Heat wave - again!

It's Monday the 15th and the heat wave has finally broken. It was hot, dry and still. We had at least 5 days (more I think) in the high 20s and on Thursday, the thermometer in my car read 30C as I drove home from Old Head and Louisburg. I had lunch at Tia by the Sea and walked the beach at Old Head. I was very glad to have air conditioning in my car. The heat broke the old record high when it topped 37.5C in Carlow. That's hot. 

Newport Furnace registered a high of 28.5C for the week on Friday. It was scorching. Everyone says now that it's climate change but Alex remembers summers like this in the '70s when he had to ferry jerry cans of water to the islands for the cattle. We've had no rain for ages and the grapevines are parched and getting burnt by the sun. 

The Rondo is already starting to turn colour. That would make it a very early veraison. We have quite a few Pinot Noir vines producing clusters so that's very interesting. Many vines have already reached their max height. We may have a taste of Chardonnay. We'll have very little Solaris, the grape we planted the most of. 

The work on the main structure of the trellis is done and now you can actually see the trellis from the road. Alex still has to put the wires in, but that he can do over the winter. No rush to do it now as we will just be pruning the vines all back to the main trunk. It really does look like a vineyard. 

Cahill did a lovely job and even levelled out a seating area in the top corner. It will be excellent for wine tastings someday if we make it that far. 

Ghostie christening the picnic spot

Telephone poles and steel cross beams are in

Land above cleared and leveled for safety

Now we need the support wires

It's looking like a vineyard

Looking toward the picnic spot

Lovely views

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir suffering in heat

Rondo starting veraison

Rondo turning red

Storm damage

Rainbow means rain

Last week's storms dumped a lot of rain and brought gale-force winds. Because the vines are still with leaves, they must have been whipping around because a number of the support posts broke at ground level. So Alex bought small fence posts which he pounded into the ground behind the old supports and secured the supports with attached vines to the posts. The ground is very wet but soft so it was easy to get the posts in. 

View of the vineyard from the East

I went up in the afternoon to tie up any loose vines using strips of nylon stocking. I also cut off the excess of the primary vine so it wouldn't whip around in the wind. They had grown quite a bit. I would have liked to have pruned more but this is not the right time to do that. Luckily the rain held off. 

I spotted a couple of issues that I will need to continue to take care of tomorrow. First, the pink ribbons that Alex tied onto the vines were constricting the vines as they grew fatter, like a girdle, creating indentations like waists. So I have to remove all of those urgently. Second, we had used electrical tape to secure the vines to the poles and that was, unfortunately, damaging the branches at the point of contact or killing them altogether. So I have to replace all of those. 

Autumn in the vineyard is lovely

On the positive side, the 4 yo Solaris vines had more small grape clusters than I thought and they are now very sweet. Interesting that the birds haven't found them. The two small clusters of Chardonnay grapes on one of the 4 yo vines are still hard and not ripe but I have hope. The roses we planted at the end of each row and along the fence are still blooming. Two pink, one climber dark pink, and yellow tinged with red at the entrance. 

Chardonnay grapes

The donkeys are in good shape and the vineyard cat is frolicking but complaining about being ignored. Plus there are signs of a badger digging. They like grubs so it's a natural form of pest control, as long as they don't take an interest in eating the vines. I hear and periodically see pheasants in the field and we have the occasional visit by a fox and a pine marten. Our rewilding and natural approach seems to be working. This time of year we get beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Today, I am feeling blessed. 

Fiery dawn

Morning pastels

Sunrise

Pink rose as an indicator of mildew

Ghost watching the donkeys

The donkeys watching me

Heavy cloud cover coming in

The vines are growing

Looking neater

Suddenly, everything started growing exponentially. The mild temperatures, gentle rain, and light winds produced ideal conditions. The vines shot up and out making it difficult for Alex to mow. When I started tying the vines up to the supports, I found two issues: 

1. Some of the heavier vines, mostly 4-year-old Solaris, had broken the top tape that was holding them to the supports and were drooping in half. Fortunately, none had broken. 
2. The electrical tape we were using had killed the primary shoots on the newer vines (Chardonnay, Pinot noir and Albarino) from the area of the tape down to the stock. 

Dead primaries killed by tape

I knew the Albarino were not doing as well as the others and was disappointed, but I had not noticed that the shoots we had taped to the supports had actually died. The remaining vines were stressed and therefore stunted. Three Albarinos and three Chardonnays were completely dead. 

I next cut up strips of nylon stockings to tie the vines with. That's a trick I learned from the woman I bought our first house from. It was a great way to reuse something that had reached its life limit. They are soft and stretchy. 

As I tied up the vines with the new strips of stockings, I removed the tape and excised the dead wood. I am very sad that we were actually killing the vines without realising it. I hope they can recover. We need to get those overhead trellises built. 

Surprise! Tiny Pinot noir grapes on one vine. 

Solaris grapes getting plumper

The audience

Friends getting a tour