. We continually strive to keep up with the shoot growth, elevating the wires to their proper positioning in order to keep the shoots in the ‘upright’, growing vertical orientation. This is a key in keeping the grape clusters exposed to sunlight and out of a darkened canopy, created by leaf growth. In addition, with the shoots growing upright, ventilation is easily given the canopies, to assist in a minimal requirement of spraying for ‘powdery mildew’, the single, greatest, regularly occurring aggravation in grape growing.
As we approach the 2008 growing season, we prepare for the coming growth pruning our vines. Joaquin, our vineyard foreman going into his 7th season here, continues to work his magic. If you’ve read our previous vineyard updates, you know that Joaquin is our only expert of the pruning art. His assistant, pre-prunes in front of Joaquin, removing the long canes and leaving the critical cuts to the master. Each season, our team (Richard Maier, Mike Hirby and Joaquin) discuss our pruning order, based on the previous season’s ripening. We prune our latest to ripen fruit first, attempting to encourage a longer growing season to allow them more ripening time.
These two practices, timely wire elevating on the trellis systems and our adjusted pruning sequence, are key factors in raising our quality and consistency in fruit production. We are adding another vineyard worker this year to maintain our schedules and to continue to improve these critical cultural practices.
We could not be happier with the continued maturation and development of our 18.5 mountain acres in 2006 and 2007. As 2008 moves forward, our vineyard team eagerly awaits the opportunity to deliver the finest grapes we’ve ever grown, using the combination of our passion, knowledge, experience and commitment to reach even greater heights!
The Vineyard 2005
This year should prove to be an excellent vintage at Saint Helena Road Vineyards. During the rain season, we were blessed to receive our allotment in gentle and small doses. Since we are at the top of the mountain, once rain saturation has occurred, all unused rain cascades down the creek beds, visits our neighbors below and continues down to the valleys. Runoff did not occur this year until May, with every drop of rain prior to that time being absorbed into the ground. The rain total for the season was just short of 59 inches, slightly above average, here at 1800 feet in the Mayacamas. A late burst of storms occurred during May and produced the season’s first flow in the creek beds. These storms were poorly timed, and hit us when our Malbec was in full bloom, reducing our crop of this varietal significantly. This was the only varietal of our 5 that was affected. With most of the bloom flowers knocked off by the only significant storm of the season (4 inches), our crop of Malbec was reduced to 2% of our total harvest, replacing Petit Verdot as the smallest percentage of our blend.
This spring rain, coming in large amounts, put all grape growers in the premium wine region in high gear regarding their mildew control programs. It was later reported that 2005 would be the worst year for mildew pressure in the last 20 years. The fields in Napa and Sonoma were so wet during this spring season that getting equipment into the vineyards to begin mildew preventative spray programs was to say the least, difficult. So, if all we’ve told you so far is true, how can this be a year for an excellent vintage? Remember the old adage, “Location, Location, Location”? Here at our mountain vineyard location, we are blessed to receive constant, mild breezes. Every morning , from the north or south, our property has gentle moving air that blows through the “pass” that travels directly through our 60 acres, drying our vines from the previous night’s moisture in the air. This constant moving air, accompanied by our warm 90 degree temperatures, helps our vines from creating the type of environment that breeds and spreads mildew. In addition, our elevation high in the Mayacamas at 1800 feet, keeps us above most marine layers that blow into the Sonoma Valley, which contain high contents of moisture. This natural environment, along with our VSP trellis system, (vertical shoot positioning) maintains a less dense canopy, which brings more sun into the vines, minimizing our mildew pressure. We use a mineral oil to spray our vines during the spring weeks, which has an excellent protective quality. These circumstances allowed us to apply only minimal applications of mildew preventatives and our losses due to this mold were virtually non-existent.
The temperatures throughout the summer weeks were ideal for growing the 5 Bordeaux varietals. We had only one week of 100 degree temperatures, and most days during the ripening season were in the nineties; ideal weather. Our vines were completely suckered, which reduces the amount of fruit produced on each cordon and maintains balance in the vine. We did a light leaf pull as well, giving our crop proper sun, without exposing the skins to damaging sunburn.
We patiently waited for the ripening grapes, and on September 25, we began the harvest. This is our first harvest working with our new wine consultant, Mike Hirby. Mike is a meticulous wine enthusiast and has a personal connection with the wines he is associated with. Day after day, we tested by refractometer and tasted every row of grapes to find the exact time when the bunches were ready! Every grape we took had the best shot we could give it. Our Foreman, Joaquin, prunes every vine we have and since this procedure takes over 2 months, our vineyard blocks ripen in a sequence according to when they were pruned. This harvest system takes over 6 weeks to complete; row by row, when the grapes achieve their maximum ripeness.
We harvest at night when the grapes are cool. We use only small, bushel baskets and fill each with minimal fruit to avoid any bruising of the bunches. They are transported to the production facility using 6 wheeled “Gator” vehicles and placed in our climate controlled facility to maintain their harvested temperature. They were processed the following morning in this cool and firm condition.
We harvested 20 tons of fruit in 2005, 4+ tons more than 2004. We are anticipating 1200 cases of our “Roy J Maier” Bordeaux style blend this vintage. We believe that our Vintage 2005 will contain 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot, and 2% Malbec.
Our 2005 Vintage fills 50 French Oak Barrels. The initial evaluation of this new wine brings us high hopes for an exquisite vintage. The colors and flavors shown immediately by this vintage are outstanding. We are excited by these results as we patiently await the continued development of this apparently fabulous wine in the making!
The Vineyard 2004
The Year, the Season, the Harvest, the Vintage… however you see it, begins with the art of pruning. Here on the west side of Spring Mountain, the Sonoma side, we begin later than the valley floors, attempting to time the budding of our vines to later in the Spring, when there is a chance we'll miss the heaviest frosts. During this year's pruning the majority of our vine's cordons were tied to the fruiting wires, giving the plant its final form and enabling it to develop an easily managed canopy. Vine by vine, evaluating each plant's needs, Joaquin selected the largest and best positioned canes and established the cordons on to the fruiting wires, letting its length be established by the amount of girth. He pruned our nearly 19 acres in 2 months, targeting March 15 to finish. We rest well at night knowing we have uniformity throughout our vineyards and our foundation for future quality is established.
Our canopies developed in a satisfying fashion during the spring with the use of our movable wires, forming our VSP trellis system (Vertical Shoot Positioning)
This is our second growing season of using soil innoculants and mineral supplements in our drip irrigation system. The concept is to increase microbial activity in our soils which allows the nutrients contained in our soils to become more accessible to our vines. Hocus Pocus you say? We send out leaf samples in June for laboratory analysis. In June 2003 our nutrient readings were established by these leaf samples from our three years of fertilizing our new vineyards. Our challenge, was to use only these soil minerals and innoculants on our vines for a full growing season, using no other chemical fertilizers as supplements. The results of our June 2004 leaf analysis would tell us if the innoculants were indeed making plant nutrients more available. The program consists of 4 applications. The first at bud break, the second at bloom or flowering, the third at Veraison when the grapes change color, and the final after Harvest in October. Each application was made at a time of heavy saturation irrigation.
We desire to extract as much character from our unique mountain soils as possible, without the influence of chemical additives to these soils. When the 2004 leaf analysis was finalized, we found uniform improvement in nutrient availability and balance. As the vines developed throughout the season, we found the growth supporting the test findings, with our trunks and cordons thickening, the leaves and canopies formed into a consistent green evenness, and we were blessed with a balanced vigor in the vine rows. We are extending this program into 2005.
Harvest began September 10th and at the direction of wine consultant Cecile Derbes, grapes were to be picked when cool! We picked at night and delivered the fruit to our new, climate controlled production facility where it awaited crushing the following morning. Since we prune slowly with only one person, we ripen in a sequence and our harvest time is about a month as the sugars rise. As we did last year, our fruit was thinned as the grapes changed color, leaving only our best fruit to ripen and receive the full energy of our balanced and maturing vines. We harvested 16 tons of outrageous mountain fruit that should produce 950 cases!
Please visit our Winery Page to continue the journey of our 2004 Harvest