April 2021 Club Newsletter - Pine Ridge Vineyards

Spring 2021

Pine Ridge Vineyards, in the Stags Leap District, lies tucked beneath a ridge of pines, with a full view of the rugged palisades that speak to the dramatic geologic origins of our home and its world-famous Cabernet Sauvignon soils.

Vineyard Update

We finished pruning our vineyards in mid-March, an undertaking that took approximately two months. We began with the vineyards that have frost protection (i.e. wind machines) or a low risk of frost, because vines that have been pruned tend to go through bud break earlier. We want to make sure that the new green growth doesn’t get “nipped in the bud” by a frost event come early spring.

Now we’ve turned our attention to the cover crops we planted after harvest last year. In vineyard blocks with poor, dry soils where the vines struggle for nutrients, we use a nitrogen-rich cover crop (peas, clovers, legumes), and in spring we mow and till it into the soil to fix the nitrogen for the plants’ use. In areas with richer soils that hold moisture, where vines tend to produce a lot of vigorous green growth, we plant grasses which compete with the vines for water. It’s all about finding the right balance: giving the vines just enough nutrients and water but never too much.

Our team is also doing soil preparation and beginning trellis work on eight new acres of Cabernet Sauvignon in the Carneros AVA. If you’d told me twenty years ago we’d be planting Cabernet in Carneros, one of the coolest Napa Valley AVAs, I wouldn’t have believed you. I would have said it was too cold to ripen Cabernet. But several years ago we decided to experiment, grafting over 500 vines from Merlot to Cabernet Sauvignon. We liked the results of the trial so much we planted another 3.5 acres, from which we’ll get the first full vintage this year.

Now we’re putting in another eight acres. We’ve found that if you plant in the right pocket of land with rootstocks and clones to match, Cabernet Sauvignon ripens beautifully and uniformly in Carneros. While you’d think it would be some of the last fruit to come in, it actually gets picked right in the middle of harvest. We love the characteristics of our Carneros Cabernet and are excited for inaugural limited release of the 2018 vintage.

Although my mind is on the 2021 growing season, I’m excited for you to experience the 2018 vintage wines in your shipment. 2018 was one of those years that guys like me dream about: long and steady with uniform budbreak and flowering, a moderate summer with no significant heat spikes and a nice, evenly-paced harvest.

ENJOY!