‘You want the grape to conform to your ideal standard, is that it?’
‘Yes. And to reach that goal you have to thread your way through a minefield of variables. I’ll give you a few. To start, you have to regulate your soil and sub-soil, fertilizing it and maintaining the right pH levels. You have to figure out the water and drainage, exactly where in the vineyard you choose to plant, what rootstock to use, what clones, how far apart to plant the rows, which direction the rows will run, what kind of trellis to use, how you’re going to irrigate.’ She paused. ‘That’s just the beginning. And no matter how hard you try sometimes grapes have a mind of their own. We’ve taken identical clones, grafted on the same rootstock, exposed them to the same weather conditions and irrigated them identically and yet these presumably same vines, planted only a few feet apart, developed differently and bore grapes with totally different tastes. Go figure?’
‘That’s extraordinary,’ said Kingston.
Jamie shook her head. ‘Sometimes it’s downright exasperating. Once the grapes start growing they’re sitting targets for all kinds of problems. The vagaries of the weather are the most difficult to deal with and the most crucial. Frosts and too much early rain can play havoc with the crop. Rain absorption dilutes sugar levels, one of the most important things to keep an eye on as the berries begin to develop. Not enough sun, too much sun, the angle of the sun, all can make a huge difference. The more sunlight that strikes the grape clusters, the sweeter they’ll be but the goal is not to grow the sweetest fruit. Sweetness or the sugar level is something that you have to monitor on a daily basis once the grapes reach a certain stage in their development. Grapes are harvested when they reach the Brix level that you’re shooting for and the flavours have matured to where you want them.’
‘Yes, Brix, I remember learning about that in France.’
‘It’s the scale used to measure the concentration of sugar in the grapes. It’s measured right in the vineyard with a small gadget called a refractometer.’
‘So how are you able to control the sugar content?’
‘Pruning, thinning, fertilization, irrigation—they all affect the ripening process including sugar accumulation. For example, thinning out the canopy can open it up to allow more sunlight and air circulation. It can be quite a guessing game because once you’ve removed leaves you can’t put them back on again.’
‘How about pruning?’
‘How you prune the vines at the very beginning of the year is another make-or-break operation. Good pruning hands are worth their weight in gold. Not only for how well and properly they can prune but also how fast. We have an annual pruning contest in Sonoma, pretty good prize money, too.’ She stopped for a moment to pour the remainder of the Burgundy in their glasses, taking a sip before she picked up where she left off.
‘The other consideration that helps maintain balanced sugar levels is to plant rows from east to west. In doing so, both sides of the vines get an equal share of sunlight through the day, whereas if you plant north to south, one side gets milder morning sun and the other side, the longer, much hotter afternoon sun.’
‘It makes so much sense,’ said Kingston. ‘You know, you would make a great teacher.’
‘Thank you,’ she said with a quick smile. ‘Anyway, you can see already that just the growing part alone is an art unto itself. And I haven’t even mentioned some of the other little tricks that Mother Nature sometimes springs on us, like botrytis mould, the dreaded phylloxera and insects such as the blue-green sharpshooter and the voracious glassy-winged sharpshooter, that can wipe out a vineyard in no time. When those show up it means deciding what to spray with and when to spray. If it’s phylloxera, forget it. All you can do is to rip all the vines out and replant.’ She offered a thin smile. ‘I don’t want to disillusion you but the entire farming year is nonstop pruning, monitoring, thinning, measuring, spraying, hoping and praying until you drop the crop and take it to the winery to turn the grapes into wine. And that’s where another thousand things can go wrong.’ She paused then smiled. ‘Still want to grow grapes?’
Back at the cottage, stretched out on the sofa, reading, after another of their evening chats, Kingston became aware of subconsciously rereading the same sentence. Soon, he found it impossible to concentrate. His mind kept coming back to Jamie. Clasping his hands behind his head, he lay back, head on the plumped-up cushion, and stared up at the plaster rose that graced the ceiling above the tasselled lampshade. He thought back to his very first real conversation with her, that first day of theirs in Somerset. How he’d felt at the time, about his uncertainty, his apprehension regarding her lofty ambitions for Wickersham, his teetering between curiosity and indifference. It was extraordinary what had happened in the relatively short time since he’d arrived here. Not for the first time, he wondered how she regarded him. He smiled to himself. Most likely as a father figure, a sort of elder statesman-cum-horticultural sage, an inquisitive academic. Thinking more about it, any one or all three would not be far off the mark.