Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Here Comes the Sun!

It looks as though Spring has officially come to Virginia! I don't know how or when it happened, but it seemed almost overnight. I was driving home from work yesterday and I noticed tons of daffodils in bloom, a cherry tree starting to blossom, and the grass is looking greener!
I cannot believe how pretty it is around here! Now I am just waiting for the vines to start flowering. I'll be sure to get some pictures when that happens! I think it will be a little later in the season then normal because of our strange winter.

Throughout this week we are preparing for bottling. We will be filtering and fining the wines to get them in tip top shape before bottling next Monday and Tuesday. Our bottling schedule includes the 2009 Viognier and the 2008 Trevillian and labeling the 2007 Heritage. This is the Heritage that just went platinum at the San Diego International Competition. I think Stephen wants to hold onto it for a while longer and maybe release it in the fall. I'm crossing my fingers for that. However, if you are a wonderful wine club member who purchased futures of the 2007 Heritage at the wine club appreciate party or at the wine makers dinner we will have those for pick up after April 1st.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Pruning the Vines

So I've been getting a lot of questions about the abundance of snow we had this year and if it has affected the vines. So I thought I would address the issue of pruning. After the first hard freeze of the year the vines go into a state of hibernation and during that hibernation the boys are hard at work maintaining the vines. During the winter the vines are pruned or trimmed back.
Here are the vines in their wild state. It takes almost all winter to prune all 43 of our acres, but the quality of fruit that is produced from all that hard work is well worth it. Pruning has been described as an art form by many in the wine community since this is the basis for the rest of the growing season. Pruning too much can affect vines just as much as pruning too little.
 
After all that hard work (and might I say chilly work due to all the snow this year) the vines are trimmed beautifully! Now that all of the snow has melted the pruning is going much faster. So in conclusion, the snow is fine for the vines, in fact it is a good way to keep the plants in hibernation so they don't start budding too early in the season!