Studying winemaking

I just found the perfect course for me, a MSc in Sustainable Viticulture and Oenology. It's exactly what I would have wanted to study. But it's in Milan, which would be okay except I don't live in Italy, I live in Ireland. Can you imagine studying with 21-year-olds at 68? Yes, I can. But I cannot just move to Italy for two years. 

I have written to them to ask if they have a distance learning option or at least a combination option whereby I could go for short period of in-person with online study in between. As we have flights to Milan from Knock, I could be a commuter student. 

I satisfy the entrance criteria as I speak English and have a bachelor's degree in Biology. How cool would that be?

I think this could potentially get me out of my funk. I have lost interest in everything else including writing and sailing. Is this my next iteration?

When to harvest?

The busiest and most crucial period in our vineyard has begun. I have seen grapes changing colour and so veraison is underway. But how do we know when is the optimal time to pick? And what should we be doing now to prepare for harvest?  

Most winegrowers in addition to the obvious signs, their “instinct”, and the interest of wild animals especially birds, also take into account measurements of sugar, tartaric acid (TA) as well as the pH of the grapes. Since these measurements differ for different varieties and the micro-climate of each vineyard, each winegrape grower should know her ripe grapes' optimal values. According to some literature, the optimal levels for red wines are Brix: 22, TA: 0.75, pH: 3,4; and for the white grapes Brix: 20, TA: 0.7 and pH: 3.2. This I will have to develop as I monitor annual harvests. Eventually, I'll need to buy a pH and TA tester. 

I have not tested before and, as a result, we lost our first tiny harvest to birds, our second harvest was spot on and our third harvest was too early. So I finally bought a refractometer, one of the most common tools for winegrowers to measure the amount of sugar in the grapes. I have used it to measure the sugar content at the various stages of wine maturation and it's pretty easy. What I need to do is start measuring now so that I have an indicator of increasing sugar content. Here's a good article to refresh knowledge about how to read a refractometer and more. 

Aside from monitoring grape ripeness, I will also be monitoring the weather and the appearance of diseases and pests. Botrytis becomes especially problematic after the grapes attain 8% sugar content. As we are an organic and natural vineyard without use of pesticides or other chemicals, I will have to remove anything that is affected immediately. That requires daily vigilance in the vineyard from now until harvest. 

I'll have to prepare all the tools and equipment as well and clear space for working. We really need a shed for the winemaking, as we've outgrown the house. 

Meanwhile, Spain has reported its earliest harvest ever. 

Carlsberg reveals new fiber bottle

Danish beer maker, Carlsberg, has been working with partner Avantium to create a bio-based fibre bottle that is fully recyclable and produces 80% less CO2 than a disposable glass bottle. They introduced their new bottle at SailGP to get input from thirsty sailors. They say it would decompose completely in compost within a year. 

I'm not sure I'd want to drink from the bottle, given that I really dislike the texture of paper straws. And I'm not sure how it would work for wine, but I imagine you could make interesting surface designs and perhaps even print the bottle completely. You cannot see the liquid within, which I'd say could be a detriment for wine lovers. Yet, to reduce carbon footprint, not only in the manufacture of glass but also I imagine in lower transport costs, might outweigh any negatives. 

I applaud the effort. 

New climate science feature

 

You can now see how the temperature has changed over the decades in your region via the new Google Climate Science Center. In County Mayo, that's us, the average annual temperature has, according to NOAA figures, increased by about 1.25 degrees. At this rate, we should reach the Galician average from 1950 very soon or may have already reached it. 

From a paper titled 'State of Climate in NW Iberia' August 2011, Climate Research 48(2-3):109-144:

"It is very likely that both maximum and minimum land temperature have increased at the annual scale
since 1974 at a mean rate on the order of 0.5°C/decade. This behaviour is especially marked for
maximum temperature in spring and summer, and for minimum temperature in spring, summer and
autumn."

It's a good thing we are learning how to make wine. We're gonna need it when the heat hits the fan. 

Rain!

End poles are braced

The heatwave finally broke a couple of days ago and we had three partial days of rain. This morning it was coming down in buckets. You can feel the earth sigh with relief. With the earth a bit softer again, Alex was able to install the braces for the end poles and cement them in. 

We lost two vines to the heat and drought, both Chardonnay. I will root cuttings from the five year old vines. It seems that just sticking them in the ground works just fine. Forget about rootstock. The other vines have suffered a bit -- a few shrivelled leaves here and there -- but overall not too bad. I'm just glad we didn't have the conditions they had on the continent. Horrible sudden storms, over 220 kph winds, destructive hail, and torrential rain tore from Spain across the Med and into Italy and Austria. The rest of the continent is suffering from drought and heat -- the Danube is down 5 feet, Lake Como is unrecognizable. Many crops were destroyed by either drought or storms. It is feeling apocalyptic. 

Meanwhile, our grapes are now increasing in size and the Rondo continues to turn red. The Pinot Noir are still tiny and fuzzy, I'm not certain what that means. I hope it's not fungus, but the dry weather would indicate not. The Chardonnay have a few clusters, so we will mix whites this year. The Solaris are coming along but not in huge quantities as expected. All in all, it's pretty remarkable. 

I told our story to a woman from Harvard named Sinéad O'Connor, who comes home to Ireland and writes for The Currency. She is writing about the vineyards in Ireland. She heard about us from Colm McCan who teaches about wine at the Ballymaloe cookery school and has a small vineyard in East Cork close to Cloyne. The word is getting out. I guess now we need to start making serious wine. 

View over what looks like a vineyard now

View from the new picnic platform

Dead Chardonnay vine

Sun dappled leaves

View from the East

Monkey puzzle log bee hive

Rondo looking good

2 yo Pinot Noir vines bearing fruit

Chardonnay - very small

7 yo Solaris

4 yo Solaris - drought damage to leaves

More Rondo - veraison has begun!

Fire damage to ancient vines in Crete

Devastation in Crete

Pre-phylloxera vines that were not grafted onto American rootstock were severely damaged in a tragic fire that raged across the island of Crete last week. About 300 vines were burnt in an area that four decades ago had more than 700 acres of old vines, most of which were destroyed by wildfires over the last 20 years, resulting in the abandonment of viticulture and wine production in the area.

Young winemaker Iliana Malihin decided to rescue the remaining vines in 2019. She invested her own money in facilities and convinced growers in the region to bring her their grapes. She created five wine labels to acclaim, and now everything is gone, including the homes of many of the people. 

Iliana was also working to get UNESCO support for the ungrafted vines as world heritage. She has set up a crowdfunding campaign to rebuild the winery; she has high hopes that, because the vines were not irrigated, they have extremely deep roots that may recover. They are starting to see signs of leafing already. But it will take 5 years of tending without revenue to recover. 

The question is do ungrafted vines change the taste of the grapes and the wine? It's a question Decanter undertook to answer but I do not yet have a subscription so I couldn't access the full article. You would think that different roots would contribute to the expression of the terroir. But the 'experts' don't all agree. Some say that because rootstock can affect the vigor, yield, and elemental uptake from the soil, the taste should vary. Others say you wouldn't really notice the difference. 

Instead, they say to select the rootstock to the quality of the soil. I think the only rootstock supplied to us was SO4, so we don't have much choice. But we have stuck sections of vine in the ground where vines have died and they are growing. So perhaps we will see. 

A vine reaches 'adulthood' at around seven or eight years of age. A 'mature' grapevine is said to be anywhere from 12–25 years old. 'Old vines' are usually more than 25 years old. The oldest vine in the world is reputed to be in Slovenia and is almost 500 years old and still producing grapes. Do old vines make a difference?  I don't think we will find out in our lifetimes. 

Then there is the POV that own-root vines are important because the winemakers cultivating them think so. If they think the vines are special, then they will make the effort to make the wines special. I like that idea. 

We are not irrigating to get our vines' roots to grow deep in search of water and unique terroir. Maybe that will be their salvation one day. 

Heat wave - again!

It's Monday the 15th and the heat wave has finally broken. It was hot, dry and still. We had at least 5 days (more I think) in the high 20s and on Thursday, the thermometer in my car read 30C as I drove home from Old Head and Louisburg. I had lunch at Tia by the Sea and walked the beach at Old Head. I was very glad to have air conditioning in my car. The heat broke the old record high when it topped 37.5C in Carlow. That's hot. 

Newport Furnace registered a high of 28.5C for the week on Friday. It was scorching. Everyone says now that it's climate change but Alex remembers summers like this in the '70s when he had to ferry jerry cans of water to the islands for the cattle. We've had no rain for ages and the grapevines are parched and getting burnt by the sun. 

The Rondo is already starting to turn colour. That would make it a very early veraison. We have quite a few Pinot Noir vines producing clusters so that's very interesting. Many vines have already reached their max height. We may have a taste of Chardonnay. We'll have very little Solaris, the grape we planted the most of. 

The work on the main structure of the trellis is done and now you can actually see the trellis from the road. Alex still has to put the wires in, but that he can do over the winter. No rush to do it now as we will just be pruning the vines all back to the main trunk. It really does look like a vineyard. 

Cahill did a lovely job and even levelled out a seating area in the top corner. It will be excellent for wine tastings someday if we make it that far. 

Ghostie christening the picnic spot

Telephone poles and steel cross beams are in

Land above cleared and leveled for safety

Now we need the support wires

It's looking like a vineyard

Looking toward the picnic spot

Lovely views

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir suffering in heat

Rondo starting veraison

Rondo turning red