Rain just started falling

It's been weeks since we had any rain. For 8 days in June, not a drop. Not a drop for a couple of weeks before that and things have started dying even with daily watering. But somehow the vineyard has survived. We are to get several mm over the course of today as a result of the fringes of Storm Oscar. But the temperature is also to climb so it may just all evaporate. I don't recall the air ever being so dry here before. 

The kite is flying over the berries and we've had great strawberries so far but the gooseberries are tiny and the leaves have shriveled and dropped. Blueberries are on their way. Raspberries are just beginning to ripen. The vines have still not flowered but I have a feeling they will this week. 

The vine in the polytunnel is doing well with lots of clusters of grapes about pea-sized so far. 

Met Eireann and other leading forecasters have warned that temperatures will only get hotter over the coming days with next week particularly warm.

Temperatures as high as 28C degrees as a humid airmass moves across the country with a high risk of thunderstorms.

It's official, El Niño has arrived.

 

ENSO Update: NOAA blog

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center (CPC) has announced  El Niño conditions are present and are expected to gradually strengthen into the Northern Hemisphere winter 2023-24.

https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/us-cpc-says-el-nino-conditions-present-2023-06-08/

https://twitter.com/i/status/1666940759759630338

Decanter World Wine Awards

Photo: Decanter

How do you even set about evaluating 18,250 wines from 57 countries? Somehow Decanter manages to do it.  The big winner was Australia. For the first time ever, Australia topped the charts with a record 10 Best in Show medals, representing a fifth of all wines awarded this top accolade internationally. 

France and Spain were awarded eight Best in Show medals each, followed by Italy with seven. But in the Platinum category, Italy excelled with 28 wines awarded 97 points. France followed closely behind with 26 and Spain 20. A record three Best in Show medals were awarded to Spain’s Northwest, with recognition for Rías Baixas, Bierzo and Treixadura.

Portugal received three Best in Show, three Platinum and 40 Gold medals, with its fortified wines representing more than half of these. The Portuguese white entries scooped their highest-ever Gold medal tally and, for the first time, more whites than reds – 11 vs 9 – were awarded top medals (Gold, Platinum and Best in Show).

South Africa scored two Best in Show wins, with impressive Platinum and Gold performances.

Argentina's 24 wines were awarded Gold, matching their performance from the previous year. Argentina went on to achieve four Platinum and two Best in Show medals for their Malbecs. Argentina’s Bodega Zuccardi, Brazos De Los Andes Cabernet Franc, Uco Valley, Mendoza 2022 was named a Top Value Gold  in the competition’s new Top 10 Value list (Gold medal-winning wines priced under £15). 

Chile was awarded their first-ever Best in Show and first-ever Platinum awards.

Interestingly, 2023 marks the UK‘s fifth consecutive year to have a UK sparkling featured in the competition’s coveted Best in Show selection. The nation saw a further Platinum and six Gold medals awarded almost exclusively to sparkling wines. 

The US had just one Best in Show win with an entry from Oregon. The US also scored two Platinum Medals for entries from Washington and California. Pennsylvania got its first-ever Medal a Bronze, while a Missouri wine went home with a Silver. 

Canada picked up its first Gold Medal for a sparkling wine from Nova Scotia. 

New Zealand achieved a top medal showing with a Best in Show win alongside four Platinum medals (two Chardonnay and two Pinot Noir wines), plus 27 Golds – only nine of these to New Zealand’s namesake grape, Sauvignon Blanc.

Elsewhere, Serbia won its first-ever Best in Show for a white made from the Grašac grape variety, Slovenia scored 12 Gold medals and 80 Silver, Georgia took one Platinum and six Golds out of the country’s eight, while Croatian wines picked up a record 25 gold medals. Hungary scored three Platinum Awards and Ukraine (God bless them) picked up 37 medals, including their first Platinum Medal.

Israel picked up five Gold Medals while Turkey brought home two Gold Medals. 

Japan picked up a Platinum and four Golds, while China's wines did measurably better than in previous years but did not snatch the top awards. 

It's interesting to note where the wines considered best are being made. The UK's showing is of course encouraging to us as our white Solaris looks ready to produce this year. 

Hot and dry

Our new favourite photo

It's been really hot and dry for weeks now. Even with watering every day, some plants are dying. We haven't watered in the vineyard and so far they are okay. The vines have not flowered yet so I am hopeful they can hang on until the weekend when a break in the heatwave is promised. 

The day before yesterday, we had Pim's on 'the beach' by the pond and watched the bees scooping water ferociously and flying off to the hives. It was too hot without shade and we were in the bees' flight path, so we gave up and went to sit on the porch. Yesterday it was so hot that we decided to have our drinks in the vineyard in the evening shade of the orchard. It was quite cool. I am so grateful that we have shade from the trees, the porch, umbrellas, and now the shed. 

Who in their right mind would have expected Mediterranean conditions in Ireland. It is the 6th of June and the stats show no rain (0 mm) and 17.8 average temperature. That's hotter than we've gotten in July. Everyone is walking around town in their holiday clothes. I've been wearing espadrilles for the first time ever in Ireland. I suppose I'd better learn to enjoy it. 

Oh, and by the way, Australia has now followed NOAA and issued an El Niño alert. They say there's a 70% chance of an El Niño developing before the end of the year. NOAA says more like 90% likelihood. As Australia's criteria are more rigorous than America's, it's a high probability alert. Get ready for accelerating climate change. 

Our little bistro in the vineyard...a bit slopey. 

Everything is growing like crazy

Solaris has a ton of buds

This little guy was almost invisible munching on strawberries

0 mm rain and 17.8 average temps for the 1st week of June

 

Full moon rising

Alex took out some willows and opened the view up

Stunning view from the top

Nice place to rest and contemplate jobs

My red bench at the top of the vineyard

Vanessa grapes feeling the heat 

Strawberries are burning in the polytunnel

Fruit trees holding on in the polytunnel

At least I can get out on the water

How hot is it?

June 3, 2023 was the hottest June 3 globally in the modern satellite era at 16.388°C. Time will tell if this year breaks the modern global record of 16.924°C, set on August 14, 2016.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1665738124213846017 

We were at a scorching 24C today and Dingle reached 26C. Still no rain.  Possibly a bit of rain over the weekend and into Monday. 

Hail damages vineyards in Bordeaux

Diluvian rain, hailstones, and tornadoes left these Bordeaux vines seriously damaged just at the end of flowering. The storms were not predicted and 50 mm of rain fell in 10 minutes as a tornado spun across the vineyards. Estimates are that 50-60% of the crop was lost near the epicenter of the storm. The buildings seem to have been spared. 

Carbon capture from fermentation?

 

Breweries are starting to capture carbon — from beer. They are using techniques developed by NASA to capture the naturally produced CO2 and dissolve the molecules into their products. They normally buy CO2 to make the white froth on beer, but with this technology, they can reduce their purchase of carbon by capturing what's released in fermentation and putting it back into the beer. One brewery has done the math and it adds up. 

I was thinking that putting the CO2 back into wine would make it fizzy like a sparkling wine. But it seems they do it naturally.