EU wines to face 15% tarriffs

EU wine and spirits to face 15% US tariff from August 1. European wine and spirits will face a 15% U.S. import tariff until a different deal is agreed in talks expected to continue in the autumn. It would take a carve-out in negotiations to change the rate.

The whole thing is stupid, as you cannot make wines with European terroir in America. Duh. And all the whiskeys are different. You can't make Irish whiskey in America. Nor can you make Japanese whiskey in America or in Ireland, even though it is spelt the same way. 

Scottish whiskys will only have a 10% tariff. Does that mean anyone exporting Irish whiskey from Northern Ireland will only have to pay 10%? 

Pruning, pruning, pruning

 

I spent the full morning pruning the vineyard. There is only so much I can reach, so Alex came over later and followed in my wake, editing further. There is a lot of growth, and the Solaris vines are strong, but the grapes are not looking great. The Rondo, on the other hand, are looking very good and, believe it or not, are beginning to show signs of veraison...in July!!!

We are removing a lot of vine growth. I'm trimming all shoots that are not associated with bunches of grapes, most tips, all tendrils and backup grapelets. I am also removing select leaves to open up the grapes to sunlight. It's hard work and disorienting to stand with head tilted up, arms overhead, on tiptoe, stretched to the hilt. 

Tendrils are fascinating structures with lives of their own. They behave like hands. Tendrils on grapevines are specialised, thread-like structures that help the vine climb and support itself. Their behaviour is a fascinating example of thigmotropism, which is a plant's response to touch or physical contact. I asked ChatGPT how tendrils 'behave'. Here's what they had to say. 

1. Searching for Support (Coiling)

Exploratory movement: Tendrils grow out from the vine and move in circular or helical patterns, "searching" for something to grab. This movement is known as circumnutation—a slow, spiralling motion as the tendril elongates.

2. Touch Response (Thigmotropism)

When a tendril touches a solid object (like a trellis, wire, or neighbouring plant), it responds by coiling tightly around it. The cells on the side touching the object slow their growth, while the cells on the opposite side grow faster, causing the tendril to curl around the support.

3. Securing the Vine

Once coiled around a support, the tendril often forms tight helices and may even produce additional coils to pull the vine closer and secure it. This pulling tension helps stabilise the vine and allows it to grow upward or outward toward sunlight.

4. Senescence and Shedding

If a tendril does not find support within a certain time, it may dry out, die off, and drop. Successful tendrils, on the other hand, harden and provide long-term anchorage.

Summary

Grapevine tendrils behave almost like plant "hands": they reach out, sense contact, coil around objects, and pull the vine toward stability. This behaviour is a key reason why grapevines can grow effectively on trellises and arbours. In the wild, they grow up through trees. 

Tendril and flower clusters have a common developmental origin. Therefore, one might find flower designs developed at the end of the tendril.

So there you have it. The fascinating life of grapevines. 

Baby back-up grapelets

Solaris grapes 

An inflorescence with a tendril

Chardonnay vines look quite different...

...from Solaris vines. 

Baby backup grapelets. 

Complex tendrils suck energy

Tendrils come in specific shapes

Alex with his head in the grapes

Veraison beginning on Rondo

Rondo is ripening very early 

Look at the length and strength of those tendrils

Donkeys kept us company all morning

Fortifying the soil

We are aware that our soil is deficient in magnesium and several other essential elements. I keep having to add Epsom salts to everything to keep it green. Andrew suggested buying a powder that is mined from the floor of the Baltic. I couldn't find that, but I did source ground basalt rock in Poland. 

Basalt is a rock that can vary slightly in its characteristics depending on its geographical origin and formation conditions. Two main basalt rocks can be distinguished: alkali basalt and tholeiitic basalt.

Alkali basalt is enriched in alkaline elements such as potassium and sodium and is often associated with volcanic eruptions in areas of the Earth’s crust with more active tectonic activity. This type of basalt volcanic stone tends to have a darker appearance and a porous structure.

Tholeiitic basalt, on the other hand, has a slightly different mineralogical composition, with a higher amount of calcium and iron. It is generally found in oceanic areas and less active tectonic plates, and can be paler in appearance than alkali basalt. This is the type of mineral dust Andrew suggested. The Alkali basalt is what I sourced, but as our land leans toward the acidic, the alkali may be beneficial. 

Basalt rock dust, an eco-friendly soil quality booster, is a natural mineral product. It contains more than forty elements, with the main ingredient, silica, making up ~ 50% of the volume. This compound increases the rigidity of stems and makes them more resistant to fungal diseases and pests. Other notable compounds are aluminium and iron oxides. It also contains valuable macro- and micronutrients: magnesium, calcium, sodium, potassium, manganese, titanium, phosphorus, sulphur, boron, chrome, copper, iodine, zinc, molybdenum and cobalt. In my thinking, if I supply all the elements, the vines can pick and choose what they want. 

Basalt rock dust is slightly alkaline, which increases the pH of the soil and improves its physical and chemical properties. It is completely natural and does not cause overfertilization. It does not alter the biosphere of the soil. It helps plants resist pests and pathogens. 

The best part is that we don't have to buy many boxes of minerals and apply each individually. It is a self-contained overall mineral supplement for the land. Gotta love it! I hope it works. It just makes so much sense. 

I spread an Oxy scoopful of the dust around each plant in the vineyard and polytunnel, including outside the tunnel. I also spread it around the fruit trees in the orchard and in the polytunnel and administered it to the three raised beds in the polytunnel. 

I bought two 3 kg bags and used them all up today. Let's see what happens. I may supplement with humus as well. 

New Acquisitions

 

I suppose we should have bought these before planting, but we didn't know they existed at that time. They have some good information, including historic references to what happened where and when. 

I also bought these silver-plated grape scissors from a seller on Etsy. Now we can have grapes as palate cleansers between dinner courses in style, that is, when we actually have dessert grapes. 

Meanwhile, Future Forests sent me a replacement Vanessa vine with no questions asked when I sent them a complaint with photos attached. I'll plant that along the wall at 55 Fairways. It is considered an outdoor plant. 

Polytunnel grape conundrum

 

The grapevine I planted a couple of years ago had finally produced grapes, just not the ones I expected. Instead of light red and seedless these were almost black and full of seeds. The taste was fine, the flesh gelatinous. Really more like Concord not Vanessa. They matured early and so I picked them this week. A total of 1.1 kg, exactly what the recipe calls for. 

I destemmed them and made grape jelly, which turned out super nice. Grapes crushed with a potato masher and boiled, 450 g jam sugar, and the juice of one lemon. A beautiful rich red colour, a nice flavour and set perfectly. A winner. 

Oh, and I wrote to Future Forests about the vine. They are sending a replacement Vanessa. 

Alicante Bouschet, a teinturier

Wine Folly illustration. 

Andrew gave us rooted cuttings of a grape varietal called Alicante Bouschet. It is a Teinturier variety, a grape with both red flesh and red skin. Big, bold Alicante Bouschet is strongly fruit-flavoured, with tones of blackberries, blueberries, black cherries, and more. It has spicy, smoky flavours, along with sweeter tones of dark chocolate, baking spice, and vanilla bean. But most of all, it has a deep red colour and is used to strengthen the colour of otherwise light red wines. Alas, Alicante Bouschet ripens late and loves hot, dry areas with lots of sun, places like Spain and Portugal, where it is gaining popularity. Not likely to do well outside in Ireland -- yet! We may need another polytunnel. 

I wonder if this grape will be making a comeback with global warming speeding up. 

Another session with Andrew

Pruning lessons continue through the season. This session focused on reducing the 'shoulders' of the grape clusters, removing new shoots, removing diseased clusters, and trimming leaves that blocked light. When we first walked in, it was almost overwhelming; there were so many clusters and they looked so healthy at first. 

But then, we started noticing things. A swathe of dying grapes. A batch of speckled leaves and grapes. Contractors had painted the outside of the glasshouse. They had not closed the windows before spraying the outide walls with chemicals, probably paint stripper, and the toxic material had wreaked havoc inside. We cut off buckets of grapes that weren't safe to leave behind. 

There was some evidence of Botrytis mold in a couple of clusters. And there was clear evidence of nutrient insufficiency, probably Mg and Ca. We worked away for several hours and got the vine cleaned up. Personally, I was horrified to be reducing the size of the clusters so drastically. It seemed like such a waste, but I'll have to get used to it, I suppose. 

Alex gave Andrew a bottle of mead and several rooted cuttings of ancient grapes, including the ones from the convent in Westport, the glasshouse in Foxford and Ross House. 

We came home with several borrowed books with lots of interesting information about vines and bees and whatnot. Overall, a very enjoyable and productive session again. Only Alex and me, Mary and Andrew, with lots of people dropping in to chat along the way. 

Climate Change is Official according to UK MET Office

The UK's Met Office has declared that extreme weather is the UK's new normal. Record-breaking heat, strong storms, and changing rainfall patterns all point to a "notably different" climate from what it was just a few decades ago. Climate change is making severe storms both more common and more intense. Having lived in Ireland for almost 20 years now, we have noted the differences. Periods of no rain, then heavy downpours. Days of hot weather followed by a boomerang change. 

Meanwhile, the US has been rocked by four 1000-year events in less than a week, five if you include yesterday's floods in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Subways flooded, rivers taking out roads, homes inundated, cars swept away, lives lost -- it's the new normal. And the Administration wants to cut FEMA and "drill baby drill". Climate madness. 

Our infrastructure was designed for an environment we no longer live in. In 2020, the federal government reclassified New York City from the coastal temperate climate zone to a subtropical climate. It’s as if New York City moved 500 miles south.

Some 20 years ago, in my last year of commuting from NJ to NY, our train was diverted to the downtown area because the tubes in midtown Manhattan had flooded in a sudden rain event. That frightened me. Had our train been in those tubes, we might have all died. I didn't want to risk that again. Thankfully, we broke away and left that world behind. Meanwhile, Rockland County, Westchester County and Upper Bergen County were flooded, and roads were closed. Roads were washed away in Passaic County. I'm so glad to be where we are now.

Where we are now with climate change is that some species will adapt, some will migrate away and new species will move in. People who try to preserve the status quo will have to learn that climate adaptation requires change. Professor Perlmutter, my ecology professor at NYU, taught us that the ecology of the world was always changing. Species appear and disappear for good reasons, and it's not always human interference at work, nor is it right for humans to try to stop it. 

Yesterday, we were to get lots of rain. We heard the thunder but got little rain until nighttime. We don't really get lightning storms here so much yet, but they were reportedly all around us. The rain cooled our temperatures down significantly, and today was quite pleasant. Everything that hasn't perished in the heat and drought is growing exponentially. Perhaps our vines will like the change and adapt to produce great wines. The new normal? I'd better get used to it. 

It's hot but lovely

 

The weather is stunning this week. Whispy clouds, blue sky, gentle breeze, hot sun. The girls and I were seeking out the shade. The vineyard is thriving and growing towards the heavens.

A glorious day on the farm

 

The donkeys were sweet this morning. Ursula and Blanche were grooming each other. The boys were huggable. Treats were well received. Then we went off to our chores. I pruned the raspberry beds. Alex strimmed the vineyard between vines. It's looking good. I helped place some vines on the trellis. Ghostie took in the views. The new Rondos are doing well. We've only lost one. Life is good.