Prunning

A lot of people ask me in the tasting room about migrant workers in the wine industry. While there is to some extent migrant workers in most agricultural fields I always try to point out that there is almost always work to be done on a farm. A perfect example is happening here in the Napa Valley right now. Pruning! All of the vines in the valley and any olive trees need to be pruned before bud break in the spring. If you consider how many vines are in the valley you start to understand the work load this time of year. Add on top of that a normally wet season (this year is still dry) and it can be a messy slow process. There are really two main types of pruning used in the valley.

Cane pruning tends to produce smaller berries but can give the grower better control over crop yield. It however takes a bit more training for the worker to do correctly.

Cordon is another widely used pruning method for grapes. It is much easier to do and a little faster.

Pruning is not only useful for quality and yield but it can also be used as an extra layer of frost protection. When you prune a vine it shocks the vine a tad and prevents bud break for a week or two. This added time is sometimes all you need to get out of frost season. But now we are getting into an entirely different subject. Ill post about frost season sometime in April. Until then, Cheers!

Where is the rain?

February is right around the corner and the only thing I can think about as I drive around the valley is how low a lot of reservoirs are. Since the begining of 2012 we have had one good storm and most reservoirs remain very low. For those of you who don't know water is a big issue here in the valley. I still think the reservoirs will fill up this year but having it happen this late in the year can still effect growers in the future.

A few years ago there was a big deal in the Russian River AVA when we had a really bad frost season. The growers pumped right out of the Russian River for their frost protection sprinklers. They pumped so much water out so quickly that they left fish stranded in parts of the river. This has led to a lot of talk in the government and a lot of things are changing. Napa doesn't have the water that the Russian River has. Even in parts of Napa that have a good source of water people are switching to wind machines for frost protection.

In areas like the Los Carneros AVA where we barely have the water for irrigation our society has started to reconsider our heavy use of runoff. There is a big push to better use our resources and right now recycled water is the big topic. It is really just a question of funding the pipeline since there are growers who would use this water. The really sad thing is that years ago before the green movement a pipeline was turned down because some growers felt that the public would react badly if news got out that we were using toilet water on our vines. Makes you think about how much the world can change in just a few years!

Welcome

Hello and welcome to "From In The Winery". For those of you who don't know me I grew up in the Los Carneros AVA of the Napa Valley. My family has been growing grapes in the Napa Valley since my great-great-great grand parents. I guess you could say it's in my blood.

So what is this blog about? I am going to talk about grapes, wine, and the valley. I am not a wine critic but I will try and talk about any wines that blow my socks off. What you will get here is my opinions, theories, and assessments about whats going on in the valley. Basically you should read this blog if you want to keep up on whats going on in the Napa Valley wine industry and you don't mind it coming from someone with a few biases.

So what biases do I speak of? I prefer smaller wineries and avoid the bigger wineries as much as possible. Family owned and operated wineries are my favorite and if its the winemaker/owner in the tasting room then I am in heaven. I also do work at a winery that my parents own and operate. I may at times talk about McKenzie Mueller and use it as an example, consider this your disclaimer that there may be a shameless plug from time to time.

So I guess if you are still reading then you don't mind and you want to hear more. I would like to welcome you aboard and I hope you enjoy the posts to come!

Cheers,
Julius KR Mueller