Each spring I’m asked how the vintage is going so far. This year the questions have come more frequently as we have experienced what seems an endless series of rainstorms. In a nod to working people not involved in agriculture, it feels like every week has included a couple of rainy days, but skies have cleared for the weekends. The past week was no exception. Rain poured down on Thursday, May 27th, but then the sun returned and shone throughout Memorial Day weekend. We expect more fair weather for the rest of the week, so perhaps we have turned the corner.

The recurrent rains remind us of the 1998 vintage when it also rained periodically until June. The impression is that we’ve had a really wet spring, but the fact is that the year is pretty normal to date. While it has rained regularly, it hasn’t always rained very much. What we recall as wet days were actually periods of sprinkles to steady drizzles, more like annoying background noise.

In reality, our neutron probes reveal some depletion of moisture in the soil. That may be due to more cover crops taking up moisture because they have not been disked and worked in. Our equipment has been engaged instead in repeated applications of sulfur to prevent mildew. Because we use topical sulfur and not systemic chemicals, more rain washes it off and we have to re-apply. Fortunately, the mildew index has not been that high because temperatures have remained cool.

So, in answer to how it’s going, at this point we are behind only in our cultivation. We have done our suckering. Pinot Noir typically produces two shoots per bud, and at about the two-inch stage, we reduce that to one shoot and rub off any extra buds. Our canopies are fairly open and wires have been moved already. Now we plan to stay on top of cultivation and wait on flowering to see how we will address our crop. If the period of flowering is tight, we will thin at veraison (when grapes soften and turn color). If it’s elongated, we’ll take away weak shoots.

Last year at this time, we were almost through bloom, whereas this year bloom is from 35% to 65% completed. The nice weather last weekend helped. If it stays cool, flowering could be as late as the second week in June, as in 1998. That would put our projected harvest around late September to early October. My colleagues growing Cabernet Sauvignon or any other later ripening variety are more concerned at this moment. However, because weather can change and grapevines have their own ways of compensating, we just have to wait and see.

The key in winegrowing is to know up front what your goal is. We are making winemaking decisions in the vineyard right now by adapting to conditions with our goal firmly in mind. We have a long-term commitment to making the ultimate Pinot. So from pruning to bottling, we engage in an integrated process that requires understanding of each step. It’s not about big aha! moments, but rather an evolving body of knowledge and intuition that comes from understanding our tools and our land.

If your goal is to make sound, affordable wines, you can achieve that, but you won’t get great wines. In an overall excellent vintage like 2007, many good wines approached being great. But in more challenging vintages, you must set out to make great wine, and you have to know what you are doing and why.

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