Before I started growing my own grapes and making my own wine, I thought one
of the most confusing things about wine appreciation was all that business about
vintages. Good years, bad years, even mediocre years ... how can you keep all
that information straight in your head, I used to wonder ... and does it really
matter anyway?
Now that I've been growing and making for a few years, I know the truth of the
saying that "good wine begins in the vineyard". Every year each new
vintage brings its own surprises and teaching us its particular lessons.
You can follow the progress of the grape season. This page will be updated regularly.
You can read about last season by
clicking here
Check the Baume of the ripening fruit by
clicking here
Last Updated: 2 Jan 2009
The vines are away to a good start. Plenty of growth. Lots of "potential" fruit. It's a bad time to be walking through the vineyard. The vines look fantastic. The vines are in flower, the fruit hasn't set yet. Bees are buzzing. Pray for good weather to encourage a good set of fruit. It's tempting to see lots of fruit. They are all a year older, trunks are thicker. Healthy growth. Damn it, wait, be patient.
Good vineyard practice seems to have a way of creating work. The training wires that ensure the vertical shoot positioning (VSP) and thereby let in sunlight and air, have all been lifted and attached to the posts. It seems like only weeks ago we walked through the vineyard lowering them to the ground. There are 64 rows in the vineyard, each about 420 metres long and wires on two sides. Thats about 50 kilometres of wire to be picked up and clipped to posts. It gives one a lot of time to count chickens.
We’ve also been busy in the
vineyard “feathering down” (removing all the side shoots from the trunks of
the vines) which is a back breaking job!
Made time to mulch
around the replants and few remaining strugglers.
Lots of other jobs to be done: training the new
growth. Spraying for a bit of leaf mite and prevention of downy mildew
(copper sulphate).
It was another early start to the season. After good early winter rains, August, September and October have been very dry. Water is selling for $600.00 a megalitre and I've given the vines their first waterings to ensure a good budburst and early growth. The vines were pruned quite hard to improve their vigour.
The sheep did a good job of controlling the grass and weeds over winter and have now been moved to other duties.
No baume' readings as yet. Check back at the end of January
| Block | Variety | Clone | Age | Expected Yield | Expected Picking Date |
---------Baume-------- |
||||||
| 27/1 | 03/02 | 10/2 | 16/2 | 23/2 | 1/3 | |||||||
|
1 |
Shiraz |
Coonawarra 1654 |
7 years |
3.0 t/acre |
March |
|||||||
|
2 |
Shiraz |
Best's Old Block |
7 years |
3.0 t/acre |
March |
|||||||
|
3 |
Shiraz |
PT23 |
7 years |
3.0 t/acre |
March |
|||||||
|
Shiraz |
Coonawarra 1654 |
5 years |
2.0 t/acre | March | ||||||||
