Camalie Vineyards Grower's Blog 2016Camalie Vineyards Grower's Blog 201611/7/16 Harvest is over and the final numbers are in. Yields were about 2.2 tons/acre, quality was excellent and prices were up. Pulido Vineyard Management did an excellent job as usual. We ran into a wasps nest in block 3 while night harvesting which was the biggest surprise. The divorce and a change of IP addressing to port forwarding are responsible for the big gap in my blog. The disposition of Camalie is still up in the air but life is good for the moment. We have the 2014 to bottle.
7/5/16 Went to test the new plumbing from Strauss's vineyard and discovered the line had been disconnected and repurposed to supply water to some irrigation block at Strauss Vineyards. The old line from the disconnect point was not easily found. Mr. Strauss has taken responsibility to reconnect the line. Waiting..... Are we having fun yet? We pulled the pump and piping from Domaine Chandon's reservoir that we used to irrigate Konrad vineyards last year and dropped 500 ft. of that pipe at Strauss Vineyards for use in reconnecting the transfer line if the old line can't be found.
6/30/16 Working with Jeff Strauss to get the water transfer line reconnected. He added 4 tanks this winter to store water for late season irrigation. I fixed a problem with the pond level sensor on his pond. A water system dashboard is now in place which shows clearly the state of his water system and when and where the water is going.
4/1/16 Cynthia gave notice she wants a divorce, no April Fools joke. Ownership of the vineyard has become uncertain as a result although if there is a way for me to keep it and continue farming I'll find it. I'm living at the vineyard full time now and making new connections with the Napa community. It's my home now at least for a while.
3/15/16 Cynthia approved the removal of the 160 vines of Carmenere and replanting those rows with Cabernet Sauvignon. We added lime and gypsum to most of the rows of blocks 1 and 2 and interplanted about 200 vines in those blocks in addition to the Carmenere replacements. In block 2 we added separate hoses in each row to irrigate the new interplants. The Carmenere was already showing signs of leaf roll virus and the yield was very low again in 2015.
We planted 20 vines left over from the replant behind the garage.
Pulido Vineyard Management Grower's Blog 2015
Pulido Vineyard Management Grower's Blog 2014
Camalie/Konrad/Crouse/ Grower's Blog 2013
Camalie/Konrad Grower's Blog 2012
Camalie Grower's Blog 2010, 2011
Konrad Grower's Blog 2009, 2010
Home Pages: Camalie Konrad Crouse August
All photography by Mark Holler. Copyright 2009-2016
Last Updated 11/7/16 M.Holler