The Vine at Turlough

Very impressive

Yesterday we took part in an event where we harvested grapes from the vine at Turlough that attendees could take home. Andrew gave a short talk on the vine's history and restoration, and Barry, the owner of House of Plates restaurant in Castlebar, provided recipes and tastings of grape jam and chutney. Delicious. He also introduced us to an unbelievably delicious blue cheese called Mike's Fancy Cheese Young Buck. 

When we arrived at 11 am, the glass house was full of giant bunches of grapes. They weren't quite ripe yet, but they were being harvested on the day for cooking. Some were left behind for show and tasting when ripe. At 12 pm, the event started in the courtyard room. They later took people in to see the vines in small groups. 

Tomorrow I will make chutney from the 5 kg of grapes we brought home. We could have had three times as much. It took me 2.5 hours to destem and crush them this morning. (I also processed 2 kg of broad beans. Never again.)

On Wednesday, we are giving a talk on the development of our gardens and vineyard to the Westport Gardening Club. I built a large PowerPoint presentation for it. Hopefully, it will be of interest. 

Perfection. Foster's seedling. Two reds made a white. 

A teinturier Andrew brought in for tasting.
It was very red inside and out.

John with a monster bunch

Beautiful

Well curated

A wild herb Barry added to chutney

Here are Barry's recipes:

Grape and Apple Jam

2 kg grapes
400 g jam sugar
250g haw berries 
150 g woodruff
5 cooking apples
300 ml water

Cook all ingredients together over a low heat for about an hour until the mixture reduces and becomes thick. Pour through a sieve. 

Grape and Apple Chutney

Step 1
2 onions, diced
2 chunks of ginger, diced
400 ml rice vinegar
400 g jam sugar
200 g dark brown sugar
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp chilli powder
4 cooking apples, peeled and diced
1.5 kg grapes

Cook all for roughly one hour until the mixture reduces and thickens. 

Step 2
4 apples diced
4 plums, diced
500g grapes, halved
2 tbsp honey 

Add ingredients in step 2 and cook for a further 10 minutes. Store in sterilised jars. 

CDs fluttering

The CDs flitting in the sunlight look really lovely in the vineyard. The donkeys are inspecting their new berm and drain in the field. 

Albarino in the polytunnel

 

About a week ago, I brought one of my refractometers down to the polytunnel to see if I could track the grapes' ripening there. About a week ago, the Albarino tested at a Brix of 15. Today, they are 17.5. Looks like we might make 20 next week. Should I wait? There are only three bunches on the one vine and one bunch on the second vine. But that's four more bunches than we got outside. 

Work in the vineyard and related today

 

Multimac landing a crowd on Inishoo

While I hung CDs in the vineyard as the grapes were maturing, Alex hung the gates for the new donkey access to their stable. The donkeys kept a close eye on both of us. They are such smart creatures. They don't know what to make of the new berms and fences and gates. But they investigated thoroughly. 

Yesterday we had not just a massive picnic on Inishoo; we went to Kate and Tom's for their usual August open house. It was full on yesterday and today. Great August fun!

I had lots of old CDs from program disks that I prepared and hung. One of the grape growers lost their entire crop this week, which prompted me to take action as Rondo veraison is accelerating with this warm weather. We'd had CDs up before, but one of the big storms decimated the lot. I need more. It looks quite pretty. I also chopped a lot off the Solaris vines, which are growing like wild. The grapes are small though, as there has not been enough rain.  

Alex still has to put up the extra kites. He's still thinking that harvest will be mid-September. I'm thinking it will be sooner. 

The weather issues are really accelerating round the world. Italy is underwater, as is Long Island and parts of NYC. Nevada is burning as are many other states and European countries. We have to be grateful for everything. 

And today, Ukraine staged a parade of robots and drones by land, air and sea to commemorate Ukraine's 35th Anniversary of Independence. Slava Ukraini! 

fun.

The picnic was super. Mussels and clams, sausages, potatoes boiled in seawater, freshly caught mackerel, hamburgers, and lots of salads. 

Life in the west of Ireland requires island adventures. 

Today I hung CDs in the vineyard and started bagging. One of the other vineyard owners lost their entire crop yesterday to birds. We know what that's about. Veraison is well underway in the Rondo and Solaris, and looks like it might actually start up soon in the Pinot Noir. I am praying for that to happen. 

Digging ditches

 

With the heavy rains we'd been having the last couple of winters, the donkey stable was soggy for prolonged periods. The water was even flowing over the wall and into our neighbour's yard. So Alex had the idea of digging new ditches across and down the length of our land. The field behind the shed will empty into the ditch that runs along the bottom of the vineyard. The ditch along the western perimeter will empty at the bottom. 

The flexible pipe we had installed along the perimeter had succumbed after years of compression. The new pipes are metal sewer pipes which should hold up better. 

Needless to say, the whole yard being dug up with heavy digger tracks all over is distressing. I bought lawn seed to scatter right away, but it certainly won't replace the lawn in time for winter. 

There will be a new gate in the middle of the donkey field with a berm planted with a blackthorn hedge and fencing either side of it. I suppose it will look nice eventually. 

It appears that harvest of the grapes may take place quite early this year. The Rondo are progressing quite rapidly. Need to get more kites up and start bagging. The Solaris harvest may not be great as the grapes are remaining tiny and there's very little rain in the forecast. The Pinot Noir are maturing but still not changing colour. Will we get veraison as hoped? 

Solaris

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir

Rondo

Rondo

Spraying the vines for prevention of fungal diseases

Alex got his electric sprayer for towing behind the RTV and did his first round of the vineyard today. I was on duty to record the event. It looks fairly effective and certainly easier than carrying a backpack, which gets a bit more challenging in your 70s. He may have to raise the spray nozzles even higher. The width of the spray bar makes it awkward to negotiate turns, but it's doable. All organic, of course.

Vineyard layout update

 

Alex has updated his diagram of the vineyard plantings, which he does every year. He noted what we planted and when, who we bought it from, and what rootstock it is on. So this is the current layout. 

Alex has bought a sprayer that can be towed behind the RTV. He should have sprayed today but had to go down to Aleria to rewire the mast so they can step it. He modified the sprayer so that it would spray above his head and up at the vines. Pretty clever. 

Just as a note, we've got another heat wave underway this week. The continent is roasting, and we are pleasantly mild and sunny. I hope this means our Pinot Noir will turn colour and get ripe. The combination of concurrent La Niña and El Niño could do the trick. But we also have an almost total eclipse of the sun this week. It's hard to keep up. One thing we don't have enough of is rain. 

I harvested 2.6k of the concord-style grapes from the polytunnel and am making some cordial and jelly. It's dripping through the muslin bag as we speak, and it is so dark red it stained my hands. The Concord grape is a cultivar derived from the grape species Vitis labrusca (also known as fox grape) and is used mainly for wine and grape juice production. I do not believe it would make a good wine. None of the other grapes in the polytunnel are ripe yet. 

This weather is accelerating veraison of the Rondo. The Solaris not so much, and the grapes are quite small. We really could use some rain. I keep hoping for the Pinot Noir to show signs of colour change, but so far no joy. Not even looking at the Chardonnay. Compared with other fruit this year, the grapes are doing great. We have no raspberries, one or two apples, 5 crabapples, no currants (red or black), and few strawberries. 

Rondo

Solaris

Pinot Noir

Pinot leaves turning colour

The sheep fence is up. 

Crabapples