Bud Break in Napa

Bud Break + 1 day.

Bud Break - April 2

Bud Break is always an important event in the Napa Valley, but this year it is particularly important since it is the time that I committed to re-start this blog and keep it up to date during the entire wine-making season.

Do you want to know about growing grapes and making wine?  And what is happening in the vineyard and the winery? Follow us throughout the year and we will keep you up to date on the events, the successes and the non-successes and the issues that we face during the season.  We will also comment from time to time on what is going on in the Napa Valley and our thoughts about it.   

Bud break on April 2 was right on schedule.  While much of the country has been enjoying (or worrying about) substantially above average temperatures and a very early spring, the Napa Valley weather has been very typical.  February was a warm month and everyone was worried, but March was very typical.  As we conduct tours at our winery we tell people that bud-break will happen about April 1, plus or minus only a few days.  And with an "official" bud break in our own vineyard on April 2 we were not disappointed.

Generally the Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay grapes bud first, then Cabernet Franc and Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot are generally last.  And once the buds burst open they grow rapidly.

Five Days after bud-break and growing fast.

Frost is now the big danger.  For the few weeks after bud break frost is our biggest concern.  If the buds freeze, the shoot dies and we will get a smaller crop. We will not be "out of the woods until something close to May 1.

This past week, we had three days in which the temperature got below freezing.  Fortunately it never got below 31 and it only got there for a couple of early morning hours. 28 degrees is the real danger point.

Frost Fans. Many of the vineyard is the valley have frost fans -large propellers, mounted atop large steel poles to circulate the air mix warm upper air with the colder air near the ground. The are propellers like you would see on a large old airplane, powered by and old V-8 car engine running on propane from tanks located in the middle of vineyards.

So on a number of nights this past week we were awakened around 4AM with frost fans all over the valley sounding like an entire squadron of large helicopters circling the valley. Just part of the risk of farming and the Napa Valley life style.

Lake Cynthia a heat-sink. We don't have any frost fans on our property because Lake Cynthia, which sits in the middle of our vineyard has about 15 surface acres.  It warms up during the day and at night as the surrounding cold air sinks to the lake surface it is warmed and circulated substantially reducing our risk of frost damage.  It seems like we made it through the last week just fine and we will keep our fingers crossed for the next couple of weeks.

Dry Winter followed by a wet cool March. We did have a very dry winter and a warm February that had everyone worried, but March was cool and wet.  We received about 8 inches of rain during the month and another inch and a half are scheduled this week. This is the ideal time of the year to get the rain so everything seems to be on track and we are smiling.

Concerto Release Completed.  This last week we also completed the release of our 2008 Concerto Napa Valley To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. A spectacular wine that we will talk more about later. It is only available direct from the winery so if you are not a wine club member and didn't get any, contact the winery.

Visits, Tours and Tastings are by appointment only.  Schedule an appointment by calling 707-225-2276 or by e-mail at tours@kitchakcellars.com. You can visit our winery website here.  And you can take a virtual tour of our vineyards and winery here.  



 

Bordeaux - Monday AM Tasting Chateau Carbinoux

Peter & Patricia in the courtyard at Chateau Carbinoux

8:45 AM and the bus picks us up for the tasting. We are traveling with a group from the San Francisco chapter of the Commanderie de Bordeaux, who have organized the trip.  What a fabulous job by Kent and Chuck.  This is a very old Chateau, in fact, one that Thomas Jefferson visited on the 25th of May in 1787.  That Chateau is in an old Benedictine Abbey built in the 13th Century...800 years ago. Owned by the Perrin family, the Chateau makes both a red and a white wine.  But it also has an interesting, if small car collection. The vineyard is in the Pessac-Leognan appellation. I think their white wine is better than the red.  White wine is 64% Sauvignon Blanc and 35% Semillon. Red wine is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot.  The vines are planted 7200 plants per hectare which equals 2914 plants per acre. Our most dense planting in Napa is about only 1210 plants per acre. A very big difference that causes a very different type of machinery to work the vineyards. Our tasting consisted of a 2009 White Wine and their 2008 red.  The white was very nice the red, undistinguished.

A small collection of old French automobiles

 The group with whom we are traveling

The Chai and Chateau Carbinoux

The Start of the Bordeaux Research Trip

Sunday Morning - Amsterdam
Sitting in Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. Schipol seems huge, but it is only Europe's 5th largest and the world's 20th largest airport, measured by passenger traffic. Its airport tower was the highest in the world (391ft) when constructed in 1991.  However, its most interesting fact is that it is all below sea level. While the average level of the runways is a bit less than 10 feet below, the lowest point on the runways is more than 11 feet below sea level. The airport is loaded with shopping, has a casino and a modern art gallery. It even has its own mortuary and in 2010 became the first major airport in the world to have its own permanent library.

So,  here we are for 3 hours waiting for our flight to Bordeaux.

But this Blog is supposed to be about food and wine.

When is Delta Airlines ever going to figure it out. They offered 4 wines on the flight over, picked by their "Sommelier." Take the person's license or certificate away.  The Pouille Fussee Chardonay was too old although a 2009.  It was golden color probably because of poor storage and all ready starting to maderize. The alternative white was  "an Argentinian White" which tasted like a mixture of a poor Chenin Blanc and cat pee. A total put-off.
Ok so maybe the reds would have some redeeming value.  Take your choice of a 2009 Argentinian Malbec that was so purple it looked like it was bottled yesterday or a Pinot. The Malbec never saw a hint of oak and would not have stood a chance in a blind tasting against "two buck chuck."  OK, so there is one wine on the list that has to be respectable.  A Robert Mondavi, Carneros, Pinot Noir. While I hate to start on a negative note, it was also a grand disappointment, but what do you expect. Thin, watery and character less.  No nose and no finish. But... This is an airline and notwithstanding a business class ticket costing thousands of dollars why should I expect a decent wine. I guess that is what monopolies(or at least oligopolies) get you.

Speaking of monopolies and airlines.  Has it occurred to you lately how little progress we have made in commercial flying in the last 50 years?  My first commercial flight, just after I got out of college in 1963 was aboard an Eastern Airlines Boeing 727, from Minneapolis to Chicago. The food was better, the seats were bigger, the flights were seldom jammed to the rafters, the service extraordinarily better,  and it went just as fast, that's right, just as fast, as the best planes of today. .8 Mach.   I keep waiting for Sir Richard Branson and Steve Jobs to form a partnership to figure out how to improve travel. Maybe we also need the Tesla guys in the mix. It is a cinch that the CEOS of Delta, United and American will never get there.  We need visionaries, not accountants running our airlines if they are ever likely to improve at all.

On to Bordeaux where we will find centuries of tradition, explore the new techniques and sample some of the best wine and food in the world. Join Us. And feel free to leave a comment.

The Shopping Arcade awaits.
Cheers
Peter Kitchak