This Is A Bit Cool For Indian Summer
Here in the North coase we usually see warm and dry weather after the equinox (Indian Summer) that allows our grapes to ripen gently and cleanly – with little Botrytis or other rots. This is what we have seen since the tenth of an inch of rain a week ago: a bit humid, but warm into the mid 80's during the day.This weather pattern started changing yesterday. A strong trough is diving south , but to the east of us – what my favorite forecasters call an "inside slider." It looks like the back side of the Sierras is going to get an inch of snow, but here we are only in for cool, windy, and dry – extra applications of lip balm kind of dry.
The temperature near the vineyard at sunrise was 46° F but ut has fallen since then to 42°. We are projected to warm into the mid-70's but it is supposed to be even cooler tonight and Saturday night. I expect this to signal the vines to drop some leaves, at least in the Syrah.
The very dry conditions are going to pull water from the leaves in the daylight hours, unless the wind is consistently strong enough to close the stomates. Yesterday I asked Jean-Marie to put 4 hours of water on the Mourvedre, uphill on the shallowest soil with the lowest water-holding capacity on the site, against this possibility.
Yesterday all the Syrah clones sampled at about 25° Brix. There has been a marked improvement in seed ripeness just over the last four days. Things are moving quickly now – I expect to have all the Syrah off by the end of next week, especially as the dry weather is going to drive the sugars up a bit faster.
The Grenache, Mourvedre and Counoise sampled at 23°, 22° and 21° respectively. I feel we are still on track to bring all these grapes in by early November as we have for the past three years. Right now it looks like the weather is going to help us out – the warmest day in the extended forecast is at day 10.
At the winery: Inoculated the Tannat on Wednesday. The caps in the Pinot are up on Kloeckera, which makes me happy. I will think about inoculating them today, or perhaps tomorrow. I am doing a Pinot Noir experiment in the WinePods: asking whether long deliberate cold soak is actually beneficial (as opposed to faddish), and if a sumberged-cap ferment will produce a drinkable wine.
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