Newsletter #4 - Summer 2024

Dear Trois Noix Community,

I hope this message finds you healthy, happy, and enjoying the warmth of summer. This most recent heatwave has certainly accelerated the growing season in the Napa Valley, which could also spark an earlier start to harvest.

The 2024 Growing Season

We are enjoying a truly stellar growing season. Ample rainfall in the first few months of 2024, following a wet winter and spring of 2023, produced strong vines with healthy canopies and large crop loads. Temperatures were consistently warm and favorable throughout the flowering period, leading to a uniform and abundant fruit set. The vines are just beginning veraison, which marks the onset of sugar accumulation, flavor development, and color change. I anticipate that we will begin picking our white varietals in approximately 3-4 weeks. Exciting times!

As I mentioned in our last newsletter, we started a cover crop trial at the Muir-Hanna vineyard in Oak Knoll, so for this issue of our newsletter I wanted to share more details on the trial itself.

What is a Cover Crop?

A cover crop is a mixture of beneficial crops that are planted in between the vine rows. In grape growing, cover crops can either be perennial (permanently planted and returning each year) or seasonal (disced into the soil each season and replanted). Cover crops serve a multitude of functions: reduced erosion, weed suppression, water conservation, and most importantly, increased microbial diversity within the soil and vineyard overall. In modern viticulture, the utilization of a permanent cover crop is becoming even more popular, primarily as it decreases disturbances and damages to the soil and its microbiome. Our trial embraces a no-till approach in order to encourage the healthiest soil environment possible. Healthy soil means happy vines!

Why Muir-Hanna Vineyard?

The Muir-Hanna vineyard was chosen as the trial vineyard in 2023 by our founder Jaime Araujo during a vineyard meeting with Michael Hanna (Co-Owner, Vineyard Manager), Steve Kline (Vineyard Manager), and myself. While the vineyard is already farmed sustainably, we believe strongly in regenerative farming and its potential for nurturing the land, and wanted to see if we could demonstrate the benefits through a controlled trial.

Our trial began in the OCCS block (Cabernet Sauvignon) and the OCA block (Chardonnay). One row in each of the blocks (around 5 percent) has been dedicated to the trial this year, with the inter rows on either side planted to a permanent cover crop and receiving no tilling. Seeds were planted on October 18, 2023, just after harvest.

Thanks to insights from Miguel Garcia of Napa County Resource Conservation District, Oregon State University Soil Health Lab, and respected Napa Valley winemaker, Steve Matthiason, we decided to plant a blend of crops, specifically: Blando Brome, Zorro Fescue, Hard Fescue, Sheep Fescue and native wildflowers.

What Are The Results?

The trial is still underway and we will harvest the fruit from the trial rows separately, fermenting them independently from the rest of the blocks to look for any discernible difference in grape and wine quality. We expect to see some potential differences in both canopy and cropload in the trial rows.

Depending on these results, we may expand the number of cover crop rows, or to the entirety of the blocks.

Overall, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to experiment with these practices and are grateful to our partners at the Muir-Hanna vineyard for their openness and collaboration.

Stay tuned for future updates as harvest approaches!

Best regards,