What I remember about 2012 was that it was the first time we had to deal with multiple frost scares in the same year. We had an astoundingly early budbreak, and if I remember correctly, we had three nights where the temperatures dipped below freezing here in the Brogue. I know I had discovered a new material to spray our vines with called KDL from Agro-K. It was a mixture of potassium (K) and dextro-lac (sugar) that I sprayed on our vines the day before a frost event. It seemed to have worked just like putting salt on icy winter roads. The green leaves took up the mixture and it lowered the freezing point of the moisture in the cells, thus allowing them to escape unharmed. With such an early start, it meant our growing season was extended significantly. Here in Pennsylvania, that's a double-edged sword. Yes, it allows us more days to ripen our fruit, but at the same time it means more days that we have to ward off the evil rots and mildews that try to ruin it. It was a long
Albarino was an interesting choice to put in a Bordeaux vineyard. I've been pretty clear from the beginning--mostly because of John Crouch--wrong or right--that this little place in the Brogue was meant for Bordeaux varieties. I've removed Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Riesling (all with ancestral homes further north than Bordeaux), Nebbiolo, Seyval Blanc, Traminette from our current plantings. None seemed to do the site justice. In their places, we now have Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. (And, Viognier, but that's for another post.) (And, yes, we have Chardonnay....everybody has Chardonnay.....) Why Albarino? I remember talking with Ed Boyce at Black Ankle Vineyards in Maryland when I was considering planting the variety. They had added Albarino and Gruner Veltliner to their French plantings, and there had to be a reason for it. I mentioned to him the other whites I was planting that year: Sauvignon Blanc: likes to rot Semillo