Urban Art Gallery
Late winter is when we prepare our vines for the upcoming growing season. The most important vineyard task of the year is pruning. We take a customized approach to each vine, sizing up how it did last year for us. Did it struggle to ripen, or was it bursting at the seams with vigor? Or was the growth optimal and we should try to replicate last year’s balanced growth? We make all these pruning decisions with the overall goal of creating the best pathway for water and nutrients to go from the vine roots to the canopy and the fruit. In addition, we are making pruning cuts to set up the 2027 vintage by selecting the optimal positioning for next year’s fruiting cane. We do that about 3,000 times, that’s how many vines we have. Each vine gets one to two minutes of undivided attention from a member of the Bowker Family. Everyone contributed for a total of 50-60 people hours of work during late January to early February.
The next task in the vineyard will start in mid-April and that is green pruning, which is selecting the best shoots on the fruiting cane to focus the vine’s energy on delivering the highest quality fruit possible. We will make another pass as a family to remove any other new shoots on the trunk or the arms of the vine that won’t serve this purpose. Again, with the goal of creating optimal vine architecture for the flow of water and nutrients within the plant, with an eye to 2026 as well as to 2027.
We have experienced a very warm and dry start to the year, so the vines have emerged from dormancy a couple weeks earlier than the past two years. Because we are off to the races so early, we are monitoring two things: 1) extended risk for frost since we are still at risk in March and April for sub-zero temperatures and 2) water availability for the vines given the soil is drying out relatively early this year. The vitality of the soil after two years of improved farming is exciting and we have a nutrient dense cover crop that we can use to till into the soil to make nutrients available for the vines this growing season before they those plants start competing too much for water.
If you would like to visit and see firsthand what we are working on, drop us a line.