Welcome to the 2019 growing season. 2018 proved to be a bountiful year for wine grape growing across the state, and Clos du Lac and the Sierra Foothills were no exception. We had an embarrassment of riches with the vineyards producing fruit in quantities not previously experienced, and at a very high quality level. I’m incredibly excited to try your wines from the 2018 vintage, I’m confident they will be outstanding.
In 2019 we’re looking to build upon the success of 2018, with a focused set of improvements in both infrastructure and farming practices here at Clos du Lac Community vineyards. First off we’ve brought back Sam Patterson as our viticulturist and vineyard manager. Many of you know Sam and his outstanding reputation for premium wine grape farming in the Foothills. Sam and his crew know the Clos du Lac vineyards well, and we’ve given them greater license to improve quality. Towards that end, we’ve been very pleased with the quality of the Petite Sirah when we prune to one bud per cane, and we’ve decide to one-bud the entire vineyard. This results in higher quality fruit and reduces the overall yield, so you’d better get your order’s in early.
We’ve similarly determined that we’ll be one-budding the main Mourvedre block that we are targeting for traditional reds. This should help with ripening the fruit and improve the intensity of the reds. The rosé block will continue with the current pruning practices as we’ve had no issues ripening and are getting some excellent acid levels, minerality, and fruit characteristics for rosé from that block.
We’re also experimenting with one budding some of the Cab Franc this year.
Beyond the changes to pruning practice, we’re installing some trellising in a portion of the Petite Sirah to help better facilitate canopy management, air flow, fruit spacing, and access to the clusters to allow for removal of the shoulders. Based upon how quickly the vines adapt to the new trellis system we may consider cutting more of the vineyard over in future years.
It’s an exciting time here in the vineyards, and we’re so appreciative of all the support we’ve received from our loyal buyers. I can’t wait to see what this newest growing season brings us and how the vines tell the story of our unique terrior this year.
Cheers!
Brian Belmont
CdL Vineyard Chair
And the entire CdL Vineyard Committee team
Ken Ueltzen – Vineyard and harvest coordinator
Carol Schulz – Resident Somm
Geoff Roach – Communications and sales
Rick Shandrew – Vineyard and irrigation
Donna Chandler – Sales and Account Management
Keith Haag – Sales
