Salisbury Vineyards

January 2007

Happy New Year! With that, it is also the beginning of another year for the vineyard which has already had enough hours under 45 degrees to assure us a good dormancy. El Nino is still a good possibility through March so we will get the benefits of a good cleansing of the soil. We have high amounts of mineral salts (manganese and iron) in our water and a pH of 7.6 which is all right but we prefer to be in 5.4 to 6.7 range. Heavy rain will flush out the root zone by driving these minerals and other impurities deeper into the soil. For us it is like a painter starting with a new canvas!

In December we prepared for the wet weather by putting up our dams and settling basins to catch and retain any soil that may wash off the vineyard. We have a permanent cover crop of native grasses and introduced Merced Rye that not only holds the soil in check but also acts as a strainer holding onto soil particles that may be dislodged.

We cleaned out the pond in the old quarry and put in a base at the bottom from the clay that we dug out to make the driveway at the Schoolhouse Tasting Room. Before that the pond leaked like a sieve because of the sandstone bottom. We plan to hold the excess water that drains off over one half of the vineyard and reuse for irrigation. Also, it will be a nice catch and release fishing hole for my grandkids! We are quite proud that at the entrance to the vineyard on San Luis Bay Drive, the water that flows into See Canyon Creek is nearly as clear as what comes out of the tap.

Also in December, we cleaned, repaired, and serviced all the equipment while it was still fresh in our minds what needed to be fixed so it all will ready for the new season. We start our pruning the second week of January after everyone has taken a well deserved 2 week paid vacation. We prune our spurs to one bud plus the “insurance” bud that is at the crotch of the spur junction with the cordon (arm). This usually gives us one to two buds per spur that pop out hopefully on St. Patrick’s Day. I’ve nicknamed my granddaughter, Milla, “Budbreak” because her birthday is that week.

We have our vines spaced at 5 feet in the row and 8 feet between rows. That means each arm goes out 2 ½ feet from the trunk in each direction. We aim for around 8 spurs spaced one hand size between spurs per side giving us around two dozen shoots with 1 to 2 bunches of grapes per shoot. That gives us around 8 to 10 pounds per vine multiplied by the 1089 vines per acre results in around 4 to 5 tons per acre and lets us have a little room to drop crop as necessary to obtain optimum quality.

Again, Happy New Year and if any of you would like to learn how to prune, stop by the tasting room and sign up for a little Cal Poly style “Learn by Doing”.