Wines I'm Making: Grapes Dusted with Sulfur

In the past week, I've dusted our little vineyard with sulfur as a preventative against mildew later in the season. I waited too long, as usual. The first application is best done when the shoots are about six inches long, but many were already two to three times that length. I think the plants will be fine though, as they're getting much more light and air than in the recent past, as my neighbor has removed a number of small trees behind the vineyard that were creating shade. Also, I've switched to dusting with powdered sulfur rather than suspending the powder in water and spraying the vines, which seems to cover better and to be more effective. It's also much easier to do. 

I'm hoping that wildfires won't be an issue this year, but the winter of 2020-2021 was one of the driest on record. While that is good for suppressing mildew, it doesn't bode well for fires in the area. 

In the entryway to the house, 12 gallons of Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc from 2020 still sits, neglected, in large glass containers. I had given up on it. It had an off smell and taste caused by the smoke and the ash that dusted the vines at the end of the season. After doing some research, I decided the only way to save it might be to have it distilled into brandy, but the companies I called said the smallest batch they do is 200 gallons. I had given up on it but had been able to bring myself to dump it out. And so it has been sitting and still it sits. But, yesterday, I tasted it it for the first time in a couple of months (it should have been racked and sulfited already many weeks ago), and, strangely, the taint seems to be gone..... Perhaps it will be worth taking to completion after all?

Wines I'm Making: Grapes Sulfur Dusted, June 2019

For the first time in the 16 years I've been making wine from our backyard grapes, this year I'm treating the vines against mildew using a duster rather than a sprayer. It consumes more sulfur powder than the sprayer, but being lightweight, it's much easier and faster to use than the sprayer. The question is whether the fine sulfur dust works as well to prevent mildew.

Actually, spraying the grapes has never been as effective as I would like. Using the sprayer, the sulfur doesn't stick very well; most of it runs off. The powder seems to adhere better, but it's so fine it's hard to tell. So far, everything looks good, helped by the very cool spring and early summer we had this year (with one, short, extremely hot three-day period an exception). Mildew likes things warm and damp. Late rain kept things comparatively damp, but it was never especially warm and damp. We'll see how the sulfur dusting performs as the season progresses. This was the second dusting so far this year.

[Now, weeks later (mid-August), I can report that dusting with the sulfur seems to work much better than the spraying. Usually, by this time of the season, the grapes that are most shaded in our little vineyard are already showing some damage from mildew. In bad years, I've lost as much as 20% of the Sangiovese to mildew. Right now there is virtually no mildew on the grapes, which is wonderful.]

Wines I'm Making: First Sulfur Spraying 2018

Having the day before finished removing excess growth on the vines in the backyard vineyard, yesterday I did the first sulfur spraying of the season to prevent mold. Last year the grapes suffered badly from mildew, the result mostly of my own laziness. I should have been more diligent in my spraying--but it's the chore I least enjoy in growing grapes for wine. I've resolved to do it right this year, spraying every two weeks or so until mid-season. More light and air in the vineyard will help, I hope; last year my neighbor removed a row of small trees behind the vines that were increasingly shading them.

Wines I'm Making: 2017 First Sulfur Spraying

Today I finally got around to spraying the grapes with sulfur for the first time this season (2017). I'd delayed in part because we had had so much rain that it seemed pointless to spray. Last week I thinned the shoots on the vines and a few days ago I persuaded my neighbor to remove part of the row of cedar trees right behind our little vineyard that has shaded the grapes more and more each year—to the extent that our yields were getting very low and it was hard to keep mildew away even with careful sulfur spraying. The rows are now getting a lot more sun again. I'm hoping that we'll have a substantial harvest this year for the first time in several years. In a related note, I opened a bottle of the 2014 wine. It's very good. The best we've ever made. The 2015 Cabernet will be bottled very soon. We got so few grapes in 2016 that there will be no 2016 Cabernet. I mixed the Cabernet and Sangiovese grapes we did harvest and made rosé from the lot of it.

Wines I'm Making: Sulfur Spraying 2016

Spraying the grapes with sulfur, to prevent mildew, is a game of tag with the rain, and it always requires judgement when the vines start to bloom—as they have already. The Sangiovese buds have opened, the Cabernet Franc vines are just beginning to bloom and the Cabernet Sauvignon buds  will soon be open too. We've probably had our last rain and I wanted to get them protected before full bloom, so I sprayed them yesterday. I had sprayed once before this year, about two weeks ago, but most of that got washed away by rain. I hope yesterday's spraying will hold them for a while, although I'll probably have to spray once more, just after bloom is over, in a couple of weeks.

Wines I'm Making: Last Sulfur Spraying (July 17, 2014)

It's a bit late in the season to be spraying the grapes, but I noticed a hint of mildew in some of the shadier sections of the rows, so I decided to spray once more. The sprayer broke in the middle of things, so I failed to get the back side of the back row done, but there's nothing I can do. Hoping for the best. The grapes are just beginning to show a hint of color; veraison has begun. Time to get up the nets and turn on the electric fence.

Wines I'm Making: First sulfur spraying 2014

Finally got around to doing the first sulfur spraying in the vineyard this year. Everything looks good, but normally I like to have done the first spraying a little earlier. The weather has been cool, clear, and mostly dry, though, so mildew risk has been low, and now the earliest growth on the vines is protected. Looking at the plants as I worked, I notice that the Sangiovese buds are just starting to open. The Cabernet vines, as usual, are behind but should be flowering soon.

[Naturally, we had an unexpected rain shower the following day, so I'll have to do it all over again....]

Wines I'm Making: Shoot Thinning 2014

It's that time of year again--time to thin shoots on the vines ahead of the first sulfur spraying. As it's supposed to rain tomorrow, I'm waiting to spray until the showers are behind us. In the meantime, I've been trying to get the shoots thinned out so the vines are ready for sulfur treatment as soon as things dry out again. The photo above shows Sangiovese vines in our backyard before thinning. The photo below shows some of our Cabernet vines after thinning.

Wines I'm Making: New Growth on the Vines (April 17, 2014)

The grapevines in our backyard have come to life again. As usual, the Sangiovese vines are ahead of the Cabernet vines, but all the plants have leafed out. The longest shoots are about a foot long. It's almost time to thin the shoots and to spray the new growth with sulfur for the first time this season. In the photo above, you can already see the tiny flower clusters that will become this year's grapes.

Wines I'm Making: Third Sulfur Spraying (2011)

Yesterday I sprayed the vines with sulfur again following the heavy rains we had a few days earlier, hoping to get a layer of dust on again, to prevent mildew. I brought up the drop wires to hold the canes in place. Everything looks good, so far. The weather remains cool, so I don't expect mold to be much of a problem, but better safe than sorry.

[Update: Because of more rain, I had to spray the grapes for a fourth time this season on May 28.]

Wines I'm Making: Shoot Thinning (2011)

I got into the vines today and made the final selection of the canes that will be allowed to grow and fruit this year. Tomorrow morning, if time permit, I'll do a second sulfur spraying to protect the vines against mold. So far, the plants look excellent. A lot of rain over the winter and cool, dry weather so far this spring have got them off to a very good start. I hope the wine will be as good as the condition of the plants promises. The photo above shows the vines before thinning, the photo below shows them after thinning.

[Update: Did the second sulfur spraying of the season the following morning, May 11.]

Wines I'm Making: Sulfur Spraying (May 11. 2010)

Following heavy rains on May 9 and 10, I had to spray the vines with sulfur again. I used a brand new sprayer with a bigger capacity (3 gallons) than my old one, which allowed me to do the whole vineyard with a single tank--much more efficient. Now, let's hope it doesn't rain again for a while....