The snow is mostly gone and I spent a few minutes in my vineyard this week. I had an expert with me: Christophe Coppolani, the winemaker for Chateau des Karantes in Languedoc, Southern France. Christophe spent two days with me visiting accounts in Western and Northern Michigan, but we had a few hours between events so I took him to my home on Lake Michigan for some well-deserved rest.
He thought Lake Michigan was beautiful, and she was showing herself well on a sunny late-March day. After he relaxed in the hot tub for an hour I persuaded him to look at my vines and advise me on pruning. He advised leaving one vine with two buds unless I had some doubts as to the vine's viability, in which case I should leave another vine with one bud as insurance. The man knows what he's talking about, having spent 14 years as Vineyard Manager and as one of four oenologists with Louis Roederer in Champagne prior to becoming the winemaker for Chateau des Karantes.
In my urge to protect my vines from a Northern Michigan winter I may have harmed them instead. Last November I mounded some dirt around each vine - which was good - but also took the added step of covering each vine with dried leaves and then a plastic planting bucket. What I discovered was that instead of keeping the ground from freezing hard around the base of each vine I had created a scenario where I prevented the frozen ground around the base of some vines from thawing instead. A few of the vines, when uncovered, were encased in frozen earth while the surrounding soil had already thawed. I guess the road to Hell really is paved with good intentions and I'll just have to wait and see how the vines respond when growth begins in another month or so.