At least the Pinot Noir is looking good.
August was not only the warmest August ever recorded on Earth, but it was also the warmest month ever recorded on Earth, according to Copernicus. This is significant because typically, the warmest month of the year is July. The anomaly was more than 1.5 C higher than the LTA.
For Ireland, August was only the 9th warmest on record. It was drier than average most of the month.
This is going to be a wild ride.
The Rondo is looking very interesting this year. Shiny berries, spaced far apart in the bunches, are getting bigger with the rainfall. They are dark red and delicious but not yet ready to pick. Brix readings were 15, 16 and 17.
The Solaris down below don't look very nice, almost like someone has eaten them. Higher up, the Brix readings were 15, 19, 14, and 17. So one more week to go.
The Pinot Noir are still small, hard green berries with no sign of ripening. But I am always hopeful. I will let them go as long as they want to.
Met Éireann has reported that the summer of 2026 was the hottest on record, 2.03 °C above the 1961-1990 long-term average (LTA) and 1.50 °C above the more recent 1999-2020 LTA. Six of the ten hottest summers have occurred since 2001, while provisional rainfall data also show summer 2026 was drier than average.
Meanwhile, iconic French cheeses are threatened as climate change affects the grass that feeds the cattle that produce the milk. Apparently, cheese is as tightly controlled as wine appellations. If the farmers can't meet the requirements, they won't be able to label their cheeses as authentic.
Winemakers are facing a similar situation. France's 2026 yield is down significantly because of climate conditions.
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A gale blew on Sunday, most strangely. We reached gusts of 50.2 knots, with temperatures above 20C and high humidity. I've never felt weather like this in Ireland before. We had the occasional sprinkle but nothing much to speak of. It felt tropical, but here we are in September, and there have been no hurricanes in the Atlantic yet this year, and none are expected to form in the next 7 days.
Meanwhile, I came down with a respiratory infection, probably Covid, which is reportedly circulating in the vicinity according to HSE trackers. So I am drinking a hot toddy with honey. It really works.
The tides will be super high next week, so let's hope for the best.
I harvested the Albarino in the polytunnel as it was starting to look tired. The Brix measured 18-19. Not bad for our first crop of this fine grape from two vines rescued from the vineyard. There were several leaves that had 2 grapes growing out of them, a curious phenomenon I have not seen on other varietals. The Solaris and Rondo have grapes growing alongside tendrils but not alongside leaves. In future years, perhaps we can add the albarino to our Solaris must. It might make an interesting wine.
I also harvested the single bunch of Buckland Sweetwater, a heritage variety, and it is nowhere near what it used to be at Ross. I imagine it will take a few years to produce those huge, juicy bunches Meike used to harvest.
It seems to be happening everywhere. An early start to the season, wet spring, dry summer, early harvest. Until it's not. A winemaker on substack reports that they are about 65% through their 2026 vintage in their historic Bedrock Vineyard in Sonoma County.
Liam here in Ireland was preparing to harvest his Solaris weeks earlier than normal when the birds devoured about half of his harvest.
We're not ready yet, but at least it is raining here so maybe, just maybe, we'll have a decent take.
Despite the recent rain, the ground below the surface remains powder dry. Heaven help us! Literally.
One of the vineyard owners posted a note that he was just getting ready to harvest Solaris when the birds took half his crop. That spurred me into starting to measure the Brix of our grapes. We are not close to harvest yet.
The Solaris came in at 15-16 while the Rondo were more varied. I measured from 12 to 16. The Pinot Noir aren't changing colour yet, so I didn't bother measuring them.
Yesterday we had some extraordinary weather, including 5.5 mm of rain. The temperature was quite nice, and a gentle breeze blew without gusting. One extraordinary thing that I noticed was that our soil temperature was the warmest in the country at 17.8 C. The next warmest was 17.5 C in Belmullet. Dublin Airport was 16.0 C. That's quite a difference. I'll have to start watching that as it could have a bearing on our vineyard success. I know we have an unusual microclimate due to Clare Island's parting of the clouds. We can watch them flowing down both shores of Clew Bay while we have sunshine down the middle. We've observed the clouds meeting up and reconnecting again in Castlebar.
Station Rain Max Min Sun Wind Gust Soil Global Gmin
mm oC oC hr Kts (Km/h) Kts (Km/h) oC J/cm^2 oC
Newport Furnace 5.5 17.3 14.6 8.6 (16) (0) 17.8 569 14.5
The numbers are in for the month of August, and the stats for Newport Furnace are not nearly as dire with respect to rainfall as I expected. I still cannot see the data on my PC, but I can access it on my mobile. I cannot, however, copy and paste it here.
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| Very impressive |
Yesterday we took part in an event where we harvested grapes from the vine at Turlough that attendees could take home. Andrew gave a short talk on the vine's history and restoration, and Barry, the owner of House of Plates restaurant in Castlebar, provided recipes and tastings of grape jam and chutney. Delicious. He also introduced us to an unbelievably delicious blue cheese called Mike's Fancy Cheese Young Buck.
When we arrived at 11 am, the glass house was full of giant bunches of grapes. They weren't quite ripe yet, but they were being harvested on the day for cooking. Some were left behind for show and tasting when ripe. At 12 pm, the event started in the courtyard room. They later took people in to see the vines in small groups.
Tomorrow I will make chutney from the 5 kg of grapes we brought home. We could have had three times as much. It took me 2.5 hours to destem and crush them this morning. (I also processed 2 kg of broad beans. Never again.)
On Wednesday, we are giving a talk on the development of our gardens and vineyard to the Westport Gardening Club. I built a large PowerPoint presentation for it. Hopefully, it will be of interest.
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| Perfection. Foster's seedling. Two reds made a white. |
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| A teinturier Andrew brought in for tasting. It was very red inside and out. |
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| John with a monster bunch |
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| Beautiful |
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| Well curated |
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| A wild herb Barry added to chutney |
Here are Barry's recipes:
Grape and Apple Jam
2 kg grapes
400 g jam sugar
250g haw berries
150 g woodruff
5 cooking apples
300 ml water
Cook all ingredients together over a low heat for about an hour until the mixture reduces and becomes thick. Pour through a sieve.
Grape and Apple Chutney
Step 1
2 onions, diced
2 chunks of ginger, diced
400 ml rice vinegar
400 g jam sugar
200 g dark brown sugar
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp chilli powder
4 cooking apples, peeled and diced
1.5 kg grapes
Cook all for roughly one hour until the mixture reduces and thickens.
Step 2
4 apples diced
4 plums or peaches, diced
500g grapes, halved
2 tbsp honey
Add the ingredients in Step 2 and cook for a further 10 minutes. Store in sterilised jars.
About a week ago, I brought one of my refractometers down to the polytunnel to see if I could track the grapes' ripening there. About a week ago, the Albarino tested at a Brix of 15. Today, they are 17.5. Looks like we might make 20 next week. Should I wait? There are only three bunches on the one vine and one bunch on the second vine. But that's four more bunches than we got outside.
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| Multimac landing a crowd on Inishoo |
While I hung CDs in the vineyard as the grapes were maturing, Alex hung the gates for the new donkey access to their stable. The donkeys kept a close eye on both of us. They are such smart creatures. They don't know what to make of the new berms and fences and gates. But they investigated thoroughly.
Yesterday we had not just a massive picnic on Inishoo; we went to Kate and Tom's for their usual August open house. It was full on yesterday and today. Great August fun!
I had lots of old CDs from program disks that I prepared and hung. One of the grape growers lost their entire crop this week, which prompted me to take action as Rondo veraison is accelerating with this warm weather. We'd had CDs up before, but one of the big storms decimated the lot. I need more. It looks quite pretty. I also chopped a lot off the Solaris vines, which are growing like wild. The grapes are small though, as there has not been enough rain.
Alex still has to put up the extra kites. He's still thinking that harvest will be mid-September. I'm thinking it will be sooner.
The weather issues are really accelerating round the world. Italy is underwater, as is Long Island and parts of NYC. Nevada is burning as are many other states and European countries. We have to be grateful for everything.
And today, Ukraine staged a parade of robots and drones by land, air and sea to commemorate Ukraine's 35th Anniversary of Independence. Slava Ukraini!
The picnic was super. Mussels and clams, sausages, potatoes boiled in seawater, freshly caught mackerel, hamburgers, and lots of salads.
Life in the west of Ireland requires island adventures.
Today I hung CDs in the vineyard and started bagging. One of the other vineyard owners lost their entire crop yesterday to birds. We know what that's about. Veraison is well underway in the Rondo and Solaris, and looks like it might actually start up soon in the Pinot Noir. I am praying for that to happen.
