From the Fields: Dave Shein

By Dave Shein, Napa County winegrape grower

We’re finishing some trellis installation. We’re removing diseased and dead vines from the vineyard. While the leaves were still on the vine, we flagged vines with virus symptoms and are removing them. After our first rain and the soil is saturated, they’re easy to dig out by hand. 

I grow grapes for a specific company, and we don’t sell very many to other people. I have one winemaker who makes wine with all these grapes. I recognize the challenges that other growers are having in different regions and feel fortunate that all our grapes stay in-house and that we didn’t have to leave anything on the vine. 

The (grape) quality was exceptional. Quantity was down slightly, but we’re all very excited about the quality and aging potential of the wine. 

We did have some extreme heat in early October, but we were 90% to 95% done harvesting when that happened. It was forecasted well enough ahead of time that we were able to irrigate preemptively. I feel like we tiptoed through the danger on that one. The areas that had lower than average yields weren’t due to the heat wave or shrivel. It was just fewer clusters based on the weather last season. We’re planting some hedgerows for beneficial insects. Winter is a good time to get some of these plants in the ground. We’re planting a mixture of California natives to attract pollinators and other beneficial insects.

We keep a low profile from Christmas to New Year’s week and start pruning when everybody comes back this month. In January, when we have the whole crew together pruning, that’s one of my favorite times of the year. Pruning is super critical in terms of setting the vine up for the coming growing season. It’s one of the jobs that we do that requires intellect and experience; it’s a more technical job. Typically, the crew likes it and gets the rhythm quickly, and it’s fun.