Ulises Valdez

Pruning and the Beginning of Our Second Growing Season

In the “It Never Gets Old” category, we woke up early Tuesday morning to a line of cars parked in the vineyard. That can only mean one thing: It’s time to begin this year’s growing season by pruning the vines. When to prune and how to prune are the first of many decisions we make each growing year. In almost every respect, they are the most important decisions.

Harvest: The Final Step of Our First Growing Season

On Sept. 27, 2013, four years to the day that we fell in love-at-first-sight with this property on Laguna Road, our Pinot Noir grapes were harvested for the very first time and delivered to the highly esteemed Kosta Browne Winery. 

Hedging a Vineyard

Hedging is one of several canopy management practices we employ during the growing season, and it is just what it sounds like—you go through and prune the vines to eliminate excess vegetative growth from the top and sides in order to make a uniform canopy that looks like a hedge.

Bud Break: Step Three of Our First Growing Season

The first time I saw one bud open, on April 4, I was ecstatic. "We've got bud break!" I shouted. But Clay, ever the pragmatist, felt we couldn't "call" it until 50 percent of the vines showed leaves. From that first moment to the 50 percent mark was about an hour, it seemed. Suddenly the entire vineyard was a sea of green.

Appreciating the Under-Appreciated Farm Laborer

I think we Californians have a fundamental misconception about our immigrant agricultural workforce. We tend to think that farmworkers are low-skilled laborers doing a job that anyone could do, and, yes, there is plenty of hard, backbreaking work involved in farming. However, my experience is that a lot of skill and experience is necessary to do many of the jobs well, and when you insist on perfection, every job has to be done well. Not anyone can do it.

Our Hopes for Our First Growing Season

In 2009, Celeste and I found a bit of property off Laguna Road with an old farmhouse overlooking an empty field, untended fruit trees and a kiwi grove running wild. Even then, standing under the five towering redwoods that spoke of the property’s history, we felt the tingle of potential. This year, we will see that potential realized. After a year in the greenhouse and two years in the field, our 3.75-planted acres of vines will finally bear fruit that will be sold to a winery.