Autumn in the vineyard

 

Leaves turning yellow and dropping

Autumn has arrived in the vineyard and elsewhere. Surprisingly the Albarino vines suddenly shot up, many reaching the tops of the posts. I'm very happy to see that. We lost vines but those we can replace. 

The Pinot Noir vines are really vigorous so keeping them trimmed and tidy next year will be a major effort. The grapes are still small and hard as marbles, as are the Chardonnay grapes. The Solaris, however, are finally nearing ready to harvest and very tasty. There aren't many so there won't be wine this year and the growth is very vigorous, so this year's pruning will be severe and significant. 

Chardonnay not ready yet

Tasty ripe Solaris grape

Solaris bunch ready to harvest

Pinot Noir still hard as rocks

I set to tie up the vines as Alex tensioned the support wires. With the windy season upon us, I didn't want to risk more damage to vines whipping around in the upcoming gales. The tool we bought last year proved problematic in that it didn't work more often than it did. So I bought a new improved model and it is. It still wastes a bit of material and doesn't always work, but it works most of the time and I was able to tie up all but the last two short rows of Solaris in just a couple of hours yesterday. Progress!

Tool on the left much improved over tool on the right.

Mushroom season has begun.