All About the Vines...

Late April and I feel so far behind... growth on the vines seem normal, but the weeds and gophers are crazy. All this season's rain will make this an interesting vintage.

First things first, I need to take a first pass at suckering the vines. I usually sucker the Petite Sirah first and then the Zinfandel. (As a side, I'm working with a friend to document the growth cycle of the head-trained vine with the hope that we produce something educational for others.) After a couple of weeks I'll go back through and clean up loose ends (final suckering). Then, we need to weed, hoe the entire vineyard before the weeds become too strong, but not too early that we see another entirely new batch of weeds grow as soon as we finish the first pass. After that, it's on to tying the canes to the wire. Of course now the wire is higher, in over half the vineyard, and should prove to be easier to perform.

In between the above activities I'll need to spray the vineyard every two weeks. We'll use the hot days (hoping for more than last year) to rack and bottle the 09' vintage. OK, that's my to-do list... better get to work!

Wait a minute, I almost forgot - in our spare time we ship wine too! Call (805-474-8514) or email me (doug@toucanwines.com) with your order... or check out our website.