The vineyard had a great wet December followed by a bone dry January and it’s looking like the first half of February is following suit. Depending on whether or not we get any rain in February, we are going to be creating what we call a simulated rainfall. We leave our drip irrigation on a day or two to get water soaking the entire root zone area and beneath. Obviously, we prefer the rain, but these vines are so young they need a little extra push. Ideally, in the next few years as they grow and mature, we will be completely dry farmed and heading towards more regenerative farming practices (check out previous LXV Armaa.N Vineyard Blog for more info on our regenerative farming practices). For now, irrigation will help our vines as they come out of dormancy helping them have the best chance of growing and surviving the upcoming year.
What’s happening at Armaa.N Vineyard this Quarter?
Cover crop is coming in slowly! The heavy rain we had in December washed away a bit of our grass seed, however we are still getting a lot of the Daikon Radish and Mustard from last year that has reseeded and is coming up. As temperatures begin to warm up and the days get longer, we will start to see a big jump in the cover crop growth, especially the tall grasses. Typically, December and January are tough months for cover crops because of the shorter days and cold weather.
Pruning will start mid to late March. We want to do it as late as possible for frost protection purposes and wait for sap flow to start to prevent any diseases from getting into the vines which are currently nice, young, and healthy. Waiting for sap flow to start is ideal as it does not allow any spores to infiltrate the vine.
The majority of the vines are ready to bear fruit this year. However, because of previous frost damage, we will be doing some replanting with the Cabernet Franc block in April.
Protecting Armaa.N Vineyard’s Young Vines & Graft Unions
Back in the fall, we used a border disk to berm up the soil thus creating a soil wall around the exposed lower areas of the vines protecting that graft union from cold damage. One of the challenges in Paso is that the winters can get quite cold. As the vines don’t yet have a strong layer of wood protecting the union, this can result in some death of the vines from the prior year. Fortunately, we have tools and ways to mitigate that damage for the upcoming season!
LXV’s Armaa.N Paso Robles Vineyard Spotlight:
Syrah Clone 470
After deciding that Syrah was the right variety to choose for this specific block, the next decision to be made was what exact clone of Syrah to use. Syrah Clone 470 was selected because of the amazing flavor it will give to the wine, as well as adding beautiful, dark color.
The Syrah Clone was then grafted onto 1103P – a drought tolerant Rootstock. 1103P was selected specifically for the Armaa.N Vineyard not only because it helps with drought tolerance, but it is a really deep diving rootstock. It works especially well at the top of the hill of our Syrah Block, where we have such thin soils.
Wine Tasting
Armaa.N Vineyard Exclusive Allocation
Our Armaa.N Vineyard’s fruit will be bottled as a separate allocation (not part of the LXV Wine Club Membership). To join the exclusive Armaa.N Vineyard Allocation list, please send an email to armaa.n@lxvwine.com.
