Spring is sprung and events in the vineyard are coming fast and furious. Some of these events are ones we have to do every year: pruning, training vines, shoot thinning and... today... pulling petiole (leaf stem) samples to be tested for nutrients in the vines.
The principle here is that there's an optimum range for each critical nutrient in the vine... and when the vine has its nutrients in that optimum range we get the highest quality results. High quality grapes are about the only way to make high quality wine. We didn't start this business to make average wine.
This is a lesson we had to learn the hard way when, years ago, we couldn't get berry set in the Malbec vines. (Berry set = grapes) While our consultants were as baffled as we were, we did have nutrient reports showing the Malbec was low in zinc. Luckily we live in a world in which you can type "low zinc Malbec" into Google and access a host of reports that will tell the vineyard manager that "Yes, you're not going to get berry set until you fix that nutrient." Google 1, consultants 0.
It's not always possible to bust out an iPhone (or ideally our videographer and marketing guru Budo Dave) and document the steps we take in the vineyard or the winery; but, we're going to keep documenting what we can. We believe more knowledge leads to more appreciation, and more appreciation leads to you enjoying more of our wine. :)
Cheers!
Aaron