Autumn has finally arrived

Leaves gone off the trees

We've had wind, lots of it. We've had rain, loads of rain. We've had extraordinarily high tides. We've had warmth for days, but now it has turned cold. The leaves have been blown off the trees, the flowers are shutting down, the bees have gone to sleep. 

A few of the supports in the vineyard have suffered and need replacing. The leaves have fallen off the vines. The must we had fermenting went bad. (Not too upset. Had expected as much.) And the days are very dark indeed as we head into the weary weeks of winter. 

I have signed up for a course on winemaking and I have 6 weeks to complete it before my final exam. My reward will be a certificate I can hang on the wall of the new shed we are building to house the equipment. That may yet get me through the darkness and into light. 

In the meantime, I am trying to find places to fit all the stuff from Alex's mom's house, the beekeeping equipment, and the winery supplies. I need to clear stuff out. It's driving me crazy. 

The road is gone. 

Dock trying to float onto the road

Tide on the driveway

Gusts of >75 knots

Unusually warm November

Temperatures are "exceptionally mild" for the time of year, with Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland all having the warmest November night on record. The temperature in Furnace near Newport never dropped below 15C on Friday and reached 18C during the day. Meteorologists say the mild weather is the result of a powerful jet stream bringing warm air up from the south as far as Cape Verdes. Average night-time temperatures in the British Isles at this time of year range between 4-6C.

It's certainly a bonus for millions of people who are concerned about heating bills, but is it a sign of a permanent shift in weather patterns, and how much is climate change playing a part?

Sea Temperatures off the coast of Ireland are almost at levels recorded during summertime, the head of forecasting at Met Éireann, Evelyn Cusack, has said. The unseasonably warm temperatures this month come after one of the wettest Octobers on record and the hottest summer in over 135 years. It's going to remain this warm right through to Monday. 

There are so many plants blooming and insects flying. It's just climate weirdness. 

Wine for sail

Cargo sailboat. Courtesy of Grain de Sail.

It seems that sailors are working toward decarbonising the delivery of wine by shipping it via sailboat. In fact, our friend Jaime Young is converting his boat into a cargo ship for similar reasons. Perhaps we shouldn't be selling Aleria. Given that we have Daria's Vineyard and Alex's Apiary, our wine label will be called Aleria, and we are using all-natural no-till sustainable techniques to grow and harvest the grapes, it's all fitting together.  

Hmmmm! Now all we have to do is figure out how to make decent wine. 

Warming weather

Hurricane Martin off the coast

We've got balmy weather today, with hurricane-force winds and torrential rain. But the temperatures are warm. Hurricane Martin is a giant blob that's about to make a right turn straight for us. Fortunately it is expected to fizzle but will still bring plenty of rain. 

An article in today's Irish Times says that October was the 17th consecutive month that was warmer than normal. Temperatures were 1.2 to 2.2 degrees above the monthly mean at 25 Met Eireann stations -- significantly above what is usual for this time of year. 

The Met Eireann Climate statement for October reinforced that monthly rainfall and temperatures were above the long-term average for October. There is pretty much no denying that we are in a downward spiral of climate change. COP 27 is coming up but there's little hope they will succeed. 

The origins of Rondo

Photo from Thomas Walk Vineyard website. 

I just came across this website for Thomas Walk Vineyard in the South of Ireland. The German winemaker Thomas Walk has been growing grapes and making wine for more than 30 years! They were the first to plant Rondo, formerly called “Amurensis Walk”.  It is not Vitis vinifera but rather Vitis amurensis which originated in Asia but was bred in what was once Czechoslovakia. This grape variety was further developed by the vine researcher Helmut Becker, the legendary "Reben-Becker", at the Geisenheim university located in the Rheingau. The variety is now called Rondo and forms the main crop of British viticulturists.

They have been practicing ecologic diversity and sustainability at Thomas Walk Vineyard since the beginning. Their method differs significantly from conventional viticulture and goes beyond the obligations of organic viticulture. They have published a table that highlights the differences between conventional, organic and their methods -- basically total sustainability. They don't use chemicals of any kind, they don't prune vigorously, and they strive for diversity rather than monoculture. Sounds familiar!

They are, however, very secretive and private. They ask for no visitors and sell their wines only through Germany. They do not plant cover crops, just cut what's there and leave as mulch. 

Despite several awards noted on their website, the few independent reviews online are not promising. Oh well. Perhaps I'll just have to try some and see for myself. 

1.34C warmer already

 

Statista Infographics published a chart that illustrates global warming over the last century. It shows that earth is already 1.34C warmer than it was in the 1880s. It's scary how quickly it is heating up. Have we passed the tipping point and do we now have a runaway uncontrollable process?

Autumn in the vineyard

 

Leaves turning yellow and dropping

Autumn has arrived in the vineyard and elsewhere. Surprisingly the Albarino vines suddenly shot up, many reaching the tops of the posts. I'm very happy to see that. We lost vines but those we can replace. 

The Pinot Noir vines are really vigorous so keeping them trimmed and tidy next year will be a major effort. The grapes are still small and hard as marbles, as are the Chardonnay grapes. The Solaris, however, are finally nearing ready to harvest and very tasty. There aren't many so there won't be wine this year and the growth is very vigorous, so this year's pruning will be severe and significant. 

Chardonnay not ready yet

Tasty ripe Solaris grape

Solaris bunch ready to harvest

Pinot Noir still hard as rocks

I set to tie up the vines as Alex tensioned the support wires. With the windy season upon us, I didn't want to risk more damage to vines whipping around in the upcoming gales. The tool we bought last year proved problematic in that it didn't work more often than it did. So I bought a new improved model and it is. It still wastes a bit of material and doesn't always work, but it works most of the time and I was able to tie up all but the last two short rows of Solaris in just a couple of hours yesterday. Progress!

Tool on the left much improved over tool on the right.

Mushroom season has begun.