Vineyards Update for May 16, 2020

Now that we are past the winter freezes and spring freezes, we are watching the vines for buds and fruit. Cliff has been walking the vineyards for months now getting a good estimate, but now is the time to look for actual fruitfulness.

It doesn’t look good for the 2020 grape crop at Bingham Family Vineyards. We are estimating 170 tons rather than our original expectation of 900 tons.

Each variety is different, but here is a look at a few. All of the blocks shown today, I had to search the block to find any fruit for these photos. This block of Albariño is an example. At least the vines look health for future years, but will take extra training to prepare for fruit next year.

 

Let’s take a look at another variety. This block of Merlot looks healthier with leaves, but the fruit is not there.

 

Here is a block of Mourvedre. These photos are from earlier in the week, but they show that we are concerned not only this year’s crop, but also for the vines themselves. We will be spending extra time training many of the vines to prepare for fruit next year or in some blocks for fruit two years from now.

Tempranillo. Extra canes here waiting to see which ones will be fruitful if any.

By next week, I hope to have a better list of which varieties are faring well and which are not. On the whole it appears that the older the vines, the less fruit. The younger vines, except for some of those just planted last year, are actually fairing better.

Soon I’ll show you a block of Cabernet Sauvignon that we planted last year that almost the whole block is dead. We have been replanting it this spring with new vines.

But this is growing grapes anywhere. Each region has it’s own characteristics that make it hard to grow grape. Make us wonder at times why we do. We just had another grand baby born into our family. She has been a reminder that our focus is not on this year, but rather the years to come.

To reassure our club members, we did have a great 2019 crop year, so we will be able to supply our customers with wine till the 2021 crop year hopefully does well.

We are encouraged by your support during these lean years when we have shut downs from Covid and not having as much grapes to sell to other wineries. Thank you.

Blessings,
Betty

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