What's Happening in the Vineyard - Pruning | Napa Vineyard Photography

During the winter months, grapevines are resting in dormancy. It prepares them for the new growing season - start of a new vintage.

Pruning is the act of trimming growth from the previous year’s canes. Usually about 90% of the wood is removed, to balance the buds. that will help to maintain health and future production of the grapevine over time. When a vineyard is pruned depends on the site itself, and is always differnt. Factors such as well as grape variety, rootstock are taken into account, and the pruning is modified to these variables.  Fruit quality and production quantity all begins with how a grapevine is pruned. The number of shoots or positions on a vine are decided during pruning—controlling the cluster size, count and the overall quality potential of the grape being grown.

With grapevines, there are two main ways to prune:

1. Spur Pruning: This is done on vines that have one or two bilateral arms (a permanent cordon) trained along a trellis system. These are the classic "T” shaped vines that come to mind when thinking about a dormant grapevine.

2. Cane Pruning: These vines consist of a vine trunk, head and multiple canes from the previous years that are left behind when pruning. Those canes are laid down and tied to the training wire.

At the end of the growing season, those canes are removed, and new canes will replace them for the next vintage.

Salvador Preciado - Farmer Project | Napa Vineyard Photography

Salvador immigrated from El Grullo Jalisco, Mexico in the early 1970s. He began his journey in the vineyards working for Emmolo Nursery where he gained his grafting knowledge. He was able to start his own freelance grafting business in the mid ‘70s. In the 1980’s, phylloxera infested many of the vines in Northern California, threatening its entire wine industry. For over ten years, Salvador and his crew played a crucial role in grafting over infected vines with resistant rootstock, preventing the collapse of the local grape production in Napa and Sonoma valleys. His incredible skills have taken him throughout the worlds most prominent wine regions, traveling to work in France, Spain, Italy and South America.
Salvador has raised his family in St. Helena, and over 40 years later is still grafting and consulting for some of the top wineries in the area. Not only is he a master and pioneer grafter, but he is a highly respected man in his community and the wine industry as a whole.

Frank Leeds - Farmer Project | Napa Vineyard Photographer

In 1926, Frank’s grandparents, Apolonio and Emily Chavez acquired the Helios Ranch in Rutherford (including the Ink House) and added Petite Syrah and Zinfandel to the existing vineyard. During prohibition, vines were replaced with walnut trees, only to be returned to grapes from the 1930’s through the 1950’s. In 1984, Frank’s uncle passed away, leaving Frank and his siblings to take over the property.
For the next six years, Frank maintained his job as an aircraft mechanic, and learned everything he could about dry and organic farming from his venerable Uncle Roy (Chavez). The family ranch has never had irrigation, the grapes rely only on annual rainfall for the crops moisture needs. The soil is cultivated specifically to store winter rains to sustain them throughout the growing season. Many in the industry look to Frank and the Leeds family for organic farming guidance, as he is a pioneer in the field. He has been instrumental in the development of programs focused on sustainability, organic farming, and proactive pest management.
Today, Frank and his eldest daughter, Lauren, manage the family ranch together as well as other properties. They follow the same farming practices as the generations before them. Frank is currently the VP and director of Vineyard Operations at Frog’s Leap Winery, where he has been for 30 years. He is active in many organizations including Napa Valley Grapegrowers and the Rutherford Dust Society.

Jose Albino Barrera - Farmer Project | Napa Vineyard Photography

Albino came to Napa from Bocaneo, Michoacán in 1975 with his brother and cousin. These three worked for Charles Krug and lived in the tank house on the Brown Ranch in Carneros (my parents lived in the ranch house). In 1979 he began working for Nissen Vineyard Services, and helped become part of the foundation for the company (which he still remains a member of forty years later). They brought many others from their tiny pueblo, and a good percentage of them still make up the NVS workforce. Albino went through the amnesty program in 1986, and eventually became a United States citizen. In the late 1980s, he learned how to mark and layout vineyards. He has marked upwards of 2,500 acres of vineyard in and around Napa County and still continues to do so today.

Frank & Annie Emmolo - Farmer Project | Napa Vineyard Photography

Rutherford, California

Frank was raised with his hands in the dirt, helping run his family nursery and ranch wherever he could. His love of tractors is great, meticulously caring for and repairing them. Her worked long hours, nearly every day of the week, and rainy days were spent in the shop repairing equipment. Frosty springs were spent lighting smudge pots and starting wind machines all night long. When his father passed away in 1966, he took over Emmolo Nursery, and grew it to be the largest rootstock nursery in California. During harvest, he loved driving his double gondola to the CoOp (now Hall Winery), Charles Krug, and Oakville Winery (now Napa Wine Co.)

:::

Annie held her own in a man’s farming world, managing the office for Emmolo Nursery. She knows everything about planting, grafting and growing. She helped translate for their employees, put together crews, and drove tractor when she needed to. Annie was the second woman to obtain a license to haul gondolas to the winery. Where their three car garage stands now was originally built as a lath house, a mini nursery, where Annie sold small trees and plants.

:::

Today, these two boast an unbelievable vegetable and flower garden that they tend to daily as soon as the sun comes up. This year they “only planted about 40 tomato plants…” Just about every single one of their children and grandchildren are involved in the wine industry in some way. What an incredible testament to their hard work and roots in this special valley!