Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
GROWING GRAPES
Growing grapes is farming; it's dirty manual labor, and it often involves employ-
ing disadvantaged immigrants. In contrast, winemaking, with its rarified pur-
suit of ideal flavors, is almost ethereal (except for rolling and stacking barrels
and hosing grape skins out of the press) and has become a mostly upper-class
pursuit.
Still, most winemakers spend more time in the vineyards than at the winery.
Quality starts with the crop, and there's no way to compensate for bad fruit.
Vineyards matter because the plant is the mother of flavor.
Everyone in the Wine Country is obsessed with the
Phylloxera vastatrix,
a soil-
based plant louse that can mutate and permanently destroy entire vineyards.
Vintners are learning how to head off the threat through soil science, fertilization
and irrigation techniques, and careful grafting of plants with louse-resistant
strands, but nothing is guaranteed. The area's growth has been derailed in the past
by pests, and it could happen again.
VINES & WINES BY THE SEASON
Because you're likely to visit the Wine Country for a day or two in one particular
season, you might want to know how the Wine Country looks in other seasons.
Although the climate is benign, the changes from season to season still have a
drama about them. In the winter, the rainy season in Mediterranean climates, the
nights can be cold, dropping to 30° or 40°F (-1° or 4°C), but a sunny winter day
sees highs in the 60s (high teens Celsius)—picnic weather if you're wearing a light
sweater. During the same season, the dormant or dead sections of the vines are
pruned through back-breaking field work.
Winter in the Wine Country also can be confused with spring elsewhere.
Camellias might bloom on New Year's Day, azaleas shortly thereafter, along with
the blue and yellow acacias. From December through April, the vines are dor-
mant, stark outlines of trunks and arms, but the valley floors and hillside are lush
green with common weeds and a few seeded ground covers. One of the common
plants is mustard, technically a weed: You'll find great washes of bright-yellow
flowers in February and March. Many vintners tolerate mustard because of its
touristic value; the Napa Valley Mustard Festival occurs every spring.
The vines burst from dormancy in mid-March for the earliest varieties
(chardonnay, pinot noir, gewürztraminer) and in April for the later blooming vari-
eties (cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel). The growth is rapid—sometimes almost an
inch a day. Until mid-May, there's a danger of frost. By late May and early June,
the new shoots, called
canes,
have grown 3 or 4 feet in length; flower clusters start
to blossom. The success of the
bloom and set,
as it's called, makes for some nerv-
ous moments: Uncontrollable elements such as hot weather and rain can compro-
mise the crop. But, especially compared with the vagaries of weather in
continental Europe, the benign Mediterranean weather in the Wine Country goes
sour only occasionally.
In midsummer, usually around late July, the first signs of color show up in red
grape varieties. Within a few weeks, a pretty blush becomes a deep purple, a sure
sign that the grapes are ripening. White grapes change from a lime green to a
golden green. They get delectably sweeter until it's time for picking.
