Self sufficient 12 acre restaurant

From Businessweek:

"Damon Baehrel is making dinner out of the scrub brush next to his blacktop driveway. First he takes some sumac leaves and steeps them to make tea. Then he adds liquefied wild violet stems cut from his yard, as well as a dozen varieties of grapes cultivated in his garden. He freezes all of this together and serves it on a spoon as one refreshing bite. Baehrel calls it sumac-flavored ice slush and uses it as a palate-cleanser during the 15-course meal he creates nightly for 18 food-obsessives. Many travel three hours from Manhattan—some even fly in overnight—to pay $255 (before wine and tip) for the privilege of eating in the basement of a modest clapboard home in Earlton, N.Y. 

Formerly known as the Basement Bistro and now simply called Damon Baehrel, the 12-table restaurant has a five-year waiting list."

Getting to know 'Fercal'

I've got two new sets of 2007 seeds that came from Rich's 'Fercal' vine. They have been in storage for 5 years, but I'm going to see if they germinate. One set was open-pollinated.  The other was 'Fercal' x Cabernet Sauvignon.  Rich seemed disappointed in 'Fercal' when he gave me the seeds.  'It turns out Fercal didn't have any Cab in it', Rich said.

I didn't know what Fercal's heritage was, and I wasn't sure I should waste my time growing this 'non-cab', so I did some research on Fercal.  A friend's email quoted Texas A&M claims that Fercal was a Vinifera x Berlandieri hybrid crossed with 333 EM rootstock by Pouget and Ottenwaelter in 1983 at the INRA Viticulture Research Station at Pont de la Maye, Bordeaux, France. Dr. Charles McKinney at the University of Texas Research Vineyard at Bakersfield, Texas was responsible for bringing FerCal into the United States.  According to A&M, it offers great potential for vineyards on extremely high pH soil.

I found more definitive information in a paper titled "Parentage of grapevine rootstock ‘Fercal’ finally elucidated", V. Laucou, et al. (Vitis 47 (3), 163–167 (2008)).  According to the paper, Fercal was a cross of ‘B.C. n°1B’ and  '31 Richter' (not 333 EM). The problem was the parentage of Fercal's mother vine, named 'B.C. n°1' in Galet's 1988 paper.  Laucou's paper provides the correct maternal grand-father's name.

As Texas A&M pointed out, people thought Fercal's parents were supposed to be ‘B.C. 1 (Vitis berlandieri x Colombard) n°1’ and ‘333 E.M.’ ('Cabernet-Sauvignon' x Vitis berlandieri).  This seems to have been what Pouget and Ottenwaelter wrote in 1978 about their 1959 cross.  First, it seems there were two 'B.C. n°1' vines, an 'A' and a 'B'.  No one knew which was the correct parent.  Second, beginning under the name of ‘B.C. n°1’.  Next 'isozyme analysis by Boursiquote and Parra (1992)  excluded '333 EM' as a parent.

Fortunately, Laucou's team knew where the breeding took place and could narrow the possible male parents. One of the neighboring vines, 31 Richter, had leaves that looked a lot like Fercal, so 31 Richter DNA (among others) was tested and the microsatellites prove he was the daddy.

Ok, anyone else confused?

Now, turning to the mother vine, work by DE ANDRÈS et al. (2007) had proven the mom couldn't be ''B.C. n°1A'.  This left ''B.C. n°1B', which was supposed to berlandieri x Colombard (Galet 1988) but preliminary DNA studies didn't confirm this.  With more testing, the correct pedigree was deduced (Drum-roll):

‘B.C. n°1B’  = ‘Berlandieri Lafont n°9 x Ugni blanc (vinifera)

Ok, I thought.  I have not heard good things about 'cab' as a breeding parent, Fercal is getting more interesting. Ugni blanc is the name growers use for this cultivar in Southern France. The same vine is St. Emilion in the Cognac region, where it doesn't seem to ripen completely. In Italy, it is knownas Trebbiano Bianco.  It has been grown there since Roman times. The GRIN record says it is now the most cultivated white grape in France. Wikipedia says it is the second most widely planted white grape vine in the world, makes an undistinguished wine, but a good brandy. (The most widely grown vine is Thompson Seedless, aka 'Sultanina.)

Cool.  Sounds like Ugni Blanc's comes from a relatively hot climate.

The other thing that caught my attention was all the talk about Berlandieri.  Berlandieri is a name the potentates of taxonomy are trying to ban.  The currently approved label is 'cinerea', and that's the fine I'm focused on cinerea.  Rich has given me cinerea x hot-climate vinifera cross!

Berlandieri Lafont n°9 is not found in the GRIN database, but is probably cinerea.   It seems that the gods of taxonomy changed their minds about berlandieri in the 1980s, and most specimens got renamed cinerea.

Rességuier n°2 is listed as Cinerea (PI 588216) in the GRIN database.  It was a popular female breeding parent in France during the early 20th century.  The history caught my eye, and the description implied a Texas source, so I thought 'It is time for this one to come home.' There is now a one year old cutting in the house vineyard.

Turning to Richter 31, Vitis International Variety Catalogue ( VIVC ) JKI (Institut für Rebenzüchtung Geilweilerhof - Siebeldinge)  called it  Berlandieri resseguier 2 x Novo Mexicana.  (Novo Mexicana, aka Nuevo Mexicana, is probably Longii)

Novo-mexicana seems to be a cutting Munson sent to Ravaz (1902).  Ravaz thought it was (Vitis riparia - Vitis arizonica), probably based on Munson's description. Galet (1988) thought it was (Riparia x Rupestris x Candicans).  There hasn't been any microsatellite work to justify Galet's revision of Ravaz.  This is not a minor issue since the original arizonica parentage may imply exceptionally strong tolerance for Xyella fastidiosa, the source of the dread Pierce's Disease. 

Winter storm

Snow provides an opportunity to see things with new eyes.

House Vineyard:

River Vineyard

Grape and Wine Technology review in the Economist

Without going into much detail, the following is a list of technological advances described in an Economist article called "Bacchus to the future". 

The article omits mention of new pesticide and fungicide sprays which are equally sought after by big vineyards.  The effects of these sprays were recently described in a New York times article titled 'The year the Monarchs didn't come'. 

You decide what is in your future.

Mechanical pickers made by Pellenc.

Mechanical grape destemmer and sorter made by Pellenc (puff of air to remove unwanted grapes)

VinPerfect has a screw cap with an aluminium-coated plastic liner which allows the winemaker to choose precisely how much oxygen should enter the bottle over time.

The Cilyo machine injects small quantities of the gas into a sample, determines how fast the “must” consumes it and calculates the optimal amount to avoid 'premox'.

Reverse osmosis for adjusting alcohol/water balance, removing vinegar and ethyl acetate. (WineSecrets)

To defeat forgers, Prooftag contains a serial number and unique patter ob bubbles in 'bubble seal'. 

Case sensors that track temp while shipping (eProvenance)

The Coravin inserts argon while pouring so air doesn't get in.

Lynch Bages, an august Bordeaux producer, uses satelite data and soil core samples to assess what vines to grow, and where.

Fruition Sciences applies heat sensors to vine branches to measure how fast sap flows through them, and thus how much water is transpiring through the plant. The sensors wirelessly transmit the data every 15 minutes, and send an alert if irrigation is needed.

Catena Zapata, an Argentine winery, is putting thermometers on roots to study the effect of their temperature on grape development.

At Ducru-Beaucaillou in Bordeaux, the winemaker sends tractors to calculate the concentration of anthocyanins, a valuable antioxidant.

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and nuclear-magnetic resonance spectroscopy,are used by Axel Marchal of the Institute of Vine and Wine Sciences (ISVV) in Bordeaux.

100% Texas grown

I'm spreading the word about a grass roots campaign that is close to my heart.  It was started by a Dallas blogger, Andrew Chalk.  He wants to redefine the 'Go Texan' wine label to mean 100% Texas-grown grapes.  As you might know,  the 'Go Texan' wine label does not require the use of any Texas-grown grapes.  Much of the wine sold with this label is simply California bulk wine shipped to Texas and bottled here.  It isn't even fermented in Texas.

If you are interested in this, please send your opinion to Lindsay Dickens (gotexan@TexasAgriculture.gov) before the December 5th deadline.  The email can be as simple as 'Please define 'Go Texan' wine to be 100% Texas-grown grapes', but please put your own spin on it.  Government agencies toss identical emails, so your voice won't be heard.

1. High-light and copy the email address: gotexan@TexasAgriculture.gov
2. Go to your email program and paste the address into the 'to' field (clicking on the email address may do this automatically)
3. Use the subject line ''Go Texan' wine should mean 100% Texas grapes'
4. Write your version of 'Please define 'Go Texan' wine to be 100% Texas-grown grapes'
5. Click send.

Andrew Chalk, the Dallas blogger writes: "Stop and do it now! It means more demand for Texas wine. More demand for Texas grapes. More planting of wine grapes in the state, and less California bulk wine passed off on consumers who think they are buying a Texas wine."

2013 season ending... how did we do?

We got the 2013 vine inventory done and started reviewing the data.  How did we do when compared to the 2012 forecast (as described in the 2012 annual report).

We have a lot more seedlings growing than expected (1215 total vines, but expected only 900)

We had a lot less growth than expected (166 vines over waist high, but expected 320).  Water problems account for some of that, but a lot of the 2012 seedlings just don't like the soil here and hardly grew at all.

We had a lot fewer vines producing ripe berries ( got 7 brix tests, but 'hoped' for 141).  This was the worst forecast.  We had a very late frost that decimated blossoms, but at best we were going to get 30 vines producing berries, not 141.  An entirely new forecast needed here.

We exceeded expectations when it came to October ripening berries (3 late ripening vines.  Only forecasted 1). 

What 2013 has shown us is this: Texas vineyards need vines with a late May Floraison (blooming date).  The most important breeding goal isn't PD tolerance, or an October harvest. If you don't have flowers, you don't get a crop.  No crop and the vineyard goes under.  If your flowers come out in April or March, the annual 'late frost'  around Easter will cause them all to drop.   If they are late, like the three new seedlings that produced this year, the late frost doesn't matter.  In our case, we had a 75% loss of crop due to the May frost.  From what I hear from the High Plains, the late frost was equally devastating. 

Fortunately, we require only a minor course correction. In a sense, the river bottom location has always demanded it, whether we recognized it or not.  We get an exceptionally late frost almost every year, at least compared to north-central Texas, which itself is more prone to late frosts than most other places in the US.  Since we have local vines, adapted to this freakishly late-frost prone Central Texas river bottom, we have some genetic material that ought to be a good starting point for late floraison. It has been part of the 'October grape plan.'  Late ripening and late flowering go together.  The change in perspective is the focus on florasion itself.  After another year of harvesting, it is clear that Aug harvests are a hassle, but they pay.  The meager crop left after a late frost makes the August heat a non-issue in comparison.  To sum it up, we need to be clear about breeding to push floraison into late May. 

First fall frost for 2013

We had a frost this morning. The top of my car had that nice hard beady ice on top, though the patio thermometer said 39. I haven't seen any damage, yet. The new shoots growing from 2 cuttings seemed ok. I'm still doing my 'seedling inventory'. This was day 3 and I'm still not finished. 1/4 of one row left, but it was getting dark and a cold wind was kicking up... so, I'll finish next weekend. Typing all my notes into Excel, and making my 2014 forecast will be a additional full day, though.