Cold spring amidst global pandemic

Bumblebee in heather during sunny interval

With more than 1M cases of confirmed coronavirus infections and more than 54,000 deaths due to Covid-19 in 200 countries worldwide, suddenly the growing of grapes and making of wine seem rather inconsequential. Then again, it does provide some focus to a somewhat dysfunctional way of living in isolation. As an introvert, I'm quite comfortable on my own. I do worry about the world though.

We've had a most unusual spring this year. The winter was unusually wet and seriously windy. In February, we had more than twice as much rainfall as normal. Early spring was quite warm -- we were able to have lunch outside for days. I kept walking around telling the plant life to slow down and not jump the gun. And now it's been at or below freezing for the past few nights. I've been heading up into the vineyard to check on the vines. Alex had plucked a few buds off on the main stems the day before, but I saw no real activity yesterday.

Sadly, many Albarino vines appear to be dead whereas the Pinot Noir vines look quite healthy but still asleep. Alex thinks some of the new vines drowned in the extremely wet earth.  He did replace some of the other vines that were either whacked by mistake or failed to thrive. I'll just have to keep watching.

The orchard is ready to pop any day now. But it's still cold. The bees come out in every sunny interval. At least I have my new pond. Bring on the frogs.

My new pond with solar fountain.

Meanwhile, I was contacted by a journalist who is doing an article for Cara, the Aer Lingus onboard magazine. David Walsh was to do an interview and Cara would send out a photographer. I said there wasn't much to report as we've not yet had our first grape harvest. He convinced me that my story is interesting and sent me four questions to answer by email. It was actually quite fun to do. We'll see.

Rondo not yet ready

Pinot noir looking encouraging

Albarino looking dead

New vines in place

Plum is the first this year

Cherries getting ready

Apple blossoms about to burst

The birth of a sycamore

Spring? Not really.

Yesterday was the first day of spring in the Northern hemisphere but today is cold and wet and raw. The vines have not yet woken up thank goodness. I was worried as we had the wettest windiest winter on record followed by a warm snap in late January that caused the fruit trees to start budding. The fresh leaves were quickly freeze-dried as the weather turned nasty again.

Alex ordered and planted replacement vines for the ones we lost and he worries that we'll lose a few more to the wet land. He has dug trenches around the young vines to keep them from drowning.

Meanwhile, a global pandemic has taken the world by storm. I read the NEJM every week to update myself on what's known but so much is not. Many countries are on lockdown, borders closed and citizens told to remain secluded indoors. We feel fortunate to be out in the country. We walk the land secure in the knowledge that the novel coronavirus won't get to us on our 10 acres unless we bring it in. What a bizarre situation the world is in.

So to lighten the mood, here's an image of Europe from space. They can actually see vineyards from up there.  And below are from yesterday's walk on the land.

Climate reports

Today I came across an article in Euronews about the changes European agriculture is facing due to climate change, and it sounds serious. Now the article was a sponsored feature by Copernicus which is getting funding from the ECMWF and the EU. Copernicus is selling their climate data services through this article, but it did have some very interesting information relevant to our project. One of the crops covered is grapevines naturally, which are under increasing stress in Spain and Portugal.

They point out that a study recently indicated that vineyards need to adapt urgently to protect the quality of their harvests but the current policy for Protected Designation of Origin regions is standing in the way. Interesting. They also note experimentation with different varieties and altered methods.

One of Portugal’s main port wine producers is testing a climate application meant to improve the vineyard’s resilience to climate change. The Vineyards Integrated Smart Climate Application (VISCA), an EU initiative, combines climate, agriculture and farmer-specific information to adapt crop planning to climate change. Crop forcing, one technique used, involves moving the ripening time from hot summer months to later, cooler months, by extra pruning, halting the vine’s natural cycle and forcing it to start it later.

The VISCA project which has Horizon 2020 funding and ends in December of this year, has developed a tool for monitoring and advising farmers about mitigating the effects of climate change. All very interesting. We need to follow up with VISCA to see if any follow-up research is planned.

Meanwhile, a preliminary climate report for 2019 in Ireland has shown that our hunch seems to be in line with reality.

When fully analysed, 2019 will likely be the second or third warmest year on record. Average temperatures for the five-year (2015-2019) and ten-year (2010-2019) periods are almost certain to be the highest on record. Since the 1980s each decade has been warmer than the previous one. This trend is expected to continue.

I'm not certain any more that I want to be right. If climate change is somehow an impetus for diseases like COVID-19 to break out in prolonged pandemics, then making wine won't make enough of a difference. 

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

Stormy winter

Storm Brendon

It hasn't been very cold but it has been exceptionally stormy so far this winter. Storm Brendon upended our wrought iron furniture and rearranged our patio stuff. Fortunately, I'd moved chairs, plant pots and micro croc gardens to protect them against wind damage. The gusts reached 81.5 knots which is about 90 mph or 150 kph, nothing to sneeze at. It started out SE which wasn't bad but then veered SW, a direction in which we are exposed. We were lucky not to have lost power as so many others did. Perhaps a vineyard near the sea wasn't such a great idea after all.

We had seaweed piled high and wide at the base of our driveway, which I had to shovel off the road and driveway as Alex was away. When he came home, he picked up the piles I made with the trailer and delivered one load to our gardens and one load to his mother. That's about 2 tons of seaweed, which we hear is now fetching €16-19 a kg dried.

It's very windy again today, so I haven't gone up there yet. Tomorrow should be a good day for inspection and pruning.

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.