Podcasts about viticulturist

This week on the podcast, we welcome Anna Brittain from Napa Green to talk about the upcoming Napa RISE Symposium. Napa Green is a global leader in sustainable winegrowing, known for setting the highest standards for sustainability and climate action in the wine industry. The organization provides wineries and vineyards with the tools, resources, and certification pathways needed to level up leadership from soil to bottle. The Napa RISE event series is designed to drive real sustainability and climate action across the entire wine industry and culture. Joining Anna are two RISE Leadership Award winners: Gita Mallya, Viticulturist and de facto Sustainability Lead at Domaine Carneros, who shares insights about their RISE Leadership Award for Energy, including their cutting-edge microgrid system. Sarah Richmond, Director of Operations at Clif Family, who discusses their RISE Leadership Award for Supply Chain, highlighting efforts like completing a full emissions inventory, switching to

This week we speak with Severine Pinte, Winemaker, Viticulturist, and Managing Partner for Le Vieux Pin and LaStella wineries on the state of the vines in the South Okanagan and her special partnership undertaken in Washington State. Grant Stanley, winemaker at Spearhead Winery joins us to talk about the impressive Pinot Noir coming out of the east Kelowna winery, which was a big winner at this year's National Wine Awards of Canada. Also, Stacy Hornemann, Winemaker, Blue Grouse Estate, newly arrived from Sonoma, California, takes over the reins at Blue Grouse Estate Winery and discusses her first impressions of the Cowichan Valley. Plus, we chat with Michael Bartier, Bartier Bros., and Eric Monnin, Chief Winemaker, Boutinot, two uniquely talented winemakers, discuss the twist of fate that brought the two together to create a standout BC wine known simply as Project B

Recently awarded the ASVO award for outstanding achievement in viticulture, Liz talks to Jill Upton and Sam Isherwood about what it takes to be a top viticulturist and the challenges (and rewards) of working in the industry.@thewineshowaustralia@lizriley@huntervalleywines

Mike Hayes, Winemaker and Viticulturist at Balancing Heart Vineyard on the Granite Belt, joined Gary Hardgrave on 4BC Drive to discuss Australian wine exports being up 34 per cent after China remove their catastrophic tariffs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we head to Oliver, B.C., and the Black Sage Bench to speak with Severine Pinte, Winemaker & Viticulturist, Managing Partner for Le Vieux Pin and LaStella wineries. We discuss new projects, new plantings, and a few red wine picks for the fall. Moving south to Osoyoos, we catch up with Mike Dowell, Co-Owner and Winemaker of Liber Estates, a small family-run winery specializing in Pinot noir and Chardonnay. From there, we talk Turkey and Thanksgiving with Westin Bayshore Vancouver Executive Chef Steve Rutherford. We wrap up the show in Okanagan Falls with Benoît Gauthier, Director of Vineyard and winemaking at Noble Ridge Vineyard & Winery, to talk terroir and sparkling wines suitable for your Thanksgiving celebrations.

On today's podcast, Dom talks with WeatherWatch CEO Phil Duncan about the latest severe weather warnings, which areas are in for heavy snow and which places will be warmer than usual... He talks with Westpac Head of Agribusiness Tim Henshaw about its latest Red Meat paper, an overview of the global red meat market and the outlook for the sector... He talks with Sarah Gilbertson from Ridge Top Farm near Feilding about its farm walks, glamping accommodation and running an agritourism business... And he talks with the winner of the 2024 North Canterbury Young Viticulturist of the Year, Nick McArthur. Tune in daily for the latest and greatest REX rural content on your favourite streaming platform, visit rexonline.co.nz and follow us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode features winemaker and viticulturist, Mark Neal, the Founder and Owner of Neal Family Vineyards. Growing up in Napa Valley's Rutherford region as the son of a farmer, Mark was learning about viticulture from a very young age - he says farming is the only job he's ever had. It was Mark's maternal grandmother whom he credits with instilling the family with their early adoption of biodynamics. A native of Crete, she was critical of any other way of farming than the ancient, organic, lunar-based model she absorbed growing up. Mark is now best known as one of the first grape growers to practice and farm biodynamically in Napa. In 1968, Mark entered his father's business, Jack Neal and Son (JNS) Vineyard Management and the duo helped establish some of the most storied estates in Napa Valley, including continuous vineyard management with Heitz, Martha's Vineyard. During the 1960's and 1970's, demand started to grow for his expertise in developing everything from orchards to vineyards, especially after Napa won the French Tasting in 1976. He went on to conduct ground preparation on vineyards such as BV, Beckstoffer, Cuvaison, Duckhorn Schramsburg, Screaming Eagle, Three Palms, Coppola, Dominus Estates, Ink Grade Vineyards, Vine Hill Ranch. Starting in the mid-1990s, he spent years consulting for Gallo Vineyards, building and prepping the company's vineyard estates throughout California. Today, Mark still runs JNS in addition to Neal Family Vineyards. Of the 40 or so vineyard management companies in Napa, JNS is the second oldest, and Mark proudly still has clients on handshake contracts from the 1970s that were secured by his father. In 1997, Mark developed a dual varietal trellis system to combat a palpably warming Napa Valley and plant white grapes like Sauvignon Blanc and Vermentino (as well as other experimental varieties) in his Rutherford Dust vineyard. His innovation doubled up production on the same acre without sacrificing quality, without using any additional water, and without expending any additional carbon footprint. you'll hear about the various benefits of all his practices. He highly values and respects the role of his people in all aspects of cultivating a vineyard as well as maintains a priority to fight against climate change on a global scale. Get ready for a Napa Valley history lesson and learn about aspects of grape farming that you may have never heard of before. You can follow @nealvineyards on instagram and visit www.nealvineyards.com to learn more about his estate wines. Recorded July 9, 2024 ------------------------------------------- This episode is generously sponsored by Diane Carpenter and Ross Knoll Vineyard:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.dianecarpenter.org/wines⁠⁠⁠⁠ - available for shipping to 11 states --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/acorkintheroad/support

On today's podcast, Dom talks with Shannon Mears from Mears Contracting about feral cats, predator control and pig hunting... He talks with WeatherWatch CEO Phil Duncan about conditions in North Canterbury, 'polar flares' and what is deemed 'normal' weather in New Zealand... And he talks with Nina Downer, winner of the 2024 Central Otago Young Viticulturist of the Year, about her trifecta of victories, her pathway into viticulture and her plans for the future. Tune in daily for the latest and greatest REX rural content on your favourite streaming platform, visit rexonline.co.nz and follow us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, we meet Oursula Lenee, a dedicated Viticulturist at Laborie. Oursula joined KWV in December 2016 as an Assistant Viticulturist, but her ambition to work at KWV began during her student days at Stellenbosch University. While pursuing her BSc in Viticulture and Oenology, Lenee gained experience at KWV's Wine Emporium as a tasting assistant and tour leader. It was during this time that her confidence and passion for wine flourished, solidifying her decision to pursue a career in the wine industry. She shares her inspiring journey, highlighting her roles and accomplishments within the wine sector. She delves into the reasons behind her choice to specialise in viticulture, offering insights into the challenges and triumphs she has encountered along the way. The South African Wine Industry Professional Body (SAWIPB) was established to develop practitioners and support industry-related entities, ensuring social sustainability in the wine sector. DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SAWIPB. The information provided in this episode is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice.

On today's podcast, Dom talks with the 2024 FMG Young Farmer of the Year George Dodson about winning the title while not 100% fit, the road to the final and what he plans to do next... He talks with Bryce McKenzie from Groundswell NZ about Team Ag meeting with Opposition MPs and its issue with Rabobank... He talks with 2024 Marlborough Young Viticulturist of the Year Anna Kelland about her recent win and her role in the viticulture world... And he talks with West Coaster Nick Secker about securing one of two roles as a brand ambassador for the award-winning Reefton Distilling Co. Tune in daily for the latest and greatest REX rural content on your favourite streaming platform, visit rexonline.co.nz and follow us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In todays episode, Shelley and Phil hop back on the guest train with Jared Funk, Assistant Winemaker and Viticulturist for Saviah Cellars. This is another episode full of history, full of knowledge and just enough of The Funk at the end in the big ass glass to put a bow on things. We're also having a Nebbiolo in honor of the upcoming Nebbiolo Day on Tuesday! Grab a bottle of wine from Saviah Cellars to put in your glass and join us, won't you? #HappyFriday! #ItsWineTime! #Cheersing #BigAssGlass Wines this episode:2022 Saviah Cellars Viognier ($35 at the winery)2021 Saviah Cellars Barbera ($35 at the winery)2020 Saviah Cellars Nebbiolo ($40 at the winery)2019 Saviah Cellars Lewis Syrah ($50 at the winery)2020 Saviah Cellars Stones Speak Syrah ($60 at the winery)2021 Saviah Cellars Walla Walla Cabernet Sauvignon ($35 at the winery)2020 Saviah Cellars The Funk Estate Cabernet Sauvignon ($75 at the winery)For information on everything going on at Saviah Cellars and to order some of their amazing wines, please visit https://www.saviahcellars.com   A HUGE thanks to our sponsors: CDA Gourmet and Elsom Cellars!CDA Gourmet: Are you looking to elevate your kitchen? You need to check out CDA Gourmet! Located in Midtown Coeur d'Alene, CDA Gourmet offers a diverse mix of flavor enhancing product as well as the tools to make it all happen. Make every meal a special event. Visit https://www.cdagourmet.com for more information or call 208-551-2364. CDA Gourmet: Your kitchen elevated.Elsom Cellars: Good times are meant to be shared and so are great grapes and great wines! Since 2006, Elsom Cellars has been producing brilliant Washington wines. For more information about Elsom Wines, please visit http://www.elsomcellars.com or call them at 425-298-3082.The Social Web Wine Word of the Week: Alluvial soilThe soils of the Stones Speak Estate Vineyard consist of very deep, excessively drained soils formed in basaltic alluvium mixed with loess at the surface. These soils contain a large fraction of basalt cobbles and unique geochemical signature, resulting in wines which are savory, displaying distinctive aromatic and textural characteristics.Mentions: Tommy Bigelow, JM Cellars, Andrew Januik, Mike Januik, Charlie Hoppes, Three Rivers Winery, Rivaura, Ethan Lillis, Andrew Gerow, Tirriddis, Gary Vaynerchuck, Luke Marquis, Molly Dooker, Jon and Dan, Foolhardy.Check out the episode with Andrew Gerow with Tirriddis by visiting https://winetimefridays.com/episode-197-bubbles-breakthroughs-unveiling-washingtons-sparkling-identity-with-tirriddis/Some Wines we enjoyed this week: Drops of Jupiter Sauvignon Blanc, Windvane Estate Grown Chardonnay, Elway's Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and The Walls Stanley Groovy.Please find us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/WineTimeFridays), Twitter (@VintageTweets), Instagram (@WineTimeFridays) on our YouTube Channel, https://www.youtube.com/@winetimefridays and on Threads, which is @winetimefridays. You can also “Follow” Phil on Vivino. His profile name is Phil Anderson and will probably “Follow” you back! Check out all of our current sponsors by visiting our Wine Time Fridays Resource Page by visiting https://winetimefridays.com/wine-time-fridays-resources/© 2024 Wine Time Fridays - All Rights Reserved

This week we're joined by Corrie Krehbiel the new Chief Winemaker for Frind Estate Winery in West Kelowna. She shares her first impressions and how excited she is to explore the vineyards located at the extreme ends of the Okanagan Valley and in between; Ann Sperling, a celebrated winemaker, originally working in British Columbia and now based in Ontario, addresses a topic on many minds with a surplus of grapes on one side of the country and a deficit on the other, by explaining what happens when grapes are shipped across the country and how it affects the wine; Kevin Rossion, GM & Viticulturist for the new Terralux Estate Winery in West Kelowna, fills us in on vineyards, the winery under construction, and more; Shane Taylor, Wine Director for Rogers Arena and Top Table Restaurants, gives us an insider's look at their massive fine wine program, including 45 storage locations all over the arena.

We're on the beach (we hope some of you are too) this week, so we've “upcycled” several of our favourite interviews that fit the theme of “Organics, Biodynamic and Carbon Neutral Winegrowing”. Featuring: Dan Wright, Winemaker for Unsworth Vineyards in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island; Severin Pinte, Winemaker, Viticulturist & Managing Partner for LaStella Estate Winery in Osoyoos who also serves as Chair of Sustainable Winegrowers BC; Taylor Whelan, Winemaker for CedarCreek Estate Winery on the South Kelowna Slopes and Matt Dumayne, Winemaker, Garnet Valley Ranch Winery in the new Summerland Valleys Sub-GI in Summerland.

When it comes to nutrition in your vineyard, you need to know the environment that your vineyard is planted in including mineral nutrition, soil microbes, nitrogen from rainwater, and nutrients or potentially salt from well water. Fritz Westover, Host of the Vineyard Underground Podcast and Founder of Virtual Viticulture Academy shares a big-picture approach to nutrient management that is practical for any grower. He covers: Why it is important to test tissue both at bloom and veraison How to take tissue samples When macro and micronutrient additions are most essential If you are a long time Member of our organization then you probably remember Fritz from his days with Vineyard Team in 2013 and 2014. We are thrilled to have Fritz back on air with us for the third time. Plus, I recently had the pleasure of being a guest on his podcast, Vineyard Underground. Search for episode 034: Why Sustainability Certification Programs for Vineyards Matter – with Beth Vukmanic on your favorite podcast player to listen in. And we have that linked in the show notes. Resources: 1/16/2024 Tailgate | Ag Order 4.0 Update 57: Wet Climate Viticulture 115: Examining Plant Nutrient Mobility with SAP Analysis 155: Sustainable Vineyard Management Across Different Climates 191: CropManage: Improving the Precision of Water and Fertilizer Inputs Fritz Westover Bio Healthy Soils Playlist The Science of Grapevines - Marcus Keller    Vineyard Underground Podcast Vineyard Underground Podcast - 016: Nitrogen Sources and Strategies for Application with Paul Crout Vineyard Underground Podcast - 034: Why Sustainability Certification Programs for Vineyards Matter – with Beth Vukmanic Virtual Viticulture Academy Vineyard Team Programs: Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship - Donate SIP Certified – Show your care for the people and planet   Sustainable Ag Expo – The premiere winegrowing event of the year Sustainable Winegrowing On-Demand (Western SARE) – Learn at your own pace Vineyard Team – Become a Member Get More Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.   Transcript Craig Macmillan  0:00  Our guest today is Fritz Westover. He is a Viticulturist, who works around the United States. Especically the the south east and he is the host of the Vineyard Underground podcast, and also the founder of the Virtual Viticulture Academy. And today we're gonna talk about nutrient management. Thanks for being on the show.   Fritz Westover  0:20  Hey, Craig, how you doing today? Good to talk to you and to see you because I get to see you on video while we make this recording.   Craig Macmillan  0:27  You're back. This is another episode for you. Right?   Fritz Westover  0:29  This will be episode number three with Sustainable Winegrowing. So I love coming back. And you know, as you know, I worked with then Vineayrd Team back in 2013, and 14. So, of course, I love what you guys are doing and fully support it.   Craig Macmillan  0:42  Fantastic. So injury management in vineyards is today's topic. Can you give us a definition of what that means and why it's important?   Fritz Westover  0:51   Yeah, and I'm not going to give you the textbook version though, as you know, Craig, I'm going to talk from just how I view it and how I see my growers viewing it that.   Craig Macmillan  0:58  From the heart is that yeah,   Fritz Westover  1:00  I speak about nutrient management from the heart here. In terms of vineyards, you know, we want to see our vines grow healthy. When you plant to vine in the ground, there's certain things in the soil, there's mineral nutrition, there's microbes that cycle nutrients in the soil. So you have kind of a baseline there, you can add things to it. But you have to know what's in the soil. First, we have rain that falls from the sky, hopefully, and hopefully when it needs to, and that has certain mineral nutrient content and nitrogen, things like that people don't count that sometimes nothing will make a plant or like and rainwater. And then if you're pumping water through well, there's different ions, caverns and ions that are in that water, whether it be something that's good, like nitrogen, or magnesium or potassium or something that's not good, like a salt, in large amounts. So there's there's things coming out of the pumping out of the ground on a property that go to vineyard. And then you know, there's things that we put as inputs through a spray program or fertilization program. But before you do that, if you're going to manage the nutrition in your vineyard, you need to know what the content is what where the nutrients are coming from, how the vines take them up. Are you irrigating? Or is it a dry farmed vineyard, and that will determine how much of that nutrition is available to the vine, right, because you can have nutrition in the soil. But during a drought, if the roots aren't actively growing, or if they're pulling away from the soil, they're just not taking it in. It's a very dynamic thing. Management is really just knowing how to read your plants, how to read the environmental conditions, and knowing what you have there and what your inputs are contributing in terms of mineral nutrition to your system as a whole.   Craig Macmillan  2:31  What are some of the considerations then, that growers need to take into account when they're designing the fertilization program? Have you talked about where things come from? You've talked about what you need to look at. But how do you go about it.   Fritz Westover  2:43  I work with several growers all around the southeastern United States and in other states as well through my online academy. So I really get to see a large profile of soil reports, plant tissue reports. And there's certain benchmark measurements we can take in the vineyard that can help us to understand how vines are taking up nutrients. So we can look at a soil test. And we can determine what nutrients are available, we can look at the pH and that will determine the different availability of certain nutrients. We can also take into account the plant tissue samples that we should be doing in the vineyard, whether it's a tissue analysis from a petal, a leaf blade, a whole leaf with petiole attached, which is what I'm using currently, there's more and more interest in SAP analysis. So there's all these different methods of looking at nutrition within an actively growing plant. It gives you the snapshot at best during a certain time of the season. And those are benchmarks. So we're looking at the plants to see kind of what's being taken up from the soil and from the environment and from the water that's being either falling from the sky or going through the irrigation. My best analogy for grape grower would be the VSP probably the most common training system is the VSP so you have the that's vertical sheet positioning, but I use it and say the visual, we look at the soil for moisture, we look at the plants for any signs of higher low vigor to determine usually, if nitrogen is needed in greater quantities, or for certainly for any nutritional deficiencies that show up visually on leaves like magnesium or potassium deficiency, things like that. We know what those symptoms look like, we can look them up easily. And then the P would be the plant tissue test. So I always think of the soil is kind of the bank account of what nutrients are available. And then the tissue test is telling you if your plant is making that ATM withdrawals, so to speak from the soil. And then the visual really just validates if everything is really working as well as that plant tissue test says because I don't know about you, Craig, but I've looked at plant tissue tests that say everything is within the normal range of nutrients, but the plant is stunted. And it could see that the concentration of the nutrients is good in that plant, but the quantity is limiting the growth and production of that vine and it's going to limit the yields in that case. Those are the considerations I look into but there's one one more thing that there are some rules of thumb, what we're taking out of the system. When we ship our grapes out of the vineyard into the winery, whether it's your winery or winery across the state somewhere across the country that is removing nutrients. So you're literally mining your soil and your environment for nutrients, you're putting them into a truck, you're moving them with the fruit, and then they're being made into bottles of wine and someone's drinking those nutrients and they don't get back into the vineyard, if that's what's happening. So, when creating a nutritional budget, a lot of growers will account for the tonnage or whatever measurement of fruit is removed. And there are some tables available. I know Dr. Marcus Keller of Washington State University, in his book on the science of grapevines publishes some of those, but the example would be an average of four pounds of nitrogen. For every tonne of fruit removed from the vineyard, if you do four tons an acre, that's about 16 pounds of nitrogen. So we start to think in these terms of, okay, I just removed 16 pounds with that four ton per acre crop. This is an example of course of an average number, it's really not that simple, because the soil might have three or 4% organic matter in it. And we know from every 1% of organic matter, we're getting x units of nitrogen that are developed and processed within the soil system itself. And so if your organic matter is high enough, you may actually generate enough nitrogen in the soil to replace the nitrogen that was moved out of the vineyard. And this is why growers might go year in and year out without applying some fertilizer, even though they're moving it out of the vineyard in the fruit.   You got a good healthy soil web happening there, you got the relationships that you want, and you're cycling stuff. And so the impact of that removal is less. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And cover cropping and whatnot.   Soil conditions, too. I mean, if the soil is dry in a drought condition, it's not really you're not gonna have a lot of activity, or if it's really hot, because it's been cleaned, cultivated. And you know, how does that affect the microbes that can then cycle those nutrients and convert organic matter into nitrogen and other other mineral nutrients?   Craig Macmillan  7:05  I want to touch on something, something regarded this and that's timing. So like at the grade school science version that we learn is there's a plant, and it grows and things come up. And there's a plant. Yeah, and grapevines don't work that way. There's certain things that they'll take up at certain times of year, they need to have water, moving through the plant, different nutrients are important at different times of year. What do you recommend? What do you how do you manage that?   Fritz Westover  7:34  Yeah. So you know, when I do a presentation on grapevine nutrition, there's this one slide that I go to from a study in Germany, and where they basically took plants apart at different times of the phenological steps throughout the year, whether pre bloom bloom, fruit set, version, and harvest, and they looked at the total mineral content of these nutrients. And they use that to determine what the demand of those nutrients were at different stages. And so what we see is that nitrogen and potassium sort of follow the same curve, where as you get into bloom, there's a spike in demand for nitrogen and potassium. And then after fruit set, it goes down a little, and then the roller coaster ride goes back up, and the demand goes back up in your veraison as your ripening fruit, you need more nitrogen, potassium, things like that. It's all part of the sugar production system. And then you look at also the quantities you know, nitrogen and potassium, are by far the macronutrients that are needed the most, and then something like magnesium. And we do see a lot of magnesium deficiency, east of the Rockies at many sites, it's needed, but not until after fruit set, really, that's where the bumps starts. So the bumps gonna start afterwards. And it's going to kind of gradually go up and down and up again towards veraison But the amount is not as, let's say the quantity that's needed is not as great as something like potassium. And you could do that for each nutrient and look at it to me that that triggers the kind of the benchmark of when we have to start applying fertilizer. And so the interesting thing about that is if I've got a vineyard, where we can put everything through the drip, irrigation and fertigation, we can wait until either right before the time of highest demand, or right at the time, and we can just slug it through the drip, right. If you don't have irrigation, you might be able to do foliar application, but that's not going to get a lot of nutrients into the vine like it will if you put it into the root system. So you'll you'll hear and I know we're going to discuss this as well, because we discussed it earlier that you know, dry farmed vineyards or vineyards in areas where it rains and they don't have irrigation, have to plan a little bit farther ahead. Because if you're going to put something like magnesium out or potassium, it needs to be worked into the soil with a rain event if you don't have to ration or cultivated in in some cases. So you can't wait until that perfect window. You've got to get it out ahead of time so that it makes its way down to the roots and it's available for uptake at that critical window that I was referring to before in the phenol logical stages.   Craig Macmillan  9:56  Can I wait till I see a forecast that there's a storm coming and then get my material out? Or do I put it up earlier than then just kind of hope that it rains? I mean, how much time do I have?   Fritz Westover  10:08  Yeah, that's a really great question to Craig. And so you don't want to answer every question with it depends, right? So you've got to get some concrete information for a grower to actually follow. So then you start thinking about...   Craig Macmillan  10:19  There's nothing wrong with it depends.   Fritz Westover  10:21  It's okay, as long as you follow up with, but this is what I would do, right. And that's what I like to say. So this is what I would do if nitrogen was the nutrient in question, if you put out especially an ammonia, nitrogen, something like that on the ground or something that is not bound up, like if compost, you have a more stable form of nitrogen that's in organic matter, if you have something like ammonium, it might be readily evaporated, or it's going to it's going to volatilize, and you'll lose it to the atmosphere. So you definitely want to get that out as soon as you can, right before the rain. So the rain can immediately move that nutrient into the soil. And that will secure it, so to speak, and stop the volatilization from occurring. If it's something like magnesium, really not as volatile, right. Or if it's something like phosphorus, or if you're putting out calcium in the form of lime, or gypsum, there's not going to be a lot of volatility. So you can put those types of products out farther ahead of the rain, and hope that the rain will eventually come and work them in. So I guess in that matter, depends on what you're applying. And you can, you can decide based on that, if you want to trust that forecast or not.   Craig Macmillan  11:28  You know, I just started something, I interviewed somebody else recently, and they were working with underlying vegetation issues. It was fascinating to me because of the work that they were doing in there not necessarily chemical burn down, not necessarily inrow cultivation in the comment was it rains enough here that I can do whatever I want. But there's going to be plants growing there two days later, in your experience in parts of the country. And I would love to have some, you know, compare and contrast here. What do I need to do in terms of preparing that area, you know, around the root system, because I'm trying to get top to bottom right down to get in there. And then also, you mentioned system wide things. And so what do I need to do there to make that work?   Fritz Westover  12:12  Let's cover the system wide. First, when I talk about system wide or make creating these, quote unquote, sea changes in the soil, you're not going to make a sea change the soil is the soil. It's got its own living breathing organisms in it. But let's say you were chronically deficient in calcium, or magnesium, right? We'll use those as two good examples. If you apply your calcium, whether it's lime, or magnesium in the form of dolomitic, lime, which is calcium with 10%, magnesium, great way to put magnesium and calcium in the soil to acidifying your soil like you would with a magnesium sulfate. Or if you're putting out a magnesium sulfate in a high pH, soil, anything that you're trying to put out to change the plant uptake. So let's say really high potassium uptake in your plant is undesirable to you for some reason, and you're getting magnesium deficiency. As a result, if we only put that magnesium or that calcium right at the base of the vine, you can only really change the the cation exchange or the base saturation of those cations right in that small area. And that's important because it's a major area of uptake. And this is something a lot of growers don't think about, even when you're dripping something through a system that biggest area of uptake is near the crown of the vine at the base of the root system. And feeder roots will take up stuff too. But that's where if you're going to put a one time slug, you know, it's got to be within 18 inches or so the trunk, but you still have roots, especially on older vines that are moving out into the row middles. Over the years, they get into the row middles. And so they're still getting access to that perhaps high level of potassium in that bass saturation or that cation exchange out there. So they can still kind of pull that up. So if you want to create a wider change and impacts the system as a whole, you're better off applying that product as a broadcast into the middle and under the vines. I have done that with magnesium when we're trying to compete with potassium, because we see magnesium magnesium deficiency, or also if we're aligning soil. So in eastern states, we have acid soil, parts of Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, where I've worked, even in East Texas or north of that in Arkansas, depending on where you're at. You run into these acid soils, and we're talking like 4.5 ph. Yeah, so it is or like wine, right? Yeah, yeah. So we know that nutrients are not as available many nutrients like phosphorus is deficient boron, other cations are not as available. Due to that high hydrogen ion competition. We're going to add lime. Hopefully before the vineyard is planted. You do that before but I often go back and add maintenance applications of lime over the years as well within the vineyard system, and we do that over the whole field. We don't just do that in the rows where we're planting vines, because we want the vines to be encouraged to explore the soil and to mine, if you will, for nutrients outside of that immediate crown zone near the vine. Because eventually that will be depleted, your vines are going to keep growing and searching for these nutrients. So by doing a broadcast application, you create a soil that not only is more amendable, for roots to grow in, because acid soils are actually toxic to root tips that you get a high amount of available aluminum at 4.5 ph. And that will stop a root tip from growing. So if you want your roots to grow and expand, you don't want any chemical barriers, you don't want any physical barriers like compaction, you put something like that out before planting. So in Georgia where I work, very acidic soils, we will put out something around six tons per acre of the dolomitic lime before we plant some of the sites and then within two years, we're coming back with as much as two times per acre, because we're trying to to over time, bring that soil into maybe a 6.0 or 6.5 pH so that nutrients are just more available, so that we don't have to fertilize as much we don't have to put inputs into the soil. Right? We don't want to do that we don't have to cost money, and it could have environmental impacts.   Craig Macmillan  16:12  While we're still on this, this area, you got pre planned, are you recommending that we shank materials in? Or are we incorporated in a disking pass? And then over time that moves down in? And then also, if I've got an established vineyard to incorporate these materials? Or to get these materials there? I mean, do I need to do a cultivation pass and then do a broadcast and then cultivate again to stir it in?   Fritz Westover  16:39  Yeah, so these are all different methods that are used Craig and any grower out there who's developing a vineyard site in the near future or has done it recently, you'll hear conflicting opinions on the best way to do it. But what I like to do is break it down to how did the nutrients move in the soil environment? And how do I put them by the root where they're needed, and make sure they're not going to get washed away right away? So yes, if I'm starting a new site, we're going to look at the soil, we're going to determine what our amendments are going to be, let's say that the vineyard soil is low in phosphorus and need some line that to change the pH but also to increase calcium. And let's say it's a little bit low on potassium as well. Okay. So in that instance, if you just stir the soil up and put the lime in and fix the pH, that would be wonderful, because you've already made nutrient availability, so much better for that for the uptake of that plant root system. So that's good. That's the first step. But if then you go in and plant the vines, and you say, well, we needed phosphorus and potassium. And I know that new plants need nitrogen, so I'm going to take like a triple 10, or a triple 13, that's nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium at 10 to 13%. And I'm just gonna sprinkle three ounces around the vine. Well, how did those nutrients move down into the soil? Well, the first time it rains, or you irrigate, and it touches those granules, the first thing that moves down quickly through the soil, what we call the mass flow is the nitrogen. And so that's going to be immediately available. So the vines is gonna pick up nitrogen, it's gonna say, let's go, let's grow. The next level of infiltration would be the potassium, we know that potassium is somewhat moderately mobile in the mass flow, but it doesn't move as fast as the nitrogen. So with enough rainfall and frequent rainfall or irrigation, it could move down gradually and get to the root system, that phosphorus on the other hand, it's just going to sit there on the surface like a rock. And it might take years for it really to move effectively. And so if you know your, your soil needs something like phosphorus, and potassium, you might add the phosphorus, whatever form phosphorus, you're using rock phosphate, if you're organic, or PTO five or some, put that on the on the surface, and you amend it with the lime to get it down deep to where the roots are going to be planted to. So maybe it's 15 inches, for an example 30 centimeters, that's all they're ready for the roots. And then later, you can come in and topdress something like potassium, for your final cultivation, just to work it into the topsoil. So it's, it's at a better stage, and I'm giving you an ideal scenario, obviously. And then the nitrogen, you could go ahead and top dress later, or put your drip system or let the rain work it in right before the rain like we talked about with that nitrogen. And that way you're getting things right at the root where it's needed. And you're not doing it in phases where it gets nitrogen grows a lot and then doesn't have enough other stuff like potassium, magnesium or micronutrients to keep up with that growth. And that's where you see these deficiencies starting to set in.   Craig Macmillan  19:26  Actually, that's a great kind of transition. You know, we talked about VSP and I think we do a lot of folks relies primarily upon visual and it's not simply the, you know, the tiger stripes in the leaf and that kind of a thing or the yellowing, but they're looking at how the crop set they're looking at when the sheets tipped start to quit. Because yeah, that's driven by water, but it's driven by by other resources to that kind of thing. Yeah. What can I do to quantify that? And how can I be kind of forward looking? I mean, you talked about removal. is a materials with harvest? So I know I'm I want to order some stuff, you know, but it's a long term kind of project.   Fritz Westover  20:07  Yeah, it is. It is.   Craig Macmillan  20:08  I mean, you walk vineyards with people, obviously. But then also you mentioned you see all these reports of it? What kinds of reports? Do you want to see what time of year? How do you put all that together?   Fritz Westover  20:19  Right. The visual is really important. And the only risky run there is some of these nutrients don't show visually until it's too late. A lot of our micronutrients are really important, as you know, Craig, for fruit set, and pollination, and fertilization rather, boron, zinc, molendinum, copper, all these things. So if you do your plant tissue test at bloom, which is the first time you would do it during the season, it you're already in bloom. So you're late to add that micronutrient, right. So then some growers will say, Well, I'm just going to put up this prophylactic kind of micronutrients, spray two or three weeks before bloom just to make sure they have what they need. And you can do that. But do you really need to. So I really rely on taking the bloom sample, because it is kind of like your progress report. It tells you, you know, how you're doing for the season. And you know, are you destined for an A plus a B minus by the time you get to the end of the season, because you still have a chance to get things in gear and improve your grade, right. So that bloom time sample of what I do is whole leaf sample with blade and petiole attached, some people just do petioles, separate the petiole and the blade, I've had very good success and consistent results with blade and petiole attached. I also, when I have an issue where there's, you know, maybe we're doing intensive fertilization, or I've got a deficiency, I might sometimes separate the petiole from the whole leaf. And that way, I can look at both reports and have two numbers to kind of look at instead of one. But the ranges are different for a blade versus petioles. So you definitely want to look at those. And I tell my growers to just go to my website, and you can download the, the standards there and look at them, because you don't need a consultant to just see what's out of balance, you can look at a table, I do that at bloom, and that gives me the report card. But the second time I do it is that version. And that's your report card for the season, so to speak. So by the time you get to version, you're at entering your maximum stress time, if you take the plant tissue sample too far after version, a lot of the nutrients have moved into the fruit. And the tissue sometimes is already suffering from the seasonal wear and tear. So it can give you these false ideas that you're really low and then you put out too much fertilizer. At bloom, we take a leaf next to a inflorescence or flower, because that is a representative leaf. And then at version, we go about seven leaves down from a shoot tip that has not been hedged or altered. And that is what's considered a representative leaf at that stage of growth. And that's the report card. Now the report card is really important. And I tell my growers if you can only afford or have time to do one sample, do the one version and get the final report card because that's the one that we then use for the next season to say okay, boron was a little low zinc was a little low. So we're going to find some boron and zinc to put into the system either through the drip or through a foliar spray before bloom, to make sure that we don't have issues with fruit set. So that's how we use that if we wait for bloom, it's a little late to make the change. So getting those two phases is really key for me. And then of course, like you said, being in the vineyard observing growth, looking for signs of deficiency, some things do show, you can clearly see nitrogen as pale leaves. Boron is actually important for nitrogen assimilation. So you could have what you think is adequate boron or nitrogen in your program. But if boron is missing, you might not get the assimilation and the you know, the proper use of the boron, or the nitrogen rather within the vines. So there's, you know, things to look for, to give you clues as well. So when I see something visual, sometimes magnesium deficiency can look a lot like potassium deficiency, it's on the order of interveinal, the potassium tends to be more beginning around the margin or outside edge of the leaf. So I always tell my growers, let's send in a sample, it's like 20 bucks, right? Let's just verify it with a lab report before we put the wrong thing down and make the problem way worse, right.   Craig Macmillan  24:10  When we're doing this, what are some of the most difficult decisions, some of the biggest obstacles to being successful here? And I'm talking about everything in terms of like you're getting good information, getting picking the right to formulations or the right products, the right individual minerals, and then getting into the plan. Are there regional differences that you've seen? Or are there kind of obstacles that everybody kind of faces?   Fritz Westover  24:37  There's definitely regional issues. You know, I can say that across the board. And this state over here, like I'll say, Georgia, we see magnesium and boron and nitrogen are our three biggest deficiencies consistently in those soils. You go to California, and certain areas where I work there we'd see it's either nitrogen or potassium that are low and sometimes zinc. And then if I go to the high planes in Texas, it's usually nitrogen and zinc, are my lowest. And sometimes, and then I go to the hill country of Texas, where it's cacareous soil. And we see that iron deficiency becomes an issue because it's just that high pH really ties it up, growers will sometimes put a lot of zinc down in the soil, but then we have to be mindful of the competition of certain nutrients with each other, because too much zinc can compete with phosphorus for uptake and vice versa. And then, as I mentioned already before, the pH of the soil varies greatly from one region to the next. And that's why getting the amendments and getting the soil in a pH that's, you know, ideally at that 6.5, for greens, right? That's kind of like, you know, you're good. From seven,   Craig Macmillan  25:40  Have you ever receive a site that was like, exactly 6.5.   Fritz Westover  25:45  I have I have because I've looked at it for their soil reports, I've seen a few but no, usually we're saying we need to add a little or, you know, seven is fine, we can deal with it, we'll put a different rootstock that's better under you know, calcareous soil. You know, I didn't mention that and really emphasize that enough, I talked about plant tissue sampling, and visual evaluation, I don't do soil sampling annually with most of my vineyards, because their soils just aren't changing that much, unless they're really doing heavy amendments of something that that sea change, they're trying to go for it. So we'll do this about once every three years, and just compare them. And so I think the most important thing any grower can do, and this is how I work with it with kind of my long term growers I've been with for 10 years, you know, we have a soil sample every three years. So we can compare what the trend is, over those years, if we see potassium is going down. Well, we know that's one of the greatest Nutrients taken out of the system of the soil with fruit that's much higher than nitrogen much, much, much higher than magnesium or phosphorus. So you're literally mining your soil for potassium, well, I have sites where we have high potassium, and we're trying to get more magnesium in there. So I almost never put potassium back in the soil, I'm happily mining it out of the soil. And that's going to be totally different than maybe a vineyard in California where potassium availability is just not as good or as high. We're kind of looking at it that way. And same thing with plant tissue test, you can really see sometimes more volatile fluctuation in plant tissue tests from year to year. And that's where you have to start asking the question, okay, how much rainfall did we have? Was there good soil moisture, I've run into problems where irrigated vineyards, we hit a drought, and you have normally rained during the season, like let's say, in West Texas, or parts of Arizona, where I work, there's rainfall during the monsoon season. So you go into the winter with a soil profile that's nice and full. And then in the spring, you come out and you really have full access to the whole mineral nutrient profile of the soil and the roots grow throughout the whole soil, then all of a sudden, you have a drought for year two. And this has happened in my West Texas growers, areas where those roots that are in the row, middle, all of a sudden are not able to pull up anything from the soil. So they're shrinking. And as they shrink, they pull away from the soil as a strategy to minimize water loss. And so you're not getting the nutrients that are available out there. So we have to consider that and sometimes increase our fertilizer levels based on the fact that we're losing access to the soil nutrients. And the best way to do that is to take the plant tissue test, and find out if that's really happening, but the plant tissue test can fluctuate. And I guess my point is understanding how the environmental conditions right in and around are leading up to that plant tissue test. really affected nutrient content is important. So we don't have that. Like I'll say it again, that knee jerk reaction like oh my gosh, nitrogen is low, let's put 50 pounds per acre out which is you know, ridiculously high. Yeah, maybe just needs to rain or you need to irrigate more, and that will fix the problem.   Craig Macmillan  28:41  Yeah, what is one thing, the one thing that you would tell growers on this topic, one piece of advice or insight or anything.   Fritz Westover  28:50  In addition to doing your soil sampling every few years, and your plant tissue tissue every year at bloom at veraison and some growers may even do it more often or some growers may prefer to do SAP analysis on a more frequent basis. That's all good and well. Just do it at your regular intervals, and get your long term data so you can see trends and changes. Then take some time to really understand number one, as we mentioned before, with the demand of the plant for each nutrient, okay, when is nitrogen, potassium versus magnesium or other micronutrients? When are they most essential for uptake into the vine? And how could you put them into the ground or into the system or onto the foliage in a method that is going to get that nutrient to the vine in time for its high demand, you need to know that vine needs it, because if it doesn't need it, you don't need to put it in there. And then finally understand how the nutrients move within the soil. That was the other thing we covered. So I had a great podcast on the vineyard underground with Paul Crout who works in the Central Coast a good friend of mine, he's worked with video team to Episode 16 We did a deep dive into Vine nutrition and availability in different forms of nitrogen and how some are immediately available and some are more slow release available. So I won't get into all that now. But understanding the availability of that fertilizer formulation that you're using is really critical. Because that's going to tell you not not only when you're going to apply it, how far ahead of the demand for the vine, but what method you're going to use to apply it. Will it be better off put into drip, apply to the soil? Or maybe as a foliar application.   Craig Macmillan  30:25  Where can people find out more about you?   Fritz Westover  30:27  Ok me? Oh, thanks, Craig.   Craig Macmillan  30:29  Oh, little Oh, me. Oh, me.   Fritz Westover  30:31  Well, you can find me chatting like I am with you on the Vineyard Underground podcast, the vineyardundergroundpodcast.com Or just look for that, wherever you stream podcast on Spotify or for Apple podcast, or if you would like to download some of the past presentations I've done on nutrition management, or the charts to determine the critical levels for nutrients have many of those that are free and available to the public go to virtualviticultureacademy.com The academy is where I teach grape growing and have a membership in there where I advise growers on a week to week basis.   Craig Macmillan  31:05  That's awesome. Our guest today has been Fritz Westover. He is a viticulturist. He's the host of the vineyard underground podcast. He's also the founder of a really great resource. You definitely need to know about this. If you're a grower, and that's the Virtual Viticulture Academy. He's not kidding, a lot of resources there and really good quality resources as well. So thanks for being on the podcast.   Fritz Westover  31:27  Hey, thanks, Craig. You guys are an amazing resource to the industry to and you have tons of free and available information. Keep doing the great things that you're doing. I'm a listener, so I'm a fan. It's really privileged to be on here my friend.   Nearly perfect transcription by https://otter.ai

This week's Grape Escape is in Summerland featuring some of the wineries on the Bottleneck Drive with guests Christine Coletta, Co-Owner of Haywire Winery and Garnet Valley Ranch, Craig Pingle, GM for Haywire, Sébastien Hotte, Vigneron for Lightning Rock Winery, Alison Moyes GM/Winemaker and Matt Sator, President/Viticulturist for Solvero Wines and Matt Dumayne, winemaker for Garnet Valley Ranch Winery. Tune in to learn more about planning a Bottleneck Drive tour which also includes cider, craft beer, spirits and more!

This is a recording of a panel session from the SWR Global Conference Series 2023  “The sustainable vineyard and winery in 2030” conference from 3rd May 2023. In the vineyard: Water and irrigation “We'll run out of water before climate change gets us”. So said the owner of a leading Spanish producer at a London event recently. Nothing focuses the minds on climate change quite like extended drought. It's clear we can't really separate the two. So what are the emerging better practices on water and irrigation management? More importantly, how can groups such as SWR enable the sharing of practices and data, so the producer groups can learn, and share, what works in improving practices, and outcomes? Speakers Cecilia Acosta, Agricultural Manager, Grupo Avinea  Dudley Brown, Owner and Viticulturist, Inkwell Wines Álvaro Martinho Lopes, Winemaker, Real Companhia Velha  Sushma Shankar, Co-Founder & COO, Deep Planet Moderator: James Streeter, Chair, SWR

This is a recording of a panel session from the SWR Global Conference Series 2023  “The sustainable vineyard and winery in 2030” conference from 3rd May 2023. In the winery: Energy use and Capturing CO2 – should you do it? A handful of wineries around the world are capturing and re-using or storing CO2. In this session we ask why, although we know part of the answer (climate change). but also, how much does it cost to do so? What does it cost to capture – and re-use - CO2, and what are the uses for it (in tanks, as a solid) once you have it. In this session we talk to those who've been doing it, and put audience questions on the how and why, directly to them. Speakers: Felix Egerer, Viticulturist, Unsworth Vineyards Joao Luis Barroso, Sustainability Coordinator, Wines of Alentejo Sergio Nicolau, Viticulturist and Agronomist, Orgo Regenerative Biology Management Diana Snowden Seysses, Winemaker, Snowden Vineyards Moderator: James Streeter, Chair, SWR 

In this episode Dr. Paul Read, Viticulturist from UNL, joins Nicole Stoner from Nebraska Extension to discuss pruning shrubs, river birch dieback, and planting asparagus, among other topics.  

Part 2 of Episode #44 Montage about Dennis Horton features my interviews with Jenni McCloud, Owner and Founder of Chrysalis Vineyards who was inspired by Dennis Horton and planted the largest vineyard of Norton currently in the World. Followed by one of the most respected individual in the Virginia Wine Industry, Luca Paschina General Manager & Winemaker at Barboursville Vineyards.  And last, but certainly not least Lucie Morton one of the foremost Ampelographers and Viticulturist in the world shares her thoughts about Dennis Horton.  This is an action-packed Episode with plenty of stories and insights into what Dennis Horton meant to the Virginia wine industry both in the past and currently today through the continued efforts of his wife Sharon Horton in their vineyards and Shannon Horton their daughter along with Caitlin Horton the winemaker today and Shannon's daughter.Take a listen below or download and read the transcript.  More to come in my Epilogue in the final part of this Episode.  I was fortunate to interview all three of the ladies here fore mentioned and let them have the final word.

Chris and Morgan sit down with Sarah Prior, Vineyard Manager, Bedrock, and Jake Neustadt, Viticulturist, Bedrock, & Owner/Winemaker, Soleras del Pacificos, to discuss the vineyard side of the 2022 wine harvest.

As a vineyard advisor across the United States, Fritz Westover, Viticulturist at Westover Vineyard Advising and host of the Virtual Viticulture Academy, has the opportunity to see a lot of different vineyards, varieties, diseases and climates. Much of his work in recent years is in Texas. This large state about the size of France has a number of challenges including rain that is not seasonal, Pierces Disease, late spring and fall freezes, hail, and poor water quality. Fritz and Craig, both former staffers with Vineyard Team, discuss a variety of practices that impact the long-term sustainability of a vineyard including leaching salts, why irrigation systems are important in wet climates, and the number one way to manage disease. References: 110: How to Develop a New Vineyard Site 121: Regenerative Agriculture (Rebroadcast) 137: The Pierce's Disease and Glassy-winged Sharpshooter Board Instagram @westoverviticulture SIP Certified Sustainable Ag Expo November 14-16, 2022 | Use code PODCAST for $50 off Twitter @WestoverVit Vineyard Underground Podcast Virtual Viticulture Academy Westover Vineyard Advising Get More Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.   Transcript Craig Macmillan  0:00  Our guest today is Fritz Westover viticulturist with Westover Vineyard Advising and the virtual viticulture Academy. Is that right?   Fritz Westover  0:10  That's correct, Craig.   Craig Macmillan  0:11  He's got some other things in the in the works that we'll maybe talk about a little bit later. Fritz and I have known eachother for a long time. And actually, we had the same job   Fritz Westover  0:19  That we did that we did that we did.   Craig Macmillan  0:21  He is based in Texas, lives in Houston. But he works in all parts of the country. You're you're all over the place. What different states do you work in in these days?   Fritz Westover  0:30  Yeah, Craig, thanks, again, for having me on the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast, love to be here. Actually, it's my second time. So this is really an honor to get to get invited back. I didn't screw it up too bad the first time. So I appreciate that. You know, to answer your question, I work primarily in Texas, that's where I'm currently office in Houston. Got a great airport. So I do go to other parts of the country. The second largest area working would be Georgia, primarily in the north mountains of the state of Georgia, I also do some consulting a little bit in some of the states in between Louisiana, Alabama, and some virtual advising that I've started doing, where I'm actually, you know, on site to see the site to understand it, but I'm not there on a frequent visitation basis, like I am, in, let's say, Texas, or Georgia. So those are the primary areas I'm working. And they have a lot of things that overlap. And they have a lot of differences. So the cool part is I get to see a lot of different scenarios, varieties, climate and challenges.   Craig Macmillan  1:26  So let's, let's start with Texas, obviously, we're very interested in sustainability, and sustainable approaches to problems, roadblocks, obstacles, issues, and every region that I'm familiar with anywhere, they have different sustainability issues and hurdles, you know, you say like, oh, here, we're doing this in a sustainable way to do it. And these other people, people are like ah that't not going to work for us. So they're trying to find a different way. So in the case of Texas, which I understand is now not just the hill country, it's quite a broad spectrum of climates and soils and whatnot. What are some of the challenges that Texas growers and these different regions are facing?   Fritz Westover  2:03  Yeah, great question. And, you know, if you look at Texas, it's a state roughly the size of France. So there's a lot of different growing regions in Texas, anywhere from the Gulf Coast region to which is you know, the eastern part of North Texas. Closer to Oklahoma, there's grapes grown that far north and Texas to hill country, which is outside of Austin, Fredericksburg, San Antonio, that's probably where the majority of wineries are, and also a large concentration of vineyards. And then the majority by far of grapes grown in Texas are grown on the High Plains region, which is West Texas, or northwest on the High Plains. That's about 3000 to 4000 feet above sea level. So we have a lot large range and climate and topography and rainfall. I mean, we can get 40 inches in East Texas a year and 10 inches in West Texas a year. And we haven't had that much unless Texas this year, there's been a drought that's affected growers,   Craig Macmillan  2:58  How much of that rain is during the growing season?   Fritz Westover  3:00  Okay, so in Texas, the rain can come at any time. It's not necessarily seasonal. So we don't have the luxury of saying, hey, you know, harvest is done, we should be getting some rain. Now let's plant a cover crop, and let the soil profile fill for the winter. In fact, sometimes we have to irrigate in the wintertime to keep our profile moist. In other times, it's raining, right at harvest or right before harvest or right at bloom when you don't want rain necessarily in a vineyard setting. But in terms of sustainability, if you start on the east part of Texas, and that's our example we're using now we have severe Pierce's Disease there. So there are only certain hybrids of wine grape that are resistant or tolerant Pierce's disease that you can grow there. So if you're growing those varieties, it's almost like here's this disease is not an issue, right. So you've kind of found a way around that. But then you get into the hill country more in Central Texas and we're growing vinifera there anything from Bordeaux varieties to Spanish or Portuguese varieties, Italian varieties are growing there as well. And so Pierce's Disease is a big issue with those varieties. And so is the erratic weather patterns, like seasonal rain, hail, things like that. I think the best example, though, would be to just jump right up to the high plains, because I can look back at my consulting in the last four years. And one year, we had a terrible, devastating late spring freeze. And that happens frequently, maybe two or three out of every five years, we have sites getting hit by late spring freeze, and it takes out a majority of the crop. So now you see these orchard right or other types of fans going up. And those are there for when we have, you know, a radiational freeze, we can we can hopefully skirt through that. So you put these expensive fans up, you solve the problem. And then the next year, you think you've got that you get through the freeze, there's no freeze at all late spring, right? And then all of a sudden, you're just at the point where you finish shoot thinning all of your vines and everything's perfect and set for the year. And then it hails and then you get a hailstorm takes up all of all of your crop for the year and set you back another year. So then what are we doing? We're putting up helmets and a lot of vineyards in West Texas now. So you put up the hill net And that solves with a physical barrier, the hill issue. So now you got the fans for the late spring freeze. You've got the netting for the hail, which also can protect from birds and other things. We're using that year round. So the next year comes up, we don't get away spring freeze, we don't get a hail. What we had instead was this freeze in the fall and early fall freeze, where it got down in October, late October, just after harvest got down into the 20s, which doesn't seem like it should do a lot of damage. But I mean, it will if vines are not cold hardy and ready for it. It's devastating. I wrote a little bit about that and wine business monthly for an article a few months ago and summarized it. But the summary here is that it wholesale killed vines, took vines down to the graft knocked out cordons, and there's a lot of retraining that needs to be done. So now the question is, okay, what's the variety of grape we can plant that's late bud burst right to get past the spring freeze late spring freeze that harvest early. So we had time to harden off for the winter and not get hit by that early fall freeze. And, you know, is bulletproof and doesn't get hit by hail? Right. That'd be nice. But that's,   Craig Macmillan  6:03  I was gonna say it's hail resistant. I can't wait to see the plant breeding on that one.   Fritz Westover  6:07  Yeah,right. Oh, by the way, consumers have to love the wine made from it, and it has to be a good yielder. Okay, is that too much to ask Craig?   Craig Macmillan  6:14  No,? the plant breeding community can take care of that I'm I'm concerned.   Fritz Westover  6:19  I hope you're right. We could use it. I'd like to get invited to their to their planning meeting, I can give them some input. Those are some examples. But you know, Pierce's Disease, water is a big thing. Just like in California, we you know, we have limited water supplies in certain areas of the state, I'm sure you'll you'll want to touch on that. And, you know, its water quality, too, is an issue in some areas. But the really the erratic changes in climate that we see from year to year, it's, there's, you know, there's always a surprise, if you don't like the weather, just wait an hour, and it'll change.   Craig Macmillan  6:51  I'm glad you brought that up. Because I am a big believer in if you plant the right plant in the right place. That's how you address a lot of sustainability issues. So for instance, California, what we've done is we planted lots and lots of Chardonnay in areas that are like perfect, prone for powdery mildew, you know, it's 75 or 80, every single day year round. There's coastal fog is just designed to have disease and you look at it and you're like, Oh man, what maybe we shouldn't be doing that we could cut our chemical load down and we weren't planting this plant in this environment. But the problem is it makes great wine wine quality, that's where you want to be, you know, and so there's some tension there. I am very interested in this variety selection piece. So for instance, I understand that I don't know in detail in Texas, I don't really do grow vinifera you mentioned but they also grow alleles hybrid. So things like Marechal Foch I think it's pronounced, Frontenac or sac showing my my lack of knowledge. Are those working out viticulturally and then are they also working out from a wine quality standpoint of wineries buying these making products that people are buying because that would be like this, your solution is finding varieties that are going to tolerate. Can you turn that around then into a product. How's that going?   Fritz Westover  8:07  to be exact in Texas, there's there are not a lot of hybrid vineyards, it's mostly vinifera. However, if you go to the Gulf Coast region, that is where we do, we do grow primarily Pierce's Disease tolerant hybrid. So that would be blanc Du Bois or Lenoir. And then there's some of the Andy Walker, Dr. Andy Walker, UC Davis, PD tolerant that 98% 97% vinifera varieties that are just now being planted. I mean, we're just at the pioneering stages for those in both Texas and in Georgia, where we have high PD or Pierce's disease pressure, the blanc Du Bois, the Lenoir, the things that have been growing for 25 years now or more have established a market and it took that time to do it. Right. So really, the question is, as these new varieties and the new breeding programs come out with grapes that have tolerance to Pierce's disease, or tolerance to cold, or tolerance to whatever it might be rootstocks that tolerate nematodes and salt, you know, that's, that's a rootstock issue. But when it comes to the variety of the thing that we're putting in the glass that we make the wine from these newer ones, are not quite as proven. So we're gonna have to have this learning curve of where they're best suited, because here's the thing. You take this variety of grape, that's mostly vinifera, and it happens to be have the single gene resistance for Pierce's disease. So you say okay, great, that's gonna work for now, let's put it in the vineyard in the gulf coast of Texas or West Georgia, or South Carolina or whatever, Alabama, you name it, wherever there's Pierce's disease in the southeast, and that's all good, and well, it probably won't die from Pierce's disease, but it's still going to get powdery mildew, which other hybrids are very resistant to, it's still going to get downy mildew, which we have various levels of resistance to it's still going to get black rot, it's going to get phmompsis and then it's all that all the trunk diseases. So I mean, you you think about hard places to grow grapes. It's like when I moved to California back in 2013 to work with the Vineyard Team I thought, man, how am I gonna help these grammars in California, you know, they've been doing this for so long, but they have problems just like anywhere else. In fact, I would argue I almost cringe at the say it, they have less problems. You know, the first as far as diversity of pathogens, at least, let's just say it's safe to say that than we do here east of the Rockies just because of those diseases that I've mentioned. Here, you solve one problem, and then you have five other problems that pop up that you didn't anticipate, and you then need to solve. So there's there's going to be, oh, five to 10 years before we know which of the UC Davis Any Walker selections are going to thrive in all these new environments that growers have not been growing grapes for very long and because of Pierce's disease, and now all of a sudden, you say, sure, you can grow grapes now, but there's a but but no one's done it yet. No one's done it yet. And you're gonna be a pioneer.   Craig Macmillan  10:50  You're a visionary, or you're a crazy person, you know, depends on which way it goes.   Fritz Westover  10:54  Those crazy people, they help the next person learn what didn't work and what not to do.   Craig Macmillan  10:59  Just what we're talking about Pierce's Disease, Pierce's Disease has turned out everywhere to be a very difficult thing to manage in a sustainable fashion. First of all, why don't you tell us what Pierce's Disease is?   Fritz Westover  11:10  I'm so glad you asked Craig, I was gonna say we should probably talk about what Pierce's Disease is.   Craig Macmillan  11:14  I think our listeners are probably pretty sophisticated.   Fritz Westover  11:17  I think so too. I think so too. But here's for that new vineyard manager fresh out of a place that doesn't have Pierce's Disease. It is a bacterial pathogen, and it's Xylella fastidiosa is the name of the pathogen, and it's transmitted vectored I should say, and transmitted into the vineyard from native grape vines. But the vector itself is the most famous is the Glassy Winged Sharpshooter. These were introduced to California many years ago and became the target of a large campaign to eradicate Glassy Winged Sharpshooter. But there's other xylem feeding insects that can also transmit this disease. So basically, an insect feeds on a wild grape that has tolerance to this bacteria and the bacteria are then moved into the vineyard. When the insect then flies into the vineyard and Glassy Winged Sharpshooters can fly a mile or more, they fly into the vineyard and they feed on the the xylem of that the nifer a vine that's susceptible and they transmit this bacteria into the xylem. It's a xylem limited bacteria that kind of clogs the veins like gives the vine a little bit of a plumbing issue. And there's toxins produced by it that cause symptoms like leaf scorch. leaf blades fall off leaving matchstick petals or petals attached to the vine, there's uneven maturation of the paradigm. And then there could be fruit shrivel. So I usually look for two or three of those symptoms before we rogue vines and pull them out of the vineyard, there's no cure for the disease, you have to pull the vines out so it doesn't spread, either replant or deal with the missing teeth, so to speak out in the vineyard. So it's a very big problem in the southeastern United States, you need cold weather to kill both the bacteria populations. Also, I guess, really just the insect vectors, they're also affected by these cold temperatures. So we found that, you know, you get south of pretty much North Carolina, Georgia, these areas are kind of in that transition where a good cold winter or two in a row will knock it back. But a warm winter to it starts coming back out in the vineyards. And so we see it even in the north Georgia mountains almost as far as Tennessee, it's it's really something that's that's moved around and found its niche. It's kind of working in the background, they're waiting for the right conditions.   Craig Macmillan  13:26  So what kinds of things are growers doing in these high pressure areas? And there's super high pressure areas in California as well, because of riparian areas where the insects hanging out, what are people doing? What are people trying, I can think of a couple of things that you could try. But I'd like to know what people are actually doing.   Fritz Westover  13:39  The most obvious we already talked about as growing tolerant varieties that Pierce's disease might infect, but it doesn't move around in his island and cause vine death, like it would to vinifera. So growers are used if they're growing vinifiera, or susceptible grape varieties, there's the possibility to use insecticides to control the vector. So you're a medical imidicloprid based products that are designed for either a spray, or most notably through injection through irrigation. And that's going to give a little bit more longer residual activity to deter the feeding. So the really, the plan is to know when those vectors are coming in. And there could be about 30 to 40 vectors in the southeastern United States. It's not like California that's got one or two major vectors, we've got, you know, 30 at any given time, so the pressure is really high in comparison. And so those insecticides would need to be time for peaking when the populations come in. And then you got to make sure you're careful about pre harvest intervals and things like that. So there's knockback sprays. There's the soil application that's done. These are not restricted use products, but they're certainly conventional products. They're not organic. Some of my growers who are trying to spray less conventional will use products like surround which is a kaolin clay and there's been some reported efficacy on on his island feeding insects. It disturbs them and they don't like to crawl around in the clay also I have some revers using that in hot hot climates also just to keep some shade or sunscreen on the grapes in the fruit late in the season too. But you know, correct when it rains during the growing season, you could put kaolin clay up one day, and it rains off after an inch of rain three days later. So we have those challenges too. And then of course, you know, there's there's trap crops you could consider. But I haven't seen anyone really successful using that just elimination of host grape vines near the vineyard, just trying to make the habitat less thriving for both the vectors and for the bacteria that live inside the wild grape vines. So we put a lot of focus on looking at the surrounding environment in addition to what we're doing in the vineyards.   And so people can actually go into those areas and rogue out host plants are ones that are popular host plants.   If you own the property and there's some muscadine grapes wild muscadine or rotundifolia growing in the woods, and it's right next to the vineyard on a fence line growing along the fence line. That's probably not a good idea. So yeah, you would want to go in and rogue those vines that are around the perimeter at the very least.   Craig Macmillan  16:02  What about setback well Glassy Winged Sharpshooter, this clearly isn't going to work? And I don't know if that's the primary, you said you had like 3040 factors. But when ideally it was been kicked around was not planting close to habitat. So leaving large barriers, now you're losing land as a result of that. Sure, or people tried that. And we didn't get exposed to that?   Fritz Westover  16:21  Yeah, sure. When you're when you're choosing a site for a vineyard, Craig, you're always looking to distance yourself from any problems, whether it be a floodplain, or possible vectors of disease, or host plants. So sure, but the idea is that eventually, an insect that can fly a mile is going to find the vineyard, you just need to know the symptoms, know what to look for, and be proactive at removing it. And testing for it. If you need to test I've gotten to the point where I can look at it visually, and I don't need to do testing anymore, which might McGregor's love, because it saves the money. But occasionally, we test to just validate that because every new girl I work with, we always do a test to show Yes, this is absolutely positive, we see the symptoms, and we've tested it. And now we're comfortable with calling that by because there are other things that can look like Pierce's Disease. And you know, we always talk about these as educators, you don't just talk about the problem you talk about, what are the things that it could possibly be, you know, when someone sees a leaf scorch, you know, well, it could be drought, it could be wind, it could be heat stress, you know, you could lose the leaf and have a matchstick pedal. If you have deer going to your vineyard eating leaves, they leave matchstick petiole symptoms, right. But that's only one of the four key symptoms. So yeah, we're going to be looking for the symptoms, and we're going to be roguing. And we're also going to be distancing, and we're also going to be trying to rogue the problem from the surrounding environment.   Craig Macmillan  17:38  So you got a lot of options, rather than just trying to spray yourself out of it. Yes, we've got a lot of tools, and they're not all chemical. There's cultural practices. Vigilance is always again, probably one of the key pieces to any pest management issue in any sustainability issue. I want to shift gears and talk about water. You know, my career has been strictly in California, where it doesn't rain. It does, like it doesn't rain   Fritz Westover  18:03  It Just doesn't rain as much as you want it to exactly when you want it to right.   Craig Macmillan  18:08  It's actually raining outside right now, we're almost done with harvest, but not quite. I heard early. And usually we get rain. This is like a record rain right now. Not a lot, but enough, but a lot of these other places in the United States, they get some rain, I was talking to somebody the other day about using undermined vegetation as a way of managing the increases in the water from the rains and trying to, you know, kind of have a plant help you out. And to get this dried out a little bit. You mentioned that like in Texas, for instance, if I understood correctly, you know, rain can come in any time. How do you manage that when in terms of like disease pressure or find bigger things like that? What What can you do? Is there anything that you can do that any management strategies for that kind of thing?   Fritz Westover  18:47  Sure that you know, Craig, there's lots of management strategies and they all start at dormant pruning, just like you know, you know, any good vineyard management starts with pruning, to get the right spacing of your shoots and positioning. And then it goes into your thinning and other practices that we all know and love and viticulture, and if you keep on top of that, and can create a microclimate and when we say microclimate, we mean the real scientific microclimate that area right around the grape cluster, right? Not the site, not the misoclimate, like commonly is called the microclimate. But, but that area, right?   Craig Macmillan  19:21  I've given up on that. By the way. It's same thing I was trained and it's like it's not microclimate. It's a misclimate. It's a music climate. And now I'm just like, whatever.   Fritz Westover  19:28  Yeah, after a while you get kind of worn down. It's like trying to describe the difference between grape varietals and grape variety. Because, you know, yes. Oh, yeah, that drives you crazy as a plant person. So it's been I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. It's a variety of grape varietals. That's the wine. So we digress. We digress. We digress. I have to remind me the question now, Craig, you'll have to remind me.   Craig Macmillan  19:50  You get rain at different times of the year. Yeah, some of it during the growing season. This creates its own kind of management problems. What kinds of things can you do and I know it's going to depend on the storm and what's out there and when it happens, but I have no experience with this. I'm very interested in you just pray. I mean...   Fritz Westover  20:08  Well, let me give you an example. Yeah, the northern Georgia grape growers this year had over 50 inches of rain from bud burst. And they're in their inversion, the pasteurization, they're at 18 to 20 bricks, maybe two weeks away from harvest, they've had over 50 inches of rain during the season at random times, sometimes raining for five to seven days in a row, sometimes raining for 10 days in a row. And I was just there visiting all the vineyards looking at dissecting and reverse engineering all of their spray programs there canopy management, there are some venues I walked into that were completely clean. I mean, no fungal disease, no downy mildew, no powdery mildew, maybe a little bird pecking here and there. And then there were some that were absolutely devastated. And so you know, why? Why was that the case? Well, I talked about, you know, good canopy management pruning, it starts at the beginning of the season, you know, when you're working in an environment that absolutely has a high fungal disease pressure, which is the number one thing all other overlying factors aside that we talked about, like Pierce's Disease, or freeze or climate, if you have the right variety match to the right side, but you've just got to control these fungal diseases that grow in the leaves and fruit. It's all about the timing on the applications. And this is true, whether you're a conventional or an organic grower, or whatever you may practice, yeah, it doesn't matter. I mean, you have probably less modes of action as an organic grower because your products are not moving systemically into the plant or into the vine itself. So your reliance on maybe even more spraying, because context sprays like a lot of organic products, or they can get washed off. So what we really hone in on is the critical period for your disease, which is two weeks before Bloom to about six weeks after fruit set. And what we find is if you can control disease on the fruit and the majority of the foliage, and when I say the majority, I mean those bottom leaves all the way up to the top of your VSP wires, if you're doing vertical, shoot those first 10 leaves on the shoot, if you can get those through to verasion, and you can get the fruit through verasion and keep it clean, it'll typically stay clean, and the leaves will have this oncogenic or resistance to disease at that point, they get more leathery, right, they get more harder to infect by a lot of these fungal diseases. So if you can get to that point, you can kind of pull back a little bit and get to the end of the season. Well, timed sprays just before bloom, right after fruit set, keeping in mind matching the product to the disease, right? If we're trying to control detritus, we want to hit that before bloom, and right after fruit set, and then probably again, right before a bunch closure. And if we have challenging conditions from verasion to harvest, we might need another spray from verasion to harvest. And again, conventional or organic, whatever that product is, the timing is still the same. I think what the growers who are most successful have been able to do is really not drop the ball during that critical period, that eight week period, they learn the modes of action of all of their products. Is this systemic? Is it contact, how much rain will wash this off before I have to go out and apply it again, the number one question I get from new growers is, why would I spray right before the rain isn't the rain is going to wash the product off. And the whole point of having that product on before the rain, we always explain it so that it protects the plant tissue or the grapes throughout that wet period. So that an infection doesn't get established. Because once you have an infection in the vineyard established, it is so much harder to go in and eradicate you've got to use different strategies for that. And it cost more. And that disease can linger all the way through harvest, causing loss and leaf area that's going to cause delays and ripening possible quality issues and fruit, you name it. So that's really where I think the successful grower, the one who you know does all the things you're supposed to do in a sustainability program, for example, to keep good records, track the weather data, record how much rain you get, and when and then just be proactive about about the spray program not reacting always. And coming in after after you see an issue or after it's been raining already.   Craig Macmillan  24:04  Now, if I am in an area where I'm getting rain during the growing season, do I still need to irrigate?   Fritz Westover  24:11  Okay, so good question. And, you know, I always recommend vineyards in areas that don't reliably get their 20 to 30 inches of rain in a calendar year, which is, you know, common in the East Coast, for example, that they put in irrigation and I get some kickback from some growers thinking gosh, it rains here, I just want to turn off the irrigation and take the water and we were planting cover crops to remove water from the system. But the irrigation system is not just there for when you're establishing the vines. That's the number one thing if you have a drought year, the year you plant, you could be in trouble. It's a lot of work to water those vines. Number two, you're going to be able to put fertilizer out through drip irrigation system. So whether it be organic or conventional, again, doesn't matter. There's lots of products that are designed to go out and your drip irrigation and that's one of the most efficient ways to deliver a small amount of a product or fertilizer to a vine in a very precise and measured way, which will save costs in the long run and create less runoff and pollution, if you're targeting the grapes, so, so in terms of sustainability, that's really a big tool in my book, and I wish more growers would consider putting in irrigation early in the process. And especially if you're in a Pierce's Disease, high risk area, and you're growing vinifera, then that is one of the major ways to deliver some of our best control measures for Pierce's Disease.   Craig Macmillan  25:30  I'm going to put an irrigation obviously, I'm going to be drawing on some groundwater, groundwater quality varies infinitely from place to place. What are some of the experiences that you've had that caused viticultural issues down the line with different kinds of water quality problem? And were there things to do to improve those because again, well, I had a vineyard once where we were, we had a magnesium problem, we were watering off of a municipal watering system, which was great drinking water. Wonderful. Well, one day I get the report, and the magnesium level in the water was through the roof, not a threat to people, but I was just making a brick, right to the watering more and watering more and watering more, and it was just getting worse. What kinds of things have you seen? And what could you kind of do about it?   Fritz Westover  26:13  Yeah, it's a really good question. As you know, I'm familiar with the a lot of the problems on the central coast there where were you and I both worked, you know, in terms of getting into some Paleolithic waters, that earthquakes now have changed your your water quality and your site that was very good before that occurrence happened. So you have boron, you have high salts, sodium and other salts as well in Texas. And I'll come here because this is the area I live in work in the most, we see issues that are pretty similar. We see boron being high. In some areas, certain aquifers and water sources are high and boron, we see high SAR sodium absorption ratio, that you know, if your SAR levels above six or seven, and you're relying on irrigation water, you're gonna see issues in the leaves, saltburn and decline of the vines, and we can hit 20 or 30 on a SAR in some areas of North Texas. And I've seen in drought years, this was a drought year for Texas. This is a real I mean, it rained in October, November of 2021. And then didn't rain in parts of Texas until about a month ago. And so right now, as we're recording this, we're in September. So until really about variation, no rain. So if you didn't have good quality water, and you're relying 100% on your irrigation and didn't have any rain in the wintertime to flush out salts or leach boron or other things that are a problem that build up in the soil, especially from frequent shallow irrigations. It was a problem. So boron symptoms were showing on leaf margins. So some growers were trying to capture rainwater to alleviate their irrigation issues. But if it didn't rain, that approach did not work. So they're trying to do longer irrigation set so that they don't build up salts in the shallow part of the soil. So that's one strategy, using the wheats leaching fraction, for example, that to push water below, or occasionally do very long sets. And I know, you know, sounds counterintuitive. We have bad water, less water more with it. And with water more, right, yeah, but the thing is, you need to push the salts down below the root zone, if you can, and watering on long sets can do that. So that was the strategy through you know, there's really no solution that I'm aware of for high boron levels, I wish there was one that was reliable, and that that someone could present to me for the salts, we use the irrigation strategy that I just mentioned, to try to push it down below the root zone as much as possible. But there's really beyond that not a whole lot you can there's course there's some soil amendments, I shouldn't say there's nothing some growers tried to displace sodium with gypsum or calcium additions, or by adding organic matter to the soil to try and bind it up or you know, and still have other cations available on the cat on exchange. Some growers are injecting acid using acid injection to try to help with nutrient uptake that sodium sometimes is blocking. There's other things that go well beyond even my understanding of all the chemistry behind it. But I think it's fair to say that the growers who have the worst problems and have that proactive kind of frame of mind have been have been doing some of these things to try and combat it. But really what they're doing Craig is they're saying why isn't it raining? Like it usually does. That solves the problem for me. And it just hasn't happened in the past year here. And it's not to say we won't get back on the normal pattern. We'll just have to see.   Craig Macmillan  29:18  We're running out of time. Unfortunately, we could go on forever. Lok forward to seeing you here in the future. We have the Sustainable Ag Expo. It's put on by Vin, your team coming up in November and you are going to be here for that I believe you're presenting Yes. Yeah. hoping we can connect. I don't see why we can't in just a couple of sentences again, thinking like you're on stage. What one piece of advice would you give to a grape grower in the realm of how to improve the sustainability or how to farm a sustainability as sustainable as possible? And what's your one piece of advice?   Fritz Westover  29:51  But wait, we're not on the stage here. This is a podcast Craig This is one of the largest stages you can get without actually being looking someone in the eye right? This isn't acing who invented this stuff. It's true. So so when I am at Sustainable Ag Expo, my talk is going to be about the long term view on sustainability, it's going to be about things that you can do from the beginning onward, moving the needle a little bit on on some of the fine points that we tend to overlook on a daily basis, because we're focusing on more big picture stuff. So my focus for anyone who wants to start off, and they know that they want to be doing things the right way, 10 years down the road, and they want things to be a little easier for them, it goes back to what you and I've been talking about earlier, the beginning of our conversation, choosing the right varieties, making sure your site selection is all going to work out if you don't have the expertise to do that, you should really find someone who specializes in that, you know, I've drawn upon soil scientists that come out and look at sites and map sites, on projects that I'm working on, you know, we need to bring the team together that can make the right decisions from day one, and choosing your varieties and your rootstocks and making sure your vineyard design is done in a way where you reduce erosion and foresee some of the issues that are going to come up the other thing that that I'll touch on quite a bit at the Sustainable Ag Expo is the the smaller detail things after the vines go in the ground, how we train our first and second year vines, where we make the cuts on those vines for die back and proper healing and preventing infection by by diseases that want to get into our trunks early on and establish and then all the way through to the young vine care. What are some of the things that I see growers making mistakes on that we could be overcoming. And it's really I don't want to say to viticulture 101 because it downplays the importance of it a little bit, when you make it sound. So basic the challenge is, sometimes we know what we need to be doing. But we have trouble conveying that to the workforce that we're using to the contract labor that we're using to our own team. And so I'm going to talk a little bit about a combination of those things about what's important, what shouldn't be overlooked, and how we can make sure we don't overlook it and put a team in place to get it done. Because the establishment will just umbrella that term with the vineyard establishment that first three to five years of getting your cordons developed. Or if you're in a cane pruning system, establishing your renewal zone and, and everything else. I'm super excited about it. I'd be lying to you to say that my talk is ready as of today. But I've got it outlined in my in my mind, and I've got the ideas already in my head that I clearly would love to share.   Craig Macmillan  32:22  And hopefully that will spread. Where can people find out more about you what you do?   Fritz Westover  32:27  Well, I'm available on social media through Westover Viticulture, on Facebook and on Instagram. And as you know, I also do an online vineyard advising and education community that I snuck you into, to kind of see behind the scenes on that and that is known as virtual viticulture Academy. That's really where I share all of my information with growers who are not necessarily my clients that I consult for on a one on one basis. You know, you have all this information, you want to share it with other growers. I know that's my passion is helping growers. And I've been doing that for my whole career. So through Virtual Viticulture Academy, I have a way to get together with that community. For this, those who join and answer their questions in the vineyard and share some of the trials and tribulations the what works and what doesn't work, and give some direct feedback to a community of growers. And what's awesome about that Craig is we didn't just do Virtual Viticulture Academy because of the pandemic. We're in our fifth year, you know, a lot of people went virtual and went online and found new innovative and creative ways to reach their audience, whether it's a grape grower or winemaker in this industry. We've been doing that for five years. And when the pandemic came on, and we weren't visiting sites as much or doing things in person, we just kept on going and kept on teaching and trying to try to make an impact. And just like the Vineyard Tam has been doing with all their great online programs. So so that's one of the things that I've been working on there. And then I'd really letting the cat out of the bag here a little bit. But I think by the time this podcast is released, I'll also be releasing a podcast known as Vineyard Underground podcast. And that's going to be just where I hang out like this and share information through the ear buds about grape growing very similar to what you're you're doing there. Our goal is to have some quick wins that growers can take back to the vineyard. Some practical advice for the everyday grower. Well, we'll get into the science of grape growing but we really want to focus on the how to interviewing growers and getting down into the dirt a little bit into the underground, where things get a little bit hidden and overlooked.   Craig Macmillan  34:26  That's awesome. Our guest today has been Fritz Westover viticulturist with Westover Vineyard Advising, of course, the Virtual Viticulture Academy, and the upcoming Vineyard Underground podcast. Thanks so much for taking the time. This has been really fun. There's going to be links to all the things that he's mentioned in our notes regarding this, this little show here and we hope that you check them out tons of great stuff. One thing that Fritz does really well is communicate to the world. He's got he's got the Twitter, he's got the Instagram, he's got the Facebook, he's got the website really easy to find really great information super useful. We really appreciate everything that you're doing. I think one of the things I just want to say personally is that you know, to the public Fritz has been a an asset to the viticulture community throughout the United States in a way that I can't think of very many other people have been just speaking personally, I really appreciate that because you people who are really passionate about it and are really knowledgeable about it, and here's the piece that are willing to go out, who are willing to get on a plane or willing to get in a truck and really go out and meet one on one with people and then stay connected, whether it's virtual or otherwise, I think is really fantastic. And so you should be applauded for that.   Fritz Westover  35:38  Thank you, Craig, so much for having me and thanks to the vineyard team as well.   Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Get the featured cocktail recipe:     Looking for the best cocktail to accompany you while you listen. Then head over to our library of libations for the right recipe to get you in the mood. Don't forget to follow, download and review to share your thoughts about the show! The Designated Drinker Show is produced by Missing Link—a podcast media company that is dedicated to connecting people to intelligent, engaging and informative content.  Also in the Missing Link line-up of podcasts, is Rodger That—a podcast dedicated to guiding you through the haze of dementia led by skilled caregivers, Bobbi and Mike Carducci.  Now, if you are looking for a whole new way to enjoy the theatre, check out Between Acts—an immersive audio theatre podcast experience. Each episode takes you on a spellbinding journey through the works of newfound playwrights—from dramas to comedies and everything in between.

Get the featured cocktail recipe:   Looking for the best cocktail to accompany you while you listen. Then head over to our library of libations for the right recipe to get you in the mood. Don't forget to follow, download and review to share your thoughts about the show!   The Designated Drinker Show is produced by Missing Link—a podcast media company that is dedicated to connecting people to intelligent, engaging and informative content.    Also in the Missing Link line-up of podcasts, is Rodger That—a podcast dedicated to guiding you through the haze of dementia led by skilled caregivers, Bobbi and Mike Carducci.  Now, if you are looking for a whole new way to enjoy the theatre, check out Between Acts—an immersive audio theatre podcast experience. Each episode takes you on a spellbinding journey through the works of newfound playwrights—from dramas to comedies and everything in between.

On today's episode;   We catch up with former Federated Farmers national board member Chris Lewis, who's looking for a spot on the DairyNZ board…  We talk to a man who's discovered the therapeutic benefits of cuddling cows…  And we profile the 2022 Viticulturist of the Year…  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dom George caught up with 2022 NZ Young Viticulturist of the Year Tarin Mason after last weeks big win.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sioban Harnett is the viticulturist at Cloudy Bay, New Zealand's iconic winery. We talk about the different jobs of a viticulturist throughout the growing season.

Sioban Harnett is viticulturist at Cloudy Bay, the iconic New Zealand winery. We find out how the vines are trained and managed to suit the growing conditions of the Marlborough region.

For centuries, grape vineyards were specifically designed for the average worker's height and arm length.  Viticulturist  Alexander Levin, Ph.D, dives into the world of producing a very delicate product (wine grapes) in modern vineyards with new technology.

In this episode Dr Paul Read, Viticulturist from UNL joins Nicole Stoner from Nebraska Extension to discuss spider mites, rhubarb seed stalks, vegetable gardens, and tree drought stress among other topics. 

Margarita Postoronca is a talented viticulturist with Chandon in Napa, famous for their delightful sparkling wines.  Margarita's wine journey brought her to CA from her home county of Moldova where she received her bachelor's degree in viticulture and enology.  In this interview, Margarita shares her inspiring story and how she turned her determination into internships at Corrison Winery in Napa and Ridge Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains.   Margarita talks about being blown away after tasting a cabernet sauvignon made by Kathy Corrison and how being turned down for a visa to go to New Zealand helped her get an internship with Ridge Vineyards.  We talk about the vineyards that make the famous Ridge MonteBello, and what it's like to spend time picking those grapes.  Finally, we talk about her work at Chandon and how viticulture practices are different for growing grapes for sparkling wine vs still wines.  

A special interview with two of the recent Young Gun Award Winners - Dan Coward from Alkina Wines, Innovative Winery of the Year, and Prue Henschke, Viticulturist of the Year. Hear what they have to say about their awards and where the industry is going in a fun double interview that will leave you smiling :) #henschke#alkinawines#younggunawards

This episode is a conversation with Craig Camp who has been heavily involved in the wine industry for over 30 years. After learning about wine production in Italy, he has worked with many different vineyards, been on the board of directors for several winegrowing associations and was named on the list of  “Wine's Most Inspiring People of 2021” by the Wine Industry Network. Today, Craig runs Troon Vineyard. A holistic biodynamic vineyard in the beautiful AppleGate Valley region of Oregon.Overview:How Craig got involved in the wine industry?What is viticulture & what makes a wine truly a wine?The story behind Craig's biodynamic vineyard in Oregon?What is biodynamic farming and how can it be applied to wine making?How Craig makes wine compared to conventional vineyardsWhy healthy soil is important and how it is crucial to a biodynamic system?Interesting facts about the grape vineThings to be aware of when shopping for quality wineConnect with Craighttps://twitter.com/craigcamphttps://www.troonvineyard.com/Support the podcast on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/poldiwielandDo you follow the podcast on social media yet?IG: https://www.instagram.com/poldiwieland/Twitter: https://twitter.com/theyearofplentyFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/theyearofplenty/Sign up for the newsletter:www.theyearofplenty.comOr subscribe directly using your podcast app. The show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and many other platforms!Please rate and review the show in the Apple Podcast app. This always helps the show get ranked so that more curious foodies can explore real food and drink with us.I want to hear from you! Take the LISTENER SURVEY: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KZW53RT

Sevgi Tüzel-Conghaile, founder of the Dublin-based A Wine Idea, is one of the most impressive females in the Irish wine world. Born in Turkey, she is an Oenologist & Viticulturist and has dedicated her life to wine.  Sevgi, after her graduation in Food Engineering, followed her dream to become a winemaker in her home country before relocating to France to study her MSc in Oenology & Viticulture in Montpellier SupAgro and Bordeaux Sciences Agro. She continued her studies at the prestigious Hochschule Geisenheim University in Germany while living in the renowned wine region of Mosel. Among many other accomplishments, Sevgi also completed a certified course taught by Masters of Wine (MW) Romana Echensperger MW, Alison Flemming MW, Caro Maurer MW, Josef Schuller MW, Frank Smulders MW, among others.  She also married a man from Connemara, so we may need to thank him for her presence in this country!  How can one make wine accessible? Who has the better wine palate, men or women? Also, Sevgi shares some of her favourite dishes from her native Turkey, like dolma, manti, and kibbeh, her love for cooking Turkish, the “Mediterr-Asian” trend, and her favourite wine bars in Ireland.   Finally, she addresses the question, is there a future for Turkish wine? As mentioned in this episode A Wine Idea Sakhalin restaurant Geisenheim Institute

Chris and Morgan give a full update on the ongoing 2021 harvest, with Jake Neustadt, Viticulturist for Bedrock, and Katie Rouse, Assistant Winemaker for Bedrock.

Recognized as an AVA in 1981, Santa Cruz Mountains was the first California appellation to be defined by its mountain topography.As the name suggests, Santa Cruz Mountains is a mountainous AVA that sits between Monterey Bay and San Francisco. The rugged terroir in the mountains can be extremely difficult for vignerons, but those who persevere are rewarded with some of California's most celebrated wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon. The winegrowing community comprises nearly 300 small growers and wineries, the region is planted to approximately 1300 acres of wine grapes, divided evenly among Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and “Other Varietals” (most notably Merlot and Zinfandel).Small vineyard surrounded by Redwood trees and native chaparral, growing atop an ancient seabed overlooking the Pacific Ocean. These growing conditions give the wines a distinct regional identity, characterized by fresh flavours and bright fruit.Individual and site-specific mesoclimate is an important part of the terroir here. Vineyards planted on western slopes feel the cooling effects of strong winds from the Pacific Ocean. Further inland, vineyards planted on east-facing slopes get some protection from the ocean and are therefore much warmer.With today's guest Prudy Foxx, the leading viticulturist of Santa Cruz Mountain, how has been working in the region for the last 25 years we discussed this region in details, what decisions are important to consider when planning vines on the Mountains, what are the exciting new developments, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are taking the heart of Prudy in the vineyards of the south of SCM and we talked how in the recent years more investments are coming on the mountains from producers from all over California.Some other useful links on the topic https://winesofthesantacruzmountains.com/https://santacruzmountains.com/wineries/https://foxxviticulture.com/https://wineinstitute.org/The following are affiliate links, it costs you nothing to use them but I get a small percentage when you buy something, so thanks!Audio Interface: Zoom H6 https://amzn.to/3qnz7Ht Microphone: Shure SM58 https://amzn.to/3bcfbACBoom Arm Mic Stand with Pop Filter: ShureSM7B https://amzn.to/3tWlMYROnline Recording on studio-level: SquadCast https://squadcast.fm/?ref=mattiascarpazzaWe Love hearing from you, get in touch on:Instagram Mattia.lookingintowineTwitter Mattia ScarpazzaMail Info@mattiascarpazza.com

We had the amazing privilege to sit down with Oenologist, Viticulturist, and Sommelier Ryan Hess on this episode. He takes us through some of his favorite places to visit and wines to drink in those incredible places. We also hear his amazing journey of being born into an Irish Whisky empire, but choosing to go into the wine industry and make a name for himself on his own.Hosted by:Summer Altice (@summeraltice)Alyshia Ochse (@Alyshiaochse)Guest: Ryan Hess (@sommryanhess)This episode features products by Grassl Glass, Pyramid Valley Vineyards, Helen's Wines and CANN Social Tonic.

Chris and Morgan answer listener questions, with help from Jake Neustadt, Viticulturist for Bedrock Wine Co.

Chris and Morgan answer listener questions, with help from Jake Neustadt, Viticulturist for Bedrock Wine Co.

Viticulturist first, Lise Asimont left a long-time career in wine to start her own brand, Dot Wine. Years of working for big wine brands including Cakebread and Coppola, and experience building close relationships with small vineyard owners, managers and crews allow Lise to be hands on when sourcing fruit from the most prestigious and sought after vineyards in the Russian River Valley for her own wine brand. Listen to our exclusive interview to learn about Lise's background, the unfiltered story of how she and her husband founded Dot Wine. Learn more about Dot Wine and find the video version of this interview on https://www.cellarangels.com/dot-wine.html

Lucie Morton is recognized today world wide as one of the foremost Viticulturist and Ampelographer in the Wine Industry.  She started in winegrowing back in 1971 when her Dad asked her to take a gap year as she was finishing up grad school to be his farm manager and look into planting vines at Morland their family farm.  She never looked back.  She would later go to France to gain her formal education in winegrowing. Eventually, her career would take her to California where she consulted from many clients.  While in France she was fortunate to make friends with Pierre Galet, the worlds' leading Ampelographer and later on she would translate his book from French into English, Pierre Galet's:  A Practical Ampelography: Grapevine Identification, which was published by Cornell University Press. She has written several other books and many articles on grape growing. Among the many awards she has received she was voted Virginia Wine Industry Person of the Year in 1999 and the Virginia Wineries Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.There is a significant amount of valuable information packed into this Episode and her accomplishments are too many to list, but here are some of the Highlights.a). Lucie talks about how why she chose to go to France to gain her formal education in winegrowing.b). she opines on why Philip Wagner was so important in the early days of winegrowing here in the Eastern US and recounts an interesting story about how her mother and her had it in one hand and in the other they were pruning her grandmothers old Concord vines.c). She speaks of her affinity for hybrid grapes and why she believes they are still important to winegrowing in Virginia and the East Coast.d).She was the first women and American in the program at  University of Montpellier in France and what she dealt with in that environment.e). She outlines some of her early clients back her in Virginia and what the early days were like in the 1970's.f). Lucie explains her ability to distinguish the differences in grape wines and the varietal just by the tips of the leaves of the vine.g). we discuss how she discovered a grape disease which would later be called "black goo."h). She recounts how she met Leon D. Adams and was his driver for a road trip to explore all the winegrowing areas on the East Coast.I could go on and on.  As I said there is a lot packed into this Episode .  Listen for yourself or read the transcript attached.  Enjoy

Taylor Chalstrom sits down with Steve Vasquez, Technical Viticulturist for Sun-Maid Growers, to discuss weather station use in vineyards and how newly developed weather technologies provide beneficial insights to growers.

Growing up, Giuseppe Russo didn't have much interest in the vineyards his farther and grandfather lovingly tended on the northern slopes of Mt Etna, particularly as the wine they made in the cellar under their house was being sold as bulk wine. He followed his passion for music, studying in nearby Catania then nurturing young musicians as a teacher, the same way his father Girolamo tended the family vines. When Giuseppe's father passed away suddenly he made the decision to honour him by not only taking over the family contrade, but also starting his own project, naming the label after Girolamo. Initially working closely with neighbouring farmers who knew these soils and vines intimately, and with recent arrivals in the region like Frank Cornelisson and Andrea Franchetti, in the last fifteen years Giuseppe has become one of the regions most celebrated wine producers.

When James Audas became part of the sommelier team at Noma (one of the top restaurants in the world) it caused a bit of a stir back home in Australia, particularly as he was then only 24 years old. In fact he had already earned his stripes working for Tetsuya Wakuda both in Sydney and Singapore, before taking a position at Black by Ezard. Upon returning home from Denmark he launched an imports company with fellow sommelier Tom Sheer named Lo-Fi Wines, that tapped into a small but growing market for low-intervention wines. In the years since they have grown the business to include both Australian and imported wines, as well as their own range called Das Juice. James and his family now live in Gippsland where they are behind their own project called A.R.C. Wines.

Listen to the full episode here: https://natepeo.com/blogs/the-all-in-... Jaco Vienings is an oenologist and viticulturist – a South African with a degree in winemaking. Making wine across the world, meeting unique wine personalities on the grape escape TV, and now starting Hartlam winery just outside Los Angeles has allowed Jaco the privilege, to gain invaluable experience. As a winemaker and founder of the Grape Unknown (virtual wine tastings club and online wine education), his mission is to bridge the gap between winemakers and wine consumers - by shutting down wine intimidation and making wine more accessible and enjoyable to understand. Join us on this episode of the All-In podcast as we discuss all things grapes and business. Connect with Jaco:www.grapeunknown.com How To Be A Success Champion: http://bit.ly/BeASuccessChampion

For the past 30 years the Pizzini family have been at the forefront of Italian grape variety based wines, not only in the King Valley where they are based, but for the whole country. Working with respected viticulturist Mark Walpole and Tuscan consultant Alberto Antonini, they established a stronghold and pedigree for varieties like sangiovese and nebbiolo. Much of the success of Pizzini Wines is owed to Fred Pizzini, who not only converted the family property to viticulture, but also saw the potential of embracing his Italian heritage by planting then unknown and untested varieties. They are today considered not only one of the largest but also most experienced producers of wines made from Italian varieties, now made by Fred's son Joel.

On this episode of SIP Virtual Wine Tasting with Winemakers we talked to Winemaker Andrew Henderlong Nalle and Viticulturist April Nalle from the beautiful (and a little windy) Nalle Winery vineyard. Nalle is family owned since 1917 in the historic Dry Creek Valley. We asked Andrew about his family history, the old vine Zinfandel grapes, and the wine. We tasted the Nalle Winery 2018 Classic Zinfandel.

Though initially interested in the study of horticulture, after being introduced to wine, Jim White very quickly transferred to viticulture. After a few years he gained employment near where he grew up, managing the vineyard on the headquarters of Chandon Australia in the Yarra Valley. His next step was to take the Viticulturist position at sister winery Cape Mentelle, on the opposite side of the country no less, in Margaret River. Finally Jim relocated to Cloudy Bay in New Zealand, where he now has the position of Technical Director.

About the Winelands welcomes Thornton Pillay, the Winemaker at Highgate Wine Estate in the Midlands, KZN, South Africa. READ MORE HERE - https://bitmedia24.com/about-the-winelands-#21---an-interview-with-thornton-pillay,-winemaker-at-highgate-wine-estate,-kzn/ In 1996 the Kassier family came to purchase Highgate farm, what was then, a small 1ha hydroponic vegetable farm in the misty hills of the Kwa-Zulu Natal Midlands. Between 2010 and 2015, the family produced wine as an interest rather than for commercial purposes. In 2016 Thornton Pillay joined Highgate and the wine making process was officially professional. Thornton having studied as a Wine Maker and Viticulturist in Stellenbosch, worked at Ernie els wines, Groot Constantia, KWV and in France (Burgundy), now became the Wine Maker & Viticulturist at Highgate Wine Estate taking the farm to a fully functioning wine estate. The opportunity then arose to build a Tasting Room to showcase and present the premium wines Thornton created. In 2016 Thornton bottled the first commercially produced wines of 1500 bottles. Highgate Wine Estate is now producing 17 000 bottles per annum. SUBSCRIBE TO ABOUT THE WINELANDS - https://aboutthewinelands.gr8.com/ KEEN TO SPONSOR THE SHOW OR BE INTERVIEWED? email visitthewinelands@gmail.com Never before in the history of our democracy has our country been confronted by such a severe situation; however, it is a situation that we will be able to overcome if we work together. Across our country, people and organisations have offered to help and the Solidarity Fund is a vehicle that will be set up to facilitate this. DONATE - https://www.solidarityfund.co.za/

There aren't many people who call Steve Lubiana Stefano, and you merely need to spend a few minutes with him to understand why. He is one of the most affable and soft-spoken Australian vignerons you'll find, very much a product of having grown up in the Riverland, the product of Italian migrants. In spite of his very generous and gregarious nature, he is a philosophical wine grower with a deep passion for not only biodynamic farming but the history of these practices. His imprint on the island state of Tasmania is immeasurable, and has been producing outstanding wines from the Derwent Valley for several decades.

Daniel Fischl didn't find working in laboratories particularly appealing, and whilst completing a PhD in Plant Molecular Genetics at UC Davis (California) he was introduced to viticulture and was seduced with what lay outside. It also helped that the viticulture and winemaking students seemed to have more fun. Fast forward many years of experience consulting as a viticulturist and agricultural scientist, he and his winemaker wife Michelle started the Linnaea Vineyards project with a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. As he got work consulting in vineyards around the world he and Michelle discovered more terroirs and made more wines, across a number of continents and expressions.