Midwinter Musings | A Time of Reassessment

Midwinter is an opportunity for reassessment: planning for the future and learning from the past. I am steeped in budgets, planning for production of grapes and wine. Looking for ways to improve everything we do. 

Vineyards, as all farming endeavors, give new opportunities and new problems every season.  This is what is meant by a vintage: wine is produced not only by the location and the cultivation of the vines, but also by weather conditions that year. 

In the past 10 years that we have been growing grapes there have been hot seasons, cool seasons, short and long growing years, fire, drought, disease, birds, to name a few challenges.  I do my best to counteract these factors, but I try to remind myself regularly that growing grapes and making wine is a multi-faceted art form, like a dance with three acts.

2023 Growing Season

We have had a wet December and January – in some cases, breaking records.  This is what used to be called an El Niño year, with mild temperatures and wave upon wave of rain and wind coming from the Pacific.  Except for a brief cold spell with some ice, temperatures have ranged from 38-45 most days. This gives us plenty of ground water, reducing fear of summer fires and making the mountain peaks look like huge ice cream cones when it’s possible to see them.  It’s hard to capture the dramatic sunrises and sunsets as the light reflects on the snow caps.

Pruning the Vines

Soon we will be pruning the vines to start the 2023 season.  We will be planning for limiting production this year just in case we have another late spring as last year; only the next few months will tell.

Midwinter Gardening

Our home is situated among 80-year-old Douglas Fir.  As the trees get older, they create more and more cones, needles and debris from the storms.  I do what I can to rake up the worst of the mess and figure that this will continue for a little more, so why try to clean it all up now?

The gardens could also use a cleanup and I am tempted to get out with my tools and work.  Being an Oregonian means rushing outside as soon as the sun shines whenever the opportunity arises. In the meantime, I sit at the computer thinking about where we have been and where we are going.