It’s a very busy time here Oak Creek Vineyards & Winery! Our grapes are waking from their winter nap; our team is preparing for a busy grape-growing season; we are continuing to make big improvements around the vineyard, and we are all finally shedding our yearlong COVID-19 inspired hibernation.
With the spring weather ranging from heavy frost and snow overnight to balmy shirtsleeves weather during the day we are anxious for the safety of our buds. We look forward to bud break any day, and alternately fear the buds will be damaged by freezing temperatures.
A major goal for us this year is to increase the productivity of our vineyards. One of the most important pieces of our plan is to establish the distinct nature of our own wines developed from the grapes grown on our property. To lead that effort, we have brought on a new vineyard manager. Dave has taken the challenge to get our vineyards producing so we can produce reasonable quantities of wine for us to share with you, our biggest fans.
We have been making regular inspections of the vines looking for signs of life. We expect bud break to occur any time in the next few days. The buds are fuzzy and expanding but have not yet broken. But we know it will be soon now that pests have returned to the vineyard. Weeds are growing, and insects are swarming. We are taking steps to control them while we continue to walk softly on our land. As I said to Dave the other day, “We would rather pull than poison” the weeds.
As some of you will have noticed or read about, we are installing a new well. This should give us a reliable water source for irrigating and supplying water to the tasting room, winery and residences. We had several occasions last year where we could not water the grapes nearly enough and we lost several almond trees. That definitely affected our grape production. We expect the new well to come online in the next couple of weeks, just in time for spring watering. We will do more rain-dancing in the meantime.
As we improve the availability of water, we are redesigning the plumbing and replacing many of the irrigation pipes to improve delivery of water to the grapes. We want to be able to tune the irrigation to specific parts of the vineyard to optimize watering. We have several different soil types and sun exposures, even varying row by row. This sometimes means we waste water in some places in order to get enough water to thirsty plants in other rows. So we are working to ensure we give each plant the amount of water it needs and no more.
Developing the vineyard to realize its potential is a long-term project. A journey of 100 miles starts with the first step.
Watch for pictures on our social media sites and be prepared to celebrate the start of another
vintage!
Salut!
It’s a very busy time here Oak Creek Vineyards & Winery! Our grapes are waking from their winter nap; our team is preparing for a busy grape-growing season; we are continuing to make big improvements around the vineyard, and we are all finally shedding our yearlong COVID-19 inspired hibernation.
With the spring weather ranging from heavy frost and snow overnight to balmy shirtsleeves weather during the day we are anxious for the safety of our buds. We look forward to bud break any day, and alternately fear the buds will be damaged by freezing temperatures.
A major goal for us this year is to increase the productivity of our vineyards. One of the most important pieces of our plan is to establish the distinct nature of our own wines developed from the grapes grown on our property. To lead that effort, we have brought on a new vineyard manager. Dave has taken the challenge to get our vineyards producing so we can produce reasonable quantities of wine for us to share with you, our biggest fans.
We have been making regular inspections of the vines looking for signs of life. We expect bud break to occur any time in the next few days. The buds are fuzzy and expanding but have not yet broken. But we know it will be soon now that pests have returned to the vineyard. Weeds are growing, and insects are swarming. We are taking steps to control them while we continue to walk softly on our land. As I said to Dave the other day, “We would rather pull than poison” the weeds.
As some of you will have noticed or read about, we are installing a new well. This should give us a reliable water source for irrigating and supplying water to the tasting room, winery and residences. We had several occasions last year where we could not water the grapes nearly enough and we lost several almond trees. That definitely affected our grape production. We expect the new well to come online in the next couple of weeks, just in time for spring watering. We will do more rain-dancing in the meantime.
As we improve the availability of water, we are redesigning the plumbing and replacing many of the irrigation pipes to improve delivery of water to the grapes. We want to be able to tune the irrigation to specific parts of the vineyard to optimize watering. We have several different soil types and sun exposures, even varying row by row. This sometimes means we waste water in some places in order to get enough water to thirsty plants in other rows. So we are working to ensure we give each plant the amount of water it needs and no more.
Developing the vineyard to realize its potential is a long-term project. A journey of 100 miles starts with the first step.
Watch for pictures on our social media sites and be prepared to celebrate the start of another vintage!
Salut!
