A winding trail from the vineyard through the woods

Yesterday we started a new project. When we moved here, we planted the field above where the vineyard now is with trees. Mostly native, they were allowed to grow unchecked. The two wooded fields are divided by the road leading up the hill.The left field when looking up, has a large stone trough in the far left corner. We're going to move that and create a stairway that will lead into the wood. 

The path will meander through the woods to the top of the hill, enabling us to walk up to the top regardless of season. Otherwise, the path gets very muddy as the donkeys trudge up and down. Our friend Craig Robinson has been doing the backbreaking work of cutting through the gorse and briars and he is doing a super job. In just two days, he has cut a sigificant swath into the thicket using a mulching blade on the strimmer. 

The concept is to open up the woods as a treasured walk from the vineyard to the site with views across Clew Bay. I'm going to plant the woods with native spring-flowering bulbs, wild garlic, and sorrel. I am loving this new endeavour. It's already transforming the land.

Today, AccuWeather declared the end of hurricane season almost three weeks early. We've had only one hurricane breaking a 125-year-old record. I am pleased with that. Hail El Niño! 

Old Roots Winery on Ear to the Ground

 

Esperanza and Jesus established Old Roots Winery in Wexford where they have invested €3 million of their own money to plant a vineyard and are awaiting planning permission to build a full-scale winery. RTE's Ear to the Ground visits their vineyard at harvest. Among the grapes they planted are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Cordis. They have been selling to upscale hotels until recently when they opened an online shop. I just ordered three bottles of red and white to try. 

The interesting thing is they didn't want to plant the varieties that are considered suitable for our climate because they think those don't make great wines. I wonder what David Llewelyn thinks about that? 

Their story is the first in this segment. 
https://www.rte.ie/player/series/ear-to-the-ground/SI0000000488?epguid=IP10017293-33-0014 

Pinot Noir achieves ripeness!

 

Although two gales in one week stripped the vineyard bare and desiccated the leaves on nearby trees, a few grapes survived long enough to test for sugar content. The Brix of the remaining grapes came in at 17 to 19.5. They tasted sweet and complex. I'd say there is hope for future harvests. 

Gale yesterday

 

It blew, it rained, and it blew some more all day yesterday while Craig worked his butt off digging last year's donkey poo and straw out of the shed and spreading it on the vineyard floor. I hope it's decomposed enough to not be toxic. If it's okay, it should start to correct some of the soil deficiencies. I'll have to order minerals to supplement. The max wind speed recorded at Mayo Sailing Club was 78 knots. 

The winds decimated the leaves on the vines so it appears the Pinot Noir will not have enough support to ripen sufficiently. The brix reading is 12, not high enough. But I am encouraged enough to believe that accelerating warming will one day get us over the line. It is also probably too late to collect leaves to send to Teagasc for disease analysis, but I will pursue this next week. 

Nino 3.4 SSTs off the charts

 

For the first time in recorded history, the Niño 3.4 sea-surface temperature (SST) is above 30.0°C, reaching a preliminary SST of 30.06°C on October 5th. The Niño 3.4 SST anomaly is now 3.41°C above the 1991-2020 baseline.

This afternoon, we were basking in 18C temps and sunshine, perfect for bringing in all the vulnerable plants. 

I had a busy day. GP visit first thing, breakfast in This Must be the Place (recommended), painted window at 22 on the Quay, food shopping at Tesco, lunch at home, plants moved into polytunntel, and catch up online. Just a normal day in retirement. 

September second warmest on record

September was provisionally the second-warmest September on record. The average temperature of 15.22°C ranks it behind only 2021’s average of 15.27°C. Significantly higher than average temperatures across the country made it 1.62°C warmer than the 1991-2020 average and 2.29°C above the average for 1961-1990. It was generally dull, wet and warm overall. We had only 42 degree days below 15.5C compared with more than 75 for the past two years and 53 over the LTA.  Soil temperature was higher than expected, but the radiation was lower. 

So far, October is following suit. 

Seaweed fertiliser

 

This week's storm, which hit during a spring tide, dumped loads of seaweed on our driveway and along the road. So for the last few days, Alex has been collecting it and distributing it throughout the vineyard. A friend adamantly said we had to wash it, but I told her the torrential rainstorm already did that for us. This thing about washing the salt off the seaweed is BS. The salt spray in the wind already distributes a saline solution over our entire peninsula. 

Meanwhile, the Pinot Noir is coming along nicely.  Very pretty bunches, and they don't seem to be bothered by mildew. The warm weather has helped. Today was glorious. Sunny and warm, the weather station at MSC recorded a high temperature of 18.7C -- on the 3rd of October! And we've got three more days of warm weather to go. 

Yesterday morning

Yesterday Midday

Yesterday evening