Casey Hartlip

That's like asking what is flagship wine of France. Both places are too big, with too many regions to put a tag like that on them. Perhaps the question should be: what's the flagship wine, by county? With Zinfandel being the most unique wine to California, I'm still disappointed how little play it seems to get.

I thought I'd catch everyone up on where we are at the moment. Sugars from this morning: Old Syr (Mother block)-22.6 Gate Syr-24.0 '01 Syr (877)-23.0 '94 Syr-21.4 Far Upper PS-19.4 I've had some conversations with some other growers and winery reps (folks that are visiting numerous vineyards per day) and the talk is the same: nothing has moved in the past week. The Petite sugar kind of bugs me, but it could be a sampling error. I took my 30 year old refractometer to Parducci this morning to test it with 20 brix solution and its dead on. BTW the ph on the gate Syr is 3.3 which tells me its not all that close. The weather is the next issue. Looks for sure that we're gonna see some amount of precip, its just a matter of how much. Right now I'm saying less than .20 at our location, which won't really bother me that much. I have no botrytis active in anything and with my moderate canopy things will dry out pretty quickly. I little storm will just give the wussies something to freak out about, and the rookie growers to have heated conversations with their wineries about how badly they need to pick. I have friends who have been seeing deer acting a bit friskey (the start of the rut) and a little rain will turn them on. After I tarp the open beam ceiling portion of my house project, I'm gonna go out and shoot me a big one!

How about Albarino?

"At this point (and I hate saying this) everything is right where we want them to be." Way to jinx us Russell, you dope! Central Mendocino County is running about 10 days to two weeks ahead of our historical normal. I saw my first bloom in Sangiovese two days ago. I was pretty shocked. I can't remember bloom in mature vines on May 16th without loking at my records. We're doing well on weed control and falling behind on suckering and shoot thinning. Tomorrow morning will be the final go-round of my 2nd Thiolux application. We've had some early morning winds this week which doesn't make vine spraying all that fun. Good thing I like the smell of sulfur. Crop potential is big. No other way to put it. We're suckering hard, but if all of this $hit sets, we'll be dropping 30-50 tons (a hard number to guess) of fruit over the summer. Two weeks ago we bottled our '05 Syrah, '05 Petite and the '06 Grenache. Never a dull moment here!

I also find this to be true when Zin, Syr and PS are from cool climate areas. Our Petite Sirah usually has a decent amount of pepper and on years that are cooler than normal, lots of pepper.

My vineyard is just now hitting rapid growth on some varietals. I have Zin shoots averaging 10", Grenache at 8", Sangio at 16", old Petite 6", young Petite 14" and Cab at 10". I can tell by the Sangio flowers that we'll be blooming in about a week or so. I've gotta get out there again on Thursday and start the 2nd go-round of wettable sulfur. These temps in the high 70's to low 80's just screams mildew conditions. We're just about done with our first pre-bloom irrigations in the history of our vineyard. I'm hoping this will benefit my vines as the summer moves forward. We're falling behind hand work. This happens every year at this time. The vines are just growing faster than we can cover ground. My guys are already working 51 hour weeks. I hoping to get another three men from the Wentzel vineyard (a vineyard I consult for) in another day or so. The Counoise field that was planted last year is starting to grow pretty well out of the cartons and that will take some more labor soon too. Next order of business for me is to write up all of the contracts now that we're out of frost risk. I'm holding most of my prices at last years levels except for a couple of deals. Its light here at 5:30 am now and I really can't sleep much past 4:30 anymore.

I find it hard to believe that there are winemakers who really don't enjoy wine. This business is a really competitive one (meaning lots of players) and getting into the public eye is just one thing that can get your brand a leg up. I would think shy winemakers would really have a disadvantage in this business. The wine biz more than any other is about hospitality. You MUST be able to meet with people and talk about your product. Its the passion that winemakers (and growers) have for their work, is what most consumers are interested in. I'm certainly not in this line of work for the money, I'm in it for the love of the product and the lifestyle.

April sure ain't a dull month! The last few days we've seen some really cold and windy days here in central Mendocino County. We all know how dry it is too. Yesterday morning I was driving to a seminar in Anderson Valley and while hitting the hwy 253 pass I saw a patch of snow higher on the mountain. It had to come from a passing shower that night while it was so cold. I did wake up to a 32 degree morning yesterday. So the cold, raw wind blew all day yesterday. This is a sure sign of a frost. Last night while I was thinking about switching back and forth between and Warriors and Sharks (both winners BTW!!!) I saw that the wind had died down and the temp was already at 41. I don't have any conventional frost protection. There is a material called Frost Shield that I've heard about for a few years now. Its a polymer that coats the shoots with a thin layer of protection and I'm told can get you 2-3 degrees of frost tollerance. Most years its so darn wet in many fields that its not an option, but this year I can get in every block. Copper is also used in Europe for other reasons but I'm told folks also use it for frost. (I'm sure Peter C can 'splain how it works). Having bought enough of this $hit to cover about 12 acres a week ago, I decide that I'd better see if it works. I REALLY thought last night was it. I mixed a 300 gallon tank full and headed out about 8:10 last night. I was glad I'd had an early dinner and stopped at 2 margaritas. I'd already decided that the Thackrey Sangio and some of my prime Petite Sirah had some of the highest $$ value and I'd spray them. By the end of the first tank it was 10:30 and already 34 degrees. My hands were really starting to hurt even though I was wearing leather gloves. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and I watch the new moon set. I'd checked the moving satelite around 7:00 and it looked to me that the next storm was WAY too far off shore to come in in time. I mixed my second tank of 'faith spray' and headed out. I KNEW that this was the 'big one'. If it was 34 at 10:30 I was sure that we were gonna get down to about 27 by 5:00 am and any unprotected vineyard in the area would get nuked. My hands continued to feel like catchers mits as I tried not to tip my sprayer over in the 2000 Petite valley block that has some of our most severe terraces in it. As I was heading back to the house, I had the feeling that it wasn't as cold as earlier. There was a hint of an east wind, but it was still quite unpleasant outdoors at 12:45. I rinsed out my spray rig, flushed out the nozzles and checked the temp after my shower...36 degrees. I looked to the north and could see only stars. I was wondering what quote I was going to give Blake Grey from the SF Chronicle about the frost of the decade, and was looking forward to seeing how Frost Shield works in these conditions when I drifted off to sleep. Lynne was the first one up this morning and looked at the digital readout..."39 degrees" she said. I get the feeling that had I not have sprayed & prayed and sat on my ass watching those games last night that we would have lost the majority of our crop. April is a funny month.

Its 52 degrees at 10:30 in the morning, wind gusts up to about 25 mph. Feels a bit more like winter out there right now. I'm mean you REALLY don't want to be outside if you don't have to. Looks like we have a chance for some real rainfall come Thursday-Friday. Talk is maybe 1.5". They've been wrong SO many times that I don't want to get my hopes up much, but that much rain would actually DO something. Fingers crossed!

We ended up with .40 today and at this point I'll take about anything! Looks like we could have some decent showers tonight as well. As long as it doesn't frost I'm cool with just about anything Ma Nature decides to toss our way. Looks like I'll be hooking up the disc tomorrow and see if it'll cut the mustard. The boys are starting to sucker and there will be no shortage of work for anyone until about July. Chickens are pumping out some nice eggs, I can hear the turkeys gobble most every morning, and my two pigs will be arriving in about a month or so. Never a dull moment on the ranch!

This looks like the end of green hills in my area anyway. Dry is the word around these parts. I'm watering a young block that we planted last year today because we don't want them to stumble early in the growing cycle. Watering my vineyard in the first week of April? Will we have enough water for the whole season? I watered my olive trees yesterday too. Looks like its gonna be a LONG summer.

It was pretty darn frosty out there this morning. Looks like we got down to about 30 this morning. At 3:00 am is morning it was 32 with some pretty good wind, so I don't think our duration of frost was all that long. I could hear lots of pumps running in the valley at 6:00 when I walkd outside. I'm hoping/guessing/praying that we didn't get any damage from this. Sangio is out pretty far right now. Wouldn't want to see it get nailed. Won't really know until late afternoon.

I feel frost in the air! The north wind is already up even at this hour (before 6 am) and that tells me that we're gonna have our first frost of the season. Its gonna be a windy and raw day today, but when the wind dies down at sunset it'll get cold. There's gonna a lot of deisel burned tonight with growers frost protecting. Stay tuned.

My peaches and cherries are in full bloom, the santa rosa plum is past full. What else can we do to make it rain? Let's grade the road! This one is a sure thing. I just spent about $2K in a grader, roller and water truck to take care of my poor entry road today. Its a mile-and-a-half long and was in pretty sorry shape. We were never able to grade the darn thing after last years nasty winter took a bite out of it. Looking down the road (I mean weather wise) it looks like we might get something by about Sunday/Monday and talk of something else the Friday after that. We had a nice little 31 degree morning here today. No pumps were going in the valley this morning. I'm thinking folks are holding onto what water they have until they really have a bunch of stuff out and its a real cold frost coming.

he's a very good guy, not such a great bocce player, Russ; Next time you come to Mendocino its gonna be horseshoes or handguns! I'll also throw a piece dead deer on the grill to go with that Grenache!

Boy I really don't have a good feeling how things are going these days. Things are very dry and there's not much coming in the near future. Looks like this little 'piss off' storm is gonna do just that and not really help anything. I'm hoping for a half inch to at least keep my cover crop from hitting the wall. Lots of the native vegeation is already starting to set its seed heads that that doesn't show well for livestock fellows. I'm wondering what dry farmed grape growers will do with no real moisture in the soil if we don't get another 4-6 inches of rain. These's still time, but the clock is tickin'!

My 84 acre vineyard has over 45,000 vines on it. That would be 1.3 million decisions. I don't think I'm capable of making that many decisions in a season! Hey Mary, I was looking at your photo above: aren't those strips sprayed a little too wide? I'm starting my strip spraying next week. We like to keep the berm vegetated all through the winter for erosion control.

They've had mechanical pre-pruning in Cali for many years. The next step will be 100 machine prune (which has been in Australia for quite some time). It takes the vines a few years of over cropping to sort themselves out, but it works for the jug market. There's also machine leaf removal here in Cali ( a HUGE cost saver). I've talked to guys doing this and they say the leafer pays for itself in one season, depending on the size of your vineyard. This biz has changed a bit since I pounded grape stakes by hand for weeks at a time!

I think they're right. There's a great story in the April issue of Wine & Spirits and the use of micro-Ox (as well as other 'black market' winemaking tricks). I think the $6-$12 a bottle wine in California is going to have machine picked fruit and micro-Ox aged rather than barrels. I went through Napa last week and was blown away at how many vineyards were yet to be pruned. The guys on the valley will pick by machine and hopefully that will free up some pickers to pick my mountain fruit!

My Santa Rosa plum is in full bloom, I sprayed my peaches for leaf curl today, my cheeries are pretty close too. I've been doing a bunch of winemaking stuff the past week and will go for a walk in the vineyard with my dogs tomorrow. I did drive through Napa and Carnernos yesterday and saw lots of buds at that 'pencil eraser' stage. They're just about ready to pop. I also saw a $hitload of vineyards yet to be pruned. I think the labor shortage that some saw at harvest has carried through the winter and skilled pruners must have been hard to find down there. My cover crop has really jumped these past couple of weeks. We're holding off on pruning our frost sensitive spots for another week or so. I'd like to see the terminal buds push before we prune those vines. It gives us another 10 days of delayed bud break, which could be the most important 10 days if we were to have a cold snap. It won't be long now kids! Hope I'm ready for my 31st harvest!

When does the season start in terms of measuring rain accumulation and what is the total range of rain you look for this time of year? Are you approaching a "safety zone" where there has been enough rain or late enough in the season? I'm pretty happy if we can get 25" or more with well timed rainfall. The most important is getting enough in the spring to have a full soil profile going into budbreak. I LOVE it when we're still getting rainfall up to the first of April. I hadn't realized the peaks were high enough around there for snow. We do have some snow in the Santa Cruz Mountains (~2000-2300 ft) right now but I guess I'm not sure how high the mountains are around Anderson Valley. Is there a reason you wanted snow at lower elevations for the grapes? Eaglepoint isn't in Anderson Valley, although our PO box is there as that's where my office help lives, we're on the east side of the town of Ukiah. With the vineyard topping out at 1800 ft our ranch goes up to 2700. It would have been fun to have some snow in the vineyard just for the hell of it. Fun to go walk the dogs in the snow and shoot some photos. I posted a pic from last years snow on this site somewhere (I started an album) but heck if I can find the shot!

I was hoping to see some snow this morning, but its all on the higher peaks around us. The good news is that we've received 9" of rainfall since Feb 7th bringing our total up to 21" for the season. Looks like the drought scare of January (a month that saw only 1") might be nothing more than a reason for us farmers to freak out.

Looks like Ma Nature has been listening: I was hoping it would cool off and get wet, we might get both wishes at once. I know some of you folks loved that couple of days in the 70 degree range and were doing a bunch of outdoor activities. We don't want these vine thinking that spring is here IN MID-FEBRUARY! I think everyone knows that we're WAY behind on rainfall too. Looks like a nice wet/cold storm headed this way starting tomorrow. I think its time for either grass fed beef stew or short ribs with a Syrah for dinner! Cheers

The last couple days have made me uncomfortable with these days in the 70's. The pruning wounds are bleeding now. Glad to see some more rain on the horizon. Word is snow levels will be 3500 feet here in just a couple more days. I'll take the dogs for a walk ths afternoon and try to enjoy this last day of false spring!

Looks like the storm door is gonna swing shut for a while. We ended up with about 5.5 inches and I swear the cover crop has jumped 2" in the past 4-5 days. The small creeks are already slowing down as the water is soaking in. I sure don't want too much of a warm up now. I want those vines to stay sleeping!