Slow is Good at Reverence Vineyard

I recently received this report from Alan Baker, one of our California Calicaro people about our Napa Cabernet vineyard:

On Wednesday, April 8th, I managed to sneak out of the winery for a quick visit to Reverence Vineyard in Napa Valley’s Coombsville region. I met up with Aaron DeBeers who is the vineyard manager, and he gave me the scoop on what’s up.
Because last year was such a tough year for frost, Aaron is taking no chances this year. They did a partial pruning this winter where they cut the canes back to about 7-10 buds per cane. They saw buds swelling a couple weeks back and as soon as they saw green growth on the buds at the end of the canes, they went through and pruned each cane back to two buds. This last minute pruning causes the vine to stop pushing the remaining couple buds for a up to a couple weeks, which keeps the sensitive growth protected for that much longer in frost season. And due to that late pruning activity Reverence is only at about 5% bud break. Some nearby vineyards already have three-inch shoots.

The Cabernet Sauvignon at Reverence is planted in very rocky soil so the yield has been very low, typically below 2 tons per acre. And with frost damage last year it barely topped a single ton per acre. Aaron is on a long-term program to add organic matter into the soil. He added compost to the vineyard last October, and his guys were just finishing mowing the cover crop (mostly Rye) and mulching that between the rows. Along with adding nutrients back into the soil you want to get this cover crop down this time of year because it will trap cold air and magnify the frost threat...

Aaron doesn’t expect to apply his first spray for a couple weeks when the plants start to leaf out and become more susceptible to mildew and frost.
The Cab is Clone 115, mostly on 110-R rootstock.
Oh, and because the soil is pretty much just rock, it doesn’t hold moisture, and as a result the wells can’t keep up. This means they have to truck in water, which is basically someone’s full time job once irrigation starts. A lot of work for a couple tons per acre.
ab