

A chronicle of our preposterous journey to grow wine grapes and make wine in the west of Ireland, where the mountains come down to the sea along the Wild Atlantic Way.
It's the 21st of May, and we have blue sky with a few puffball clouds floating by. It's very warm and I am watering every day, but not the vineyard. It's holding up well, given that we haven't had more than a few drops of rain all month. We're forecast to get plenty of rain on Saturday and high winds with more rain on Sunday, so it looks like this is the last of the fine weather.
It's hot and sunny with a gentle breeze. 25C is about 77F, but it feels more like 80s in the sun. We are the warmest spot in the country. No rain in the forecast until Friday. The vines are fine so far, but everything else needs watering daily. Several places have alerts for water conservation, but not us yet.
We went to our second 'Heard it through the Grapevine' session with Andrew, the gardener at Turlough House. It was beneficial, and we learned a lot about this stage of pruning. We cut back tendrils, removed weak and non-productive branches, and shortened the length of new growth to several leaves after the bunches of grapes. On some of the grape bunches, we removed the shoulder batch -- the last batch at the top of the bunch, which is always behind the rest in development. It's a survival mechanism. They hold back development in case some catastrophe befalls the main bunch. There will then still be some fruit produced later than normal. Removing that batch strengthens the rest and makes them grow bigger.
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Old vine before pruning |
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Old vine after pruning |
All in all, it's been a fun pastime.
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25-26C in our neck of the woods |
The new gates are up, the hedgerow is planted and watered, and the fence is in place. Alex has started reducing the number of bunches and nipping the buds. I'm just wandering around. We have our next session of the pruning workshop at Turlough House on Saturday.
Still no rain and there's no rain, no clouds, no wind in the forecast for at least the next week. Looks like it's time to get the kayak in the water.
According to Met Éireann's climate report, we've had only 0.8 mm of rain in May so far. The temperature, at an average of 12.8°c, has been higher than the long-term average but lower than the prior two years, despite feeling hotter. Shorts, T-shirts and sandals are the deal this week.
We walked the vineyard and the land with Cormac and Louise, our nephew and his partner, yesterday and explained a lot of what's going on. They are very interested in helping with the vineyard work. They've just returned from a sabbatical trip around the world. They'll be away for another 6 weeks in Spain and France and then back to work. It's nice to know they have an interest.
The sloe hedge is planted and the new fence and gates erected. Another fruit to add to the collection.
Today was a perfect day. Not too hot, not too cold, not too sunny, not too wet, not too windy, not too anything. Just right! Alex spent the day rehanging gates and finishing the planting of the new blackthorn hedge. I hope we have lots of sloes for sloe gin. Another concoction to add to our collection. So far we have white wine, red wine, apple cider, mead, and now sloes. I also made elderflower cordial and apple juice for the nonalcoholic crowd.
The vineyard is coming along great despite the lack of rain. As Alex was digging, six inches down was moist. We are fortunate in that regard. The groundwater table is quite high here.
I spent the day pulling weeds, cutting back the NZ flax, and transporting and watering plants in between doing laundry, which I do every Monday. I also took the time to walk the land with Mini and Ghostie in tow. Mini talked the entire time and Ghostie had the zoomies all the way. I'm so glad those two have forged an unusual May-Sep kitty bond.
It's the 9th of May and we still have 0.0 mm of rain to date with none forecast for days to come. At least today we have some clouds, and Met Éireann said some places in the Northwest may get showers. So far, nada.
The vines look good despite the lack of rain, and the inflorescence is progressing, but the buds have not yet flowered. In contrast, Vanessa in the polytunnel already has grapes forming. It has been in the 40s in the polytunnel and very hard to work in there.
Paeder and Liam, our new donkey boys, pals for Bruce, arrived today. They were abandoned and found with hooves that had curled up dramatically, but likely not abused. They are said to have very gentle demeanour. They are smaller than Ursula, which is great. It will take time for everyone to get used to each other, us included. The family is now complete.
And we have a new Pope. Pope Leo, an Augustinian born in Chicago and lived in Peru for many years of which he is a citizen as well, is the first American Pope. The Conclave lasted only two days. There is hope in the world again. We'll make wine in his honour this year. But it's hard to accept that I am older than the Pope, as traditionally they have been ancient.