Viticulture in Ireland

Saturday, 1 January 2022

Happy New Year!

Wishing all my friends and family around the world a healthy and happy new year. Don't look back!

from

Here are the monthly stats for climate to the year-end. There is a consistent trend for temperature climbing upward over the past few years. December ended with an average amount of rainfall, but temperatures were at 7.6C more than a degree higher than Long Term Average (LTA) 6.5C. At 1725 mm for the year, we had more rainfall than the LTA 1607. At 10.9C, our average temperature for the year was higher than the LTA 10.3C.

We open the New Year with a gale today. Wind gusts up to 80 knots overnight kept me awake much of the night. The whole house was shaking as it is a SWerly gale - the direction in which we are most exposed. The MSC anemometer showed gusts over 77 knots (89 mph or 143 kph). The worst is now past us but it makes for an unpleasant beginning to 2022 (which sounds very science fiction).

MONTHLY VALUES FOR NEWPORT UP TO 31-DEC-2021

Total rainfall in millimetres for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
-999	n/a
2021	225.6	147.6	141.1	45.6	113.5	64.1	59.7	155.6	137.0	265.7	183.3	186.8	1725.6
2020	139.5	342.8	178.2	25.5	54.7	164.5	187.9	137.9	153.4	228.0	206.6	232.7	2051.7
2019	146.8	115.0	228.5	100.7	112.5	76.6	82.7	228.9	175.5	160.7	148.1	220.6	1796.6
LTA	166.7	126.5	141.2	96.8	94.7	89.7	100.9	132.5	131.5	176.0	170.4	180.2	1607.1

Mean temperature in degrees Celsius for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
-999	n/a
2021	5.0	6.7	7.9	9.0	10.4	13.3	17.5	16.4	15.2	11.9	9.3	7.6	10.9
2020	7.2	6.0	6.6	11.0	12.8	13.8	14.4	16.0	13.8	10.5	9.1	6.1	10.6
2019	6.9	8.4	7.9	10.2	11.7	13.1	16.3	15.5	13.7	10.3	7.1	7.1	10.7
LTA	6.1	6.1	7.3	9.0	11.5	13.8	15.4	15.4	13.5	10.8	8.3	6.5	10.3

Mean 10cm soil temperature for NEWPORT at 0900 UTC

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2022	5.6												-214748368.0
2021	3.6	5.0	6.8	8.2	10.9	14.3	17.9	16.3	15.2	11.3	8.6	6.6	10.4
2020	5.7	4.7	5.4	9.7	13.0	14.8	14.9	16.3	13.7	9.5	8.0	5.1	10.1
2019	6.1	6.1	6.8	8.9	12.2	13.8	16.7	15.7	13.5	9.4	6.2	5.6	10.1
LTA	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Global Solar Radiation in Joules/cm2 for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
-999	n/a
2021	6620	13347	20370	45694	55690	45488	49455	40490	22413	16358	7235	3780	326940
2020	6263	10808	24545	46192	58476	43537	40215	40555	25558	18487	6319	5209	326164
2019	5378	10595	21306	37648	49884	49607	45395	37116	26460	17406	8167	4766	313728
LTA	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Potential Evapotranspiration (mm) for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
-999	n/a
2021	7.6	22.9	30.7	62.9	76.3	70.7	87.8	67.5	38.3	25.1	14.1	14.6	518.5
2020	17.6	21.9	35.0	70.2	91.6	72.9	66.2	66.4	42.7	28.1	13.6	10.4	536.6
2019	13.4	21.5	35.4	60.4	79.0	78.2	79.5	62.9	42.8	29.2	14.8	14.3	531.4
LTA	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Evaporation (mm) for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
-999	n/a
2021	10.9	32.1	45.4	89.9	111.2	102.0	117.2	93.5	52.1	34.7	18.6	19.1	726.7
2020	22.4	31.9	51.8	98.9	130.8	104.8	94.3	92.7	59.1	38.8	18.1	13.6	757.2
2019	17.7	29.5	52.0	87.3	111.6	112.8	109.6	88.8	59.9	39.6	18.9	17.9	745.6
LTA	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

DEGREE DAYS BELOW 15.5 DEGREE CELSIUS FOR NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Total
2021	325	247	236	200	167	79	20	23	40	114	187	245	1883
2020	257	276	275	143	111	73	55	31	71	156	193	291	1935
2019	266	200	235	165	130	89	27	36	67	164	251	262	1892
2018	298	306	309	194	104	50	31	44	100	147	215	230	2027

Notes on the Data

Evaporation and PE data are calculated using Penman/Monteith formulae.
The ‘LTA’ (referred to within a table) is average for the climatological long-term-average (LTA) reference period 1981-2010.
Data updated daily at Mid-day.

OPEN DATA

CUMULATIVE RAINFALL GRAPHS

TEMPERATURE DEPARTURES FROM LTA

Friday, 31 December 2021

The pruning continues

Alex has done a fine job on the first 10 vines that are now 6 years old. They really grew a lot last year. You can see from the piles of cuttings how much had to be removed from the lot.

I went out to continue pruning the Solaris vines that are now 4 years old. They grew quite a lot, too, this year. Most have reached the top of the support posts. It's quite satisfying to cut them back. But every time I go out, it soon starts to rain and I stop, especially since Ghost complains.

The last sunrise of 2021. Don't look back.

Thursday, 30 December 2021

Getting creative when labour is in short supply

When our vineyard is in full production, we will no longer be able to harvest or prune everything ourselves. We will need help. I found this article about Britain's labour shortages post-Brexit quite interesting. Particularly the bit about people getting creative about what constitutes labour. At first, they were panicking about not being able to pick the crops in time. Then they started to think outside the norms.

I especially found the idea of inviting neighbours and friends to help in exchange for a bottle of wine here and there quite lovely. You work the fields with your pals, you teach kids about growing things and harvesting, and you give them what they want - not money but the product. I love this idea. It could be the beginning of the cooperative winery concept.

Our neighbours are all quite keen to learn something new and experience it first hand. We'll have to give it some thought.