Mowing the grass

My lovely little vineyard is getting a much needed sprucing up. Alex is strumming, something he postponed last year. The grass is really thick up there, suggesting that the soil is fairly rich in that parcel of land which has never been tilled as far as we can tell. That means the soil structure has never been disturbed, an interesting thing in this region of farmland managed by the rules that often disturb the natural order of biodiversity.

We had a forecast for rain on Friday evening but the forecast is now showing gorgeous weather for the foreseeable future -- and no rain. Not a drop. Who has ever heard of such a thing out here? Are the vines going to survive without water?  We don't have irrigation set up. Several years ago, you couldn't even buy a sprinkler in Ireland. Things have changed in a hurry.

Alex said over breakfast this morning that he was tired of all the sunshine. He can't allow himself to be inside when it's sunny. That's the hazard of growing up in Ireland. I can't get anything done...if I have to be inside to do it.

Apples getting ready

My new pond

Bud burst bonanza

Pinot Noir bud burst 15-04-2020

Yesterday, the wind went to the south and suddenly our temperatures skyrocketed. We went from winter coats, hats and gloves two days ago to shorts and T-shirts yesterday. Sure enough, we documented bud burst on all varietals planted in our vineyard.

I thought the Rondo looked questionable when Alex took the photo in the morning. When I went into the vineyard to recheck in the afternoon, it had definitely burst. The Chardonnay plants are not looking great and 2 look very questionable. The Albarino are all alive but the buds on them are tiny. Miniscule to be exact. I wonder if the leaves will grow to normal size or not.

I'm really surprised but pleased at how good the Pinot Noir vines look. They are very robust and have substantial buds.

Today the winds have gone northerly again and we're back to very chilly but sunny weather. It has not rained in days and we've been watering the garden but not the vineyard. It's supposed to warm up against tomorrow and rain is forecast for tomorrow night. Let's hope for the best.

Chardonnay bud burst 15-04-2020

Albarino bud burst 15-04-2020 

Rondo bud burst 15-04-2020

Watching for bud burst

Alex was contacted by a company that is keeping track of vineyards and documenting bud burst in vineyards in the British Isles. The first vine to show bud burst in Daria's Vineyard was Solaris and it was reported on the 12th of April. Interestingly, only one vine, the lowest one in the field, demonstrated that. Alex thinks it's because it's at a lower elevation. ;-)

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.