Hello LWGA Members:

Last Sunday @ 4 PM we had what we all hope to be our last LWGA general meeting by Zoom! We will have our next meeting for members who have been vaccinated on Sunday, July 25, 2021 at a location TBD. Most likely at an exterior location. I know we are all anxious to see each other again!

We had a good turn out for our meeting. After a short social conversation, I mentioned that I was having a problem with ground squirrels and that I had found an effective trap for that problem. The trap is called “The Squirrelinator”. You can find it at www.ruggedranch.net; look for traps and get the one with the basin. Use birdseed for the bait. It really works!

We also had a short conversation about the heavy rainfall some of us experienced three weeks ago which occurred right at flowering. Not the best timing for that to happen! I experienced some damage as a result in shattered flower set. The life of a farmer….

The next topic was about watering and nutrition of the vines in these drought times. Gerard made a wonderful power point presentation which he narrated masterfully! There was a very lively interaction with the participants and a lot of useful information was exchanged. The power point will be posted on our website for reference. A note of appreciation went out to Bill Scanlin for managing our website and for making it possible to access useful information on the platform.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have joined us in all of the recent Zoom meetings throughout the trying times we have all lived through recently with the Covid pandemic. I hope that we have kept you engaged with useful information and connection with other members. We will do our best to resume a more normal activity within our group beginning in July!

Looking forward to seeing everyone again soon!

Sincerely;

Daniel Howsepian

LWGA President

Hello LWGA Members:

This is a reminder of our scheduled meeting on Sunday, June 6 @ 4 PM. This will be our last meeting by Zoom! Hurray!!! Our next meeting will be in person on July 25, location TBD. So stand by for that one. You can join this Sunday’s meeting through the link below:

https://warriortrading.zoom.us/j/9252007676

The timely topic of this meeting will be about testing your vines to be sure they have the proper nutrients and water they need to produce the best grapes possible.  Gerard VS will be our knowledgeable moderator and will have a very informative presentation and question and answer session.  Also, with the drought this year, it will be very important to know if your vines have enough water  to propagate properly.  They’re tough, but they do need some help.  Without sufficient water, vines would have a tougher time migrating those essential minerals up from the ground.  So be sure to tune in! Also, see interesting post on watering by Ted Rieger in the Viticulture Forum on our website.

Looking forward to seeing you on Sunday!

Sincerely;

Daniel Howsepian LWGA President

Hello LWGA members

We need your help. The board is considering having our first in person gathering on July 26 for vaccinated members only and we are looking to hear from our members whether you feel you would be willing to join us.  We know everyone is anxious to get together again, but we want everyone to be comfortable with our plans.

We sent out a very short survey of three questions recently and have had very few responses. We really need to hear from you on this.  

Won’t you please response to our survey link below so that we can all feel confident we are doing the right thing in July. Please respond by June 1, 2021

https://lamorindawinegrowers.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b8dd87c54491d6eb5bb74082a&id=a729e719a1&e=178a8b5efc

Thank you for your assistance!

Daniel Howsepian

LWGA President

Hello Fellow LWGA Members:

I hope everyone is doing well and that everyone is getting vaccinated.

We had a scheduled general meeting for May 30, 2021, @ 4 PM, but we realized that this fell on Memorial Day weekend and may not be very convenient.  As a result, the Board decided to reschedule this meeting for Sunday June 6, 2021, at 4 PM.  In an abundance of caution,  this meeting will be again by Zoom. You can join the meeting at the following link:   

https://warriortrading.zoom.us/j/9252007676

The timely topic of this meeting will be about testing your vines to be sure they have the proper nutrients and water they need to produce the best grapes possible.  Gerard VS will be our knowledgeable moderator and will have a very informative presentation and question and answer session.  With the drought this year, it will be very important to know if your vines have enough water  to propagate properly.  They’re tough, but they do need some help.  Without sufficient water, vines would have a tougher time migrating those essential minerals up from the ground.  So be sure to tune in! Also, see interesting post on watering by Ted Rieger in the Viticulture Forum.

So, with the new updated CDC guidelines having been recently published, we are all feeling a little bit better about getting together if vaccinated.  It’s what we have all been waiting for.  However,  for larger group gatherings, there still are some questions that some members might have.  With that in mind, we have put together a very short, three question survey which we ask you to please complete so that we can decide whether enough of you would like to have our July 26 meeting in person,  something I know we are all anxious to resume as soon as it is safe to do so.  See link below for survey:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScY8CC0vygDMj7EyVixkDHISR1K7mRyPY-lWCfpewxujPcIRw/viewform?usp=sf_link

We look forward to your responses and to seeing everyone as soon as possible! 

Sincerely;

Daniel Howsepian

President LWGA

If your vines have poor fruit set or low volume harvests, its often due to either soil nutritional deficiencies (or inadequate irrigation). A leaf/petiole tissue analysis is the best way to determine if your soils are low on nitrogen, or macronutrients (calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium) or micronutrients (zinc, manganese, boron, copper, iron, sodium). Vines need at least sufficient quantities of all of these nutrients to produce properly. Plus, the next LWGA meeting on Sunday, June 6, will include an overview of leaf/petiole tissue results and how to resolve soil nutritional deficiencies, so if you get your samples in asap, you may have the results in time for this meeting.

Now, at bloom, is the best time of year to do a tissue nutrient analysis. Here are general instructions for Fruit Growers Labs, the company I have used and just sent in this year’s samples for testing. There are other labs that do this testing as well, such as www.al-labs-west.com/ (which appears to be lower priced)

For FGL, request the comprehensive petiole group. Make sure to collect your samples in the morning, and cut
the stems (petioles) of the leaves right away otherwise nutrients can
flow from petiole to leaf, and brown bag them in separate bags instead
of using ziplocks.  I send them in one usps priority mail box instead
of overnight because overnight is so expensive. If you use priority
mail, get them to the post office before noon on either monday or
tuesday so they get to the lab before the weekend, and send them to
the Santa Paula address. Instructions and forms are on their website, or see links below.

http://www.fglinc.com/documents/SamplingProcedures-AG/Grape_Leaf_and_Soil.pdfhttps://www.fglinc.com/documents/FGLAgChain.pdf

https://www.fglinc.com/frmSamples.php?sample=%3Cb%3EComprehensive+Petiole+Group%3A%3C%2Fb%3E+Nitrate-Nitrogen%2C+Phosphate-phosphorus%2C+Potassium%2C+Calcium%2C+Magnesium%2C+Zinc%2C+Manganese%2C+Iron%2C+Copper%2C+Boron%2C+Sodium&division=Ag&sub_division=Comprehensive+Petiole+Group&ID=164

This email today got me to check my soil moisture meters. I wasn’t thinking that the vineyard could need water this early, but sure enough, at least for our vineyard, the soils are already getting dry down at least the 18 inch soil depth, which is where our moisture meters are.. So, we are now turning on our vineyard irrigation early this year. See below for UCD Agricultural Advisor email 3-30-31:

While the soil still has some moisture, it is drying fast with the warmer temperatures and the windy days. I know historically that many of you have not irrigated until May or June. You may want to reconsider that this year. Start monitoring your soil moisture now. The vines need plenty of water starting at budbreak for the best growth. For a sandier soil 12” is a good depth for monitoring, for clay soil 24” or less if wherever the soil changes texture.

Here’s an article about vineyard irrigation that might be of interest to you.  https://www.winebusiness.com/news/?go=getArticle&dataId=243206

Cindy

Cindy Fake

University of California Cooperative Extension

Placer & Nevada Counties

Horticulture and Small Farms Advisor

11477 E Avenue, Auburn, CA 95603

On Sunday, March 28, the LWGA celebrated it’s 5th anniversary of the Lamorinda AVA! 

This was a well published event highlighting wine tastings of non commercial wine on line.  There were an estimated 50-60 people who viewed this event online.

The meeting began with a short description of the 3 year effort led by David Rey and other board members in completing the rigorous applications required with the various governmental agencies.  The committee had to demonstrate why the proposed Lamorinda AVA was worthy as follows;

–  Geological-  Characteristics of the uplifted sedimentary rocks and clay stones between the Hayward and the Calaveras fault lines;

– Topography–  Uplifting created variable steep hills, shallow soils and good drainage;

– Aspect–  these hills created many slope aspects which created micro climates throughout the Lamorinda AVA allowing for growing different varietals for winemaking;

–  Micro Vineyards–  These vineyards within the AVA are small vineyards, measured in # of vines, not acres, within suburban setting, where sustainable and organic methods are used;

–  Hand pruned and harvested due to the steep slopes resulting in a much higher quality fruit. 

These, and much more, were used in the successful application we know of today.  Anyone interested in learning more about the AVA application can find it on our website under documents.

Then a brief history of the Lamorinda grape growing and wine making was presented as follows:

– Over 150 years of vineyard history can be found in our Appellation and surrounding areas;

-1880;  Trelut Brothers;  1st, 150 acres in Bollinger Canyon Road, Moraga; “Eagle Hill”

– 1890;  John Muir planted a vineyard in Alhambra;

– 1897;  Theodore Wagner vineyard in Orinda;

–  1907; Rossi Family Vineyard in Lafayette

No doubt that vineyards are in our history and contributes to the successful winemaking today!

With all this knowledge, we all sampled the wonderful wines of:

Brian Cherry;  Cherry Family Winery;  Pinot Noir

Joao Magalhaes;  Magalhaes Vineyards; Pinot Noir

Bill Davidson; Davidson Vineyards; 2016 Merlot

David Rey;  Reliez Valley Vineyard;  Cabernet Sauvignon

Mel Haas; Haas Vineyards;  Cabernet Sauvignon

Gerard van Steyn;  vS Vineyards;  2018 Cabernet Sauvignon

There was a very nice amount of discussion between each tasting with interesting information about the vineyards, wine making and history of the vineyards.  Joao gave us a very interesting view of the origins of the LWGA and his vision of what could be for the Lamorinda AVA together with the LWGA.  Creating our region into exclusive and high quality grape growing and wine making appellation as found in the prominent regions in France.  A worthy goal indeed!

Larry Thal gave us an update of the much anticipated Wine Tasting / Production and catering facility in the works.  Permitting is moving along at a glacier’s pace, but is expected to be completed very soon.

Larry also expressed his desire to find a way to showcase commercial AVA and non commercial AVA wines at the tasting room. 

Everyone expressed their appreciation to Amy Scofield and Leslie Ward, and to the contributing winemakers who made this very pleasant event  possible.

The meeting was conclude at about 5:45 PM

I am reaching out on behalf of Rhys and his sister.  They applied for a grant of $1,000 from Sustainable Lafayette where they have proposed placing a bee hive in a public place in Lafayette and holding meetings four times a year to teach the community about bee keeping and show how easy it is to try and get more people to consider getting a hive.

They have received a lot of great feedback from the group and need to present in early April. 

One issue is they have not secured a location that would host the hive and allow the meetings. 

I thought maybe there is a vineyard in Lafayette that might be willing to host a hive (with all maintenance done by Rhys and his sister Sloan) that would also allow them to hold meetings four times a year?  

We have reached out to the Lafayette Garden and have not heard back from them- they already have two hives.  

I thought I would see if you had any contacts in the wine industry in Lafayette that you think might be a fit or interested? 

Thank you for any help you can offer. 

Rosalind 925-818-2990

Our last exclusive tasting is from Cherry Family Winery. Brian will showcase his 2019 Pinot Noir

We would love to feature you, as a wine maker, grape grower, winery, combination of all the above. Contact Amy at lamorindawines@gmail.com or reply to this post

Our fifth featured winery is Reliez Valley Vineyards. Dave will present his 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon

Ready to feature your wine? Tasting participation is not required. Email lamorindawines@gmail.com or reply to this post and we’ll get you on the schedule