Rain and Flowers

We've got just a couple of acres left to sucker. When that's done, we'll do one more pass with Roundup under the vines. The sporadic rains of last week have given the weeds new life. Luckily, we haven't hit bloom yet.

Back in 2005, we had rains during bloom, which reduced fruit set by in excess of 50%. That was a disastrous year, in more ways than one. My customers may wonder why there was no 2005 vintage for Clary Ranch Wines. All along, we've sold grapes in addition to producing our own wines. In 2005, there wasn't enough fruit for my own program after fulfilling the contracts that I had. For a number of years (2003-2005), we sold fruit to Schramsberg for sparkling wine. Unfortunately, the economics of sparkling wine require a higher number of tons per acre than we get out here on the edge. In any case, you can taste the results for Schramsberg in their Reserve de Noirs for those years.

Another thing that the rains and weeds have brought up is allergies that I've never suffered with before. I'm wondering if the severe cold that I suffered through earlier might not have been allergies instead of a cold (?). Then again, it WAS over the top for a week or so. But the post-nasal drip is sure hanging on! TMI?