Pruning the Pinot Noir

The weather has finally turned toward summer, days later than it reached the east and south coasts. While the farrier was with the donkeys, I finished pruning the row of Pinot Noir. A few of the vines are struggling but some are very vigorous with lots of flower buds. Let's hope they flower this week with the heat and set their fruit.  Whether or not they reach maturity and ripeness remains to be seen, but its very exciting. 

In addition, one Chardonnay vine has loads of tiny flower bud bunches. If they have flowers and sets, too, I'll be in heaven. I'll work on pruning the Chardonnay next. It's not doing as well as the Pinot Noir.

Meanwhile, southern Europe -- Spain, France, Italy and Greece are on fire, as is the US east coast. I'll never complain about the cool temps again. It was hot in the vineyard today. At one point, I could see the fog roll in over Croagh Patrick, low-lying at first, and then it obliterated the view of the Holy Mountain altogether. Never came our way.

A new Mayo vineyard

Today we visited Brendan Edgeworth's new vineyard in Aghagower. It was just planted this year atop a one-hectare plot Brendan inherited from his uncle. He is rewilding most of the land but cleared a small plot to plant a vineyard. He's got many ponds dug on the property, surrounded by tall trees. 

Brendan lives in Australia but comes to Ireland twice a year and plans to spend several months here each year when his wife retires. He and his friends came to visit our vineyard last week. They were finally convinced he's not crazy. He thinks his wife still thinks he is. So do we, and that's how we like it!

Pruning is time consuming

Alex has been pruning for weeks now. I started with the old vines but then didn't manage to get back to it until yesterday. I started on the Pinot Noir yesterday as the vines finally have a good number of inflorescences. Not flowering yet, but enough growth to need pruning. As I got excited about possibly having Pinot grapes this year, I took to that row with enthusiasm. 

The first four vines were really encouraging with many flower bunches and lots of excessive growth. They have very predictable patterns, with two bunches on most fruiting shoots, possibly with a third minor one on a tendril and, if not, then a tendril with a leaf. The tendrils on some were massive. I counted 3-4 leaves past the two bunches and removed the third minor bunch or tendril with leaf. I tried to identify potential new cordons and tie them down. 

By the 5th vine, the flowering had subsided, and by the 6th, there were none and parts of the primary cordons were dead. I got as far as the 7th when the vineyard got a bit damp. Strange weather we've been having. The east is having a heat wave -- 25C, while we are having cool drizzly days. Today was quite humid so we have to keep a lookout for mildew. 

Alex bought SB Plant Invigorator on Andrew's recommendation. I researched its mechanism of action as I didn't like the idea of spraying with something that kills all the major pests and tackles mildew effectively, plus acts as a foliar nutrient. But it seems legit. The SB Plant Invigorator is a combination of nontoxic biodegradable surfactants that work mechanically to stifle pests. Very effective against mildews. It also strengthens the foliage for max photosynthesis. Sounds fruitful. So I guess we'll try it. 

Now I have to make Dolmas, Greek stuffed grape leaves. I have a recipe that I'm already modifying. 

We have this week, and then we go to a wedding in Neenagh, after which we have family coming to visit from America. Happy 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

 

More visitors

Brendan, who has a small vineyard he recently planted with Rondo in Aughagower, came to see us again this week with four friends. We walked the land and talked about how to naturalise and how to prune vines. I showed them the winery operation and offered Bredan the use of the equipment when he eventually gets a crop. They were very nice gents. We'll be going over to visit Brendan before he returns to NZ on Wednesday. 

I'm trying to get the monthly data for June analysed, but the Met Eireann website's Monthly Data page is not working. I did write to them to ask if they're having a problem. We apparently have another heatwave on the way, but it doesn't feel like it at the moment. The US East Coast is burning up with temps into the 100s and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence events being cancelled. 

Alex sprayed the vineyard preemptively today. We had signs of early mildew infestation. He used an "organically approved" mix of  4g potassium bicarb, 2g Curenox, 1ml Castille soap per litre as directed by Andrew Watson. Let's hope it works. Now we have to get cracking on the pruning.

 

 

Some grapevines are finally flowering

 

The Rondo grapes, both the older ones and the young ones, are finally flowering. There are plenty of insects to assist with pollination, though it's not required. 

The Solaris is not yet flowering, but it's looking promising. The Pinot Noir has small florets that are farther behind. We may need a few more years of climate change to prompt them to act, but at least our vines will be mature enough to respond quickly. Unlike commercial cultivators who need reliable income today, we can afford to wait. 

We attended a garden walk and lunch at Tilled Earth, Klaus Leitenberger's new edible garden project. He's striving to grow 1000 edible plants. There is a medicinal section, a vegetable section, an herb garden, an orchard and a forest. It was very interesting, and lunch was tasty and a good experience. He's going to come visit wth his son, the chef, who wants to get some grape leaves for his Greek kitchen. 

Explaining the Hügelkultur

Beautiful fireplace with tempered glass

Lovely little glass house for tomatoes and cukes

The new walled garden. 

Donkeys beside the vineyard. They all gave me a hug for my birthday!

Another pruning session with Andrew

Monday we met Andrew for a session of summer pruning. The goal was to reduce the foliage to allow the sunlight on and to reduce the bunches of grapes if they are growing too close together pr too many bunches to be effectively sustained. We also wanted to nop the tip growth leaving three leaves after the grape bunches to sustain them. 

We removed a lot of foliage. Andrew said we need to see the sky from below our vines. Then the grapes will too. Once again, we learned a lot. 

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Waiting for the flower show

 

Rondo

We've been waiting for the flowers to open, but nothing has yet. Today was a gorgeous day, and the weekend is going to be really nice, so I expect we will get flowers sometime in the next two days. 

The exciting part is that the Pinot Noir has bunches forming for the first time. Whether they can reach ripeness remains to be seen. But when climate change reaches 2C above the LTA, we'll be ready, or rather, our vines will be.  

We have strated pruning but I have to stop Alex from taking too much off. He keeps trying to remove all but one bunch per branch. That's what Andrew was on to him about at the last session but he keeps drifting to this notion that he needs to cut it all off. 

Pinot Noir. 

Pinot Noir looking healthy. 

Meanwhile in the polytunnel things are humming along. The grapes that were supposed to be Vanessa but are concord are progressing rapidly. The Albarino grapes on the plant by the potting bench are looking very good. The Black Hamburg are still tiny.