#20: Reflections (Part 2). Journey to Harvest…and Beyond!

I’m sure you’ve noticed the myriad of trucks filled with grapes that have been scurrying to and fro on our roads since the last week of August.  If you were on the road just before dawn on August 24, you might have spotted Steve Hill bringing a big flatbed truck to deliver our contracted 5+ tons of gorgeous Parmelee-Hill, Sonoma Coast, Pinot Noir grapes.  Our 36th harvest had begun at GlenLyon!  With the early Sept heat wave, all our fruit will have been harvested and at least begun to be made into wine by the time you read this.  2022 was the earliest harvest on record!

Hopefully you had a chance to read the REFLECTIONS story that I began last month.  Here’s Part Two about the successes (and failures) of planting our first grapevines:

Our First Vineyard

Late in 1987, we moved out of our tiny Cottage into our new home we had built on top of the hill on our property.  While the house was being built, we found time to clear enough scrub oak (and poison oak) to plant our first two acres of grape vines and learn more about training those new baby plants.  After working with the young grapevines for over a year, Suzy and I were getting pretty cocky with our matching Felco pruning shears.  

Did you make any “mistakes”?

We sure did.  The first mistake was not selecting the perfect grape variety for that vineyard site.  Even though we had the soil tested and amended to make things perfect for grapevines, we planted Cabernet Sauvignon, a grape variety that turned out to not be the best choice for that spot.  Cab is a sun-loving grape variety and the site had very tall oaks growing on the sunny side of the vineyard.  Unfortunately, during the growing season, those tall trees didn’t allow enough sun to get to all the foliage.  We had two choices: to cut down all the beautiful oaks, or to select another variety that didn’t require quite as much sun.  So, after three years, we bit the bullet and grafted those Cab vines to Syrah, what eventually became a perfect variety for that spot.

Another huge early mistake was the timing of pruning.  Since I was traveling-for-work a lot, I would prune the grapevines when I could…and that was when I was home.  Unfortunately, in those early years, I was not home very much due to my work schedule, so some of that pruning we had to do in the rain.  (Remember when it used to rain in Sonoma County?). What did not sink in during our SRJC pruning and canopy management classes was this simple adage: “Never prune in the rain.”  Well, some dumb SOB did prune in the rain…and that dumb SOB would be me. Thus, we ended up with a slowly progressing disease called Eutypa, also known as “dead-arm”. 

Eventually we had to replant that “Once-Was-Cabernet-But-Was-Grafted-to-Syrah-But-Got-Eutypa” vineyard.  We’d fallen in love with Syrah as a variety, so we replaced the diseased grapevines with new disease-free Syrah grapevines.  They were site-specific, I never again pruned in the rain, and to this day are thriving. 

Our Second Vineyard

Ten years after planting (and replanting) our first vineyard, we cleared more scrub oak (and poison oak) in a five acre area on the upper elevation, and we prepped for a second vineyard. This time we planted four acres in Syrah and one acre of Cabernet Sauvignon…this time in a nice sunny spot!

We initially named our new vineyard “The Olde Poop” vineyard after my dad, but DaughterLexy thought the name wasn’t particularly appealing, so it simply became “Vineyard #2”.

To this day, those grapes are doing quite well…after another big mistake: making a poor trellising and training choice….

One of our viticulture classes at SRJC showed us the different types of trellising and training.  Clever us, we chose an exotic one called “Smart-Dyson”, which quickly proved to be “Less Than Smart” for us.  Why?  Half of the long canes were trained to grow down toward the ground and when the tractor drove over them when we sprayed, the canes simply popped off the cordon arms.  So, after two years of struggling, we converted that system to simple bi-lateral cordon.  (See last year’s PRUNING issue for “bi-lateral cordon” explanation)

In total, our lower vineyard now consists of 2.5 acres of Syrah and Grenache which goes into our Rosé program (YUM!).  Our upper vineyard is four acres of Syrah and one acre of Cabernet Sauvignon (we found a nice warm spot for it).  We also planted a half acre of Viognier,  in honor of our 2 ½ year old granddaughter, and we call it “Hattie’s Block”.

Planning for any more vineyards at GlenLyon?

Suzy says “no!”, but we did taste a Picpoul Blanc (very obscure white Southern Rhone variety) the other night at a friend’s house and we absolutely loved it! So, I started secretely looking for a spot where we could plant a half acre. (Don’t tell Suzy, but “it ain’t over ‘till it’s over!”)

Over the last 36 years (two tractors, 3 ATV’s and many mistakes later), we simply learned as we went, and are still learning to this day.  Much of that education was from viticulture classes, consulting and exchanging ideas with other grape growers.  For my next installment of our three-part REFLECTIONS columns, I’ll write about our journey as we learned to make wine! 

That’s it!  Re-reading everything we’ve done and our vineyard mistakes made me thirsty!  Time for a glass of fine GlenLyon wine with Suzy on our Overlook and start thinking about dinner!  I think I’ll open a bottle of 2021 Suzy’s Toast Viognier that we bottled in March, as it’s Suzy’s favorite!  (Who knows, maybe we’ll talk about Picpoul Blanc!). Tempus Imbibus! (“Time to drink!”)

“Lang may yer lum reek!”  Scottish Gaelic “Long May Your Chimney Smoke!”