McMorrow Cellars

Chronicling our Tara Hills home Vineyard Project.

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July - Veraison

Mid-July

I most likely waiting too long this year to properly canopy my canes, when I finally got around to it in mid July I noticed some powdery-mildew had formed. 

Late-July

July- Still looking good. Powdery-mildew persists. Some berries are a little tough-skinned, some are not the nicest shade of green/purple. But I am seeing veraison all over all of the clusters. 

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June

June was a great month! Had some excellent conversion to berries from fruit-set, really full growth, looking good. 

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May Flowers

We’ve got a great bunch of flowering berries out there! 

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April in the Vineyard

It’s been a great season so far! Plenty of rain, and some beautiful sunny days- we’re off to a promising start. The photo above shows a little less than one week of growth, both rows are taking off splendidly. 

North Row Comparison.

South Row Comparison.

Close up comparison, The canes are super strong, the tendrils are reaching, pretty much everything is right at or just above the top training wire. So they’re doing great a month out from bud-break. 

ANother fun thing happening- we already have a bunch of little fruit clusters!

SO we’re really excited to be off to such a great start here at McMorrow cellars, on our way to having this -2017- be our first vintage. 

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Bud Break - 2017

--North Row

And here we are again. After a season of INCREDIBLE rain, here, in Mid-March- right on schedule, the vineyard at McMorrow Cellars is off to a great start. 

We’re hoping this year will be our first vintage. 

--South Row

--overhead North Row

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I got BRIX.

 A view down the barrel of the meter today with juice from a few of my grapes.

Thats right, I just got a BRIX meter, or that is to say a Portable Analog Refractometer. After calibration, (and unfortunately getting a unit which doesn't read perfectly level) my first reading showed up as what I will call a 26% BRIX reading, which is great, as in my 2nd season my grapes are ready to be made into wine!

Looks actually like this batch would yield me a wine that would be in the neighborhood of 15.9% alcohol by volume, if I did my calculations right.

Success! Now next season -2017-  looks like it will yield the first vintage from McMorrow Cellars. I’m aiming to grow enough fruit to get me in the neighborhood of 50-60 bottles. SO I will start reaching out to local partners to find a preferred method to get this wine made. Im still determining whether I want to try to take on making it at home, or using a local facility to help me de-stem, crush, ferment, store and bottle this stuff. It’s probably more than I can handle on my own, as the equipment for fermenting is a bit pricey, as well as my lack of a temperature controlled space that I can store the juice. My garage would be the only option, but it is not insulated, and temperatures in there fluctuate wildly, especially during the summer. It can easily go from 100º to 50º and back over a 24 hour period, not ideal for the aging process. 

We’ll get into that in a future post!

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Getting there.

I’m excited to see so many bunches, and see them all developing a beautiful rich purple color. I ate one on Sunday- chewed it and spit it out at least. Definitely a grape- bitter- but with a hint of sweetness. Thick skin, flimsy seed.

Good things.

I‘ll close with this shot of the first turned leaf in the vineyard. A short while left for this season.

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Veraison.

Big things. This 2nd year is the first for fruit and now that its Summer we’re seeing signs of Veraison - representing the transition from berry growth to berry ripening. God things!

All Shot on 7/15/2016.

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Annnnd now it’s Summer.

SO the vineyard is doing great! A ton of growth, pretty evenly across the whole yard, row 1 (North Row) is stronger, by about 25%, I have to chalk this up to its full sun and slightly better soil. But we have grapes on all vines!

You can see the evolution here- in their 2nd year fruit us present, and I’m super happy- as the book has said that it might take 3 years.  Either way you can see that from late April- to May we have the first fruit start to develop- tiny bunches of berries . After a month they’ve grown to hearty bunches- and as of just the other day they’re getting ell rounded, heavy and firm- Ill keep updating this as they grow!

And here is the vineyard as of 6/4. You can see the North row #1 (on the right) has quite a bit more volume of branches and leaves. However both rows are still producing well.

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Spring has sprung.

So early March I started to see bud-break on all the vines. An amazing site as vines of McMorrow Cellars enter their 2nd year.

This is one of my 3 potted back-yard vines, in 2 weeks they really took off!

March 16th was the magic day, everything started exploding on or directly after that day. 

Now in early April you can see everything has really taken off, huge spurs and new stems all over!

Nice bark all over all stocks.

Tendrils reaching for the guide wires!

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Weather Station.

SO I keep track of all weather data for our area, with the hopes that it will give me clues for reference on the final terroir of our wine. I had been tracking a personal weather station about a mile from our vineyard for the first year, via the Weather Underground. You can track our station- KCASANPA7 here: https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KCASANPA7

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2016

SO! It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to update you on McMorrow Cellar’s...partly because not much happened over the Winter months, and partly because we’re expecting our newest addition the cellars- soon the pitter patter of little feet will be heard running through the vines!

Anyway here are a few updates:

This is mid-December- we got a ton of rain which is awesome- so I got to turn the sprinklers off for a few months-  here you see the leaves in full Autumnal turn, and baby greens rising from the fertile soil.

Our left hand-South row- lost their leaves sooner- partially because they never did come in as strong as the North Row- and the gusty winds blew their leaves away faster.

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Fall is Here.

So Fall is probably my most favorite time of year. The colors, the weather and the start of the Holidays. SO too now Fall now descends on the vineyard. I am starting to see the leaves change, and an over all slow down of shoot growth as they go into a period of root establishment. This is what the book tells me anyway.

Every vine now has bark, this #7 pictured above has become the most prolific vine in the yard. It’s stalk has thickened quite a bit and its bark is really strong. This is going to fortify it during the coming cooler months and get it through the frosty night’s/mornings of January and February.

I’d now like spend a few moments highlighting some of the other things growing in the vineyard. I left as many of the existing plants/trees/shrubs in their place when I installed the vineyard. Biodiversity is a good thing for the health of the vines and now that it is fall we have some really beautiful things growing in tandem with the vines.

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Barking up the right Vine.

SO this week I’m starting to notice the vines developing bark! i know- exciting stuff right! Actually it is, bark is essential for the vines, it is the way they fortify themselves against the coming coolness and frost that winter brings. The book says you shouldn't use any fruit the vines may bare if there is no bark present. Well I’m a ways away from there being any fruit, but fr sure bark is a good thing to see developing. 

This is the beginnings of bark on #3. The vine went from green to a nice purple and now I’m seeing it develop this pulpy fleshy bark. The stems attached to these leaves are turning a deep purple too, a sign that summer is coming to an end and I

l’ll expect to see the leaves all change with the season and eventually fall away. This first fall will be a time of another huge root growth, so I should see the stocks fatten up and the bark cover all of the vines and canes.

Here again on #3 you see canes coming off the cordons, there are several that are strong and these are going to be producing a ton of fruit for us dow the line, they’re growing straight up through the guide wires which is perfect. 

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More Progress

SO I’ve replaced #9 and #14. Took out the old vines and trimmed them down, put them in their own pots, and hopefully- I’ll get some renewed growth out of them. Meanwhile all the other vines are growing strongly, cordons continuing to lengthen as I tie them down. We’ve had a few really hot days recently, so I’m hoping that will be good for them.

#9 about to go, the new kid on the block in it’s improvised housing.

Nice deep hole- didn't see any evidence of gophers or another mischief.

Easiest way not to disturb the root system, cut the bottom off the pot w/ a box cutter, place in the hole then slit the side of the pot all the way up- remove the pot and there it is, root system stays perfectly in tact.

Back in action, in he house, drip nozzle attached.

Put the old one in its own pot and trimmed it down- we’ll see if I can get a bud break out of it.

#14′s hole- ready to go- noticed the hard clay at about 13 inches down- so I broke it up a bit, give those roots a chance to break through.

Here is the new #14 in the dirt and ready to have its housing put on and its drip nozzle attached. 

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A Death in the Vineyards

SO #9 has been having problems, for about 2 weeks now it has been limp and drooping and there had been nothing I could do to revive it- than a week ago #14 started doing the same thing- just like sudden vine death or some other weird phenomenon. Anyway after treating them with extra water, daily- which brought other vines back to life previously they were in real trouble. I gave them a healthy dose of Super Thrive with a bunch of water and some 16-12-16 fertilizer but to no avail- I have officially pronounced them dead. 

#9

#14

What is the most sure sign that they're done for is the lack of any new or renewed green lower on the stock- these guys have had it and for no outwardly apparent reason. So I will replace them with 2 of the 3 extra bare-root vines I got, and Ill trim their old stocks down and try to bring them back to life in a separate pot, similar to the 4 I removed (3 of which now show new growth). I’ll document the transplant and post it shortly.

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Training Begins

SO finally i took the step of cutting the tops of my vines and tying the best stems on the guide wire to start them on their journey to becoming cordons. It was heart breaking to cut the tops off- so much growth, and since its the first time I'm doing this I was taking a leap of faith that I was doing it the right way.

#3 before being topped

#3 cordons tied

They have taken well to the tying and I’m adding a tie at each joint, I noticed the  vine from the ground to just below the housing is turning a deep purple after a few days- this is the first step toward bark forming and really developing some fortification. 

#15

#15 again

I noticed that from my 3 extra bare root vines that the one I shored up and covered under 2 inches of soil is performing much beet than the others which were covered only to the top of the stem, so next time Ill know to shore them deeper.

These 3 got less love than the 4 that went into the rows to replace the 4 that had been mis-pronounced dead- but they are a test of the virility of vitis vinifera. The one shored with 2 inched is on the far right, VERY noticeably outperforming the other 2.