Salisbury Vineyards

AVILA VALLEY GRAPVINE – 0CT0BER 2007

Crazy weather! September kicked off with a quarter of an inch of rain from the south followed by muggy and warm temperatures, which can lead to Powdery Mildew and Botrytis (grey mold) on the ripe fruit. In order to protect the crop, we applied Serenade, an organic fungicide, which we can use right up to harvest. The rain was followed up with a record breaking 112 degrees in the vineyard. Then, an early northern winter type storm that hit hard to the north and south of our vineyards made us believe we were going to have to pull the sprayer out of the mothballs again. Somehow, we escaped the wrath of the storm on the official start of autumn!

The harvest is late again this year, as it has been a cool season. Last year it was tardy due to a late wet spring. We should have had most of our Pinot Noir off by the first of October but we only had 25% harvested last year. A late season also creates other problems such as more time for the varmints to have a crack at eating the crop. Although the Starlings are always a problem, this year the deer have really stepped up their assault. We are proud of leaving our gates open to allow the couple of resident deer free range through the property, figuring a couple of deer can’t do much damage on 40,000 vines. However, this year they invited their in-laws by the dozens to eat the berries and leaves. The leaves are a big problem because they not only eat the leaves, but often strip off next year’s buds. In a drought year, the vineyard looks like a big green oasis and they are attacking our perimeter. I imagine those of you living locally are experiencing the same problem. So now we have had to lock up the vineyard, stake down the fences where they are able to squeeze under, and patrol the ranch.

A good chunk of the statewide crop is late, and picking is light tonnage by early indications. The cool and wet weather will mean a crunch for all wineries to process the remaining crop. We are sending most of our fruit to Westside Cellars this year under the direction of Steve Rasmussen who was our first winemaker while still at Talley Vineyards. Steve was Talley’s head winemaker for 18 years and has been on his own for the last couple of years. He has developed a brand new winery in Santa Maria that will produce not only his own wine, but also ours and a few others. Up to this time, we have been making some of our wine at Templeton Wine Services with Signe Zoller, past head winemaker at Meridian, and Jerry and Marsha DeAngelis (Avilalonians) who now have their own state of the art winery in Paso Robles.

The bulk of our wine for the last several years was custom made for us by Harold Osborne at Kelsey’s See Canyon Winery. He has created our reputation for Avila style wine that is a full, fruity, and an easy drinking. Salisbury’s award winning wine appeals to our customer base of both tourists and local wine lovers. Unfortunately, Harold is going to Hawaii to make his wines and surf in warmer waters than Pismo. This is why we are moving our winemaking south to Steve’s winery. Harold will still come back annually to produce our Pinot Naturale which is our White Pinot for lack of a better description. Harold has an extensive background in sparkling wines so we thought a couple of years ago we should make a sparkling Pinot Noir because Champagne is partially Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Just before we were going to bottle the wine, we thought this is a pretty good white wine, why screw it up with a bunch of bubbles. It was a great decision because our Pinot Naturale is one of our most popular vintages!

The other “accident” that turned out pretty well was when we planted Syrah on the east end of the ranch near the freeway. Now this is a “red grape in a white grape town” that is normally grown in the hot valleys of Australia, Paso Robles, and the Central Valley. The ground where it was planted in 2000 is hard as rock sandstone. Syrah’s great attraction is that it is a hearty grower’s grape; you can stick in the ground almost anywhere and it will grow vigorously. We were afraid to plant the finicky Pinot Noir at that site and risk having a lousy looking vineyard from the freeway. We planted the Syrah for mostly landscaping reasons, and it has turned out to be one of our most well received wines. Go Figure!

“To the Land we love, and the Love we Land” (Traditional Welsh)