Bud Break - 2015

As I sit here watching the rain and sun swapping positions I'm reflecting on what has been an extremely mildbud break in at least the last ten years around March 25th last week. Bud break is the first important bench mark of the growing season. Why? Because it gives us a starting point. As a grape grower, or any farmer for that matter, forecasting is where it's at, and a starting point makes it a whole lot easier. At LaVelle Vineyards we use our Shirotae (aka Mt. Fuji), Japanese non-fruit bearing flowering cherry trees as an indicator. When they have bud break so does the vineyard.
winter here in the South Willamette Valley. This has led us to the earliest

Last year, for the first time, our new block of Pinot Gris started coming online. It's a lot of fun watching as all that we've worked on with these vines is finally leading us to a new fruit source. For a winemaker, the best type of fruit source, that is one that we have complete control over. We also started up a program last year to begin selling fruit to Steve Girard over at Benton Lane Winery. Steve is very educated with a ton (pun intended) of experience in the Willamette and Napa Valley. When I went over to find out if the fruit we sold him was up to snuff I was pleasantly surprised to learn from their Winemaker that it had exceeded expectations. I just received an email from Steve yesterday asking if we'd be interested in selling fruit to him again, and we're very excited about the beginning of a long, healthy business relationship. OK, back to bud break!

As I mentioned before, there are benchmarks, or periods in time when a grape grower stops and listens to the plants, mother nature, and fellow growers to determine:

• Crop Estimates
• Spray Program Adjustments
• Harvest Considerations in the Winery

The first of these major benchmarks is bud break. What are the other benchmarks? Here's a few:

• Bud Break - March 25, 2015
• Bloom
• Fruit Set
• Lag Phase
• Veraison
• Harvest

So, we have the date of March 25th...now, what do we do with it? I always do a couple of things:

1. Start worrying about watching for a late Spring frost
2. Start thinking about historical vintages and possible future outcomes (the chess game)

This year though, it's early! Way early! How early? I just had a conversation with Agronomist Nick Arnold from Oregon Vineyard Supply, and he said that a fellow Agronomist with 26 years of experience in the Willamette Valley said that there's only been one year that's been earlier than 2015. In the last 26 years! That's amazing! So, what is a late Spring frost and why worry? Great question. Worrying is really the wrong word to use because after all it's up to Mother Nature on all of these weather events. Let's say watching for an early Spring frost. 

On the surface it is what it is. If the temperature drops down much below 32 degrees the early morning frost on the buds can damage them...or worse yet destroy them. So, then what? As a grape grower are you just out for the entire season? The answer to that is probably not. Even if your entire vineyard gets frosted the grapevines have a built in emergency system known as secondary bud points. They are similar to primary bud points except the plant will only put out about half as many of them so your crop load will be significantly reduced. So, what happens if there's another frost? You guessed it, tertiary bud point double emergency backup system. Pretty cool, although if you get to this point you will not have much of a growing season. What compounds the effects of a bad late Spring frost is the fact that you still have to take care of your vineyard. That's right, you still have to spend money on labor, spray supplies, and while the numbers are reduced you're really working towards the following year at that point. Btw, the following year will be affected as well.

So, as a grape grower how can I try to do everything in my power to avoid a late Spring frost? I have two words for you. Site selection. Selecting the right site for your vineyard is best first defense. LaVelle Vineyards, for example, is set on a south by southwest facing slope between 330 feet and 730 feet above sea level. Perhaps more important than that is that there is a down sloping hill underneath our vineyard. We're situated low enough that the cold air generally accumulates at a higher altitude, and yet high enough so that any cold air rolls off the hill where the vines are located throughout the morning.

What else can a grower do? Well, you can do everything in your power to keep those buds from freezing. You can spray chemicals on the buds that act as a de-icer, you can hover over the vineyard with helicopters to keep the air circulating, you can use smudge pots to warm up the area directly around the vines. Do any of these work? Yes, but nothing really works like picking the proper site to grow grapes on in the first place. Do we do any of these things at LaVelle? Nope.

So, enough doomsday frost talk. Let's talk about the chess game! That is, figuring out what to do next and thinking about possible outcomes for the 2015 vintage. I always start by thinking OK, if an average bud break is April 15th, and we broke on March 25th, what could that mean for harvest? I'm a winemaker, so I think about these things first. Our harvest starts during the last week of September in an average year. So, that means if the rest of our benchmarks are at normal timing we may be looking at a harvest that starts the first week of September. The winemaker in me begins to sweat a little...

Before we get too sweaty there's a lot that can happen between now and harvest, but the most important time is between now and bloom when concerning a harvest date. One of the most interesting things about a vintage is that if your bloom gets set back due to cold, rainy weather then your harvest gets set back. However, once you hit bloom you can be pretty certain that harvest will creep up on you in about 100 days. Why? That's just the cycle the plant takes. Once bloom hits then the plant just takes over. Now, the fruit quality can be affected after bloom, which is why we like a nice, warm dry summer in the Willamette Valley for growing grapes.

As we continue through the 2015 growing season follow me here for more updates on the race towards harvest!