WLM
| taste
THE WYO WINE-O:
Springing out of Winter!
by Patrick Zimmerer, Table Mountain Vineyards
I
’m sure I say this
every year, but this
has been one long,
cold winter. Yet like
the changing seasons
outside, a winery too
goes through a changing
of seasons. While our
slowly emerging spring in
Wyoming doesn’t always
make an early appearance,
spring is on its way and
the winery and vineyard is
also slowly emerging from
its long winter’s nap.
In the winery during
winter, the wine is dormant
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Wyoming Lifestyle Magazine | Sprinter 2014
just like everything outside. It is quietly
aging, clarifying and undergoing a process
known as “cold stabilization” where the
wines are held at low temperatures in
order to stabilize them and soften the wine
for consumption, leaving behind the solids
and sediment from the grapes. Wines
that are high in acid even crystallize some
of their excess acid in the form of little
snowflakes known as tartaric acid which is
the early makings of cream of tartar for all
you cooks out there. The reds are moved
to an area for additional aging and storage
for another year and our new whites, fruit
and last year’s red wines are prepped for
spring bottling and release.
In the vineyard during winter, the vines
are in their deepest sleep and dormancy.
The entire vine’s energy is stored deep
below the surface and slowly brings that
energy back to the vine as the plant slowly
begins to wake up. Winter is a challenging
time, as Wyoming’s brutal temperatures
can damage and destroy the fruitful
buds from last year’s growth. Traditional
wine grapes would never survive our
winters, but the cold-hardy vines suitable
for Wyoming are bred to resist the cold
and survive. Yet, even our vines can be
damaged when temperatures hit 15 to 20
below zero or lower (we hit -23 this year).
As spring approaches for the vineyard’s
return, we are out in the vines, assessing
winter damage and beginning the pruning
process.
Our vines will be radically pruned and
prepped for the upcoming growing
season. Pruning a grape vine is an art that
is always evolving and changing. Each
vine requires its own assessment and is
unique in its pruning needs. With 10,000
vines to hand prune at the winery, we feel
like they eventually become part of our
family.
The most important thing to know for
backyard growers and commercial
growers alike is that the fruitful buds on