Tempranillo vs Malbec

Ancient Argentine Malbec vine

A wine merchant once let me onto a secret about ordering from an unfamiliar wine list: go for the Rioja or the Malbec and you can’t go wrong. Some of my favourite wines lately have been Malbecs and Ribera del Duero or Riojas, both of the latter based on Tempranillo grapes although the latter tends to be blended with other varietals. 

We fell in love with Malbecs after I read The Vineyard at the End of the World. I loved that book and the story of how a rotgut wine made from ancient Argentinian grapevines was brought back to life by enterprising wine lovers. We tried our first taste of Malbec at the Black Pig wine bar in Kinsale eons ago and have been drinking it ever since. It was that memorable.

Even longer ago, in the 1980s, a friend introduced me to Marqués de Cáceres, a Rioja that was almost unknown on the world stage at the time. He was a wine merchant and would deliver cases of it for about $2.50 a bottle. It was my house wine for years. I didn't know at the time that it was based on the Tempranillo grape. Of course, now the Marqués de Cáceres Crianza sells for about €16.95 while the Reserva goes for twice that. 

The Marqués de Cáceres winery was founded in 1970 by Enrique Forner, and it quickly gained recognition for its high-quality Rioja wines. Forner chose Tempranillio given that a century before wine producers and merchants from Bordeaux had chosen La Rioja vines when fleeing the phylloxera plague. This Crianza Rioja is made from a blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha, and Graciano grapes. It is aged for 12 months in oak barrels and then bottle-aged for an additional 12 months before release. This aging process gives the wine a complex flavour profile with notes of red fruit, vanilla, and spice. I can often buy it here in Ireland. 

The wine is medium-bodied with moderate tannins and acidity, making it a versatile pairing for a variety of foods including grilled meats, roasted vegetables, and hard cheeses. Overall, Marqués de Cáceres Crianza Rioja is a great choice for those looking for a high-quality, traditional Rioja wine.

Marquez de Riscal, founded in 1858, Reserva sells for about €25 and is a blend of Graciano, Mazuelo, and Tempranillo. It is fresh and elegant with aromas and flavours of liquorice, cinnamon, and black pepper, as well as concentrated black fruits and a touch of balsamic. 

Marquez de Riscal has taken up organic and regenerative practices. Marqués de Riscal prolongs the life of its vines thanks to a revolutionary system of rejuvenation. They have won acclaim as the second-best vineyard in the world for the third year running.  It was especially sweet for them as in 2023 the awards were held in Rioja. Catena Zapata from Argentina was chosen as the first-place vineyard. They are the leading producers of Malbec in Argentina. Read about Malbec in Argentina here. We'll be sampling the Catena Zapata this week. 

Sadly for us, I believe we cannot grow either Malbec or Tempranillo here. Both require heat and Malbec requires lots of sun and elevation, neither of which we have at this time. So we'll just have to be content with sampling the occasional bottle of both from the vast choice of vineyards around the world. It shouldn't be too taxing. 

A Ribera del  Duero Tempranillo vine

Study reveals grape varieties resistant to drought

Figure 3 Hierarchical clustering analysis of the 30 grapevine varieties screened based on the varietal Ψ12, Ψ50 and Ψ88 values. Vitis varieties were organized into four clusters of vulnerability to xylem embolism: low (dark green rectangle), low-to-medium (light green rectangle), medium-to-high (orange rectangle), high (red rectangle). 

Sci Rep. 2023; 13: 7724. Published online 2023 May 12. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-34224-6

A first-ever study of the vulnerability of grapevines to drought has yielded interesting results. According to the data, Ugni Blanc (which I've not heard of) and Chardonnay counted among the most vulnerable traditional grape varieties, while Pinot Noir, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon ranked among the most resilient. Syrah and Alsatian Sylvaner were also in the top third of the ranking. 

I do question the validity of their testing methods. As I understand it, they used centrifugal force to determine how twigs cut from the vines reacted to stressors. Not sure how that accurately reflects 50 days of drought. I'll have to search out the actual paper to read the methodology and the reasoning first-hand. 

Editorial note: Found the paper. 

They evaluated drought-induced xylem embolism by conducting in situ flow-centrifugation measurements in summer exclusively. They also measured xylem embolism vulnerability in stems and leaves in Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah to assess the hypothesis of hydraulic vulnerability segmentation. This hypothesis posits that distal organs (e.g. leaves) are more vulnerable to xylem embolism than perennial organs (e.g. stems) in order for plants to protect permanent, high-investment tissues. Comparisons between organs showed that across the two varieties, leaves exhibited significantly higher vulnerability to embolism than stems. 

Sci Rep. 2023 May 12;13(1):7724. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-34224-6.

Quantifying the grapevine xylem embolism resistance spectrum to identify varieties and regions at risk in a future dry climate

Laurent J Lamarque, Chloé E L Delmas, Guillaume Charrier, Régis Burlett, Ninon Dell'Acqua, Jérôme Pouzoulet, Gregory A Gambetta, Sylvain Delzon 

As we planted Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, one of the most and one of the least vulnerable, we'll see how this plays out with time. Right now, the Pinot vines are doing great and the Chardonnay less than great. 

Buds are growing

It was another beautiful day and I spent some time transplanting seedlings and preparing trays for more seeds to be started. 

I then took a walk to the shed and across to the vineyard where I hadn't been for a couple of weeks. The earth is quite squidgy but Alex has put down seaweed as fertilizer. I pulled grass and weeds and rushes from the vines. Behold, the grapevines' buds are swelling already. I read today that the cherry blossoms in Japan are blooming a full month earlier than normal due to a warm spell. I wonder if we will notice a difference with bud break?

Rondo

Solaris

Chardonnay

Pinot Noir

Young Solaris

Squidgy earth, but the grass needs cutting already.

Seaweed at the base of the vines. 

Croagh Patrick imposing as always.

My Irish gate. 

Warning!

Apple tree bud break. 

Wine marketing 101: 19 Crimes

Someone gave us a bottle of 19 Crimes Red. It was awful. We couldn't drink it, so we used it to make beef stew. We have since received multiple bottles from friends but have never bought it. Each time it was relegated to cooking duty. How could people buy something that was so utterly awful? Clearly, they must not have tasted it themselves or they really don't appreciate wine. 

I was intrigued by the name and how it suddenly became popular out of nowhere. But I never looked it up until yesterday. OMG, it turns out that all the wine connoisseurs pooh-pooh 19 Crimes. Yet, it sells a ton of bottles and grew quickly. 

The brand turns out to be a stroke of marketing genius. The name itself, 19 Crimes, refers to the crimes committed in the UK that would relegate the perpetrators to a one-way trip to Australia. There are 19 corks each with a crime that are assigned randomly to the bottles across the range. Which one will you find today?

As it turns out, the wine is targeted at young men who don't really know anything about wine but are attracted to the somewhat risque concept of petty crime. Given that I know something about marketing having done it for most of my career on Madison Avenue, I find this fascinating. 

From the website...

"Punishment by Transportation

Between 1788 and 1868, 165,000 convicts made the long voyage by sea to Australia. Times were tough for criminals, but these individuals were tougher. They survived the boat ride and the exile. Now their stories survive into the 21st century with 19 Crimes."

They promote polyamorous relationships and nonconventional behaviour. They target Gen Z and Millenials. They challenge you to 'break convention'.

They don't tell you who the producer is, and they don't say much about what makes up the red. They do say that the origin is Australia. So there you go, one of the ancestors, or more, of those transported to Australia as criminals has come up with a unique concept that appeals to young blokes all over. 

And they use Snoop Dog and Martha Stewart as celebrity promoters. Brilliant. Just slightly shady. 

"Our red blend bears the same traits as those banished to Australia. Defiant by nature, bold in character. Always uncompromising. It's a taste you'll never forget."

You bet I won't forget. 

Good case study. 

Why young vines are dying

 

A new French film explores how techniques for propagating and growing vines prescribed by the French government has been resulting in loss of biodiversity and longevity in viticulture. Furthermore, poor pruning practices are reducing the resilience of vines to climate change. Bad grafting technique causes weakness in vines and using limited types of rootstock contributes as well. 

Well, with all of this controversy, which I can see is what happens with agriculture in general when the government prescribes unproven methods that must be adhered to when applying for grants, I'm really glad we are doing it our way. 

It seems that the old-style whip and tongue graft is far superior to the omega graft propagated by Germans who developed an instrument that I bought for Alex when his grafts kept failing. 

It also seems that the pruning of vines to very short stubs promotes the development of ESCA, a disease of the trunk that is causing vines to die. Training systems with long arms (or cordons) were generally less affected by the disease than those with short or no arms. Pruning also played a major role, with a trend of less severe symptoms associated with less pruning. Scientists who conducted a ten-year study concluded that simplification of the woody vine structure (resulting from the adoption of modern training and pruning options) may have favoured the development of ESCA.

Case in point, the more man interferes with nature, the more it suffers. LITFA. My new mantra. Care to guess what it stands for?

Bud break in the polytunnel

Vanessa has started to unfurl her leaves in the polytunnel. It's so exciting. In 2022, bud break took place on 4 March. That's two weeks later than this year. I can't find a reference to bud break in 2023. January was the warmest January on record continuing the trend of warmest months on record. 

The apple tree in the polytunnel has also started leafing. Unfortunately, I can't find a reference to when it leafed last year. I'll have to keep better tabs on this stuff as climate change accelerates. 

It was a beautifully sunny day, so we washed the cars. It was much needed. 

I am busily starting seeds for our vegetable and flower gardens and I am really pleased with the system I have put in place. I start the seeds on warming mats in the greenhouse, then transplant them into small pots and move the seedlings into the plastic greenhouse inside the polytunnel to grow. Then I plant them out into the polytunnel beds or into bigger pots for the outdoor beds, which I harden off in the polytunnel. 

 

So happy with our Solar PV

Our solar PV array on our shed

We've had solar PV for a couple of weeks now and we are totally addicted to keeping an eye on how much we are using, how much we are generating, how much we are storing, and how much we are selling into the grid. It's totally fascinating. We now have access to all the information we need to use our electricity smartly. 

The app by Hwawei for their system (yes we installed a Chinese system) is quite sophisticated. The home screen shows where electricity is moving from and to graphically. You can see how much is being generated, how much is being stored in the battery, how much is being used in the house, and how much is being taken from the grid. There's a two-minute delay for the app to pick it up so we can basically see exactly what's contributing to the usage on most counts. The baseline usage is too much, but we have two fridge freezers and two freezers, plus bloody pumps for water and sewage that run too often.

Click on the battery in the app and you can see how full it is, and what is supplying it as well as daily charge and discharge, Click on statistics and you see daily, monthly, yearly, and lifetime stats. The chart at the bottom shows minute-by-minute energy use and generation which you can view in full screen. You can overlay charged from the PV, discharged from the battery, direct use of PV, and direct use of energy supplied by the supplier, for us Energia. With our recent Smart Metre installation, we switched to a Smart Plan. We pay €0.1917 for night rates (11pm to 8 am), 0.3579 for day rates (8 am to 5 pm, and 7 pm to 11 pm), and 0.3751 for peak rates (5-7pm). We get paid 0.24 per kWh for anything that goes into the grid. And when we get an eV, we can get a reduced charging rate of 8.15c per kWh PLUS the longest charging window on the market from 2am to 6am with Energia’s Smart Drive tariff. 

We have set the system to charge the battery at 12-2 am at the night rate. I do at least one or two loads of laundry at 2-4 am with our new washer and dryer a couple of times a week which can be set to delay the cycle. The night charge on the battery carries us through morning showers and breakfast when the PVs start to kick in on most days. The battery recharges with PV during the day and the PV/battery covers most daily activities, even in February. If we run the dishwasher or washer during the day, we use some from each source. 

We noticed that when we turned on the heat in the winery, that heater was using quite a bit of electricity so we turned it off during the day and turned it on at night for a project Alex was doing. Having the heat on round the clock to maintain 22-24C during fermentation was expensive last year. The insulation maintains the temperature in the winery during the day reasonably well, so perhaps we will moderate our use this year. It's all hugely valuable information we did not have access to before. 

It's taking a bit of experimentation to balance out our use and optimise the system. The things we've found that use the most electricity are:

• Water heater (scary amount)
• Water pump (scary amount)
• Kettle (also scary amount)
• Oven
• Dryer
• Washer
• Dishwasher
• Microwave
• Fridge/freezers
• Sander/saw

Computers, TV and lights are minimal in comparison. That surprised me as I was always such a stickler for turning off the lights. It's taking a bit of time to see how each cycle draws and what is most efficient to choose.

That was just the PV system app. We also get data from esb Networks and Energia. The esb data is a week at a time and a week old so it's not as useful. The Energia tools are much more useful and the newest one presents daily figures. So you know if yesterday was high and you did laundry, that's what accounted for it. 

esb Networks consumption and microgeneration

The Energia basic compares monthly and other similar homes

It now also breaks down Smart Plan usage: day, night and peak

The new tool gives you up-to-date consumption and cost. 

All in all, we are very pleased with the result. 

Snowing in Mayo

Awoke to snow falling gently, silently onto the garden. We were supposed to have wind in the range of 30 knots but so far that has not materialised. It is very cold and supposed to stay that way for several days. Hopefully, that will put a damper on some garden pests this year. 

I've started some seeds in the greenhouse and Alex is rooting vines in the polytunnel. Hopefully, we'll have enough to replace the vines we lost last year. Alex also bought a handy new book that has loads of practical advice for growing vines in our climate.

Viticulture - 2nd Edition: An introduction to commercial grape growing for wine production Paperback – 19 Nov. 2019

by Mr Stephen Skelton MW (Author)

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars    116 ratings

The vineyard carbon sink

An important article was just published that shows regenerative practices increase carbon sequestration in soil. It was a literature analysis and essentially a review paper, but it indicates that regeneration practices, especially in woody agricultural projects like vineyards and orchards, can increase carbon sequestration. 

"Applying animal integration, non-chemical pest management, diverse cover crops, agroforestry, non-chemical fertilizer, and redesigning the system at the landscape level can all contribute to this species richness. Research is also emerging on the greater resilience to climate change of perennial plant communities with high species diversity, due to the greater probability of including species with traits adapted to climate change.

This finding is particularly relevant for viticulture, which has been identified as a potential carbon sink, and indicates the importance of adopting regenerative practices to enhance carbon uptake."

Frontiers | Quantifying soil carbon sequestration from regenerative agricultural practices in crops and vineyards (frontiersin.org)

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1234108/full?fbclid=IwAR1LveHuETr17tjrMWIQOAISp8rNHMOIpbgG3uabQSROone23FdyaJwK4Xo

January climate stats

Looks like January was sort of an average month. Rainfall, though it felt much higher, was actually below the LTA. The temperature was exactly average. The solar radiation was well above average which gave us good results for our new solar PV array. 

What was not average was the days of fierce winds. Met Eireann doesn't really report wind as part of the climate tracking. Perhaps they should start. 

Monthly values for NEWPORT up to 01-feb-2024

Total rainfall in millimetres for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2024	125.7	0.3											126.0
2023	183.2	91.6	188.4	121.1	48.5	77.9	206.8	139.8	142.4	144.7	209.6	293.8	1847.8
2022	98.8	260.4	67.8	84.0	107.0	148.0	59.2	104.1	97.3	233.9	187.5	154.6	1602.6
2021	225.6	147.6	141.1	45.6	113.5	64.1	59.7	155.6	137.0	265.7	183.3	186.6	1725.4
LTA	166.7	126.5	141.2	96.8	94.7	89.7	100.9	132.5	131.5	176.0	170.4	180.2	1607.1

Mean temperature in degrees Celsius for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2024	6.1	8.1											6.2
2023	6.6	8.0	7.6	9.9	13.3	17.4	14.9	15.8	15.2	11.9	8.7	7.9	11.4
2022	7.2	7.1	8.0	9.9	12.6	13.8	15.9	16.2	n/a	12.2	9.4	5.2	10.7
2021	5.0	6.7	7.9	9.0	10.4	13.3	17.5	16.4	15.2	11.9	9.3	7.6	10.9
LTA	6.1	6.1	7.3	9.0	11.5	13.8	15.4	15.4	13.5	10.8	8.3	6.5	10.3

Mean 10cm soil temperature for NEWPORT at 0900 UTC

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2024	4.2	n/a											4.2
2023	5.2	6.8	6.6	9.1	13.7	18.6	16.3	16.3	14.7	11.1	7.6	6.7	11.1
2022	6.2	6.2	6.3	9.3	13.2	14.8	16.8	16.6	n/a	11.5	8.4	4.4	10.4
2021	3.6	5.0	6.8	8.2	10.9	14.3	17.9	16.3	15.2	11.3	8.6	6.6	10.4
LTA	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Global Solar Radiation in Joules/cm² for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2024	7248	223											7471
2023	6245	10639	21429	37277	55732	58473	41797	36857	29338	16225	8326	4411	326749
2022	6311	10756	33399	40555	51569	47246	48439	51169	n/a	15988	7869	6167	319468
2021	6620	13347	20370	45694	55690	45488	49455	40490	22413	16358	7235	3780	326940
LTA	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Potential Evapotranspiration (mm) for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2024	15.4	0.6											16.0
2023	14.3	20.9	33.0	56.4	83.3	100.6	70.1	64.4	50.1	26.1	14.2	14.7	548.1
2022	13.7	23.0	47.2	60.6	77.7	76.0	80.4	82.0	n/a	27.2	17.2	9.2	514.2
2021	7.6	22.9	30.7	62.9	76.3	70.7	87.8	67.5	38.3	25.1	14.1	14.6	518.5
LTA	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Evaporation (mm) for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2024	20.2	0.8											21.0
2023	18.8	28.2	47.6	81.6	118.2	137.1	99.5	89.1	67.8	35.5	18.4	19.0	760.8
2022	17.9	32.4	66.5	86.8	114.5	109.2	111.1	113.2	n/a	37.0	22.0	11.4	722.0
2021	10.9	32.1	45.4	89.9	111.2	102.0	117.2	93.5	52.1	34.7	18.6	19.1	726.7
LTA	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Degree Days Below 15.5 Degree Celsius for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Total
2024	293	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
2023	275	210	246	171	85	18	39	26	53	118	203	237	1681
2022	256	234	235	171	97	63	30	28	N/A	103	185	320	N/A
2021	325	247	236	200	167	79	20	23	40	114	187	245	1883

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Notes on the Data

Evaporation and PE data are calculated using Penman/Monteith formulae.
The ‘LTA’ (referred to within a table) is average for the climatological long-term-average (LTA) reference period 1981-2010.
Data updated daily at Mid-day.
To view the Weather Events for Public Works Contracts data, select a station first, then click the link just below the map.