Polytunnel is complete

A very good size and yet inconspicuous. 

Three days of labour and the polytunnel is finished. Next, we will bring electricity and water to the tunnel. For that, we need the digger to dig us a trench from the house supply. I must say, Cathal and Alex did a great job. And the quality of the materials is exceptionally good. 

Naturally, it was the hottest day of the year and if it wasn't for the slight breeze, it would have been too hot to work. Alex drank litres of water. Fortunately, the breeze was not too strong or it would have been impossible for the two of them to handle a sail that big. 

Ghost has walked the entire perimeter several times and helped me clear stones from inside. She's fascinated. She was very helpful in supervising construction the entire time. 

Now to level the ground where it was disturbed and set it up inside. We have to buy a transport vehicle to move all the equipment up. 

I checked to see from the road if it can be seen behind the garage and it's almost invisible. Now we'll just plant a few fast growing trees above the wall behind the house and we won't even be able to see it from the house soon. 

Can't see it from the garden

There it is behind the garage. 

Growing nuts

Acorns on the oak tree. 

I was walking past a plant at the garden centre and its tag caught my attention. "Are You Nuts?" was the question posed. Naturally, I had to investigate. It turned out to be the name of a company that sells nut trees. A walnut!  I have wanted to plant a walnut tree for ages and we have enough land that we can easily accommodate a large tree under which nothing will grow.  In Ireland, only three nut trees are viable:  hazelnut (we have two), chestnut (we have several), and walnut (we now have one). So we will be set - possibly in our lifetimes.  

I walked out with the plant. It was only €5 and it was only a few inches tall. But I am happy to wait. I repotted it and it's in the nursery for several years to come. We plan to place it in the middle of the field above the new polytunnel with a fence around it so the donkeys don't eat it. As it grows bigger and bigger, nothing below it will grow except grass. No problem. 

I've always loved a lone tree in the middle of a field. I have often wondered what the story was behind the lone trees of the world. 

I'm hoping for hazelnuts this year as one is more than 5 years old and the other about 3. The chestnuts are still in pots but ready to be planted out this year, so it will be a few more years before they fruit. I was surprised to learn that all three nut trees have both male and female flowers. I always thought they needed one male, one female plant which is why we have two hazels not that I know if one is female and another male. The same goes for kiwis. In fact, I had noted last year that the older tree had both flowers and catkins, which I assumed was the male component. 

Surprisingly, just this morning I found an oak tree we had planted a few years back had a few acorns for the first time. The squirrels in America loved the acorns and would squirrel them away every autumn. Squirrels are apparently great thieves of all nuts but sadly we don't have any -- squirrels that is. If we did, we'd likely share, although Alex did wage war with the clever squirrels when we lived in America. 

So what does this have to do with wine?  Nothing at all, except edible landscape. And nuts always go well with wine. 

Polytunnel progress report

 

Steel poles, crossbars and door frame in place. 

Considerable progress was made quickly on day three of the polytunnel construction project. Cathal and Alex worked well together and were very complimentary about the quality of the materials supplied by  'D-Plant Horticulture'. It is a superbly manufactured and assembled polytunnel kit. We are very pleased so far. 

Alex brought in a contractor we have worked with on many projects in the past to level the site and help with the construction. He was so impressed with the quality of the materials, how they were presented, and the detailed instruction booklet and excellent videos, that his girlfriend’s father has either already ordered one or will be doing so very shortly – he is expecting to be constructing it in the next weeks.

They levelled the site, dug the holes for the posts, and inserted the posts on the first day. They then poured the concrete in torrential rain on the second day. Alex was surprised that the rain would allow the cement to set but they weren't worried and it did set. I was worried that Ghost, our young cat, who had been running around the construction site and in and out of the holes the day before, would fall into the concrete and get stuck. Fortunately, that did not happen. 

Three days later, they erected the frames, put up the ridgepole, diagonals, door frames, and applied the tape. The only things left are to install the polythene and the doors. One more day should do it. 

Once again, we are having a day of heavy rain and Alex is out on the Bay with BIM doing oyster surveys for the Co-op, so no more construction until at least Sunday. 

Steel poles are in place. 

Site levelled and concrete poured into the holes to cement in the posts.

Lots of rain on top of the concrete.

 

Construction of polytunnel has begun

 

Let the levelling begin! A wonderful contractor has sent his son to level our field. If you remember the photos from my previous post, there's a gentle slope which just won't do for a 12-metre polytunnel. So the digger went to work and in short time had done an exceptional job moving a bit of earth from one side to the other and tamping it down well. Ghost had to be in the middle of it; she made friends with Cathal who was greatly amused by her antics, especially her speciality of throwing rocks up into the air and catching them on the way down. 

Tomorrow, the cement arrives to secure the posts into the earth so the thing doesn't fly away. The holes are precisely dug. When the cement sets, we can start assembly. I am psyched. 

The polytunnel will have raised beds on one side and will house my peach tree, Haas avocado, and citrus tree. We will have a table and chairs for inclement weather relaxation.  The rest will house our winemaking equipment and mowing/harvesting stuff as well as apple press. Maybe we'll even manage to get our garage back. We'll see. 

Also my herons have arrived as bird deterrents for the orchard and vineyard. They are actually quite beautiful in verdigris patina. Right now adorning the pond as there is no fruit to protect yet but there are tadpoles in the pond so we'll leave the lawn ornaments protecting the froglets. 

Proof of terroir

Screen capture of Bodega Catena Zapata website. 

A study from the Catena Institute of Wine in Argentina finds chemical evidence that the soils in which a vine grows leave an indelible stamp on the wine. A new study*, published in Nature's Scientific Reports journal in February and led by winemaker Roy Urvieta, using techniques Fernando Buscema - the Bodega Catena Zapata winemaker and director of the Catena Institute of Wine - developed, suggests that it is possible to identify the vineyard from which a wine comes based on the wine’s chemical composition. He identified 27 volatile and phenolic compounds to measure and focused on Malbec. 

Of the 23 vineyard sites studied in the Mendoza region, 11 could be identified with 100% accuracy, while the remaining 12 were identified with up to 83% certainty. In all, 201 wines from three recent vintages were analyzed. The researchers hope that understanding Argentina’s soils and how vines incorporate elements will help winemakers elevate the quality of Malbec and influence its reputation. It will help vintners better understand what differentiates their wines and perhaps contribute to the understanding of how a maturing vineyard absorbs changes in terroir. In other words, if terroir can be quantified, then perhaps it can also be improved or exploited. Imposters could easily be exposed as well. 

On April 1, 2020, Catena Zapata was named Drinks International World's Most Admired Wine Brand 2020. I've admired them since I read Vineyard at the End of the World and tasted their extraordinary wines. Congratulations Nicolás Catena Zapata and daughter Laura and all the people who make Bodega Catena Zapata what it is. 

Wine Spectator explores the ramifications.  

*Urvieta, R., Jones, G., Buscema, F. et al. Terroir and vintage discrimination of Malbec wines based on phenolic composition across multiple sites in Mendoza, Argentina. Sci Rep 11, 2863 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82306-0

Drought in California, again!

The U.S. Drought Monitor map shows the entire Bay Area in extreme drought conditions as of May 4, 2021.

U.S. Drought Monitor

The San Francisco Bay area has gone from severe to extreme drought in just two weeks. 

Wells are drying up in the San Joachin Valley because of less snow in the Sierra Nevada. 

Sonoma County supervisors declared a drought emergency and vineyards in the Alexander Valley are scaling back crop production. 

North Coast wineries are preparing for another wildfire season. 

My heart bleeds for the people who worked so hard to establish such a wonderful legacy of creating the nectar of the gods. But what's the solution?  It will only continue to get worse most likely until California suffers the ultimate disaster. And yet people continue to plant more crops and expand into new territories whether it makes sense or not. And their places burn yet they rebuild. I suppose if the insurance pays, they have to. 

Reservoirs are running low and there are no conservation measures in place. And it's only May. I fear what the summer will bring. 

April showers?

Looking at the Met Eireann stats for April, the monthly total rainfall was less than half of the mean but about twice what we had last year, the temperature was 3 degrees lower than the mean, and the soil temperature was average. How that is explained, I do not know. How this correlates with the early bud burst compared to last year, I do not know either. 

All means are for the period 1981-2010.

Celebrity vintners

Kurt Russel's GoGi Wines

I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that lots of stars own vineyards and make pretty good wines. What is surprising is that one of the best wines from California is from a vineyard owned by Bozz Scaggs. The list of owners is long and not always distinguished. 

My research started with an article about Kurt Russell's Pinot Noir project. He's mastering old world techniques to produce wines the natural way they were made way back when. He wanted a vineyard that was organically and biodynamically farmed and sustainable in practice. 

He started out wanting to reproduce burgundies and still considers the Pinot Noir his main project. But his Goldie Chardonnay has scored 91 and 92 points from Wine Spectator in 2017 and 2018 respectively and sells for $50 a bottle. His Pinot Noir has scored 92 points in 2016 and 2017 from Wine Enthusiast and sells for $75 a bottle.

Meanwhile, Frances Ford Coppola was given Wine Enthusiast's 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award. Not bad for the creator of the Godfather and Apocalypse Now. The six-time Academy Award-winning director, screenwriter and entrepreneur was honoured for industry innovation, creativity, quality product and more than 40 years in winemaking. It seems innate talent knows no bounds. 

Polytunnel materials have arrived!

Field which is the site for the polytunnel

 

Some assembly required! 

We decided to build a polytunnel because it doesn't require permission, it is reasonably priced, and it can be a relatively large working space. The field requires a bit of levelling out, so construction cannot begin until the digger frees up. It will be above the garage, which will shield it from the winds to a degree. Alex's has already saved all the trees that self-seeded in that field and moved them into a hedge that will protect the structure from the west. 

Once it's in place, we can buy a quad and mower, and keep it inside the polytunnel, which Alex says is on the large side. We can move all the winemaking equipment into the polytunnel. We can also store the apple press there. Storage is the one thing that's been in short supply. 

I'm hoping to also grow a few things in it that require warmth, height, and protection from the elements, namely a peach tree, an avocado tree and a citrus tree. I'll have to sneak them in. Shhhh, don't tell Alex. 

I don't think it came with instructions.

Road to the gate of donkey field,
adjacent to vineyard, provides access.

Oversized doors so equipment can be driven in.