Vineyard Diary

I enjoy reading Annette Hoff's blog over at Cima Collina; she's written a great piece about how growers in the Salinas Valley creatively deal with wind issues.

Here at the northern end of the San Antonio Valley, the winds are not quite so strong, but we do have to cope with afternoon breezes that blow through the canyons and bluster across the vineyards, making head training vines very labor intensive.

If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll be well aware of our recent trellising project in the Twin Vines vineyard. We had originally head trained these vines, but we've now retrofitted with a sturdy VSP trellis and unilateral cordon training, away from the direction of the wind, fine tuning the vineyard to its location and allowing the breezes to work in our favor to prevent mildew.

We've already had a few blustery days and the vines are thriving and much less complicated to manage. We'll keep you posted as the season progresses.

Elsbeth Wetherill
Escafeld Vineyards