by Sherrie Petersen
Most of us don’t give much thought to the grape vines as we quaff our wine, but that’s where all the action is. The vines put out the flowers that become the grapes, after all. And just like the birds and the bees, it’s important to remember that for grapes to reproduce, it still takes two: a male part and a female part, otherwise known as stamens and pistils.
However, most wine grape flowers don’t need any help from the birds or the bees. According to Jim Fiolek, Executive Director of the Santa Barbara County Vintners Association, “Most varieties of what we typically refer to as wine grapes were originally imported from Europe and have flowers that contain both male and female parts, so that reproduction is self contained in each flower.
They just need to be left alone to do their thing,” he says.
“A few Native American grapes from the East Coast, which are not usually thought of as wine grapes, have separate male and female flowers, which do require bees or at least wind to transfer pollen,” he added.
No matter how they reproduce, you won’t be seeing wine grape blooms until May or June. Mid-March is typically the time for bud break in Santa Barbara County Vineyards, when the dormant vines revive and start to push out green shoots and leaves. Flowering tends to occur in late May or early June.
Jeff Newton, a vineyard manager and one of the owners of Coastal Vineyard Care, says that bud break in spring is a critical time for the vines. “If the buds break too early, it puts the vines at risk for frost for a longer period,” Fiolek points out additional weather issues facing the waking vines. “It can’t be too windy, we can’t have too much rain, it can’t be too hot or we get shatter and they never develop.”
Photo by Kirk Irwin
Each variety flowers at its own time, but Newton says they all follow a similar pattern. “Pinot Noir and Chardonnay usually break earlier than Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon,” he explains. “Then about 60 days later you’ll begin to see blooms.”
Newton says that warm temperatures this spring did bring about bud break for a few vineyards, but most held off until mid-March. So as long as the region doesn’t have any more heavy frost, most Santa Barbara County vineyards should make it through spring unscathed.
Younger vines don’t even flower. Most begin flowering in their second or third year but won’t produce grapes until their sixth or seventh year.
So as you raise your glass in toast, think of the years of care that have gone into each step, from the vineyard, to the vintner, to you. Cheers!
Photographer Kirk Irwin is the author of Vineyard Cookbook: Seasonal Recipes & Wine Pairings, available at the Book Loft in Solvang.