Update on vineyard progress

 

Rondo with florets

Everything is so late this year. The Rondo has flower buds but none of the others do yet. The Albarino has suffered greatly over this winter. None of the vines are happy and quite a few look dead. I think the late cold snap did them in. 

May was cold and wet in Ireland according to Met Eireann's May Report. All rainfall totals were above their Long-Term Average (LTA) for the month. All mean air temperatures across the country were below their Long-Term Average for the month. Most long-standing stations had their coldest May since at least 1996. This is counterintuitive as all available sunshine totals were above their Long-Term Average (LTA). Who knows?

Overall Spring 2021 was relatively dry, sunny and cool, with a cool and sunny but dry March and April, and a wet May.

Water remains pooled over cement 2 days after rain. 

In fact, the day after the polytunnel went up, it rained solidly all day and half the tunnel flooded. The water coming off the tunnel pooled and flowed into the tunnel. Now, Alex has to put in a drain, for which he has started digging. Fortunately, the rainwater softened the earth and I was able to rake the soil a bit more evenly where the cement vehicle had left hideous muddy tire tracks dug into the soil. 

The last couple of days, we've spent breaking up and collecting the excess cement that had spilled on the floors around the posts. We'll use the rubble to fill the trench 

New drain diverting water downhill. 

The rain came off the tunnel and into the inside. 

Drainpipe that's been lying around waiting for this project for years. 

Polytunnel is complete

A very good size and yet inconspicuous. 

Three days of labour and the polytunnel is finished. Next, we will bring electricity and water to the tunnel. For that, we need the digger to dig us a trench from the house supply. I must say, Cathal and Alex did a great job. And the quality of the materials is exceptionally good. 

Naturally, it was the hottest day of the year and if it wasn't for the slight breeze, it would have been too hot to work. Alex drank litres of water. Fortunately, the breeze was not too strong or it would have been impossible for the two of them to handle a sail that big. 

Ghost has walked the entire perimeter several times and helped me clear stones from inside. She's fascinated. She was very helpful in supervising construction the entire time. 

Now to level the ground where it was disturbed and set it up inside. We have to buy a transport vehicle to move all the equipment up. 

I checked to see from the road if it can be seen behind the garage and it's almost invisible. Now we'll just plant a few fast growing trees above the wall behind the house and we won't even be able to see it from the house soon. 

Can't see it from the garden

There it is behind the garage. 

Growing nuts

Acorns on the oak tree. 

I was walking past a plant at the garden centre and its tag caught my attention. "Are You Nuts?" was the question posed. Naturally, I had to investigate. It turned out to be the name of a company that sells nut trees. A walnut!  I have wanted to plant a walnut tree for ages and we have enough land that we can easily accommodate a large tree under which nothing will grow.  In Ireland, only three nut trees are viable:  hazelnut (we have two), chestnut (we have several), and walnut (we now have one). So we will be set - possibly in our lifetimes.  

I walked out with the plant. It was only €5 and it was only a few inches tall. But I am happy to wait. I repotted it and it's in the nursery for several years to come. We plan to place it in the middle of the field above the new polytunnel with a fence around it so the donkeys don't eat it. As it grows bigger and bigger, nothing below it will grow except grass. No problem. 

I've always loved a lone tree in the middle of a field. I have often wondered what the story was behind the lone trees of the world. 

I'm hoping for hazelnuts this year as one is more than 5 years old and the other about 3. The chestnuts are still in pots but ready to be planted out this year, so it will be a few more years before they fruit. I was surprised to learn that all three nut trees have both male and female flowers. I always thought they needed one male, one female plant which is why we have two hazels not that I know if one is female and another male. The same goes for kiwis. In fact, I had noted last year that the older tree had both flowers and catkins, which I assumed was the male component. 

Surprisingly, just this morning I found an oak tree we had planted a few years back had a few acorns for the first time. The squirrels in America loved the acorns and would squirrel them away every autumn. Squirrels are apparently great thieves of all nuts but sadly we don't have any -- squirrels that is. If we did, we'd likely share, although Alex did wage war with the clever squirrels when we lived in America. 

So what does this have to do with wine?  Nothing at all, except edible landscape. And nuts always go well with wine. 

Polytunnel progress report

 

Steel poles, crossbars and door frame in place. 

Considerable progress was made quickly on day three of the polytunnel construction project. Cathal and Alex worked well together and were very complimentary about the quality of the materials supplied by  'D-Plant Horticulture'. It is a superbly manufactured and assembled polytunnel kit. We are very pleased so far. 

Alex brought in a contractor we have worked with on many projects in the past to level the site and help with the construction. He was so impressed with the quality of the materials, how they were presented, and the detailed instruction booklet and excellent videos, that his girlfriend’s father has either already ordered one or will be doing so very shortly – he is expecting to be constructing it in the next weeks.

They levelled the site, dug the holes for the posts, and inserted the posts on the first day. They then poured the concrete in torrential rain on the second day. Alex was surprised that the rain would allow the cement to set but they weren't worried and it did set. I was worried that Ghost, our young cat, who had been running around the construction site and in and out of the holes the day before, would fall into the concrete and get stuck. Fortunately, that did not happen. 

Three days later, they erected the frames, put up the ridgepole, diagonals, door frames, and applied the tape. The only things left are to install the polythene and the doors. One more day should do it. 

Once again, we are having a day of heavy rain and Alex is out on the Bay with BIM doing oyster surveys for the Co-op, so no more construction until at least Sunday. 

Steel poles are in place. 

Site levelled and concrete poured into the holes to cement in the posts.

Lots of rain on top of the concrete.

 

Construction of polytunnel has begun

 

Let the levelling begin! A wonderful contractor has sent his son to level our field. If you remember the photos from my previous post, there's a gentle slope which just won't do for a 12-metre polytunnel. So the digger went to work and in short time had done an exceptional job moving a bit of earth from one side to the other and tamping it down well. Ghost had to be in the middle of it; she made friends with Cathal who was greatly amused by her antics, especially her speciality of throwing rocks up into the air and catching them on the way down. 

Tomorrow, the cement arrives to secure the posts into the earth so the thing doesn't fly away. The holes are precisely dug. When the cement sets, we can start assembly. I am psyched. 

The polytunnel will have raised beds on one side and will house my peach tree, Haas avocado, and citrus tree. We will have a table and chairs for inclement weather relaxation.  The rest will house our winemaking equipment and mowing/harvesting stuff as well as apple press. Maybe we'll even manage to get our garage back. We'll see. 

Also my herons have arrived as bird deterrents for the orchard and vineyard. They are actually quite beautiful in verdigris patina. Right now adorning the pond as there is no fruit to protect yet but there are tadpoles in the pond so we'll leave the lawn ornaments protecting the froglets. 

Proof of terroir

Screen capture of Bodega Catena Zapata website. 

A study from the Catena Institute of Wine in Argentina finds chemical evidence that the soils in which a vine grows leave an indelible stamp on the wine. A new study*, published in Nature's Scientific Reports journal in February and led by winemaker Roy Urvieta, using techniques Fernando Buscema - the Bodega Catena Zapata winemaker and director of the Catena Institute of Wine - developed, suggests that it is possible to identify the vineyard from which a wine comes based on the wine’s chemical composition. He identified 27 volatile and phenolic compounds to measure and focused on Malbec. 

Of the 23 vineyard sites studied in the Mendoza region, 11 could be identified with 100% accuracy, while the remaining 12 were identified with up to 83% certainty. In all, 201 wines from three recent vintages were analyzed. The researchers hope that understanding Argentina’s soils and how vines incorporate elements will help winemakers elevate the quality of Malbec and influence its reputation. It will help vintners better understand what differentiates their wines and perhaps contribute to the understanding of how a maturing vineyard absorbs changes in terroir. In other words, if terroir can be quantified, then perhaps it can also be improved or exploited. Imposters could easily be exposed as well. 

On April 1, 2020, Catena Zapata was named Drinks International World's Most Admired Wine Brand 2020. I've admired them since I read Vineyard at the End of the World and tasted their extraordinary wines. Congratulations Nicolás Catena Zapata and daughter Laura and all the people who make Bodega Catena Zapata what it is. 

Wine Spectator explores the ramifications.  

*Urvieta, R., Jones, G., Buscema, F. et al. Terroir and vintage discrimination of Malbec wines based on phenolic composition across multiple sites in Mendoza, Argentina. Sci Rep 11, 2863 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82306-0

Drought in California, again!

The U.S. Drought Monitor map shows the entire Bay Area in extreme drought conditions as of May 4, 2021.

U.S. Drought Monitor

The San Francisco Bay area has gone from severe to extreme drought in just two weeks. 

Wells are drying up in the San Joachin Valley because of less snow in the Sierra Nevada. 

Sonoma County supervisors declared a drought emergency and vineyards in the Alexander Valley are scaling back crop production. 

North Coast wineries are preparing for another wildfire season. 

My heart bleeds for the people who worked so hard to establish such a wonderful legacy of creating the nectar of the gods. But what's the solution?  It will only continue to get worse most likely until California suffers the ultimate disaster. And yet people continue to plant more crops and expand into new territories whether it makes sense or not. And their places burn yet they rebuild. I suppose if the insurance pays, they have to. 

Reservoirs are running low and there are no conservation measures in place. And it's only May. I fear what the summer will bring.