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: 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: Sulfur Spraying (2011)

Today I finally judged it safe to spray the grapes with sulfur for what I hope will be the last time this season, although one more application may be prudent. I had been waiting for the vines to finish flowering and for the fruit to set before getting them wet. The Sangiovese looks excellent this year, with full clusters of tiny grapes already coming along, but the Cabernet vines don't seem to have set fruit very well despite my waiting. I had rather hoped for a good crop this year, as the weather was mostly dry and windy during flowering, but it's still early to judge things. Anyway, so far no signs of mildew on the vines. I topped the most vigorous vines as well, as they were beginning to shade the back row. Keeping my fingers crossed.

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....