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).

• 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

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)

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.

3. Noble Rot
Small plates and wine. Good wine — 04 Artigas Priorat, a dry Riesling can’t remember the name. Onion tart was yummy and roast chicken was good.

4. Zell’s
Good breakfast, I didn’t explore the menu except for a tofu-substituted feta omelette which doesn’t do the place justice. They gave out free fresh mini-scones with fresh jam.

5. Anzen
Lunch was salmon sashimi and small serving of hijiki salad for a total of about $6. Not bad in the Convention Center area. The store has suprising depth of Japanese product in this part of town.

6. Doug Fir
Drinks were fine, atmosphere was log cabin kitsch, and the downstairs band venue was one of the best. This is the NW counterpart of LA’s Spaceland.

7. Navarre
Spanish tapas. The lamb with pesto was notable. The other dishes aren’t sticking in my mind, but overall good quality and nice spot. Wines were fine, a vermentino by the glass and a rueda.

8. The real find of the trip wasn’t food. Imelda’s is easily the best shoe store I’ve seen. Nothing in LA, SF, or East Bay has come close.

Golden Glass producers I checked out
Georg Breuer
C.H. Berres
Allan Scott
Azul, Bodegas Guelbenzu
Scacciadiavoli
Arnaldo Caprai
Germano Ettore
Adami prosecco
Cantina Tollo (Pecorino)
Cantina Produttori Cortaccia (Lagrein)
La Montecchia (sparkling moscato giallo and passito with almond biscotti)

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

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:
Cutler, Lance. “The Pest Management Balancing Act.”

• 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.

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)
Open questions that require more literature to review:
Is this done on a per block basis? Seems like a lot of labor. how can this be automated? How soon to measure after irrigating to know if block is too stressed?

• *”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
• *Zanna, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Colline Teramane DOCG Riserva 2003 $41
  herbal, menthol, better four hours later with that liquid mercury feel, my fave at 9pm
• Montepulciano d’Abruzzo D.O.C. Ilico. $20
  soy sauce
• *Controguerra D.O.C. Nicò Passito Nicò $49
  menthol, coconut, mouthfilling, RS, not so good 4 hr later

* stuff i would revisit

Tequila:

• Tezon (pernod Ricard) $50 floral, cigarette
• 1800 Select Silver Tequila $35 herbal
• Gran Centenario Plata $53 cinnamon
• Parta Tequila Bianco $50 smoky floral
• Patron Silver $50 menthol
• Sauza Tequila Blanco: $10 banana
• Don Julio Blanco $46 sesame
• Herradura Silver Tequila $37 peanut m&m

Tasted, then cut with water to capture more aromas.