Vineyard Magazine in the UK

I just came upon a free magazine on Issuu called Vineyard. It is all about UK viticulture. What a cool thing to stumble upon.  

https://issuu.com/kelseygroup/docs/vineyard_07july20_issuu

Planting trees may help vintners

Flowers opening top left

I came across an article in Yale Climate Connections about how planting trees in vineyards in the south of France can help vintners maintain the quality of their grapes as the climate warms. Alex planted a row of horse chestnut trees alongside the vineyard. We also planted an orchard below and forestry above -- to protect against the fierce Atlantic storms not to provide shade as the French are doing. I'm afraid we're not going to need shade. Our grapevines have just bloomed and there are no grapes forming yet. In contrast, people with vines in glass houses and polytunnels are already starting to pick some of their grapes. 

Vineyard behind donkeys to the right

Vineyard surrounded by trees

Yale Climate Connections article. 

Growing vines among the pines.

When it rains, it pours!

Well, we got rain. As of yesterday, the total rainfall for the month of June was 87.2 mm. Yet we've had some good weather too. Meanwhile, we've had gale force winds and constant rain since yesterday morning which is forecast to continue into tomorrow. Below is the warning Met Eireann has issued for Mayo.  We could get 30-50 mm of rain with this system. Sligo and Donegal have a status orange with even more rain.  And there's another one coming in behind this one. Ugh. Not boding well for a good crop this year. 

Status Yellow - Rainfall warning for Mayo

Met Éireann Weather Warning

Further heavy persistent rainfall (an additional 30 to 50mm possible) will lead to spot flooding.

Valid: 11:00 Sunday 28/06/2020 to 12:00 Monday 29/06/2020

Issued: 11:00 Sunday 28/06/2020

Roses in vineyards

Visit a vineyard, especially an old established one, and you are likely to see roses planted at the ends of every row. I had wondered why this was done and learned that there were three reasons.

1. They are beautiful and fragrant and brighten up the vineyard.
2. They are more susceptible to fungal infections so they act as a warning signal. 
3. When vineyards were managed with horse-drawn conveyances, if the horse made the turn too soon, they would damage the end vines. Roses with their thorns ensured that the horse left more space when making the turn to the next row. 

So we will be planting roses at the ends of our rows in vines. We've been propagating existing roses and have a few ready for transplanting. Even though the mildew that affects grapes is different from the one that attacks roses, the environmental factors that encourage both conditions are the same.

I checked the vines today and here's the low down:

• The 5-yo vines are vigorous and healthy but the flower buds have not yet opened. Today is quite warm (25C) and we've had some rain so perhaps they will be triggered. They should have bloomed in May. Grapevines grown under glass are already producing grapes. 
• The 3-yo Solaris vines are doing well. We lost one and have spares with which to replace it.
• Neither the 3-yo nor the 2-yo Chardonnay's are doing well and we lost one of the older plants. It doesn't look like chardonnay will be viable for us. 
• The Pinot noir planted last year is looking quite good and one plants even has a flower. 
• The Albarino vines are alive and healthy but much daintier plants than any of the other varieties. 

Other than that, the orchard is looking good and the 'Kite' kite seems to be scaring the birds away.

Rain two days in a row

We got 2 mm of rain yesterday and today, all morning, a light misty rain was falling gently. Now it continues as a steady gentle rainfall. The earth was parched. Now the grass will return to green again. We've supposedly had 35.8mm rain in June as measured in Furnace when 75 mm would be average. Personally, I don't think we've had nearly that much. At least our collection barrels are now full and the pond is topped up and overflowing. 

The vines look okay for so little rain but will the harvest be usable?  Will we get plump juicy grapes or tiny shrivelled ones? It remains to be seen.

We harvested gooseberries yesterday and collected more than ever before. A bucket full. Perhaps there's hope. But the red currants were just getting ready for picking when the birds descended. I have to construct several scarecrows, one for each level of the garden. Better get to work.

Once again praying for rain

Today's weather warning

A huge swath of the country is under weather alert for heavy rainfall and yet here we sit bone dry. I just don't understand. We're in such strange weather patterns lately, with northerlies pinning boats down for weeks in the Azores. Those northerlies are keeping it cooler and drier here. It's quite desperate. There is a storm lurking offshore and it's due to hit us over the weekend, bringing with it some much-needed moisture, and much-dreaded wind. If we get wind without rain, it will kill the remaining leaves on the trees and more. The 5yo vines are fine but the young ones are suffering.

Please gods.

Forecast for Saturday 20 June 2020

Not so crazy after all

Companion plantings under pergolas in Spain

I  have started coming across more and more stories about people doing things as preposterous as we have been. Here's the story of a guy who has planted vines in Patagonia in a region where climate change may take 50 years to produce conditions appropriate for making good wines. But it's a 50-year gamble people are willing to make. And Bloomberg news noticed. Somehow, planting grapevines in the west of Ireland is sounding less and less crazy.

'Navarrete, for one, has come to embrace the plan. Initially, he had found it to be preposterous. “I couldn’t stop laughing,” he recalls. “I thought they were crazy.”'

Wine Enthusiast published an exhaustive article on the effects that climate change is already having on winemaking and they are not all bad -- earlier harvests, better complexity, and higher alcohol content. But in places where the planted vines are having a hard time with extreme weather events, "A greater number of producers are rethinking canopy management, vine trellising or pruning techniques, developing cover crops and extensive shading methods, increasing vineyard biodiversity and finding ways to reuse water." This is all stuff we are already undertaking.

And when The Union of Bordeaux AOC and Bordeaux Supérieur winemakers unanimously approved in 2019 a list of seven “varieties of interest for adapting to climate change: Arinarnoa, Castets, Marselan, Touriga Nacional, Alvarinho, Liliorila and Petit Manseng -- seeing Avarinho among them was truly encouraging. I had also researched Castets, Marselan, and Touriga as well. Let's see where they go with this. I am encouraged.