A Word from Bree: Bloom is happening across the Willamette Valley!
As the Pacific Northwest spring has brought a stunning array of fragrant blooms to the verdant fields around us so to are the vineyards being hit by spring fever! After bud break, vines go on a rapid vegetative growth spree – often growing up to an inch per day – and their leafy tendrils expand wildly. Six to eight weeks after bud-break occurred we are now seeing the grapevines enter the flowering phase, a nerve-wracking period for grape growers and winemakers alike, since the tiniest disruptions to barely-there flowers can mean a diminished vintage. The essential occurrence of inflorressence or flowering literally puts grapes on the bunches, and determines just how many berries and full grape clusters have a chance to survive the season and end up as wine.
Hidden beneath the vine’s leafy canopy flowering begins with the development of tiny green spheres known as a “calyptras.” Called caps for short, these miniature green balls encircle the delicate, pollen-carrying parts of the flower. These effectively look like a vine loaded with mini-bunches of grapes but these mini-clusters simply serve as a convenient protective package for future grapes.
With consistently warm spring weather, above 58 degrees, the vine is ready for flowering and the caps burst open to reveal the most humble of flower: simply a pistil and several pollen-carrying stamen. There are no colorful flower petals or voluptuous blooms here – just tiny white strings smaller than your fingernail.
Grapes are self-pollinating and during the next several weeks, pollen from the stamen is gently transferred to the pistil, and little by little each flower is pollinated. Slowly, the petals from the cap fall to the ground along with bits of pollen. Once pollinated, each flower emerges as a tiny, hard green berry the size of a bb or small pea. Each will eventually ripen into grapes for wine or eating, but a multitude of weather factors can disrupt this fragile process.
As I write this, ominous clouds and sporadic rainstorms are peppering the hills of the northern Willamette Valley where are our vineyards reside. Because grape blossoms aren’t protected by flower petals once they are open, strong winds and heavy rains can shake the pollen from vines, preventing some flowers from pollinating. If we are lucky these short bursts of rain and wind will barely impact the flowering process but this will depend on how much each vine has begun to flower. Earlier budding grape varieties or those in warmer sites may be further into the flowering process and more impacted than others. Unlike other phases of the grape cycle, where winemakers may be able to give themselves options in the event of inclement weather, frost protection, irrigating for heat events, flowering only happens once and at the complete discretion of the vine. Poor weather and incomplete pollination can result in "shatter", or bunches that are only partly developed to be half or 2/3 full.
Fewer grapes, or poor fruit set (partially developed berries) means lowered yields for both growers and winemakers and a potentially more challenging ripening season. We will have to wait a few more weeks to fully assess our vineyards and make yields estimates for harvests based upon pollination rates and healthy set. This delicate period is increasingly being impacted by erratic and changing weather patterns across many grape growing regions. This is also one of the reasons why Limited Addition is committed to working with farmers to diversify their vineyards to grow more grape varieties that bloom, and ripen, across a more protracted period of time and builds more resilience into our grapegrowing and winemaking communities.
Check out our winemaker and founder Bree in our Tsai Vineyard planted right above the winery in the beautiful Coast Range and Yamhill-Carlton AVA.
