Pruning the 5-year-old vines

Alex pruning and taping to the overhead trellises

This should be the year that we finally get some grapes. The first 10 vines (4 Solaris and 6 Rondo) will have reached five years of age this spring.  Three of the four Solaris vine are very robust. Three of the five Rondo vines are very robust. The others are alive but not growing as vigorously.

Today we pruned. It was difficult at first to force ourselves to remove some of the really strong growth, but we knew we had to do radical surgery to increase productivity. And we did. It looks pretty good and ten vines did not take us very long - about an hour working together.

We chose the spur pruning method so we left two cordons from each trunk and cut the spurs on them to 4 buds. Some say to leave only 2 buds, but for our first vines in their first productive year (we hope), we left 4 each. We will learn with each year.

We soon had several piles of canes and decided to create a habitat for wildlife by bunching them between the row of chestnut trees and the hedgerow behind them. We have a pine marten living nearby, and we'd like to encourage other animals to return to the land here. We've heard that red squirrels are coming closer, so when they get here, we'll have a home for them.

Now we have to tend to the grass, decide if we want to plant a companion crop, and sit back and wait for the fruit. I'll be buying a soil testing kit next. 

Before

After

Piles of vines to be disposed of

The upper vineyard showing yesterday's work. 

Pruning time

Starting to look tidier

Staking the trunk until
it can stand on its own

We've had a couple of good weather days during which I managed to clear the grass from around the 3-year-old plants, as well as prune and stake the primary trunks and cordons. We had some damage in the last two storms. A few of the loose canes which I would have chosen as cordons had broken. They must have been whipping around in the wind. Some are doing exceedingly well while others are middling. This will be a telling year. In some cases, I couldn't tell which was the more vigorous trunk so I left two for now, but will select one out next year.

There are five plants missing which Alex has already ordered. Mostly Solaris. Casualties of the grass cutting, etc.

The first five Chardonnay vines are doing well but the other 25 are not looking as well. Some appear dead. We'll have to wait and see. I have to remember that it's their first year.

The Albarino vines look wonderful and the Pinot noir look pretty good but not as vigorous as the Albarino. There is not much to do with those two rows this year but clear.

3-year-old vines doing well

I sowed seeds of 'green manure' among the first ten plants although I did not prepare the soil/grass before sowing. I just wanted to introduce a little diversity into the grass which is quite thick up there but doesn't have much clover or other binding and nutrient gathering varieties mixed in. I will have to start digging up a few remaining docks plants and there are a few new rushes that I will have to dig out.

Today I will tackle the pruning of the ten mature vines. I am choosing the spur pruning method which is easier and I can readily visualise which spurs to maintain.  I believe that's how the Spanish and Portuguese prune theirs. I will train two main cordons from each trunk overhead and leave spurs with at least two buds on each. Let's get to it.

Oh, and in a final note, our vineyard has just expanded to include kiwis. Alex brought a particularly robust and tasty kiwi fruit home and planted the seeds which all came up. Now we probably have the only kiwi plantation in Ireland as well. The two plants we have trained on a south-facing wall in our garden is doing well but have not produced fruit. Not sure if we have both sexes represented.

Different pruning and training methods (Credit: Wine Folly)

Daria's Vineyard as of Jan 2020

One-year-old Albarino

One-year-old Pinot noir

Stormy winter

Storm Brendon

It hasn't been very cold but it has been exceptionally stormy so far this winter. Storm Brendon upended our wrought iron furniture and rearranged our patio stuff. Fortunately, I'd moved chairs, plant pots and micro croc gardens to protect them against wind damage. The gusts reached 81.5 knots which is about 90 mph or 150 kph, nothing to sneeze at. It started out SE which wasn't bad but then veered SW, a direction in which we are exposed. We were lucky not to have lost power as so many others did. Perhaps a vineyard near the sea wasn't such a great idea after all.

We had seaweed piled high and wide at the base of our driveway, which I had to shovel off the road and driveway as Alex was away. When he came home, he picked up the piles I made with the trailer and delivered one load to our gardens and one load to his mother. That's about 2 tons of seaweed, which we hear is now fetching €16-19 a kg dried.

It's very windy again today, so I haven't gone up there yet. Tomorrow should be a good day for inspection and pruning.

Good weather prompts vineyard inspection

The extraordinarily mild weather this winter has given me pause. We had a few days of frost, but mostly it's been in the teens and many garden participants are starting to grow and sprout. I'm getting worried that the vines won't get a sufficient dormant period to recharge. I'm concerned that they may start to bud before I've had a chance to prune. We've had quite a lot of wind and a fair bit of rain. I heard on the radio this morning that our climate is definitely changing with ever-increasing amounts of annual rainfall.

So I took the opportunity today to begin pruning. I first tackled the known shoots that I wanted to remove from the first 10 mature vines - anything broken or damaged, anything growing from the main trunk below the level of the trellis, ensuring that there were at least two vigorous main cordons per stem. I stood observing the vines for a long time first to see what they were doing and how I could help.

The next step will be to prune the cordons to create spurs. I'll really take my time on that.

I will next walk the entire vineyard and select the main stems on the more newly planted vines. This year, I'll be selecting who gets to grow up to the trellis from among the shoots. We need a few replacement plants which Alex mowed down.

I do love this part. It forces you to really know your vines and commune with them.

Trump's Wine Tariffs

What does wine have to do with airplanes, aside from being served in the air? Just 7 days from today, it's likely that Trump will increase the tariffs on European wines by 100%. That's on top of the 25% already levied earlier this year, all to punish the Europeans for subsidising Airbus, Boeing's major competitor. This at a time when Boeing can't deliver on its 737 Max and they are being forced to compensate airlines for their losses.

Protecting American businesses against unfair practices is certainly admirable, but there has got to be a better way, especially when it comes to a company in trouble of their own making. The American worker is going to be the one hurt by it. The American wine lobby is probably standing in line to support Trump's re-election campaign.

Oh well, more for us, I guess.

George DuBoef Dies at 86

(c) AFP

Georges Duboeuf, 'The Pope of Beaujolais' dies at the age of 86. He singlehandedly elevated a wine-producing region into a gold mine by celebrating Beaujolais Nouveau, a young wine drunk each year soon after harvest. His winery, run by his son Franck since 2018,  produces 30 million bottles of the light wine a year.

Called an ordinary wine, it was made extraordinary each year by the celebration of each year's new vintage. Light and inexpensive, we drank Beaujolai at will in the 1980s.

Most interesting is that his family has been in the winemaking business for four centuries. That's a lot of wine. RIP Georges!