Are we there yet, Daddy?

There is growing concern over this year’s grape harvest and desired ripeness. Here is the Grumpy Winemaker’s best guess.

As of August 31, 2011 we have accumulated 1882 growing degree days (GDD) in the Rattlesnake Hills. Véraison seems to be in full gear finally and we are getting some sugar. In fact, my Black Manukas are California ripe. (California ripe is defined by the stuff you buy in the grocery store and is never really very sweet because it was picked early for shipping.) In a week they should be edible.

Since the failure of Global Warming, which is now climate change, here is my prediction: In the past five years between September 1 and October 15, we have averaged 465 GDD. The least was in 2007 with 417 GDD and the most was 2010 with 498. Taking the average and adding it to the current GDD I get 2347 GDD for 2011. That is my prediction for the Rattlesnake Hills and I am sticking to it.

2300 GDD is the minimum in my experience for ripening Bordeaux varieties beyond vegetative flavors. In other words, we will squeak by and harvest everything by November 1.

I did not have time to do the calculations for other areas. Red Mountain, Wahluke, and Horse Heaven should be fine. Prosser Flats, on the other hand might be a bit short.

Looking for Véraison

For those of you not in the wine industry, Véraison is not a sexy French chick; it is when the grapes start to ripen. The black grapes take on color and the white grapes turn translucent. This usually happens the second week of August in the Rattlesnake Hills AVA. So far, we have a little véraison in Merlot, Gewürztraminer, and Black Manukas (an early seedless table grape). I have even checked out the big boys’ vineyards where they are cropped back to two tons per acre to make that big, high alcohol, Parker-style wine and they don’t have véraison either. Late harvest Cabernet, anyone?

As you probably already know, it has been a very cold summer in the Pacific Northwest. How cold was it you ask? We count our growing season by Growing Degree Days or GDD. Let’s look at this summer. We have accumulated 1591 GDD between April 1 and August 19. Most people aren’t old timers in the Washington wine industry like me, but I remember the summer of 1993 – known as the summer that never came. That summer by August 19 we had accumulated 1695 GDD. We are about 100 GDD behind the coldest summer in my 31 year career in the Washington wine industry. By the way, there were no spectacular wines from 1993. The newcomers considered 2010 a cool year and we had accumulated 1880 GDD by now. In a normal year we should have about 2000 GDD by August 19. I would guess we are about 3 weeks behind. It looks like Al Gore packed up his global warming and took it back to Tennessee. Climate change, anyone?

Prosser Flats, unlike the Rattlesnake Hills, only has 1356 GDD on August 19. Red Mountain, on the other hand, has 1716 – better, but still no cigar.

We need at least 2300 GDD to harvest Bordeaux varieties, but we would prefer at least 2600 GDD for optimum quality. We are presently getting around 20 GDD per day.The next five days are forecast to be above average and that is good news. A long warm fall can save our butts.

One the bright side, unlike some AVAs in the state, we do have grapes!

More Federal Regulation Stupidity

We have in the past used pyrotechnic devices to protect the vineyards from marauding birds. But, the Federal Government, in all of its wisdom, has classified them as high explosives and we need a bunker as pictured here to store them. Always before, a box of 50 was stored in the pickup where they are used from. See some birds, launch a screamer and they would leave.

I also have to get a federal explosives license, the same one used for dynamite. This involves being finger printed, photographed, and interviewed by an ATF agent.
If I see some birds in the vineyard, I have to go to the bunker and log out a screamer shell, drive back to the vineyard and fire it if the birds are still there. If not, I have to drive back to the bunker and log it back in.
Funny thing, around the Fourth of July, I can buy bigger explosives from the Indians down on the reservation. Yep, M-80’s, no problemo. Or, consider this; I can buy a 5-pound can of black powder from a gun store without a license.
These little ‘bird bangers’ are a pistol launched firecracker or racket cartridge. They contain less than ½ ounce of black powder.
Obviously, I’m not going to build a bunker to store some firecrackers. This year the old shot gun comes out. Next year, I’ll buy a bunch of bottle rockets from the Indians. They can be launched from a PVC tube and should work just fine.
If you are looking for stupidity, look no further than your federal government.

Bureaucrats

I haven’t been really grumpy lately, until I went to pick up some spray from our local farm store. As usual, I arrived with my 55 gallon drum strapped in the back of the pickup for the Omni oil. Omni oil is highly refined mineral oil (baby oil) with an adjuvant that allows it to be mixed with water. For a lot more money, it comes in an organic formulation for farmers who want to fool city people into believing that ‘organic’ produce is never sprayed with pesticides. Instead, they send hippie children and spaced-out hippie chicks in long dresses out to the fields to pick the leaf hoppers off the vines by hand while rainbows dance overhead. You’ve got to love the myth.
Back to the story. I was informed by Randy that they could no longer fill my drum with baby oil. Due to new federal regulations, I had to a) buy it in 2 ½ gallon jugs, b) 30 gallon drums, or c) rent one of their totes with a minimum of 50 gallons fill. They were out of 30 gallon drums, so I rented a tote and bought 70 gallons – enough for two applications.
The first tote leaked, so we had to get another and transfer the contents into the second one, a somewhat messy process. The appropriate ‘Pesticide label’ was applied to my baby oil and away I went.
When I got home, the back of the truck was covered with oil. Mind you, when I put it in my own container I never spilled a drop. But some dumbass bureaucrat in DC decided that they had a better idea and forced it on the nation. Thank you USDA. I feel safer about my food and the environment already. Keep up the good work. At this rate, our food supply might be safe by 2090 – that is if we have any food in 2090. Maybe that’s the plan. No food is safe food. People can’t get food borne illnesses if they don’t eat. Makes sense to me.
Not only is our country broke, it is broken and since we have the best congress money can buy, there is no hope.
As the Chad Mitchell Trio once sang:
“Should I write my congressman?”
“Each Congressman has two ends, a sitting end and a thinking end. And since his whole success depends upon his seat, why bother, friend?”

Why We Don’t Ship to Texas – or California for That Matter

One of our local wineries inquired about shipping laws to Texas. Although this information is available online, here is the personal response he got from the nice lady at the Alcohol Beverage Commission:

From: Carolyn Beck [mailto:Carolyn.Beck@tabc.state.tx.us]
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2011 8:34 AM
To: Jim
Subject: RE: Permit

It is $470 for a two-year permit.

You will also be required to obtain a sales tax permit from the Texas Comptroller's Office.

Tax security is required in an amount of $1,000 to adequately protect the state against the anticipated tax liability and may be submitted as a: liquor tax bond from a surety company authorized to do business in Texas, or a letter of credit, or assignment of certificate of deposit or savings account from a Texas bank or credit union. These forms are available on the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission web site at www.tabc.state.tx.us. Once you have been in business 36 months and have paid your taxes timely, you may request an exemption from the tax liability requirement on the Application for Bond Exemption Form C-26. This form is available under "Other Forms" on the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission web site.

You can find additional information about the out of state winery direct shipper's permit here:

http://www.tabc.state.tx.us/laws/texas_wine.asp#shipLawOut

Carolyn Beck

Director of Communications and Governmental Relations

Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission

512-206-3347

Carolyn.Beck@tabc.state.tx.us

Well, that sounds simple, Carolyn. I think every Washington winery will be signing up to sell that one case a year. We wouldn't want to disappoint a customer. Believe it or not, in defense of Carolyn, she doesn't make the law. This is the 'model' shipping law as proposed by the California Wine Institute. The California version is only $10 per year for the license and the tax liability amount is only $500 (cash, no bond, deposited in a California bank payable to the Late Great State of California). I guess California wineries have more money and ship more wine than Washington wineries.

It looks like Texans are stuck with American white zinfandel vinted and bottled by Llano Estacado.

Amerika, land of the regulated and home of the bureaucrat!

Spring Has Sprung in the Rattlesnake Hills

And yes, the grapes budded out just fine. The old saw that you need to be above 1200 feet was invented in frosty Prosser Flats where that is indeed the magic number. Unfortunately, it is also the summit of Sagebrush Ridge. It does not hold true for the Rattlesnake Hills.

We are expecting a full crop here at the Ch. Puryear Vineyard which sits at 900 feet elevation at the southern border of the Rattlesnake Hills AVA. (No the AVA does not extend down to the Yakima River, nor does it go over the summit of the Rattlesnake Hills into the frosty Moxee Valley.) Our Morrison Vineyard at 1200 feet is also doing well. Hyatt Vineyards, at about 1000 feet, seems to have a full crop even in the bottom of a large canyon.

The only damage we received was in the Touriga Nacional. It sits in the coldest part of the vineyard which isn't probably the ideal location for this variety. Fortunately, I have a cellar full of Touriga Port. We expect about half a crop from this little block. The Pinot Noir block right next to it is fine.

Yes, Patricia, the Rattlesnake Hills is a "real" AVA even though it uses a power line as a boundary just like Red Mountain. It also has some demonstrable advantages over other fine growing regions in Washington.

Now we need those superior growing degree days that the Rattlesnake Hills AVA is known for to ripen this crop.

The Washington Wine Commission Board

I'm always complaining about the Washington Wine Commission. I just got an email from the Family Wineries of Washington State telling me that there are three positions open on the WWC board. Okay, I am ready to serve!

In the past, the Washington Wine Institute interviewed candidates and recommended them to the State Agriculture Director who is in charge of making the appointments.

My wife and Cathy Preston went through this. At the time there were no women on the WWC board and either of them (both winery principals) would have been a good candidate….except, the WWI already had preselected the candidate before the interview. Half the board walked out during my wife's interview leaving a couple of people to ask questions. It was very degrading. The chosen candidate? A first-year male employee of some club member's winery. Have I mentioned the Washington wine industry is clubby? So, the WWC commission continued as an all male chauvinist organization. (They now have two women on the board, although one is non-voting.)

Back to running for the board. Positions 1, 11, and 12 are open.

"Position One: The Position One appointee must represent a winery producing not less than one million gallons of Washington wine annually. This is a particularly important position given that RCW 15.88.100 potentially gives the Position One member a vote that outweighs all other Commission members votes combined."

I guess that position is reserved for Ste. Mickey himself. It makes one wonder if the WWC isn't just a marketing arm of Ste. Mickey's that we help pay for.

I guess I'll go for position 11.

'Position Eleven: The Position Eleven Member in accordance with RCW 15.88.030 "shall be a wine distributor licensed under RCW 66.24.200."'

Well, I am not a distributor, so I don't qualify here either. My assumption is that one of Ste. Mickey's distributors gets this job, so the ducks can be kept in a line.

Okay, I'll go for position 12.

'Position Twelve: The Position Twelve member is a non-voting member of the Wine Commission that must, in accordance with RCW 15.88.030 represent "a wine producer in this state whose principal wine or wines are produced from fruit other than vinifera grapes." It is not clear to us why the Position Twelve fruit wine producer has no vote while the Position Eleven non-producing wholesaler's representative has a vote, but that is the current law."'

Damn, I don't qualify there either. Why would anyone volunteer to serve on a board with no vote or say? In fact, it looks like the whole board is just a sham, since one member controls the whole board.

Well, Mr. Gregutt, you asked how to improve the WWC. It looks to be an impossible task.