Fermentation

Procedure:
1. Add 50 ppm SO2 (red), 30 ppm SO2 (white)
2. Keep tank @ 50F
3. Pre-inoculation panel: YAN, Brix, etc
4. Calculate acid, water or de-acid addition
5. Cold soak (variable number of days)
6. Raise tank temp to 75F(red).
7. Calculate N addition for three part add.
Yeast w/ high N requirement or Brix > 25.5 ::: (325 ppm – ETS) = (DAP + SF + VMX) / 3
Yeast w/ low N requirement ::: (275 ppm – ETS) = (DAP + SF + VMX) / 3
8. Make additions at appropriate stage
Lag (0-6 hrs) ::: hydrated yeast (1.5-2#/K) + hydration minerals
Expon (6-12 hrs, 66% Brix) ::: SF + VMX + oxygen
End of exp (33% Brix, > 10 Brix)::: SF + VMX + oxygen + yeast hulls
Death ::: yeast hulls or SIY33
9. Punchdowns or pumpovers (3x/day during ferm)

SF= superfood, DAP = diammonium phosphate, VMX = Vitamix

Notes to self:
* requirements: sterols and fatty acids and oxygen for membrane growth
* NH3 becomes ethyl carbamate, or spoilage orgs eat it
* DAP toxic to membranes during hydration
* yeast hulls in all products, make sure addn 85°F more sensitive to alcohol toxicity, < below 55 slows yeast growth
* temp options: glycol, delestage (rack and return) cool down, indoor tank,
* O2 options: (build sterols) aerative pump overs for reds or sparging stones or conservative venturi “pump throughs” (closed pump over) for whites

Further reading:
Crowe, Alison, “Avoiding Stuck Fermentations”
L.F. Bisson, “Stuck and Sluggish Fermentation” (AJEV 50:1, 107-199)
J. Eglinton and P. Henschke, “The Effect of High Concentration of Acetic Acid on the Restarting of a Stuck Ferment” (Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Journal, 1999).

Vine health issues: not currently resolved

Syrah disorder
Symptoms:

• Red vine in late summer
• no gophers (mounds), voles (holes around base), tractor damage, or blight
• Swelling above graft union and pitting/grooving on scion (girdle causes red leaves)
• Negative on virus panel.

Variation in symptom expression:
Clone susceptibility generally more important than rootstock.
Rootstock: Most symptomatic (99R, 110R), Least (5BB, Riparia (Gloire), 1103P, 101-14, 420A anecdotal)
rupestris in background may be a factor
Clones: Most symptomatic (73, 99, 301, 381, 382, 383), Intermediate or variably symptomatic (100, 174*, 300, 525, 585, 877**), Least (470, 471, 524, 747)
* Clone 174 was highly variable and was highly symptomatic in some tests.
**Clone 877 has been planted throughout Paso Robles and has been highly impacted by Syrah decline.

References:
Greenspan, Mark. Disorder has Syrah Growers Seeing Red.
Syrah Vine Health Symposium

Harvest party: Zuzu

Harvest party: Zuzu, Napa, CA

seasoned and toasted almonds, a dish of olives
scallop ceviche
2006 lustau puerto fino sherry, jerez

boquerones, egg and remoulade on grilled bread
bacalao with truffle oil and garlic crostini
gambas al ajillo, shrimp with garlic, piquin chili and smoky pimenton
2007 laxas albarino

flat-iron steak with roasted jalapeno chimichurri sauce
2006 juan gil monastrell
2004 Vinos de Terrunos raices de aza (100% tempranillo)

Portland food and wine

In town for ASEV. Hit up a few places:

1. Stumptown (the location near burnside bridge)
Panama Carmen Estate coffee is my kind of coffee — a floral, high acid, light bodied coffee. Wasn’t roasted too long, the floral notes are still there. I can easily believe that this is one of the top five coffees during the Panama cupping competition.

2. Voodoo Donuts
Blueberry cake donut with a light glaze — easily the best donut I’ve ever had. Fresh blueberry flavors and not overly sweet. Chocolate glaze donut was good but not in the same league.

Summer 2008 Wines

Wines
Barbera d’Asti, ‘Ca di Pian’, La Spinetta 2005 $26 (***)
Sangiovese ‘Sezzana’, La Spinetta 2003 $48 (**)
Pin Monferrato Rosso, (Nebbiolo/Barbera) 2005 $48 (***)
Barbaresco Riserva, ‘Valeirano’, La Spinetta 2004 $122 (***, aromatic)
Barolo, ‘Campe’, La Spinetta 2003 $125 (*****)
Barbera d’Asti ‘Bionzo’, (Barrique) La Spinetta 2005 $49
Moscato d’Asti, Biancospino, La Spinetta 2007 (375mL) $13 (***)

Cover crops, hedgerows, maintenance in vineyard landscape

Most North Coast wineries use a winter annual cover crop that is disced before the growing season. Common problems with cover crop management are mentioned and Elizabeth Lovall at Morningsun Herb Farm in Vacaville is cited as a resource on specific plants. Other hedgerow information can be found in the CAFF handbook (pdf).

Cover crop selection and management:
Issues to be aware of in a vineyard landscape where cover crops, hedgerows are being implemented and maintained.

• Mowing too closely can kill off your cover crop.
  Mowed too closely only subclover and brome survive, oat and vetch will die. Mowing height depends on where the plant resprouts from — how close to the base of the plant. All cover crops are rejuvenated (or increase in biomass) if mowed at 6-12 in. The take-home is find out the correct mowing height for your cover crop.
• Preventing arthropod movement from cover crop to vine
  Establish non-host plants, and diverse cover crops, maintain the understory vegetation (cover crop) and extend its flowering by irrigating, use strip mowing or tillage to maintain phenological diversity and retain some flowering plants.
• Why arthropods move from cover crop to vine
  Arthropods move from understory to the vine if the cover crop uniformly matures, dries down, or is under drought stress, lack of diversity or density of host plants (the plants they live on), or the understory is mowed, tilled or herbicided.
• Nitrogen gains from cover crops
  This varies quite a bit depending on the mix of plants in the cover crop and when it started decomposing (i assume it was mowed since the data says no-till). “Low-grow” mix has overall lower N content and higher biomass than “rich” mix. The order of greatest N by dry weight are: vetches (4% N by dry weight), then black mustard, clovers, grasses. % N released is consistently highest if decompose at late bloom stage and lowest at late vegetative state (right before bloom), and roughly two-thirds of total N is released after decomposing for 4 months.
• Water infiltration benefits when incorporated as green manure
  Cover crops that have the highest water infiltration when incorporated are: barley and cereal rye.

Maintenance of Vineyard and surrounding area

• Problematic plants in riparian areas near vineyard
  Himalayan blackberry, common periwinkle, California mugwort are all hosts for blue-green sharpshooter, a vector of Xylella fastidiosa (Pierce’s disease).
• Problematic plants in areas with young vines
  Pre-emptive mowing before budbreak (particularly London rocket) is recommended to discourage high density of false chinchbugs. They can migrate as surrounding vegetation dries down and feed on young vines.
• Keeping ecosystem healthy in vineyard:
  Drain ponds in late summer to reduce predators and do not stock fish. Retain logs, rocks, and rodents!, encourage emergent and riparian vegetation on pond and creek banks, retain native upland vegetation, maintain connectivity among different required habitats, reduce use of pesticides and soluble fertilizers

Pest control by other natural enemies:
Grape Mealybug (a grape pest) is protected by gray field ants but the ants can be diverted by common vetch nectaries in cover crop. (walt bentley et al). Trachylas sp. and Theridion sp. are two spiders that are natural enemies of leafhoppers.

Further reading:
see Natural Enemies, Hedgerows, and other books in the reading list.

credit: R.L. Bugg lecture 101C

Pest and disease control: current research in PWV

Current method of choice for powdery mildew control
1. Use IPM method with Gubler-Thomas model
2. Rotate fungicides with different modes of use to prevent selecting for resistant strains.

Further reading:
PM control: Crisp group
Compares alternative methods. Milk is the best for low pressure regions . Also references 2 and 3 in the Greenspan article provide more detail on application rates and methods.
PM detection: Gary Grove
Rod collection with PM spores, not viable method yet due to PCR requirement and rods are cumbersome. A good group to follow.
Mite control (Willamette and Pacific): Zalom group
Compares products. Agri-Mek, Zeal+Dannitol, Envidor, Acramite and Omite best. Did not test stylet.

References:

Irrigating smarter: measuring efficiency and uniformity (under revision)

Efficient irrigation and conserving water.
The assumptions are if the irrigation system was completely uniform, every vine in one management block would be receiving the exact same amount of water. If the system was completely efficient, all the water applied is taken up by the plant.

• Aggressively mow cover crop.
  Discing creates warmer environment for fruit and resowing of cover crop so it is discouraged. Irrigate smaller volumes more frequently and irrigate early in morning or evening.
• Maintain small vine.
  Apply small amounts of water until vines are larger and actively transpiring leaf area is larger. Irrigating at early evening or early morning conserves water by reducing evaporative loss with the added benefit that you can still detect problems with the irrigation system during daylight hours. (eg. try instead of five hours twice weekly, two and half hours four times weekly)
• Irrigate to weakest soil profile on the block.
  The ones that hold the least water is the volume you are aiming for. Soil moisture (installed at several depths and electronic type) can be used in a test of applying different volumes of water. Find out how much can be applied without seeing much change in water content of the sensor below the root zone. Root zone can be assessed by backhoe the vigorous and weaker portions of your vineyard.
• Other ideas are usually implemented at design of vineyard. eg. greater number of emitters with smaller discharge rate, laying out irrigation blocks based on soil uniformity.

Further reading:
Greenspan, Mark. Water cutbacks drive efficient irrigation. Wine Business Monthly July 2007.

Irrigation Amount and Frequency

Irrigation Amount: how many hours of water
Determines water consumed in acre-inches and calculates water to apply. Sum the hours irrigated and calculate a week or two of ETc in spreadsheet to figure out how much to irrigate this week. Will need to examine soil moisture data and pressure bomb data to learn the drying cycle of your vineyard. Use this method from start through veraison, and modify Km post-veraison.

Ia = water applied or irrigation to apply. Ia = (ETo * Kc) * Km
ETo = water use if a grass, depends on weather
ETc = water use if grape, depends on weather and vine, ETc = ETo * Kc
Kc = grape crop coefficient (between 0 to 1). Be consistent in what Kc you use.
Km = management coefficient, changed according to field observations or from pre and post veraison, if 80% of ET then = 0.80

Irrigation Frequency: How often and duration
Maximum duration = the water holding capacity of weakest or shallowest soils in the block. (reference values in Ref #2). Pick two times a week, then monitor mid-day water potentials with pressure bomb at weak and strong parts of a block after irrigating and if stressed, increase frequency by one or two days and decrease the amount per application so Ia stays the same.

Common mistakes:
Not irrigating under cool weather. In fact water use is more dependent on humidity, sunlight and wind than temperature. Irrigation is not efficient or uniform.

Further reading:
1. CM Burt and SW Styles. 1999. Drip and Micro Irrigation for Trees, Vines, and Row Crops. ITRC, Cal POly San Luis Obispo, CA.
2. Irrigation Scheduling: A Guide for Efficient On-Farm Water Management. DA Goldhamer and RL Snyder, Eds. 1989. University of California publication 21454.
3. Micro-irrigation of Trees and Vines. L. Schwankl, B. Hanson, and T. Prichard. Eds. 1996. University of California publication 93-03.
6. Willams, LE 2001. “Irrigation of Winegrapes in California” Practical Winery and Vineyard. pp. 42-45
Greenspan, Mark. “Vineyard Water Management Fallacies”, Wine Business Monthly (pdf)

Double feature

There was a double feature tonight: Abruzzo wines from Illuminati for the first tasting and Silver Tequila for the second.

• *”Illuminati Brut” Méthode Champenoise vintage. $39
  light white flowers, honey, pale orange candies, No fizz in 5 min, a fave of mine
• Controguerra Bianco D.O.C. Costalupo. $16
  a more plastic version of the sparkling.
• *Zanna, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Colline Teramane DOCG Riserva 1988 $70
  mushrooms! thickness a little oxidized, nice acidity and soft tannins. good on opening, four hours later not good, one of my faves at 5pm