Yesterday evening was the summer solstice, but it was already getting dark by 7:30, not at all the longest day of the year. Jean Duff and her friends from DC, Mary and Henry, stopped by in the afternoon to visit the vineyard. Henry is an oenophile and brought a very interesting bottle of Rioja along. We gave them the grand tour.
Curiously, the vines are still growing straight up. The Albarino looks pitiful but the Pinot Noir has lots of florets. It was a fun afternoon with very nice people. It became very cloudy but did not rain. Today it is raining and we need it. We need rain and warmth. Our temperature so far has averaged 12.2C. The LTA is 13.8C and May came in at 13.1. It is to warm up into the 20s next week but then return to 'normal'. I hope we don't have a repeat of last year's July with twice the normal rainfall.
NOAA has announced that El Nino is over and we are now in a period of neutrality before La Nina sets in. We've had our first tropical storm, Alberto, of the Atlantic Hurricane season. The daily SST is still in record territory so the season, though late starting, could still be potentially intense as forecast. Nothing is normal so it is hard to predict.
No comments:
Post a Comment