Some sunburn at Baconbrook

Cary Gott and I walked Baconbrook this morning to see how it fared after last week’s heat spike.

The eastern block showed almost no sunburn.  The western block was in good shape overall but did show more sunburn and stressed vines than in the eastern block  (or in all of Butterdragon which was relatively unaffected).  Why the difference in the western block?  The obvious answer is the rows on the western block get more intense afternoon sun but that doesn’t tell the whole story. As I’ve mentioned before, we don’t have access to as much water as we would like up at Baconbrook. (We’re currently buying two truckloads of water a week.)  There isn’t enough water to irrigate the whole vineyard in one day. The eastern block was irrigated the couple of days before the heat wave. The western was irrigated during the heat wave. The irrigation before the heat storm prepared the eastern vines for the coming heat.

Check out the image gallery below to see the good, the bad, and the ugly.

By the way, it’s hot again in Napa and the forecast is for it to be in the high 90s for a couple of days followed by an extended mild period.