In my experience with viticulture and managing vineyards the only real calm is when we shut the farm down for Christmas break. There are the busy times and the less busy times, but the vineyard is an engine that doesn’t stop running. Days become weeks, become months, and before you know it you reflect and remember your life by the growing season. 2015? One of the hottest years I have experienced. So hot it made it hard to get any work done when it was +100F by noon on most days when we needed to get any canopy management completed. 2016? Goldilocks weather resulting in heavy yields and amazing fruit quality. Fruit was able to hang on the vine forever without falling apart.

So what is the calm before the storm? Well that would be winding down post-harvest to right before pruning season. The length of the calm just depends on the location of where you are growing and the size of the vineyard. When I managed vineyards in Washington that was a month to maybe a month and a half. Here in Idaho with the vineyards I work with it’s closer to two months to maybe two and a half months.

So what goes on during this time? Post-harvest parties, trade shows, learning seminars, and work. Work includes blowing out irrigation, cover cropping, mechanical maintenance, compost, trellis repair and installation. The list goes on and on. Work to be done just not with the urgency you get when you hear the tick of the clock of the growing season as it marches towards harvest.