Most folks who live in California, but who don’t live in Monterey County, have no idea what the word wind means.  I’ve lived in many parts of California and have visited a number of places around the world, and the only other places I’ve encountered wind like we have here was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, some parts of Africa, and in the southern part of the north island of New Zealand.  The wind blows here in the summer almost everyday, like clockwork, in the afternoon.  Here on the coast it can be gusty, cold and somewhat annoying, but in the middle of the Salinas valley—in the heart of wine country here—it picks up speed and dust and can be something with which to reckon.  The wind is such a force here that it plays a part in real estate values.  For instance, in Soledad, the direction in which one’s garage faces determines, in part, the value of one’s house.  If the garage opens into the prevailing wind, it makes the house less valuable than those with garages that face in different directions.

We are in our summertime weather pattern here once again:  fog in the morning that clears after awhile, and then the winds pick up around noon, and then the high fog blows in the evening.  This pattern is influenced by our proximity to the Pacific Ocean, mostly, and is the main reason why this is such a great place to grow winegrapes.  But the wind is a challenge to grapegrowing as well.  Grapevines simply do not grow well in an environment in which the wind howls every afternoon.  This kind of wind forces the vine to shut down by closing its stomata (the openings on the undersides of the leaves through which the leaves transpire carbon dioxide and water) because otherwise it would lose too much moisture.  The problem with this—especially on a daily basis—is that when the stomata are closed, the plant can no longer photosynthesize, so it’s growth is stunted and its carbohydrate stores are minimized.  Vines exposed to the daily wind tend to have smaller & tougher leaves, shoot length tends to be shorter and crop loads lighter as well.

So, what is one to do in order to grow grapes here?  Well, a grapegrower has two options:  1.  find a site that is protected, but not too protected.  These sites will be breezy or slightly windy, but aren’t subject to gale-force winds.  Having some breeze, afterall, is important to make sure there is enough air circulation within the vine to prevent molds and mildews from developing.  2.  if one has a site in the valley, then use windbreaks.  Windbreaks in other parts of the state are a no-no—there are a number of reasons for this:  eucalyptus, which is been traditionally used as a windbreak, tends to impart a menthol flavors to grapes grown near it; birds tend to nest in windbreak trees; trees tend to shade out the vinerows nearest them, making them minimally productive.  But here in Monterey, most folks use trees that aren’t eucalyptus and aren’t conducive to nesting birds.  The shading of vinerows or loss of productive area is looked upon as a small sacrifice for the overall health of the vineyard.  Afterall, as the wind blows here, windbreaks can help increase the health of vines and, in the end, the cropload and quality of the harvest.

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 25th, 2006 at 7:01 pm and is filed under In the Vineyard. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.