August brings the sun

 

Rondo grapes developing nicely

After a rainy July, sun in August has caused everything to explode. The vines are growing like mad and needed to be tied up. We're using electrical tape to secure the main trunk to the sticks Alex 'planted' next to the vines. The idea is that by the time the sticks rot away, the trunks will be able to support themselves. That has proven true for the first ten. 

The grapes are fattening quickly, too.  At least the Rondo are. The Solaris don't seem to be doing as well this year. 

I thought the Chardonnay vines weren't doing well and we did lose one, but they are coming on better now. 

The surprises are the new vines. The Pinot noir are very robust but the Albarino are looking sickly. I couldn't identify anything specific but I suspect they are infected with a fungus. Very sad. I had such high hopes for them.

The weather is spectacular and we are promised a week of benign weather. Could it be true?  

Three-year-old Chardonnay on the right and Solaris on the left 

The vineyard cat, Louise, helping out in the shade

The 5-year-old section of Rondo (left) and Solaris (right), kite overhead doing its job

Lots of grapes. Will need to cut out some leaves tomorrow. 

Encouraging grape development

Pinot Noir on the right

Bud burst bonanza

Pinot Noir bud burst 15-04-2020

Yesterday, the wind went to the south and suddenly our temperatures skyrocketed. We went from winter coats, hats and gloves two days ago to shorts and T-shirts yesterday. Sure enough, we documented bud burst on all varietals planted in our vineyard.

I thought the Rondo looked questionable when Alex took the photo in the morning. When I went into the vineyard to recheck in the afternoon, it had definitely burst. The Chardonnay plants are not looking great and 2 look very questionable. The Albarino are all alive but the buds on them are tiny. Miniscule to be exact. I wonder if the leaves will grow to normal size or not.

I'm really surprised but pleased at how good the Pinot Noir vines look. They are very robust and have substantial buds.

Today the winds have gone northerly again and we're back to very chilly but sunny weather. It has not rained in days and we've been watering the garden but not the vineyard. It's supposed to warm up against tomorrow and rain is forecast for tomorrow night. Let's hope for the best.

Chardonnay bud burst 15-04-2020

Albarino bud burst 15-04-2020 

Rondo bud burst 15-04-2020

Progress in the vineyard

Not only are the grapevines leafing and flowering nicely, but also the development of the vineyard itself - the trellises and supports for the vines - is progressing at a rapid pace and we are preparing to construct the overhead pergolas.

Spring has finally arrived

Rondo is most advanced

After weeks of cold dry weather, a few days of sprinkles was followed by a week of fine warm weather over Easter. Finally, the vines were ready to burst forth. All have done so now. The five-year-old Rondo and Solaris vines have leafed. The two-year-old Solaris vines have leafed. The Chardonnays are just beginning. The Pinot and Albariño vines have started leafing, too. There is life in the vineyard, and the donkeys are back in the field next door. Alex is preparing to erect the first of the overhead trellises and he has bought a gate wide enough to drive a tractor through. Thinking ahead.

Spring is trying, then retreating

Several weeks ago it was warm enough to be out in T-shirts. Alex noted that the new chardonnay vines were sprouting and quickly planted them out in the field. Then he planted out the Pinot vines. There is still a batch of Albarino bare root vines that are heeled in to plant and trellises to build. But he was off buying cattle for his mother today so it will have to wait. Tomorrow, we're doing a webinar about sailing in Galicia, so it will have to wait again. Oh well, we have a few days open next week I think.

The bumblebees were out in force, feeding on the heather during the good weather. I counted 13 queens on one bush one day, mostly Bombus leucorum. It was good to hear their buzzing in the garden. The heather bush was the first thing I had planted when we were building the house. So glad I did. But I was also glad to learn that grapevines are not dependent on bees for pollination. The news about the collapse of the insect populations last week was alarming. More about that another day.

New vines have arrived

The new vines have arrived for phase 3 of our planting. The first year there were ten, the second year there were 65. Now we are adding another 66 vines. Of those, 25 are Pinot Noir and 25 Albariño, and 16 Chardonnay, all on SO4 rootstocks.. How we're going to manage them is another discussion.

Of course, while in Alexandria for three weeks, I learned that Viognier vines are commonly planted in Virginia. Viognier — the state grape of Virginia — is a wine made by 76 of the commonwealth’s 230 vineyards as of 2012. In May 2011, the Virginia Wine Board approved the marketing of Viognier as “Virginia’s signature grape,” just as Cabernet Sauvignon is identified with California’s Napa Valley and Pinot Noir with Oregon.

Viogner, that rare French wine that we discovered in St. Martin and brought home cases of it on our boat. In the mid-1960s, a mere 3.2 acres of vines existed in the entire world. It does extremely well in Virginia and is considered quite possibly the best Viognier made outside of Condrieu — home to the Viognier grape in the white-wine capital of the Rhône valley. Alas, as Viognier vines start to hit their peak after 20 years, I don't think we'll be planting many here in Ireland but if Virginia's young vines (mostly <10 years old) are doing so well, you never know. Stick with what you like, right? And we do like Viognier. 

The new layout

As the Solaris is doing well, we should have a grape crop in 2019 with which to attempt winemaking. The Rondo is also doing well but not as well as the Solaris. We should also have some red to experiment with. The Chardonnay did well enough to consider expanding production in the future.

We've decided to introduce Albarino, our favorite white wine from the coastal Rias of  northwestern Spain. So Albarino and Solaris will be our white wine crops.

Alex wanted more red, so we will introduce Pinot noir, a short season grapevine with growing requirements in the same range as Chardonnay. That will be our new experimental crop.

We, therefore, will have three experimental and two staple crops.  It's amazing how fast five years can go by.

New vineyard underway

Well the older vines are thriving with lots of tiny flower bunches, the chardonnay test vines are alive and well, and the new solaris vines are all waking up. This is exciting. Much better than watching grass grow.

New chardonnays

They're alive!

Checking on the new vines

Alex pointing out the flower buds

Our vines are sprouting. The two-year old vines are loaded with little clusters of flower buds along with their leaflets and tendrils. This weather has prompted everything to come to life. It's so encouraging to see. Even the little rondo that didn't do much last year has come to life.

Chardonnay vines have arrived

I know, I know, they don't look like much. Well they aren't really. I only bought five plants as an experiment. Everyone says they won't work here, but someone has said that for every thing that anyone has ever attempted for the first time. Climate change is accelerating faster than anyone thought, so maybe I am right. Maybe not.

Now why would I want chardonnay when some people preach ABC - anything but chardonnay? Because chardonnay is a grape varietal with an identity crisis. Developing a fine chardonnay in your backyard has to do with both where its grown and how it is made. I am thinking Chablis, the fine French vintage, not Gallo who tainted chablis as serious white plonk.

We have clay soil as does the Chablis region of France. Chablis is made from 100% chardonnay grapes gown in clay soil. The Chardonnay varietal is expressive as a rainbow or generic as a blank label. She can be both a rock star and a street hawker, a prima ballerina and a cheap harlot. Why does Chardonnay have this split personality? Because she takes on the characteristics of the soil, the conditions and the maker more so than any other varietal.

Can I make a great Chablis?  I won't know until I try. Anyway, it will be years before my chardonnay vines let me do that.

For now, I'm learning what I can about how to get started.

Chardonnay bare root grapevines clone D258 Duft on SO4 31 Op rootstocks @ €5 each. €33.45 w/P/P

What it may look like one day. 

Source of grapevines: Grape Expectations, 29 Carrickmount Ave, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14, Ireland 
Phone 00353 86 8878047

The Vineyard on the Wild Atlantic Way

I am reading an interesting book called Vineyard at the End of the World by Ian Mount. Although it's a bit too detailed in the minutia of history, I am learning a lot about how not to make wine.

What I am learning most of all are some of the mistakes and tricks that lead to a successful vintage. Like you need to have a dry spell at the end of the ripening period just before harvest to concentrate the flavours in the grapes. Dilution with water, which is what was happening in Argentina as the grapes were sold to vintners by weight so they watered them to increase yield, causes bad things to happen chemically. It is also important to reduce the yield by limiting the number of shoots and clusters so that all the effort goes into the remaining grapes. That's going to be a hard lesson to learn.

Cool climate and clay soil = Chablis?

The truth, I have learned, is that cool/cold areas are best suited for white wine production for a variety of reasons. Whites generally ripen earlier, and they are more forgiving, flexible and adaptable. It is easier to make a good wine from a wider range of maturity than reds. So cool regions that have shorter seasons may still produce acceptable and even excellent white wines. That is not so true of red wines.  Red grapes need a long season of hot weather to mature to just the right sweetness.