Summer finally arrives and flowering is fully underway

With temperatures at 30 degrees today and expected to be 35+ most of the week we are finally seeing the summer heat arrive. We are in the middle of flowering throughout the vineyard and have good fruit set in about half of the riesling. The number of clusters is much higher than we had originally thought but the plants seem healthy enough that weather permitting we will not have any problems ripening even a heavy crop load.

With the warmer weather we have had everything is growing more vigorously. The quicker growth rate helps to highlight the areas where we need to work on soil health. We are taking note of areas where growth is slower or leaves are lighter in colour for our fall soil remediation work. We will be applying compost to restore nutrients and seeding rye between the rows to build nitrogen levels. We will probably incorporate clover into the mix in the spring as it's tight growing helps to choke out unwanted weeds as well as fixing nitrogen levels.

We have been enjoying a bit of time to swim in the lake, bbq in the vineyard and explore some of the lesser travelled spots of the Okanagan in the last few weeks. The farmers market in Penticton has doubled in size and we are starting to see much more variety and quantity of fresh produce. We can do almost all of our grocery shopping there now which is nice because it is all local. We have been noticing that many of the farmers are young couples and siblings who are entering the farming industry with small organic operations. It is really nice to see our generation stepping into this industry.

Finishing the planting, shoot thinning, MG shelters and Vegetable Gardens

The cool spring has kept growth slow and steady and allowed us to keep up with all out vineyard tasks while gradually finishing all the planting.

We have almost all the Riesling in the ground now and most plants are pushing up shoots and leaves already. The quality of the Riesling vines was very good with large healthy roots on the rootstock. The sandy soil where the Riesling is planted holds water better than the rocky, gravelly soil of the Pinot Noir down below so initial recovery from the shock of being planted seems to be quicker than the Pinot Noir.

We finished planting the Pinot Noir about a month ago and already many of the plants have shoots pushing out of the milk cartons. Typically 5-10% of new plantings do not survive and will need to be planted again the following year. We only have around 3% showing no signs of growth at this point.

Our Gewurztraminer is healthier than we originally thought. Although winter damage was severe and in many cases resulted in trunk disease, we do have many plants that will give a light crop load this year. We will probably produce this ourselves as it will not have significant market value as grapes. With less than a ton of fruit we will likely be able to produce 30-40 cases.

The Merlot is also proving to be healthier than we originally thought. There is an area at the top of the plot where most plants are dead but most of the plot is alive and will produce a reasonable crop this year. We are toying with the idea of producing the Merlot ourselves as well. We have agressively shoot thinned and many plants only have 2 cluster on them. Shoot thinning is like helping the plant to choose it's favourite children and put all it's resources into growing and ripening them. The less shoots and clusters a plant has, the more energy is going into them and generally the higher quality they are. We expect to get around 1.25 tons of Merlot which will produce around 70 cases.

The older Riesling is very healthy and growing strongly. With the temperature climbing this week we will be busy tucking the shoots into the trellis wire to control where the growth is. I expect that by the end of the week most of the Riesling shoots will be above the top trellis wires.

We have gone through a couple of major infection periods for mildew in the last few weeks. With rain and moderate temperatures mildew can flourish in the leafy canopies. This is a major problem for growth and development this time of year. Most growers spray a cumulous sulpher spray to protect their vineyards during this time. Although we are not particularly interested in acquiring an organic designation, we do prefer to use sustainable, organic and even biodynamic techniques wherever possible. So far, with careful monitering we have not seen any significant signs of mildew infection and have avoided doing any sprays.

We expect to see flowering over the next few weeks. During this time it is important to minimize any activity in the vineyard. Spraying, shoot thinning and rain can all cause damage during flowering and ultimately effect the amount of fruit produced.

The rain has also delayed pouring of our crushpad in front of the winery. This should be completed in the next few days after which we can start putting the siding on the front of the winery building. The rolling door will also be installed following the concrete finishing.

The dogs have both been enjoying the cooler spring. Darby is enjoying lazy days sleeping in the sun on the deck then cooing off inside. Scruffy has been busy with pest control duties and has drastically reduced the local gopher population in the last month. He is also fighting an ongoing battle with mice that seem determined to have families under the trailer despite repeated eradication. We will have to watch for snakes in the vineyard as the weather warms up. We don't know yet how either dog will react when encountering them.

I finally had time to get a load of compost for the vegetable garden last week so we are ready to plant the seeds this week. We are looking forward to eating some garden fresh food in a few weeks time.

Planting.. planting.. and more planting

The last few weeks have been all about planting vines. Once again, with help from friends and family we have 800 Pinot Noir plants in the ground and growing where the Malbec was before. The Malbec was very difficult and painful to remove at only 6 years old, I can only imagine how difficult it would be to pull out older vines. Attached is a picture of the Pinot Noir this morning. Most plants are starting to push out leaves already and all have buds opening up.

This past weekend was the beggining of replanting the Muscat at the top of the vineyard. The soil is sandy which makes it a bit easier to dig and move around but very muddy when running the irrigation. We are halfway through planting 1650 Riesling vines in this plot. The vines are very high quality, brought over from the Mosel valley in Germany where the best rieslings in the world are produced. We have increased the density of planting to 8 plants per panel (vs. 6 everywhere else on the vineyard) to fit all the plants into one irrigation grid rather than spill into the gewurztraminer grid where the muscat had gone. With high density planting it can be possible to achieve better quality grapes, due to a slightly lower yield per plant but still achieve a profitable tonnage per acre because of the higher number of plants.

Thanks very much to Mike for his weekend of hard work helping to get us started with the riesling. Also thanks to another good friend for the 1982 Chateau Pichon Longueville 'Baron' that we had with our steaks this weekend after a hard day planting. It was a beautiful wine, my birth year and a wonderful expression of old bordeaux elegance and restrained masculinity. Still in it's peak, I would think this will be lovely for another 10 years in it's prime.

Lots more pictures to follow!

Building Completion

With lots of help from friends and family we completed the main arch structure for the winery building a few weeks ago. The back wall is about 50% complete now but we were forced to take a break and tend to pressing vineyard tasks.

All the riesling was pushing buds so it is now tied off and ready to go. The Riesling seems to be the most suited to the vineyard site and it looks very healthy. We went through and picked the best two canes on each plant, carefully bent them over the trellis wire and tied them off. This spreads the fruit load horizontally along the wires ready to grow up. Most of the Gewurztraminer is also tied off now but it is fairly sluggish to get going. We found some trunk disease in a few of the Gewurztraminer and Merlot plants that we will have to moniter closely over the next couple of years. Having seen the success of the Riesling, we will likely look to replant the Gewurztraminer with more riesling in years to come.

The Merlot is now coming out quite nicely as well. With the different pruning style used there, we only have to go through and tie of a few of the vines and train some new spurs where needed.

I hooked up the flail mower to the tractor a couple of weeks ago and mowed the whole vineyard for the first time. It's a pretty violent method of grooming between the rows but with all the rocks on our property a flail mower is the only tool that will do the job effectively. It was interesting learning to back the tractor down the vineyard after mowing some of the rows. With the 6ft extra length on the back it was a bit tricky. We eliminated the tractor turn around space at the top end of some of the rows when we put up the winery building so for now it is necessary.

After mowing, Amy and I hand pulled any weeds that were amongst the vines or in areas where we are planting.

Alto Wine Group Inc.

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Alan Dickinson
250-535-1558
alan@driversden.ca

More pictures 2

More pictures

Foundation finished, Amy moved up, winery building half up and bud break!

I have had an extremely busy last few weeks between construction, Amy arriving and work in the vineyard. Since my last post, the winery foundation has been mostly completed. Our contractor did not complete the job as we had discussed so everything is done with the exception of the crush pad out front. This will not hinder our construction but needless to say, we have not paid him out yet.

My brother Stuart was up for a week visiting and helping with the winery building. Between him, Thor and I, we managed to make pretty good progress. The normal method for erecting arched metal buildings is to assemble each arch on the ground and hoist them up. The size of our building prevents that from being possible so we must bolt on each piece individually. There are still arches to complete which I will be working on this week.

Last week Amy moved up. Her parents helped out in the vineyard with wire tensioning and digging up a plot for the vegetable garden. Once the building is complete I'll pickup a couple of loads of compost and we can plant. We should have more vegetables than we can eat.

We have been carefully monitoring the vineyard over the past few weeks. The warm spring has led to an early bud break. I saw the first signs almost 2 weeks ago on a merlot vine. Since then, the riesling is fully out, gewurztraminer is well on its way and the merlot is making slow, steady progress. Even the Muscat that we are going to replant is coming out on a few plants. I really need to complete the building and get on with the replant now. It will probably take the better part of a month to remove the Muscat and plant more Riesling up top, and remove the Malbec and replant Pinot Noir down below. After toying with the idea of a high density planting of Riesling where the Muscat is, we have more or less settled on inter-planting Riesling and seeing what the Muscat does over the coming year. If it recovers we can keep it and if not, pull it out next year.

I will post a number of pictures this morning showing our progress over the last few weeks and Amy will be making her first post in the next couple of days.

Backfill and Rebar ready for final pour!

The concrete guys have finished the backfill for the winery foundation and laid rebar ready for the final pad to be poured. They also laid the trench drain in place for drainage from the winery floor. Before backfilling we also laid down a conduit for the electrical line running from the building underground to the pumphouse and house.

I also setup the BBQ and we have a firepit/barbeque entertaining area ready for visitors now. Bring Meat!

Darby and Scruffy have been busy supervising the foundation work along with performing pest control duties. We get a large heard of deer in the neighbour's field behind our house each night around 7:30pm that stick around for a few hours. Scruffy and Darby sent them off the other night and chased them all the way back down the property line. We have not seen the deer behind the house since.

More Pictures

A few of the foundation walls before and after application of the styrofoam insulation. Also, Amy in the vineyard!

Catch up post

I have been really busy getting the place ready for Amy then picking her up along with all our stuff in Vancouver. Amy is back in Vancouver until the middle of the month but we have the place all setup and Scruffy has Darby here as his wingman on the vineyard.

The winery building has progressed well with the frost wall and foundation wall in and cured. They are now lined with styrofoam insulation ready for the backfill and leveling and then the pad to be poured. We are not far off putting the building together now. Thor and I are tentatively planning on starting early next week. Although everything goes together very easily it will be physically very demanding erecting the arches and fastening everything together. Anyone who fancies a little farm labour is welcome to come for a visit!

While Amy was here we painted the entire inside of the house and built a walk-in closet in the laundry room. It is nice and cozy in here now and with internet and electricity, all we are missing is the septic hookup. I have arranged to use a shower in a local motel while they finish the septic hookup and we have an outhouse on the property for temporary use. I also crawled under the trailer yesterday and strapped in the anchors for the house. I dug and filled 3 foot deep holes underneath with concrete and a steel auger last week. I used 5000lb rachet straps to crank down the building in case of a big wind storm.

We have lots of interesting developments on the business front and we could be working with some prominant groups to produce small batches of wine.

I'll have lots more up this week as the concrete work is finished and we follow up on business leads.

Building unload.

House is looking like a home

Thor and I have been working hard to finish up the mobile in preparation for Amy's first trip up next weekend and moving in of all our stuff. We finished up the skirting and work on the underside after raising the house up with scew jacks to get a better slope for the septic system. We also built steps and decks on both sides of the house which Scruffy really appreciated because he can now follow us in and out without a boost.

The metal building got delivered this week and we spent several hours unloading the 18,000 lbs of steel by hand. This was the single hardest day of labour any of us has ever had. I can't imagine it'll be much easier putting them together but at least we'll be able to use the tractor for lifting up the arches.

The contractors finally managed to all come out for septic, concrete and electrical planning. We have power hooked up to the house now and the septic will start to go in on Monday when the footings get excavated for the building. Once the foundations are complete Thor and I will be erecting the building. The design of the building is such that we can build one arch at a time then lift it up and fasten it in place.

-Alan