Early Spring Update

Budbreak Just Started!

Watch these little buds pushing their fragile leaves out.

It’s that time of the year where grape farmers are waiting for: Budbreak! The starting flag has been lifted and the race is now on. We don’t want it too soon – we can still get some damaging frost. And we also don’t want it too late – we need to get the train going and not have another late harvest like we had in 2023. So with excitement we are observing as the vines are waking up and the buds start swelling – the energy stored from the late fall shut-down is moved into the hard buds that now become soft and fuzzy. Before we know, we will start seeing the first, tiny and fragile green leaves push out as the vine is using the last, stored carbohydrates to make new sources of energy and growth. Yes, the train has left the station.

As our amazing vineyard consultant Jeff Newton, who has kept an eye on our vineyard for over 20 years, told me many years ago: From now on you will feel like you are always behind on getting everything done in the vineyard…. A great challenge but after two decades I feel we got this farming thing dialed in.

Rain + Rain = Green + Green

"Green is the colour of her kind..." Pink Floyd 1969

I love writing about how much we love rain. It is just such a great feeling when the Wunderground App shows 90%+ chance of rain the next x days. Waking up in the middle of the night listening to the dripping on the patio, checking the rain gauge as we get up, taking a wet walk with duster, dorfman hat and boots inspecting the “dry-creek” overflowing, doing “paw-checks” on all the dogs cleaning muddy legs and bellies….and checking that iPhone app again with a smile – looks like more is coming! That’s how January and February this year have been for us – Rebecca and I love it – the dogs hate it.

It is so good to get as much water into the ground as we can. It will ultimately reach the aquifer ~200 feet below us which is an ongoing water supply for our vineyard. We often get asked how we are doing on water: To the north of our vineyard are two canyons that go up hill and to the south it slopes towards Santa Ynez river. We therefore have an ongoing “river” below us flowing the collected rainwater from the canyons down to the river. A great location for a vineyard! We believe the rain season is now over and we have got around 18 inches so far – almost 50% above average.

So what does that do to the ranch and vineyard? Yes, there are erosion problems that we need to fix and the weeds will be growing like mad… but our cover crop with fava beans, sweet peas, oats, rye and vetch is big and lush and contains ton of nitrogen and other nutrients. We just love the color green! It is energy – it is life!

To Travel Is To Live

Welcoming the Danish musher Mille Porsild to the Iditarod checkpoint at Rainy Pass Lodge, Alaska

“To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, to gain all while you give, to roam the roads of lands remote, to travel is to live.” By landsman H C Andersen said it very well almost 200 years ago. Rebecca and I love traveling! If I have not been on a plane or a long drive for a couple of months I get restless – want to “live”.

We just got back from an amazing trip to Alaska which many of you know is Rebecca’s home – her “country”. But who wants to go up there when it is -4F (-20C) when you land in Anchorage? With thick parkas, electric socks (Bluetooth controlled!), long johns and big, fluffy boots we took the challenge and enjoyed the start of the Iditarod dog race and took a four seater plane with landing skis up to Rainy Pass Lodge which is a checkpoint on the trail. I could write a very long newsletter about the fantastic experiences we had on this trip but the bottom line is: If you haven’t been to Alaska – GO! Meeting with the “mushers” and hearing their stories, hanging out with the dogs and observing their excitement about doing the race, making new friendships at this lodge with just four rooms, enjoying top Alaskan musicians playing for just the dozen of us, racing through new fluffy stuff on snow machines, enjoying horse sleigh rides… yes, to travel is to live!

I will be leaving for my annual trip to Denmark in just a few weeks – excited as usual to go back “home”. I added on a short hop down to Mallorca to check out how our BiniVista winemaking project is going. Do this to keep “living”! More will follow…

SOBR (Sustainable/Organic/Biodynamic/Regenerative) Update

Cover crop with bell beans, sweet peas, vetch, rye and oats - rich source of nitrogen!

Over the last 20 years we have been learning from and actively participating in the California Sustainable Farming programs. Ampelos was one of the initial eight pilot participants in SIP (Sustainability in Practice) and later the CSWA (California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance) where I have been on the Board of Directors for many years and the Chairman for a couple. These programs are absolutely excellent frameworks for knowledge sharing, best practices learning and understanding how to raise-the-bar on an ongoing basis when it comes to conscious grape growing and winemaking.

I am now also participating in some workgroups around measuring, benchmarking and improving our principles around greenhouse gas emissions, carbon sequestration and understanding our overall CO2 footprint. Fascinating, challenging, a little depressing but also an exciting dimension of our business to work on.

Wrapping up for now! Hope you enjoyed reading this – I love writing it.

All the best from Rebecca and Peter.

Be good to yourself and others - and enjoy great wine!

Cheers!