Gone grapes

One of two bunches harvested 

We had nasty weather this week. Wet and windy. The day before we had grapes. The day after we did not.

I had just noted that vintners in England were beginning to harvest and decided the day after the storm we would, too. It seems the birds were hungry during the bad weather and they partook of our grapes which happened to ripen at exactly the wrong time. There are literally about 5 grapes left. Everything else is denuded.

Lesson 1: use netting.
Lesson 2: harvest when you think the grapes are reaching ready
Lesson 3: buy a bottle of wine from Lidl.

A fellow grapist

I received a lovely note from Trevor Sharot who has planted some grapevines and is growing grapes in London. For some reason, he is making the wine in Singapore. Can't wait to hear about that. A kindred spirit who has embarked on a similarly preposterous (or not) journey. His blog is all about wine. His decisions are based on careful scrutiny and thought, as well as travel schedules and the like. I feel from his writing about wines and the experiment that he is having great fun. And his first harvest. How interesting. 

He writes poetry about wine for the holidays.  He may be a winocerous, someone who delights in trying to recognise a wine just from its aroma. And he's been following this blog.

It's interesting to know that we are not alone in the universe. Somehow, humans come up with random ideas in unison. Here's to Trevor and his first two bottles of wine. I can't wait to hear what he thinks. 

New phobia discovered in our vineyard

Weather statistics for Clew Bay, Ireland vs Galicia, Spain

I found a great Norwegian website YR.no that provides weather forecasting and climate statistics for the world. I wanted to compare the climate of the Albarino wine growing region of Galicia with the new wine growing region of Clew Bay. :-) I couldn't find Combados but Combarro gave me a set of statistics for average temperatures and rainfall over a twelve month period for Pontevedra. Similarly, when searching for Clew Bay, I got Belmullet data which is not really us but it was closer and more relevant than Claremorris. Claremorris does, however, come in a couple of degrees warmer than Belmullet, which is out on the Atlantic seaboard, and temperature wise is probably more like us here in Kilmeena. Our average temperature reaches only 15C while their's gets to 20C.

Storms in September

This week, we had the remnants of an Atlantic Hurricane, Helene, pass through followed closely by the first named storm of the season, Ali, and the threat of two more storms on the horizon. Helene fizzled. But Ali intensified. It was to abate by about 11 am but by 4 pm it was still raging. Status orange alert did not prepare anyone for the 80 mph winds with higher gusts. The Ploughing Championships were cancelled, as were many flights.

Our orchard suffered carnage. Our grapes swelled from all the rain and the white grapes turned brown and spotted indicating a fungal infection. Bugger.

Okay, so maybe growing grapes in Ireland with climate change won't work. Certainly the mild summer was helpful but the increase in the frequency of storms and their intensity could be our nemesis. Hmm. Might have to rethink this.

Does anyone have any good recipes for preserving pears?

Knowing when to pick grapes

Here we are in late August and the red grapes have started turning red. I've been tasting one every few days to get the hang of it, but they are still quite sour. Grapes generally ripen between late August and late October, depending on the variety. As they will not ripen any further once they have been picked from the vine, they need to be picked only when they are ripe. This can be tricky. In cooler climates it can take longer to get to the required sweetness. We are keeping an eye on bird activity in the vineyard as the birds are always first in line for sweet fruit. We expect to receive an alert from Mother Nature that the grapes are ripe.

Westernmost vineyard in Europe

Casal Santa Maria vineyards in Portugal

We wanted to claim the title of the westernmost vineyard in Europe given that we're the only vineyard we know of on the west coast of Ireland or Scotland. But we were recently reminded that the Azores are part of Europe and so are the Madeiras. There goes that claim. Their vino verde and fortified port and Madeira wines qualify for that claim. Oh well. We'll find another accolade to usurp. Perhaps Westernmost Vineyard in Continental Europe?