Pressing the red Rondo

 

It was wet and stormy today so we decided the press and rack the Rondo must. Fermentation stopped a while ago. The hydropress worked very well this time leaving behind relatively dry dregs. We got about 12.5 litres of juice which we transferred to two demijohns, two litre bottles and one 750 ml bottle. To finish and clarify. There was a good deal of particulate matter in the juice. 

It concerns me that we had a Brix reading of 8 (1.035 SG) which would translate to only 4% potential alcohol. It certainly smelled and tasted like it had more alcohol. But I tested with the refractometer as well as the hydrometer with similar results. 

The white Solaris has clarified beautifully and should be bottled soon. It's a lovely golden colour. 

Rain and storms

Friday was a day of deluges. It was bucketing in Castlebar. We had 12.8 mm of rain here, mainly within 2 hours of mid-day. 

Saturday was a beautiful day but Sunday, Storm Ashley was to bring lots of wind and rain overnight, a lull, and then lots of wind and rain in the afternoon. Let's hope the super high tides and storm surge aren't overwhelming. They were expecting a 12.5-metre swell. OMG! That's 41 feet. 

What we actually had was a lot of wind with Storm Ashley. The power went out at about 1:30 am. I slept through the nighttime surge. I stayed indoors throughout the day. Our gusts topped out at 79.9 knots (92 mph). Many trees were downed and roads closed. The tide came up the driveway about halfway to our gate. That's a significant storm surge. They measured significant wave height at 19.5 metres (64 feet) off our coast here, which was significantly more than predicted. 

The good news in the aftermath is that we had little damage. A broken tile on the roof. Some scattered furniture even though it was stowed behind the house. Overturned pots. But the polytunnel and shed are fine. No sign of the donkeys so they must be sheltering on the North side. Haven't gotten to Aleria to check on her yet but she's still there on her mooring, which is a good sign. 

In the vineyard, we had a couple of broken supports. The vines are intact but desiccated. Otherwise, there is nothing major to report. The windows of the house are covered in salt so the salt spray must have showered the vineyard, now part of next year's terroir. 

We were without power for 36.5 hours. We had our BYD Seal named Selkie powering the house. First the fridge, then mobiles, flashlights, lamps, and computers. It worked brilliantly. She came with a power cable that lets us use her huge battery to power household appliances. We were pleased that after 24 hours, she was down only 7% of battery capacity. We had the generator I bought at Lidl one impulsive day several years ago powering the vineyard fridge up in the shed. Overall, we were very pleased at our new capacity to cope self-sufficiently. Resilience is key to climate adaptation. 

Thanks to ESB, we are now back on the mains. Dishwasher overloaded and running, laundry running, showers about to be had. Sleet dumping on the windows. The new normal. 

Young Solaris are fine

Rondo dried out

Albarino not happy

Generator cooling vineyard supplies fridge

Polytunnel okay

Salt covered windows

Salt spray on the windows

The line of chestnut trees were stripped of most of their leaves
but are now providing good cover for the vineyard

Ghostie supervising as always

House running on Selkie's battery

Morning cloud

Not too bad

Calmish morning, but still gusting in the 30s.

Pinot Noir

Ahead of Storm Ashley, due in on Sunday with strong winds, heavy rain and fueling astronomical tides, I checked the status of the Pinot Noir grapes. Every vine has multiple bunches but they are nowhere near harvestable. Just hard green nodules. It was a bad year pretty much everywhere, including France, England, Ireland and California. So we'll hang in there hoping that a different year produces different results. 

Meanwhile, the tides were even higher today than yesterday and the stormy weather delivered buckets of rain in Castlebar this morning. Zero visibility. Heavy downfall. And that's before Ashley makes its appearance. 

Full Moon

 

Full moon rising yesterday evening. 

Tonight we had a full moon, tides over the road, and a comet that passes by once every 80,000 years. Last week, we had an aurora display that we did not see. Do all these natural phenomena have an effect on the growth patterns of our flora?

In England, they've had a very poor harvest which grape growers are projecting as 20-70% below target primarily due to wet weather. The weather has been the most changeable I can ever recall. Ours was about 50% of the year before. 

This weekend we have a major gale approaching and we haven't been able to get a weather window this month of 2-3 days to deliver our sailboat to Kilrush for the winter. That's a gauge for what our vines are experiencing. With the astronomical tides and strong winds, the vineyard will be exposed to salt spray for days. Fortunately, it's the end of the season. The salt will contribute to the terroir as they claim in Galicia. And another season will take shape next year. 

Tide up to our driveway.

Road is gone.

Clour reflections.

Clouds decorating the moon. 

And the moon rose over an open field...

Unusual cold

 

As Hurricane Kirk passed by, wreaking havoc in Spain, Portugal, France, and beyond, he pulled down arctic air to blanket us. Mid-day yesterday, it suddenly got very cold and has remained there since. Temperatures have dropped to 3C overnight, and they were predicting frost in the Midlands. 

It's been alternately sunny and cloudy with the occasional shower, except last night, when the moon showed brightly to the south but was cloudy to the north, where the aurora was seen again throughout Ireland. Bummer, I missed it again. 

Lots of cleanup is taking place in the garden. Alex has strimmed the orchard with the intent of seeding yellow rattle. 

I raked up the leaves and cut back all the perennials and started pulling Mombretia. It's going to take a long time to finish. I think with leaves and grass we will finally have good compost next year. 

On another front, although Hurricane Milton put much of Florida under rain water or ocean surge, the destruction was not as bad as feared. He continued across from cat 3 to cat 1 spawning scores of tornados and affecting both coasts. Over 3 million lost power, the new normal. 

Solaris racked today

 

The Solaris wine had stopped bubbling and was clearing nicely. So, we opted to rack it today. Naturally, we had a taste of the wine and it was good. Dry, not overly fruity. Easy on the palate and quite a pleasant almost citrus finish. We used some from the smaller bottle to top off the demijohn. Rather pleased with the outcome. 

Meanwhile, Hurricane Kirk, which formed in the lower Atlantic and took a direct northerly route, heading straight for us at first, veered right when a low stalled directly to our west, and is now passing over the Azores. Unusually, the US NHC cone has it glancing off the northwestern edge of Spain before it heads to France, Germany and Denmark. We've never seen an extratropical storm passing so far inland on the continent and maintaining storm status. 

In Florida, they are preparing for their second major hurricane in less than two weeks. Helene was catastrophic in Florida wiping out entire communities and travelled far inland over western Georgia, SC and NC causing unprecedented flooding. Milton is a category 5 and is expected to double in size before landfall over the Tampa Bay area where a million people are under evacuation orders. Huge swaths of Florida will be underwater and the eyewall is expected to stay intact all the way across the state, wreaking havoc on the other side as well. 

A study published earlier this year suggests that the Saffir-Simpson scale of 1-5 is no longer adequate for a world facing climate change effects. 

US Committee Investigates Dietary Guidelines Research Related to Alcohol Consumption

US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) issued subpoenas to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Becerra and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack for documents in an investigation into development of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The Committee is investigating recommendations related to alcohol consumption.

Both HHS and USDA have failed to fully comply with the Committee’s requested documents and communications after the Committee’s initial request on April 4, 2024. Both agencies provided incomplete responses despite multiple follow-up requests from Committee staff.

It has come under scrutiny that many of the studies were conducted by right-wing scientists who are looking to control many aspects of American's behaviour and freedoms. It is believed that the scientists are working with far-right lawmakers to restrict alcohol consumption through scaremongering about the negative health effects of alcohol consumption. 

Here are the guidelines:

https://rethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov/how-much-too-much/what-are-us-guidelines-drinking

Now lawmakers are demanding a halt to the controversial study about alcohol.