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@Smoke In Peru I saw many trellises like the wooden one you made. It was used for groing Quebranta grapes. The Peruvians make a liquor called pisco from the grapes.

Wow San Jose just got a frost warning tonight. Hope my buds survive!

I picked SO4 grafted to Zinfandel with hopes that the vigorous rootstock would help reduce millerandage on the clusters. I toyed with the idea of growing the Zin ownroot since it is a small planting and not commercial, but I finally chose this combination. I might plant a Zin cane somewhere in...

I expect that this soggy soil is temporary. I have dealt with crown gall on other rootstocks too. I have to deal with heavy clay soil here. I have had success with 1103P, disappointed in 1616C and now giving SO4 a try. I regularly ask growers about their selection of rootstock and rarely get a...

Wet is the new dry!

I also have a new planting of Zin by my house on the valley floor and it is soggy. I have never had to deal with such wet soil before. Zin is grafted to SO4 and that is a new rootstock for me also. I am expecting lush growth, or drowned vines.

@ovjock The pruning cuts will bleed if the cuts are made in the spring when sap is pushing. It is normal and harmless. The cut should be made to allow the sap to drip away from the buds below the cut.

They are murder on my springtime hayfever. I know that!

Welcome @SandiaSlice (watermelon slice?) It appears that there are many empty spots in your trellis. One thing to note is that many vineyards have areas where the vines thrive and other areas that struggle due to the unknown geology beneath the ground surface. Don’t be surprised if new vines...

Merlot has budbreak in San Jose, the Cab Sauv is slower but I have seen a bud pushing here or there. I pruned this week before shoots get out of hand. There was bleeding. My Zin plantings were pushing buds on the sunny south end of the rows and bled profusely when trimmed.

@Rice_Guy my day is complete. And it is only 7:30 am

About 2:1 for me. I keep opening bottles of my wine, in the interest of science.

@GSMChris do you tie the canes to the catch wires? Maybe what you are growing Is well behaved. I grow Cab Sauvignon on something similar and all the canes flop over toward the downhill side because they are so heavy. I even use catch clips.

I really must try egg white fining. I have a few bottles of Cab Sauv that still have the seed tannin bitterness on the end of the palate and I wonder if egg whites are the secret. I can sacrifice a bottle to the cause. The bitterness is greatly diminished from when the wine was young, but I...

I used to be very paranoid about oxidizing wine during racking. I use carboys and very carefully avoided any unnecessary exposure. This made racking a ***** because that means I need to have a few empty carboys at the ready. I have recently started racking into a bucket, adding my K-meta or...

I have had carboys turn into volcanoes simply by moving them. But it ususally takes an hour for it to happen, just enough time to leave the room and come back to a mess.

Like everyone else, I say wait if you can. I think there is no fixed number for what bitartrate drops out of wine. It will depend on how much potassium is in the grapes. Also, was your sample degassed before testing pH? CO2 will throw off your measurement.

I am doing the winemaking by Lake Tahoe. We had a great Thanksgiving with the family. Lasagne and garlic bread. No one complained about dry turkey this year. I made a Libby’s pumpkin roll because I insist on SOMETHING being traditional LOL. I saw a coyote gnawing on the frozen lees the next...

International Wine Challenge describes mousiness as: Trying to imagine this. My mind is conjuring up Nacho cheese Doritos, dirty socks and popcorn.

Once again, time is my friend. The blackberry wine is getting better. I notice much more aroma, and a smell that I associate with Kmeta additions has mostly disappeared. All these problems may be due to bottle shock. I just don’t know, but I am learning to just forget about the wine and let it...