Warm Spring, Early Budbreak and...FROST!

Warm weather never seems to come fast enough in the vineyard. You finish pruning, get the vines tied, perform any needed trellis repairs and then it's all about waiting. It always seems like the warm weather will never come. It takes aboout a week of temperatures around 50-60F to bring on budbreak. It's like watching paint dry! This year there was no waiting, the warm weather came on quick. From around the 10th of April the daytime temperatures began rising into the mid 70's. Within a few days the low 80's were here, and it lasted more than two weeks straight. With temperatures running 15-20 degrees above normal, it was a beautiful start to the growing season.

Nevertheless, I was concerned. You see, these warm temperatures brought budbreak to my vines a solid two weeks earlier than normal. Great you say? Well in some ways it is great, but in one particular way it's not. Around these parts, the average last frost is somewhere around May 5th-10th. What this all means is that as long as any threat of frost (temperatures below 32F) exists, any green growing tissue is at risk of being killed. The first things a grapevine bud produces is a couple of leaves and then this years fruit clusters, albeit embryonic. Now if those infantillic clusters are hit by frost, they will likely die and dramatically reduce or eliminate this years crop. So what do you do when early budbreak or late frosts threaten your vintage?

In France they set out metal drums to burn fires in the vineyard all night long when frost threatens. In California, large fans which keep the cold air from settling in, are run through the night. Still other growers run sprinklers through the night causing water on the vines to freeze over the tender growth. That's what I do. Yes, you did read that correctly; to protect my grapevines from frost I coat them with a layer of ice. It works because as the water freezes it releases latent heat. Not much mind you, but enough to get traped between the green tissue and the ice and keep the vines protected as long as it doesn't get too cold (below 28F on average) or stay cold for too long (more than a few hours). I was surprised to learn that this would work, but I tried it and it has worked every time I've used it in the past 7 years.

This year's early budbreak put me in a frost threat situation last Wednesday, April 30th. So I set up my sprinklers and turned them on at about 11:30PM. It's always an anxious night with little sleep when there's af rost threat. I find myself getting up to look out at the vines and checking the temperature often. There have been a couple of nights over the years where I've run the sprinklers but the temperature never dropped below 32F. Not this time. By morning my vines were coated with a gleaming layer of ice. The vineyard looks so strange like this, almost eerie. Then all you can do is wait for the sun to melt the ice away and assess any frost damage. As usual, there was near none. Only a very few shoots were damaged and that's because the sprinklers didn't get them wet enough so ice could form on them. By far a successful frost intervention!

It might seem a bit too much stress and effort to the average person, but this is the norm for grape growers. Most people would think that I'm crazy to have chosen a hobby that involves challenges such as this, but I love it. When you work, worry and nurture your vines through a year and you see that crop hanging as it ripens, then you know why you do it. Then when harvest comes and you crush the grapes and taste the sweet, succulent juice that will become this years vintage, you even begin to look forward to the next growing season. Of all plants, only grapevines and their mysterious power over humans can coax such loving attention from us. It's really amazing that we do it, but we do. I guess it must have just a little something to do with the finished product, you think?

Video -Grapevine Pruning #1 - Spur Training

My first attempt at a video about pruning grapevines is done! I'm still not happy with the quality, I enlisted a good friend, Robert Coffin to help me out and we realized that the right equipment is a must. We are now in the process of getting some video equipment that will make this much easier and increase the quality of the videos. (please forgive the creaks of the tripod)

About the video:

In my vineyard I use two types of training/pruning methods: Double Guyot, which is cane pruning using a low wire and vertical shoot positioning and Low wire cordon training with spurs. This video covers the latter. I will be posting another video in a few days that covers the Double Guyot method which is the system I use on most of my vines. In the mean time I hope you enjoy this one. Pruning is something I look forward to every year. After a long winter it is the first time you get into the vineyard, the first sign of spring, and the beginning of a new, hopefully delicious, vintage! I look forward to your comments and/or discussion.

Wine & Food

I love wine with food. More and more Americans are discovering just how enjoyable combining wine and food is. While Europeans have know the pleasures of wine and food for centuries, it is a relatively new experience for we "New Worlders". In this regard, I have had the advantage of being of Italian descent, my paternal grandparents being Italian immigrants and my maternal great-grandparents likewise so. Thus, wine is something that was fairly common at the dinner table for me as a child. I cannot say however, that it was anything like you would find in Europe. Although my paternal grandfather made wine annually and drank it as you would find in Italy, my father did not follow suit. The product of a time in this country when being an Italian immigrant was not as glamorous as it may seem to me now, he and his siblings endeavored to be more "American" than Italian. He was much More likely to have enjoyed a beer with dinner or a ginger ale for that matter. My mother is another story. She has loved wine as long as I can remember. Well wine in the sense of fermented grapes. She enjoyed, and still enjoys the Italian homemade style wines. These wines are far from what you would consider "fine wine". The commercial equivalent of these are jug wines like Fortissimo or Piasano. While I can say that I cut my teeth on these wines, they are not what I strive to grow and make. I have become somewhat of the family wine snob, tasting my way through these jug wines on up to California Merlots of the late 80's, later Cabernet's and eventually finding my palate planted in old world wines like Chianti, Barolos, Super-Tuscans and Bordeauxs.

My discoveries in fine wine also led me to enjoying wine and food pairings. I started with the usual Cabernet or Merlot with red meat. Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling with seafood. Chianti with pasta and Chardonnay with poultry. It has always amazed me the way wine can enhance, or be enhanced by different food pairings. Have you ever tried good dry, champagne and then taken a bite of a ripe, sweet strawberry and tasted the champagne again? You will be amazed at how the flavors compliment each other. I just can't seem to get enough of these pairings. I love them so much that I have, in my quest for deliciousness, begun to break the rules. What I mean is I now regularly fore go the usual wine and food pairings and try my own combinations. I might drink a Chianti with fettuccine alfredo or Viognier with pasta and meat sauce. How about Zinfandel and seafood fra diavolo. When I'm with "wine snob" friends or at "fancy" restaurants this often causes an eyebrow or two to raise. I might incur the ire of a "connoisseur" or other aficionado. You know what I say? Who really cares! I don't. I don't make or drink wine because I want to impress some self proclaimed Robert Parker. I drink it because I truly enjoy this wonderful and mysterious nectar of fermented grapes. I try it with foods that I love and if I find a pairing that isn't status quo then I guess I'm a pioneer. This is why I make wine. My wife loves to cook and experiment with recipes. I love the excitement of coming home and finding her cooking a delicious meal. It is so nice going down to my cellar and having enough different wines so I can try and pick one that will be the perfect compliment to her meal.

Hence the beauty of wine and food pairings. There is just so much variety. Don't get me wrong, I love Riesling and seafood. It's just that in my mind there are endless possibilities when it comes to pairings. You could think of a new one every day of your life. Some won't work and some will be amazing. I just hope I live long enough to experience as many different combinations of wine and food as possible. I guess I'll have to live forever.

Winetasting -The Other Part of Winemaking

The essence of cherry and Chocolate. Red fruit, currants and cigar box. Strawberries and cream, oaky vanilla and luscious earthy notes. The intriguing, exotic flavors and aromas of wine have mesmerized mankind as long as history has been recorded. Wine is, without question one of the oldest beverages known to man. But more than that it is one of the oldest pleasures known to man. The bible is filled with references to it and mythology is littered with it; wine. It's the reason so many precious acres of this planet are devoted to growing grapevines instead of staple crops. The love of wine seems quite universal in nature and there are no signs of that trend changing.


Winter is the perfect time for grapegrowers and winemakers alike, to taste their wines. The vineyard is dormant and the new wines are safe in barrels or secondary fermenters. Some pruning is going on in milder climates, but much of that will wait until more hospitable temperatures arrive. For some reason the cold quiet of January and February in the Northeast provides a seemingly ideal backdrop for tasting your wines. In the cellar the cold temperatures really contribute settling the wines down. The cold temperatures cause suspended solids left from fermentation to precipitate. The wine begins to clear brilliantly. It's at this time of year you can really get an idea of what this year's wines, though still in their infancy, will become. What brings even greater pleasure to me at this time of year is tasting wines nearing release. Most full-bodied wines like Cabernet Sauvignon or Cabernet Franc (which I grow and make) need to age nearly two years before they really become approachable. It takes that long for tannins to soften, aromas to mature and flavor components to develop. That's why when you go to the store to purchase wine you'll rarely see a red wine that's for sale with a vintage date less than two years previous. There are some, but not many younger than that.

When it comes to wines you've made, you already know how they're doing. You've been tasting them all throughout the winemaking process. You know which of your wines are flawed and you are exited about those that hold promise. Even wines that seem less than pleasing are hard to give up on when you've grown the grapes yourself and turned them into wine. You keep hoping that someday you'll taste them and magically they will have turned the corner toward deliciousness. This can happen in some cases. For example, if a wine is otherwise good but overly tannic or just a bit too acidic, these characteristics will soften over time and the wine may become outstanding. But a wine that is made from underripe or otherwise flawed grapes, will never lose it's undesirable characteristics. You have to let go at some point and accept it, no matter how hard it may be. I can testify to the pain of pouring a 5 gallon carboy of wine that you have invested one year to grow, and two years to make, down the drain. It's a good thing there was a good glass of wine nearby to help me through it. Sadly this has happened more than once in my winemaking career. The bright side of this is that your knowledge of how to make good wine grows from experiences like these. So I don't really view them as failures.

What makes it all worth it are the good ones. When you draw some wine from a carboy full that has been developing nicely, to taste. You swirl it in the glass to get some air into it and hold it up to the light. Lovely color, deep red and great legs. You raise it up and draw in a deep breath. Currants, rich oak and earthiness flood your senses. If it tastes anything like the nose, this will be your best ever. You take a sip and it covers your tongue like silk. Fruitiness, black pepper and structured tannins fill your mouth. That's it. This is the best wine you've ever made. This is why you do it, why you work so hard in the vineyard and why you sacrifice your relaxation time to make wine. For all those people who think you're crazy for doing it, wait till they taste this... yes, then you'll finally get some objective opinions. But hey, you like it. So who cares what anyone else thinks, Right?

The Winter Doldrums

As far as the vineyard is concerned, winter in the Northeast is a time of inactivity. In the wine cellar it's a completely different story. Harvest in my vineyard starts in late September and runs through the beginning of November depending on the variety. This time period brings to an end the constant vigilance of the growing season but mobilizes the time sensitive, whirlwind of winemaking itself. It's absolutely critical to get the perfecly ripened grapes that you've patiently labored over all season long, crushed and turned into wine as quickly as possible. So from the day of harvest for each variety, your goal is to crush that fruit immediately after picking. The sooner you turn those grapes into must, the less chance they have to degrade or be affected by spoilage organisms and the like. I crush within an hour of completing harvest of any particular variety. Once you have the grapes crushed and in the primary fermentation vats covered, then begins the huge task of cleaning up your equipment and the winemaking area. This is vital to prevent organisms like acetobacter or brettanomyces from invading your cellar to infect your wine, tainting it with vinegar or "barnyard" aromas and tastes. Now you can breathe for a moment. Eveything is clean, the wine is safe and protected from the air. You've given it a dose of postassium metabisulfite (sulfer) to kill of the wild yeasts and you've covered the wine with CO2 to protect it from oxidation.


24 hours later you will add your cultured wine yeast and within a day or so primary fermentaion begins and your grape juice is on its way to becoming wine. The fermentaion vats begin to foam and froth from CO2 produced by the happy yeast feasting on the sugar in the grapes and converting it into alcohol. Now you have another job to do if your making a red wine. It's called "punching down the cap". This is the act of pushing the red grape skins, which have floated up to the top of the vat, back down into the fermenting juice to extract color, tannins and other flavor components from them. This should be done at least three times a day. This is one of my favorite times of the year because the whole winemaking area is filled with the warm, sweet smells of grapes and yeast together. It's a delightful aroma. When the fermentation starts to slow down after anywhere from 5-15 days you have to watch the wine carefully. Up until now the CO2 that has been produced by the yeast has kept the wine protected from air and the molds and spoilage bacteria it contains. Now, as fermentation slows down there is less CO2 and thus less protection. So if you're going to let the maceration continue, you'll have to add CO2 again yourself.


Now you have to gear up for work again, it's time to press the wine. You set up your press and secondary fermentation containers such as glass carboys. Pressing you also want to do as expeditiously as possible so as to again, minimize the new wine's exposure to air. You drain off the free run juice that is easily poured from the skins. Then you scoop or pour the remaing skins and juice into the press basket and extract the rest of the wine from it. Now you have glass carboys filled with new wine. You have to top them up leaving not more than an inch of airspace, and then place a fermentation lock in the opening. This will let CO2 out, but no air in. Clean up again, wash and sanitize your equipment, and it's time to open a good bottle and remind yourself why you've done all this work. Your young wine is safely tucked away in a corner of your cellar slowly tranforming itself into something you'll be proud of, hopefully, and you can take a breather now. Really it's the first time you can relax and not worry about your grapes since budbreak. It's a wonderful feeling. Just don't get too comfortable, you've got three more varieties to harvest! Then there's raking, fining and oaking. Suddenly it's mid January, how'd that happen? Ah, but never fear, the winter doldrums will soon be here.

A walk Through the Vineyard

Here again is some video from 2004. It is footage of my vineyard in mid September as the grapes began approaching ripeness. My vineyard has changed a lot since then as I've detailed in my posts. I have removed varieties and replanted with others. I've also learned a great deal since then and it's reflected in how I mange my vines now and how I did back then. My video skills need some work and I think a better camera is in order, but you'll at least get a feel for the layout of my vines. I will film an updated "vineyard tour" this summer and post that as well for comparison.

I hope you enjoy this little walk through my vineyard. The varieties you'll see growing are Cabernet Franc, Marechal Foch, Frontenac and Riesling.

Winemaking Videos

I thought I would try something different. I have been wanting to include video of my vineyard and some of the techniques I use to grow grapes and make wine. To get started with it I experimented with some video of winemaking from back in 2004. My friend Rich Schell and I make wine together every year. Before planting my vineyard in 2001 we purchased all of our grapes from a local importer of California grapes. We still purchase some every year but now we also have our "estate grown" grapes from Villa Ruzzo Vineyards, my backyard of course.



In the video I've uploaded from 2004, we are making Zinfandel. We bought 288lbs(8 crates ) of Zin and went to town. In the video you'll see the old Italian way of crushing the grapes. We've since gone hi-tech, but that was a lot of fun. If this "test" video uploads and works, I'll put something together with video of my vineyard. This one is rough and it's a little dark. At the time we filmed it we weren't thinking about adding it to a blog. We just wanted to have some video of our winemaking to look back on and laugh. So please forgive the poor quality. What I'd really like to do in the near future, is make videos by subject and upload them. The first one will be on pruning and I plan on completing it in the spring of 2008 and then I'll upload it. I'm very much an amateur at making these videos and editing them . I'm sure I'll get better along the way but "you gotta start somewhere" right? Hope you enjoy it!