In the quiet months of winter, one of the most important tasks of the year is performed, our precise hand pruning. At this stage, the vast majority of the previous year’s growth is removed leaving just a few buds from which the next season’s growth will spring. The decisions of what to keep and what to remove will have a lasting impact on the health of the vine far into the future and is only performed by Ramiiisol’s most experienced winegrowers.
Our Vineyard Year
Winter
Spring
Spring is filled with excitement, promise and peril. Just as each bud begins to unfold and push new growth, frost becomes a continual concern. Each year we use techniques we have developed to stimulate the vine and enhance the strength of its immune system. We use finely ground quartz and composted cow manure to enhance photosynthesis, to encourage the building of soil structure and to promote a plethora of soil life, including trillions of microbes, the unseen workers beneath the vineyard.
These techniques reduce the risk of cold damage and the negative effects of unbalanced pathogens throughout the season. In the case of a poorly timed frost, we monitor every degree drop in temperature and as it approaches freezing, we light up hundreds of specially made heating candles in the vineyards to hopefully prevent injury. No matter the outcome, spirits are always lifted by the beauty of the dawn and the cathedral like feeling of all the burning candles.
Summer
In this busy season there is a constant scramble to keep up. From each viable bud, a riot of growth has launched several feet into the air. Each shoot carries a potential cluster or two that will develop and ripen perfectly if conditions are right. The winegrowers’ arms are deep in the canopy now, selecting and positioning only the best-looking shoots to carry further into the season, carefully removing the rest. As with winter pruning, these critically important decisions have ramifications not only for sunlight, air circulation, and wine quality in the current season but also, for developing the permanent structure of the vine for many years to come as well as the quality of the vintages’ wine.
By mid-summer, the canopy has reached full height and our vines shift their energies from growing leaves to ripening fruit. This period is marked by a dramatic change called veraison when the hard, green berries begin to soften and take on their ultimate rich colors. Our winegrowers continue the work of canopy management, positioning grape clusters and removing leaves to ensure the perfect balance of sunlight, shade, and airflow.
Fall
Fall brings on the excitement and anticipation of harvest with its bustling and celebration. But first we must find the perfect moment. While keeping a watchful eye on the subtle yet powerful effect of the lunar and solar system forces, we carefully monitor each day’s weather forecast, along with flavor, ripeness, and health of the fruit from each of our demarcated micro-terroirs.
During the growing season, our grapes have been carefully selected so that only quality clusters attain full ripeness. When the harvest moment arrives, our winegrowers’ job is to remove any damaged fruit so that only the very best fruit is gathered and gently placed into the picking boxes. At the winery, each whole cluster is again sorted by hand. A gentle destemming is followed by a final very careful berry-by-berry sorting, a job performed by Robert and MeiLi and their sharp-eyed experienced winegrowers, so that only the highest quality fruit gains access to their special fermentation vats. Then our indigenous yeasts go to work to carry the story of the year’s growing season and begin the natural transformation into our wines full of the expression of our varieties and terroir.
As days grow shorter and nights cooler, the Ramiiisol team begins the process of amending the soils. The vineyard floor is ripped to a depth of several feet to alleviate compaction while improving root aeration and drainage. In this process, the vines’ surface roots are pruned, encouraging the roots to go still deeper where the vine can find nutrients in the most optimum quantities and qualities regardless of conditions near the surface. The roots of the cover crops also work deeper into the soil opening marketplaces for the exchange of micronutrients and enormous populations of microbiological life. The soil is then opened around older vines, to aid in the natural process of winter’s disinfection by means of cold and sun. Our younger vines are hilled up to protect their still sensitive graft union from bouts of hard freezes.
Over the winter, we add anew to our next vintage of specially prepared Ramiiisol compost and spread our composted manure produced the year before. Fresh manure is collected from the fields of organic cow farms and mixed with this year’s grape pomace. The mix is composted for at least 1 year, before being returned to the vineyard in locations where nature has called.
Each year, we remove only what comes from the sun and the rain, recycling the rest; leaves, shoots, skins, and seeds are all returned to the vineyard in the form of compost allowing our Ramiiisol ecosystem to complete a natural growing cycle again and again.
Soon the first hard frosts of fall will come, marking the end to another growing season, returning us to the quiet meditation of winter.
