Salisbury Vineyards

June 2007

We are in the midst of our Spring Cleaning. We just chopped the native grasses in the vineyard that had gone to seed and they will now be available to sprout this Fall with the first rains and prevent soil erosion. Every three or four years, after harvest, we run the bulldozer down every other row and sink 3 shanks down about a foot to break up the compaction from the wheel and foot traffic. Then in the spring we run the rotary tiller in those same rows to mix up the organic matter - old prunings and grasses, smooth out the rows which get bumpy over time from the ripping, squirrel holes, and gopher mounds, and also we slice and dice any gopher that doesn’t get out of the way fast enough. It is the favorite time of the year for the Turkey Buzzards and Crows.

The vineyard crew is suckering which is the removal of any the nonproductive growth coming out of the rootstock or on the trunk and are thinning the crop at the same time. We have a better than average crop that just finished bloom. This is tough time mentally of the year for a vineyard owner because one of the results of thinning is that in order to get the “Gold” with Pinot Noir, which is a very crop sensitive grape, not only do you have to pay to get the operation done but you are dropping thousand of dollars of grapes on the ground. I figure it costs us over $150,000 per year in costs and lost revenue. We have around 16 spurs on a vine and allow only two shoots/spur which only have one to two clusters each. In order to get the best quality Pinot Noir wine, we remove up to 40% of the fruit (five tons down to 3 tons/acre) from the vine that otherwise could be sold to another winery for top dollar. No wonder when I look at all those grapes (money) on the ground I have to have an “attitude adjustment lunch” now and then.

In our March column we talked about corks versus screw caps. We have been vindicated in an article in the May15, 2007 edition of the Wine Spectator. Forty years ago Maison Jean-Claud Boisset, one of Burgundy’s largest and most respected wine merchants, bottled selected wines with proto-type metal closures (screw caps) and just compared them with the same wines that were bottled with corks. The oldest wines where a 1964 Nuits-St.-Georges Premier Cru and a 1966 Mercurey. Their winemaker, Gregory Patriat, said the wines with the screw caps retained freshness and fruit better than the corks. Most importantly was that the screw caps showed consistent quality whereas the wines with corks had serious significant bottle variations. His historic French company is going to bottle their $200/bottle 2005 Chambertin in screw caps. Patriat stated “We are convinced by the qualities of this type of enclosure and are not afraid to pursue this strategy. The future of great wines is with screw caps”. What more can I say.

The Avila Valley Wineries did very well in the Mid-State Fair’s 2007 Central Coast Wine Competition. Along with numerous Silver and Bronze awards, the three local wineries also took some top honors. Kelsey See Canyon Vineyards was awarded the Best of Class Gold for their 2004 Syrah from grapes grown at Salisbury Vineyards. Salisbury took the gold last year with their 2003 Syrah (2004 sold out before the competition) which is extraordinary when you consider Syrah is a hot weather grape and really not suitable for our cool environment. To take top honors two years in a row over all of the warm area Monterey, Santa Barbara, and SLO county grown Syrahs where they are supposed to be grown is really special. Alapay won the prestigious Best of Class for their 2005 Pinot Noir grown at Jamieson’s Winery in Edna Valley. Salisbury Vineyards received one of only two golds awarded out of 33 entries for their 2006 Pinot Naturale. Way to go Avila!