Finished pruning

 

We finished up the pruning and staking of the vines in two days. Alex did the older vines and I did all the rest. My take on how the vines are doing is that the Solaris are delivering mixed results - some vines are very vigorous and others are weak. I don't know if this is normal, or if some are being subjected to conditions they don't tolerate well, like drowning in areas of poor drainage. The Chardonnay vines are also mixed -- some doing well, others weak and one possibly dead. The Pinot are doing surprisingly well and the Albarino surprisingly poorly. I would have expected the opposite. 

Our weather has been alternating between beautiful but cold, and horrible but warm. As tomorrow is the last day of January, I'll look at the weather stats for January next week. Let's now look at 2020 as a year, a horrible pandemic coronavirus year that ended with horrible US election angst. At least now things have settled down in that latter corner and vaccines have arrived. 

The December climate report shows the month was cooler, wetter and windier than average. And our area had significant outliers:

• Highest daily rainfall: 27.5 mm at Newport, Co Mayo (15% of its monthly LTA) on Sun 13th
• Lowest mean monthly temperature: 4.3°C at Knock Airport, Co Mayo (at its LTA) (its coldest December since 2010)
• Lowest monthly total sunshine: 31.2 hrs (daily mean 1.01 hrs/day) at Belmullet*, Co Mayo 

Overall, 2020 gave us above average rainfall, temperatures and sunshine as a nation, but that was mainly in the south and east. Our area again showed outliers:

• Highest annual total rainfall: 2051.7 mm at Newport, Co Mayo (128% of its LTA)
• Lowest mean annual temperature: 8.9°C at Knock Airport, Co Mayo (0.4 above its LTA) 
• Highest air temperature: 27.1°C at Newport, Co Mayo on Mon 1st June 
• Lowest annual total sunshine: 1252.0 hrs (daily mean 3.42 hrs/day) at Belmullet*, Co Mayo

*Sunshine data is from the Autosol Network. LTAs for these sites are currently not used for comparison purposes.  

We also endured eight named storms and five months with storm force winds recorded. What this means for viticulture only time will tell. At least now we have our horticultural food and research (HFR) number. The research is well underway. 

Pruning time again

 

We've had a hard frost the last few days and beautiful sunny weather so it was time to start pruning the vines. I cleared the grass and staked two rows of three-year-old vines while pruning them. It was the first major pruning for these vines. A row of chardonnay is not doing terribly well. I think some of the vines are in a dip or flat area of the field and they may be drowning. The white Solaris vines are looking good for the most part and are approaching the point where the height of the main trunk has reached the top of the stick. There has been some wind damage to loose vines being whipped by wind and breaking. I corrected most of that. 

We've applied for farm status and an agricultural grant for farm equipment. Alex will be buying more metal poles and stringing wires in the 3-year-old area over winter. If the grant comes through, we'll be buying an ATV-like vehicle with mower attachment and trailer to mow and carry supplies and harvest. 

We couldn't get a shed without planning permission so we've delayed that. We're thinking about erecting a small greenhouse to house the equipment. That would be helpful as we've run out of room elsewhere. 

Pruning the 5-year-old vines

Alex pruning and taping to the overhead trellises

This should be the year that we finally get some grapes. The first 10 vines (4 Solaris and 6 Rondo) will have reached five years of age this spring.  Three of the four Solaris vine are very robust. Three of the five Rondo vines are very robust. The others are alive but not growing as vigorously.

Today we pruned. It was difficult at first to force ourselves to remove some of the really strong growth, but we knew we had to do radical surgery to increase productivity. And we did. It looks pretty good and ten vines did not take us very long - about an hour working together.

We chose the spur pruning method so we left two cordons from each trunk and cut the spurs on them to 4 buds. Some say to leave only 2 buds, but for our first vines in their first productive year (we hope), we left 4 each. We will learn with each year.

We soon had several piles of canes and decided to create a habitat for wildlife by bunching them between the row of chestnut trees and the hedgerow behind them. We have a pine marten living nearby, and we'd like to encourage other animals to return to the land here. We've heard that red squirrels are coming closer, so when they get here, we'll have a home for them.

Now we have to tend to the grass, decide if we want to plant a companion crop, and sit back and wait for the fruit. I'll be buying a soil testing kit next. 

Before

After

Piles of vines to be disposed of

The upper vineyard showing yesterday's work. 

Pruning time

Starting to look tidier

Staking the trunk until
it can stand on its own

We've had a couple of good weather days during which I managed to clear the grass from around the 3-year-old plants, as well as prune and stake the primary trunks and cordons. We had some damage in the last two storms. A few of the loose canes which I would have chosen as cordons had broken. They must have been whipping around in the wind. Some are doing exceedingly well while others are middling. This will be a telling year. In some cases, I couldn't tell which was the more vigorous trunk so I left two for now, but will select one out next year.

There are five plants missing which Alex has already ordered. Mostly Solaris. Casualties of the grass cutting, etc.

The first five Chardonnay vines are doing well but the other 25 are not looking as well. Some appear dead. We'll have to wait and see. I have to remember that it's their first year.

The Albarino vines look wonderful and the Pinot noir look pretty good but not as vigorous as the Albarino. There is not much to do with those two rows this year but clear.

3-year-old vines doing well

I sowed seeds of 'green manure' among the first ten plants although I did not prepare the soil/grass before sowing. I just wanted to introduce a little diversity into the grass which is quite thick up there but doesn't have much clover or other binding and nutrient gathering varieties mixed in. I will have to start digging up a few remaining docks plants and there are a few new rushes that I will have to dig out.

Today I will tackle the pruning of the ten mature vines. I am choosing the spur pruning method which is easier and I can readily visualise which spurs to maintain.  I believe that's how the Spanish and Portuguese prune theirs. I will train two main cordons from each trunk overhead and leave spurs with at least two buds on each. Let's get to it.

Oh, and in a final note, our vineyard has just expanded to include kiwis. Alex brought a particularly robust and tasty kiwi fruit home and planted the seeds which all came up. Now we probably have the only kiwi plantation in Ireland as well. The two plants we have trained on a south-facing wall in our garden is doing well but have not produced fruit. Not sure if we have both sexes represented.

Different pruning and training methods (Credit: Wine Folly)

Daria's Vineyard as of Jan 2020

One-year-old Albarino

One-year-old Pinot noir

Good weather prompts vineyard inspection

The extraordinarily mild weather this winter has given me pause. We had a few days of frost, but mostly it's been in the teens and many garden participants are starting to grow and sprout. I'm getting worried that the vines won't get a sufficient dormant period to recharge. I'm concerned that they may start to bud before I've had a chance to prune. We've had quite a lot of wind and a fair bit of rain. I heard on the radio this morning that our climate is definitely changing with ever-increasing amounts of annual rainfall.

So I took the opportunity today to begin pruning. I first tackled the known shoots that I wanted to remove from the first 10 mature vines - anything broken or damaged, anything growing from the main trunk below the level of the trellis, ensuring that there were at least two vigorous main cordons per stem. I stood observing the vines for a long time first to see what they were doing and how I could help.

The next step will be to prune the cordons to create spurs. I'll really take my time on that.

I will next walk the entire vineyard and select the main stems on the more newly planted vines. This year, I'll be selecting who gets to grow up to the trellis from among the shoots. We need a few replacement plants which Alex mowed down.

I do love this part. It forces you to really know your vines and commune with them.

Pruning into the New Year

After the pruning

Alex pruning the Rondo vines

I'll be staying with my niece in January to help out after the birth of her second child so we took the opportunity to prune the vines today. It was a fine dry day and mild, too. We've had a high pressure centered over Ireland for about a week now and it's been very gray but dry and uncharacteristically mild. The weeks before were drenched by torrential rains. The land was flooded all around us. Lucky for us, our land is sloping. The roses have not ceased blooming, the grass is growing and many plants are budding due to the mild weather. We may even have a New Year's daffodil. I was worried that the grapevines might not be dormant, but they did seem to be.

The Rondo and Solaris vines are doing well and are quite robust except one Rondo. They took severe pruning. The chardonnay vines are looking very nice and were easy to prune and stake.

The one-year-old Solaris vines were very easy to prune. Two of the 50 had been cut by the strimmer when Alex last cut the grass. Two others looked possibly dead. One was missing. So Alex will order five to replace those. The vines were inconsistent in growth. Some were quite long while others remained very small. Could be due to the dry summer.

We've decided to complete the row that has the chardonnay test vines with more test vines. Alex wants red, but I don't want Rondo, so we're looking for short season reds to try. My money is on Pinot Noir, but we'll see. He has also ordered Albariño vines to plant on another section of field. The plantation expands.

Another season comes to a close. Happy New Year to all.




From GuildSomm 

Clearing the grass

Croagh Patrick, the Holy Mountain

The weather was beautiful today so we took a walk to the summit of our land to see the views, plant a few more trees and enjoy the St. Stephen's Day holiday. The views were stunning but the land is very wet. The trees we have been planting out on about 1/3 of our ten acres are doing very nicely. The leader species - birch, willow, and alder - are growing vigorously. The ash and sycamores are coming along nicely too, but at a slower pace.

Pruning the grapevines

What a mess!

The job was daunting. We'd been gone most of the summer sailing, which isn't prudent when you are trying to start a vineyard, but hey it's all an adventure isn't it? Meanwhile, the weather had been mild and moist until last week when we finally had a cold snap. Frost, sleet, hail and snow finally put the vines to sleep and they dropped their leaves so we could see the structure of the vines themselves. And what we saw was not pretty. I kept going up there and coming back down without having done a thing.

Finally managed to prune and train

Last week, we had a spell of beautiful weather after several days of strong frost.  As it's already February and things are starting to bud, I thought it was time to take the plunge ad prune. I documented my work by taking one photo of each vine so I can compare this year's growth to Next year's. Here we are.

Red grape vines (Rondo) 

The red grape vines were variable in their take. Two did well, two did poorly and one is mediocre.

The science of wine

Original edition cover.

Current edition.

Being a scientist by training, I would naturally be attracted to the scientific side of things, although I do believe that viniculture is as much an art as it is a science, perhaps even with a little witchcraft thrown in. Maybe like in the book Blessed are the Cheesemakers we should be humming the Sound of Music to the grapevines to make them grow luscious grapes.

Anyway, this title -- The science of wine -- by Jamie Goode caught my attention.  Curiously, the first edition has a subtitle FROM VINE TO GLASS. The second edition in the photo has the same subtitle and was published by University of California Press and is being sold for $39.95.  The copy I purchased has the title Wine Science and subtitle The Application of Science in Winemaking. Personally, I prefer the simpler from vine to glass which says it all without redundancy. The publisher's name, Mitchell Beazley, also appears on the cover of my edition, which is confusing as I have never heard of that imprint and it looked just like another author's name. That version is available on amazon for $23-26 and shows it being shipped from the UK. Not to be confused with the Wine Science, Fourth Edition: Principles and Applications (Food Science and Technology) July 7, 2014 by Ronald S. Jackson which sells for $122.45 in print and $77 in Kindle. All versions are hardcover. Confused yet? I was but it is worth the effort.

Current edition, different publisher?

The fact that the second edition was released April 1, 2014 makes it that much more interesting to me, as it's not only April Fool's Day it is my namesake day. Yes, St. Daria's Day is April 1. But I wonder why they changed the title. The edition I have shows up with a publication date of April 10, 2014.  So what made them change it between April 1 and April 10? It may be that one is published in the US and the other in the UK but why would both be available in both places. And why change it to a title that is already in use. Plus the author released a Kindle only supplement which has the chapters that were cut from the second edition but appeared in the first edition. Among them was the chapter on the effect of global warming, so naturally I had to buy that, too.

But anyway, I seriously digressed.  The book is divided into three sections. In the Vineyard, In the Winery, and Our Interaction with Wine.  That makes a lot of sense. As I sat down to read it, I was pleasantly surprised by the author's style. It is not overly scientific but rather quite readable.  The author's own knowledge and experience is supplemented by analysis of the most current scientific literature and interpretation by experts in each of the fields. It is a rich mixture of fact and opinion that he presents the reader.

The first part covers everything that affects the vineyard from the biology of the plants, terroir in terms of soil structure and climate, the interaction between roots and elements in the soil, key diseases and pests, different theories of plant management, biodynamics in the vineyard, moisture control and stress, and trellis systems, pruning and canopy management.  In a short 87 pages, I felt the author had imparted a wealth of knowledge that would serve us well in growing the grapes for the first few years.  I will come back to this book time and again.