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Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars

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Notes From the Napa Valley 2010 Harvest

December 2010

It was slow to start, with heavy spring rains, and a very cool summer. A summer long on sweaters and short on, well, shorts. A season delayed by 2-3 weeks and a lot of bets that the last grapes would be greeted at the weigh station by Thanksgiving turkeys. There was a high incidence of mildew in specific locations throughout the North Coast and the ensuing leafing in the fruit zone for exposure to more sunshine was meant to help maturity. Then Mother Nature was fickle and drenched the vineyards in a searing heat. The mildew was abated, but the sunburn and berry shriveling were now the issue. There was a lot of hand-wringing and grumbling, some were convinced that swarms of locust would arrive any minute. Some veterans were saying, "Never seen anything like this before" and "we'll never be able to get all these grapes in before the rainy season."

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Integrated Pest Management: It’s A Bug’s Life

July 2009

When most people look at a vineyard, they see an orderly series of vine rows marching off to a distant vanishing point. But for Kirk Grace, Vineyard Manager at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, the sight is something more akin to the movie “A Bug’s Life.” He knows that beneath the neatness and symmetry there is a wealth of activity —animal, plant, and insect life. It’s a world-within-a-world, and although most people are unacquainted with it, in spring, it preoccupies Kirk on a daily basis.

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Irrigation: Turning Water into Wine

May 2009

As every home gardener knows, water is crucial to the success of any plant-growing endeavor. But in grape growing, the application of water – or irrigation – is the single most influential tool growers have to affect the desired outcome of a particular vintage. Too much water and the grapes will produce an insipid, vegetal wine; too little water and the wine will be overly tannic and astringent. It’s a fine line, and it’s one that Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Vineyard Manager Kirk Grace walks every day.

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The Chase Creek Restoration: Good for the Environment, Good for the Vineyards

May 2008

Talk to any viticulturist or vineyard manager today, and you’re as likely to hear about ecosystems and wildlife habitats as you are about rootstocks and clones. In the last two decades there has been a sea change in the way California vineyards are farmed. Today, viticulturists focus not only on the grapevines and the crop, but on the environment around the vineyard and adjacent habitat as a whole. The effect has been two-fold: more vibrant, natural ecosystems, and healthier vineyards.

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Does Vine Age Matter?

January 2008

If you read wine labels, one of the terms you’re bound to come across eventually is old vines. The implication, of course, is that old vines make better wines, but is this really true, or is it simply a romantic notion? Like many issues in the world of wine, it depends on who you ask.

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