Canino Ridge -- Petite Sirah

Interested in a new Source of Petite Sirah!
Canino Ridge is accepting growers contracts.
Contact information on back page.

Canino Ridge Vineyard

We are looking forward to our 2009 harvest and raising a toast to our relations with our partners in the wine industry. The best kept secret is out. Lake County Petite Sirah rules!

Business Objectives

We consider Petite Sirah to be a versatile grape well suited for blending or producing a quality varietal wine in its own right. Our goal at Canino Ridge is to produce an ultra premium Petite Sirah worthy of of both these objectives, and be flexible enough to meet the needs of the winery, whether in small lots or top quality reserve. We believe maintaining a consistent quality of grape is essential for both markets, whether as a stand-alone varietal or a blending wine that can add body, color, and flavor to ultra-premium wines.

Our vineyard management plan calls for sustainable wine growing practices, using environmentally sensitive farming methods and viable alternatives to agricultural chemicals when possible.

Geography and Climate

Canino Ridge, named after our ridge-top grove of 100 year old Canino olive trees, overlooking our Petite Sirah, is located in Lake County down Lower Cache Creek river east of Clear Lake. The north border provides access to Cache Creek, which is the source of water for our grapes. Approximately a third of the total 53 acres is hillside and the remaining two-thirds is flat to gentle grade. The Canino olives, producing high quality olive oil, occupy the highest elevations on the property at 1475 feet.

Several years ago, Lake County was prized for growing sauvignon blanc. Wine makers now recognize the unique soil and microclimate characteristics that set this area apart. Canino Ridge benefits from the special climatic conditions from its close proximity to Clear Lake.

"Daytime temperatures during the peak growing seasone can soar into the high 90s Fahrenheit, often topping 100 degrees. Doesn't sound like the sort of climate where you expect to find premium wine grapes growing. What saves it is Clear Lake, the largest natural lake within the state of California. At night, the huge lake acts as a heat sump, sucking cold air from the mountains down into the valleys. Within a few hours of sunset, temperatures can drop by more than 50 degrees, often falling into the high 40s in mid-summer. This radical temperature swing, coupled with rocky volcanic soils, leads to balanced grapes with intense, concentrated flavors."

From the west, Canino Ridge slopes gently upward from the banks of Herndon Creek, a north-south running tributary of Cache Creek at 1330 ft., stretching out 800 ft. to the toe of east facing range of hills. Flat to gently graded land accounts for 80% of the vineyard area; hillside accounts for the remaining 20% of farmable vineyard land (with the Canino olive grove occupying the eastern high ground). The lower land was formerly pasture land grass. Our choice of native cover crop provides good mycorrhizal nutrient exchange with grape vines.

Lake County experiences greater diurnal temperature fluctuations than either Napa or Sonoma. To deal with the many microclimates and respond rapidly to frost conditions, growers benefit from the growing WXNET network of strategically located weather stations. The current network comprises 10 stations ranging in elevations from 1140 feet at Midletown to 4600 feet at Pinacle Mountain.

Vines and Trellis

Before Prohibition, there were more vineyards in Lake County than any other county in the state and Petite Sirah (also called Durif) was the most highly planted. In keeping with tradition, Canino Ridge has chosen Petite Sirah (FPMS varietal 03) as our first offering. The first vines planted in 2002 were green growing grafts and all subsequent plantings have been bare-root dormant grafts.

We have chosen Petite Sirah because we believe that the Lake County terroir may be unmatched anywhere in California for growing this varietal. However according to reputation, "Petty Sarah" as the old timers called it, can have a rather tempermental personality. With thin-skinned berries in tight clusters and susceptibility to botrytis and sunburn, Petty Sarah can be a quite demanding vine. Fortuitously, the dry Lake County summers with desert-like dew point are optimal for low incidence of botrytis. (For added protection, we apply botrytis fungicides, such as Elevate, to the grapes before bunch closure.) The cool Lake County nights give respite required to produce quality berries sought from this special varietal.

Of the two blocks currently developed, the lower block on the flat land is planted with 101-14 rootstock (moderate to medium vigor makes it an excellent choice for fertile, valley soils) in slightly westerly-north-south directed rows, to obtain optimum balance of daylight. The hillside block is planted with deep rooting 110R running up the slope to avoid terracing. Although a portion of the total 53 acres is wooded with oak and the Canino olive orchard, we estimate 30 to 35 acres of land are available for vineyards.

In the hot daytime sun, the grapes require a fine balance between shade and air circulation as well as the necessary and timely exposure to sun proper ripening. Therefore, our choices of trellising is a modified Vertical Shoot Position (VSP), with an overhead spral. This trellis design provides the advantages of VSP, air circulation with the added protection of an overhead shade canopy to protect against sun burn. The harvest season of 2110 with its late season heat wave brought home the vulnerability of pure VSP of sun burn to many growers in California. We believe that trellis systems that can also shade vines during these volnerable periods will prove a wise strategy in the coming years.

Soil and Water

Benefiting from riparian rights to Cache Creek, Canino Ridge obtains its water directly from the river. Cache Creek is the only outflowing river from Clear Lake, thus guarantying Canino Ridge a dependable year-round source of water for irrigation and frost protection.

John Deere 6.7 L Diesel Engine and Berkely Pump

Vineyard soil consists of two types, Kilaga Variant Loam on the flatland (80% of vineyard area) and Skyhigh-Millsholm loam on the hillside (20% of vineyard area).

• The Kilaga Variant Loam series in the flat areas is very well suited to grapevines. It is very deep, moderately well drained, loam over clay loam over silty clay or clay. With a seasonal perched water table at 3-6 ft. and available water capacity of 9-11 in., shallow rooting 101-14 rootstock is an excellent choice for this soil type.
  
  
• In the hillside vineyard, Skyhigh-Millsholm Loam is the predominant soil type, which is very similar in texture to the Kilaga Variant. It is moderately deep, well drained loam over clay over fractured sandstone at 4-5 ft. Moderate amounts of clay in the soil contribute to a water holding capacity of 3-7 in., which is above average for hillsides soils based on USDA soil surveys.

As with most north coast soils, the soil analyses indicate high magnesium to calcium ratio. The ideal ratio is 68% calcium (Ca) and 12% magnesium (Mg). When magnesium becomes too high in the soil, its strong positive charge bonds with clay and organic particles upon which the plant feeds, blocking calcium and potassium (cation exchange). Unlike many north coast growers who simply dump more fertilizer on their plants, which can wash into the rivers aggravating pollution levels, Canino Ridge' plans call for a more sustainable solution. We believe that the calcium/magnesium imbalance through calcium soil amendments over time will alleviate the problem, enabling a more natural adaptation of vines to their environment.

Harvest Reports

Harvest 2006

In 2006, Canino Ridge sold its first commerical harvest of Petite Sirah grapes, six tons to the David Coffaro winery in Geyserville, Sonoma county. The grapes were harvested between 24 to 25 brix and at 3.5 ph. Because of above average temperatures that summer, the grape ripening slowed (photosynthesis stops at over 90 degrees F.), and we were unable to harvest until early October. Near the end it was uncertain whether the sugar would reach our target brix. The last two weeks, we reduced water to a trickle, and to our relief the brix reached the target. Inspite of some the uncertaintly at the time, we believe the slow ripening in 2006 contributed to excellent phenological flavors that will make this harvest a standard of excellence for future harvests.

Harvest 2007

Year 2007 presented its own unique set of challenges. Early on, the vines produced an encouraging amount of fruit set, with the potential for over 20 tons. However, it quickly became apparent that our young vines did not have the leaf folliage to ripen this amount of fruit. Also as in 2006, 2007 temperatures, sometimes exceeding 100 degrees F., slowed ripening significantly. Our only recourse was to drop approximately half our crop, bringing our grape to folliage ratio into conformance with temperature conditions extremes this summer. This year we heard numerous examples of grape growers who were unable to achieve sugar levels sought by the wineries. We were thankful that we were at least able to deliver grapes with respectable sugar levels between 24 and 25 brix. We sold our grapes in small lots to three wineries: Tulip Hill Winery, Kaz Winery, and Lolonis winery. Kaz winery was so impressed that they recommended us to another winery for 2008. For more prosperous sales, we will have to wait until subsequent years. In 2007 we are selling our reputation.

Harvest 2008

The 2008 season started off with a severe frost, throughout the North Coast growing regions, that killed a lot of the primary buds. A grape vine gets three chances to produce viable buds for the next generation of grape vines. If the primary bud dies, a secondary bud will form, producing grapes for the seeds of the next generation. Vines can produce a third bud if necessary, but you don't want to stake your harvest on that last bud, as the grape cluster for each successive bud is less viable than for the earlier bud. As a result our harvest was nearly half of what it could have been had all primary buds survived. The season was hot until the very end. With a drought year, Cache Creek, the river we use for our irrigation, dropped to a level so low that we lost the prime for our diesel driven centrifucal pump, and we could not reprime it. We ran a water line from the storage tanks we use for our well and managed to limp to the end of the season, only able to water one acre at a time. However, the sugar levels, between 25.5 and 26.2 brix, were excellent, acids averaging at .64/100mL, and pH at 3.5. In spite of a difficult season, we achieved the high quality we were seeking. We sold our grapes in small lots to Tulip Hill winery, Kaz Winery, Carol Shelton Winery, and Little Ashby Vineyards, a port producer in the state of Maryland.

Canino Ridge Facts

Management

The management and expertise for Canino Ridge resides with the husband and wife team of Carolyn and Chris Ruttan, each bringing complementary skills to the growing of Petite Sirah.

Carolyn Ruttan: Masters in Viticulture from UC Davis; PCA (categories Insects and Mites, Plant Pathogens, Nematodes, Vertebrate Pests, and weeds), Certified Crop Advisor, Licensed Qualified Applicator; and Certified Arborist. Viticulture experience with Caldwell Nursery, De Loach Vineyards, Jack Neal & Son, and Villa Mt. Eden. Carolyn is also an independent contractor-- Premium Grape Services. Carolyn's expertise gives Canino Ridge a huge in-house technical and financial advantage (eliminating vineyard management and the PCA costs).

Chris Ruttan: Jack-of-all-trades, from equipment maintenance and repair to tax accounting and financial planning. As Minnesota transplant to California, Chris brings strong, hands-on Midwestern farming work ethics to California grape growing.

We would like to take this opportunity to invite you to visit Canino Ridge and see for yourself our operation, site, and outstanding vineyard. You can contact us at any of the numbers below, and we will be happy to make arrangements with you.

Canino Ridge, 8660 Bonham Road, Lower Lake, CA 95457 Phone: