Grasso Vineyards – Winemaker Series

Here’s the second half of the blog entry explaining the Grasso Vineyards tour.. As always if there are any questions pass them along.

Phylloxera, ohhh phylloxera you nasty little root killer you… I’m not going to get into a big history lesson but briefly illustrating: this little aphid basically decimated both the American and European vineyard lands by feeding on root systems; this resulted in deformations as well as secondary fungal infections and gradually cutting off the flow of nutrients and water to the vine.  This is the equivalent of what reality TV does to humans.  What we discovered was that this little pest had little to no effect on grape vines growing in its indigenous eastern coast regions of North America; i.e. they had built a tolerance to the pest.  So, the response was to take these indigenous American vines and make them the base for modern day “rootstocks,” then graft on this top section which would become the fruiting source of the grapevine. This process strengthened our rootsystem so that was impervious to phylloxera and our Cabernet Sauvignon fruit.  What’s brought up in the video was the aspect of a particular rootstock that a particular university had deemed safe for use, AxR-1.  In fact, it was not safe for use, and since this was the “recommended” root stock it was used throughout California. Gradually, vineyards all over started to fail and mass replantings were forced througout the state.  Now this isn’t all bad  – there is a small aspect of good that came out of this in that with the use of different rootstocks we can start to custom fit our particular vineyard locations. As we research more and more we can really dial in the efficiency of our locations/sites by matching it with rootsocks that have traits that are more ideal for our vineyard land. I could write a lot more on this subject but I’ll move on; if you have any more curiosity on rootstocks send me an email and I’ll discuss it in greater detail.

The last part of the video I want to discuss is the concept of “Sustainable Farming,” and how it pertains to Grasso Vineyards in particular.  As many of you have noticed, there’s been a fantastic movement toward “organic,” as well as “Farm to table,” “Slow Food,” etc.  I’m all for it; I personally am a member of what’s called a CSA where a local farm (Hudson Ranch here in Napa) provides farm fresh veggies for me each week. Frank practices this concept himself and it’s based around this concept of sustainable farming.  We want Mother Nature to do her job – we don’t want to spray our vines with pesticides or herbacides. The fact of the matter is there are hundreds of different pests that can wreak havoc on a vineyard, so the trick is to find new and innovative ways to deal with these pests without putting a detrimental impact on the vines and taint the purity of the end product.  Two of the many tricks Frank uses are owl boxes and bat boxes.  Each year Frank has a family of owls that inhabit the vineyard box and perform a simple task: hunt the rodents, rabbits, and pests that might chew through drip lines, or gnaw on root or trunks; the owls basically police the area.  The bat boxes are newat Grasso Vineyards but also exiting: the bats patrol the vineyards for the insect population.  These insects, such as the Glassy Winged Sharpshooter, can be an even greater vineyard pest. Now, instead of spraying harmful pesticides that can seep into the berry itself, Frank has winged security working the vineyard.

Well, as I look at my word count down at the bottom of my screen I realize it’s getting a bit long so I’ll just end it by saying that I hope you’ve enjoyed the first installment of the winemaker series. I keep saying it but it’s very true: the more feedback I get the more enjoyable this will be.  Frankly, I don’t know of anyone else doing something like this so we’re all in uncharted waters. Send me all your questions and suggestions and we’ll start to get this going.

Cheers,

Timothy Keith