In 2010 and 2011 Walker Station Vineyards was the sole customer for JohnDory Vineyard's Chardonnay grapes. 2010 Walker Station Chardonnay is sold out. I have had several opportunities to sample the 2011 and I think it will be even better the than 2010. Look for the Walker Station Vineyards JohnDory Chardonnay's release in the next few months.

The following was lifted from Walker Station Vineyard website. http://www.walkerstationvineyards.com/

2010 “JohnDory”
Chardonnay
Russian River Valley
We are pleased to introduce our new “Montrachet” Chardonnay. The 2010 "JohnDory" is fresh, fragrant and displays layers of tropical fruit with hints of honeysuckle, pear and spices. The wine is rich, balanced and promises to be a great fit for all occasions.

Click on the following link to get the weather page for JohnDory Vineyard.

http://www.weatherlink.com/user/johndory/index.php?view=summary&headers=1&type=3

Spring in the Vineyard

Spring is a busy time in the vineyard. Once the buds had pushed it was almost nightly frost watch. My weather station sends me a cell text message if the temp. gets close to freezing. This usually means the cell phone, which I keep beside the bed, rings several days a week between 4am and 6am. Once the alarm sounds I get up, get dressed warmly, and go out and turn on the frost sprinkler system. After taking an early morning walk around the vineyard to make sure everything is working, getting back to sleep is difficult to impossible. The "official" end of frost season is May 15th, but Mother-nature has lost her calendar this year. We are under a frost warning this weekend (May 21-23).

With all the rain this year I have mowed 3 times already and will mow once or twice more this year. The late season rains also provide good conditions for leaf mold in the vineyard so we are being diligent on spraying mold retardants. Early this spring it was too wet for the tractor so we had the "Blueman Crew" hand spraying (see photo).

I have a new weapon in the mission to manage the gophers in the vineyard. Kona has discovered gopher hunting. We have one confirmed kill. It's a hoot to watch him waiting with his head completely inside the gopher tunnel he has unearthed.

The downside of his participation is that I have large holes to fill.

The score is now Kona 1 and traps 142.

Good News

I just got this note from Marty Martin-Vegue, the wine maker for John Dory 2007 Pinot Noir, (he calls his half of the lot "Lyon Vineyard")

Good news travels fast. You might want to upgrade your Pinot Noir Blog with the news that the Secondcrop Cellars 2007 "Lyon Vineyard" Pinot Noir just received a silver medal at the harvest fair this year...congratulations. I got a gold for a Merlot and another silver for a Zin, then 6 others were bronze, so your grapes did very well.You should be proud.

August 2009 Update

It's been almost 3 months since the last update. The t-bud (former pinot noir) vineyard has been growing and growing and growing. Some of the more robust vines have grape clusters. The clusters are still very green and most likely will not ripen this year. Next year we should get production from these vines.

The new vineyard, which we started from rootstock last summer and grafted to chardonnay earlier this summer is also doing very well. A few plants still are lagging and have their white grow tubes, and some are not going to make it. It could be that they were hit harder by the frost or gophers or both. A new problem that popped up about 3 weeks ago is deer pruning. The four legged farm workers started to munch on the plants in the north east corner of the vineyard. My farm manager quickly sprayed "Surround" on the plants and the deer damage has stopped. Surround makes the leaves taste bad and turns them white (see photo).

Speaking of farming pests, the gopher score is now 89, up 11 since the last report,

and moles 9, up one - a very important one I might add. This bugger dove into my front lawn about a week ago kicking up two big mounds. My lawn had just started looking nice after last summer's mole invasion. Adrian started setting traps and had the culprit in about three days.

New Chardonnay Vineyard Grafting

Friday morning, June 5th, I was up early to take some pictures of the vineyard before the grafting. The cool weather we have had resulted in good vine growth. The frost-damaged portion of the vineyard had recovered nicely so the whole vineyard could be grafted.

At 6:30 am sharp the grafting team pulled in to the vineyard. The four grafters started by sharpening the grafting knives. The knives look like a small version of a barber's razor and are just as sharp!

The grafting began with the first four rows in the northwest corner of the vineyard. There are 1130 vines in the vineyard and the whole vineyard was complete by 11:30 am (no breaks). That's slightly less than a minute a vine. I tried taking pictures of the grafting process. It was difficult because the hands moved very quickly.

The grafting steps are:

1.) Pull rootstock vine over and place

under your knee.

2.) Slice a bud or two from the bud wood and place buds in your mouth to keep them moist.

3.) Make a small incision at the base of rootstock for sap drainage.

4.)Make a downward slice in rootstock about 6 inches above base and cut sliced material off.

5.) Place bud on the slice.

6.) Secure graft with white tape.

7.) Cut leafy growth from

rootstock about 1 inch above graft.

8.)Move to next vine.

One vine a minute for 5 hours on your knees in the sun!

Grafting Update

The grafting we did in the former pinot noir vineyard is taking hold. The chardonnay buds that were grafted to the pinot stumps are starting to push out. I am giving the plants 6 hours of water today which should really make the new bud push out shoots over the next week.