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.

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 

Woohoo, Taittinger has bought land in England.

Taittinger have expanded production to some 6,000,000 bottles and bought land in England to cope with a warming world. I think we're onto something here.

This winter is really much warmer and wetter here. I'm afraid that the grape vines, which I have not yet pruned, will come alive and won't be exposed to the necessary cold. I'm planning to prune between Christmas and New Year. But so many plants have started growing again, including the grass. It has rained unrelentingly for weeks. This week is the first decent weather we've had in recent memory.

Any way, Champagne is a blend of chardonnay and pinot varieties. We woudn't be able to call it champagne but who cares. Prosecco is doing just fine. Let's invent a new bubbly name. Hmmmm.

Happy Christmas to all. I'll try to post again soon on progress with pruning.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-12-22/taittinger-champagne-in-photos

Another season comes to a close

I walked up to the vineyard today to find that the Rondo vines have dropped their leaves, every one. The Solaris are still hanging on to a few but a good many have fallen there, too. And so another season has come to a close and we've learned a lot more this year than in previous years. I'll spend the winter learning about making wine and testing soil. We'll also plant out the roses and companion 'Gaia garden' plants. Then, while Alex erects the canopy stands, I'll prune the canes - all 65 - in the dead of winter. For right now, I'll take pause to just revel in the art of nature and the awe of cyclical seasons. Aren't we lucky? There's nothing boring about it.

Autumn in the Vineyard

The red grape vines have turned a lovely orange hue, the whites are turning golden. We had a spell of awful weather, including Storm Callum which wasn't as bad as it could have been, followed by several days of glorious sunshine. The leaves have been blown off the trees or burned by wind beyond hope. But the grape leaves are surviving well. As are the donkeys. Sweet donkeys keeping watch. No one got blown away by the storms.

What to do instead of harvesting

In place of a harvest in this unproductive year, I'll start a new workout routine...

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.