Spring 2011

This is my first blog about the vineyard in a while.  After last August's hail storm that severely damaged the vines, I haven't known what to say.  Now that spring is here, the truth of what did and what did not survive is unfolding.  What I am learning about farming is that it is not romantic and only sometimes fun. But it is life which at its best is beautiful and awesome.  At its worse, heart breaking.  Like all disasters, there is bad news in the vineyard.  And, like all disasters, there are some miracles of survival.  I will share with you the good and the bad as the truth of it becomes apparent.  I am choosing to start with the miracle of life.

There will be no Malvasia this year.  Every trunk and cordon is dead. However, since these vines were own-rooted, the roots are sending up new shoots, not every plant, but some. I will be able to train these for future fruit. I find that miraculous.

The Coyote Saga Continued

So, here's the deal. I patched the hole under the fence at the back of the vineyard while Tim closed the space under the gate. The coyote had been coming in the back, exiting out the front. Simple. So we thought. However, the very next day as I drove up to open the gate I noticed fresh coyote scat and some clawing under the gate. It looked like the coyote was able to get in but did not manage to dig under the gate to get back out. So, I went back to check on my patch job. These pictures show what happened. That darn coyote was able to dig the dirt and somehow move the large rocks I had put in the hole out of the way, clear on the other side of the fence!

I'll put up some pictures tomorrow on how Tim thinks he solved the problem once and for all.

Coyote Tracking

I went on a successful hunting expedition yesterday. As I walked along the fence I found many trails through the field fence but by the size of them they could only have been used by small rodents, rabbits and quail. Then I came upon a larger trail that lead to a rather large hole dug under the fence! I'm pretty sure this is the hole Kent Callaghan had filled in a couple of weeks ago. This time I put several large boulders in the hole before filling it in with dirt. We'll see how long it keeps the coyotes out this time. We only need a few more weeks until the grapes come off the vines.


While walking the property I got distracted many times to take pictures of little creatures and flowers. I will post some of those tomorrow.

Summer Storms

We had a fierce storm Saturday night that dumped .75" of rain. By the looks of some of the grape clusters it also dropped hail. As a grape farmer I shouldn't like the storms but I still marvel at the energy and the beauty.

Syrah

I'm thinking this bunch of grapes is going to make a fabulous wine. This time of year it seems the grape bunches can change color in a matter of hours. I'm sure it's my imagination, but there are times during my evening walk through the vineyard I can swear the grapes have purpled up more since the morning. They do not have much sugar in them yet, so although they are beginning to take on adult beauty, they taste very sour. Last year we harvested over the Labor Day Weekend, so in the next 4-5 weeks the vines will be finishing up this season's work.

More Vineyard Romance!

It has been raining for the last couple of weeks. We will be posting pictures of the rain and how happy the grape vines are! There has been no hail to date so I am also happy. Today I wanted to show a side of vineyard life that is not much talked about. The vines do not stop needing attention. They continue to call for me when I would rather stay inside. I get wet out there! Since I am not exactly a tall person, even when the rains have stopped the vines continue to drip water as I work. And the soil, oh boy, the soil! It has a clay component that gets both slippery and sticky when wet. As I try to keep a sure footing the clay clings to my boot. It both adds a couple of inches to my height and weighs me down! Romance? You decide.

Doesn't quite capture

The monsoon rains are a magical time of year and now that they have started the storms never cease to amaze me in the variety of weather experiences they provide - rain and lots of it for sure, threat of hail that damages grapes, dramatic lightning and thunder storms, and swirling skies with eerie light and shadows. This past weekend a storm was quickly moving through as the sun was setting behind the Santa Rita Mountains and cast a strange light on everything. It was not the typical brilliant explosion of oranges, reds, and yellows, but rather a piercing pure white light on a background of dozens of shades of grey. Our sign was lit up in a way that it has never looked so I snapped this shot. The picture doesn't quite capture . . . .

Grapelings

So much is happening in the vineyard this time of year. As a farmer it’s a challenge to keep up with the plants. Thankfully Joan does an amazing job and manages to deliver incredibly luscious grapes for our Estate Wines. (Did you know that according to the Federal Government a wine can only be called an Estate Wine if it is totally the product of the owners’ vineyard and winery and only if the property is located in an American Viticultural Area? For us that is the Sonoita AVA, the only AVA in Arizona). So busy farmers we are. But the grape vines just keep chugging along, single minded in their pursuit to make a biological impact on this earth. These young Tempranillo grapes are gorgeous and will make a dynamite 2008 vintage wine when they grow up.

Snake

Since we have planted our vineyard in a series of stages, we have vines that range from brand new to a mature 5 years old. That makes training and shaping vines a complicated job. I was going to describe the task I’m performing in training this 2 year old Gewirtztraminer vine, but how boring that would be compared to Joan’s story of her encounter with a Mojave Rattler. She was struggling with the luxuriant growth of the root stock (called water shoots) at the base of a 5 year old Syrah when she realized that she touched a snake that was hunting a big black stink bug. We have many types of snakes in the vineyard, so that’s not unusual, but this one was different, she just had a sense about it. She hollered for me to come “Tim, I think there’s a rattlesnake here”. For sure it was. By the time I got there it was coiled and ready for business. I shoed it away with a shovel and as we both watched it slither along in silence I know we thought the same things. The snake was here first. This is its land. We are the ones who changed it and replaced it with a vineyard. Just let it be. Well no. It is a Mojave, reputed to be the most toxic of rattlers. There’s little Emma to think about and customers and the next time (God knows why Joan wasn’t bitten). I dispatched the creature, but not without a heavy heart. So here’s a picture of me training Gewirtztraminer vines (there was too much excitement to get a shot of the snake). But the real story is more interesting and more complicated.

1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . .

Wine making and grape farming are in large part a long series of repetitive tasks.

Preparing 3 acres for planting – move tractor, line up augur over mark for next plant, drop augur, dig hole, life augur, move tractor, line up augur over mark for next plant . . repeat 3000 times.





Final pruning and tying up of plants for new season – move to plant, make a final few pruning cuts, secure cordon to fruiting wire with a clip here, here, here, here . . ., move to next plant . . . . . 3000 times.





Racking wine, testing samples (including tasting samples), bottling, labeling, reshuffling and moving boxes of wine, cleaning the tasting room.

I guess it only appeals to a certain type of person. Winery friends listen to their latest music mixes to pass the time. Joan and I use the time to think, ponder, and generally let our minds drift and wander. If we are working together we use the time to solve our own and the world’s problems.

This year and next year and next year and . . . . .

Keri Jelks- Wine and Farm Festival Artist

Keri Jelks has been a rancher and active community member of Sonoita for over 30 Years. Keri enjoys painting in her studio and in nature where the wind, air and birds surround her. Having received her degree in creative writing Keri also loves to write.

A returning artist to Canelo Hills Vineyard and Winery 's Wine and Farm Festival, Keri will be selling her simply delicious cookbook, "Yum-Yum," which is chock full of her best recipes as well as her exquisite paintings. She will also have Giclee prints of her animal paintings, note cards portraying landscapes and animals, and an item hot off the press, her unique birthday calendar featuring domestic and wild animals.

It's Pruning Time!

Tim and I are back in the vineyard. The winter pruning has begun. It feels good. As I work up and down the rows trying to pick the spurs that will produce the best fruit for the 2008 harvest I get very excited with visions of beautiful green shoots and big, thick clusters of grapes. I can't wait for the earth to warm up and the vines to start their swelling. This is the most hopeful time of year, before nature reminds me that she is the one who will be in control of the outcome of this year's harvest. Still, I can't wait!

Certificate of Appreciation

Last Saturday we were visited by Steve Fletcher and Donna Boe from the Sierra Vista Natural Foods Cooperative. They presented us with a certificate of appreciation for having donated wine for their gourmet wine dinner that was held at Casa Adobe restaurant to raise money for their cause. Tim and I are supporters of sustainable and local products and wish the organization great luck in their adventure. Also, much thanks to customers Tom and Marylin Garcia for taking this wonderful picture.

Cover Crop

In starting our vineyard I had a goal of impacting the natural environment as little as possible and if I could, even leave some of it in better shape. One of my goals has been to use a cover crop between the rows for soil fertility and vine nutrition. This is hard to do in an arid area as I didn't want the crop to use the precious irrigation water. With lots of expert help I chose tepary beans, a legume grown in Southern Arizona by the Tohono O'odham people for centuries. This is the second year we planted them just before the start of the monsoon rains. The beans are growing with only the natural rainfall. As soon as they flower the beans will be tilled into the soil to enrich it with nitrogen. We also planted some on the side of the winery building for harvest. So far the experiment is going well.

Veraison

The purpling begins imperceptibly at first. Out of the corner of my eye as I walk through other vineyard tasks something looks a little different. Is it really turning? Seems early this year. Then a few yards along there is more color, then more. Then over the course of the weekend the unmistakable change occurs. The rhythm of the vineyard amazes me, and especially the critical turning points. Veraison is one of them. Fully ripe grapes will follow in a month or two; then harvest begins.

Lemonade

We got up at 5am on Saturday to do some tractor work in order to beat the heat and wind. The tractor didn't start. Dead battery. The battery guy said they only last about 2 years in this desert climate. The sunrise was nice but now what? Flexibility seems to be the grape farmers mantra. I can't recall how many times Joan and I have organized some sort of schedule of tasks only to be derailed by rain, lightning, heat, wind, bugs, malfunctioning equipment, new disasters, blown up irrigation, simple repairs gone horribly wrong, injuries, bad moods, you name it. This may be Arizona wine country, but it's pretty isolated out here. I can't exactly call the Winery Cooperative Tractor Repair Guy or Gal to come give me a fix. So a dead tractor battery meant postponing that piece of work. Cursing my skinned knuckles as I wrestle the old battery out of the tractor. Dropping a chunk of change on a new battery. Anticipating more skinned knuckles getting the new one where it belongs. Waking up at 5 am again, etc, etc. You get the idea. But in truth I feel pretty fortunate to be fighting this battle and not some life/death struggle in the Middle East, Africa, or some other part of this earth. Peace and Happy Independence Day.