Bottling the red

The ingenious bottling machine. 

The Rondo red wine had settled out nicely and we determined it was time to bottle it. Fermentation was complete, there was no yeast remaining after flocculation, no bubbles rose up when open so CO2 was ok, and it had clarity. The smell was really pleasant, the colour was gorgeous, and it was dry but full of flavour. It needs time to mature but we determined it was ready to bottle. Brix measured 6 so it's low alcohol at 3.3% ABV.

I ran the bottle filler while Alex did the corking again. The bottle filler is a real pleasure to use. Perfect volume every time. Stops when full. Easy peasy. But it does look like an IV blood transfusion in action. 

So we have 11 bottles plus one more that contains the remaining wine that we decanted off the flocculant. It's now out in the cold shed on the wine rack where it will stay for a minimum of six months. 

We then set to washing the clear bottles for the white wine and the remaining cider. We'll do those tomorrow after checking the white for clarity. All the neighbours got cider and honey for Christmas so we need to replenish our supplies. 

Happy New Year one and all! Here's to peace and joy in 2024. 

Storm Gerrit causing damage

Alex spotted five broken poles at the top of the vineyard with the vines on the ground at 90 degree angles. The poor Albarino vines were sitting in pools of water so he dug channels to allow the water to escape. The land is just sodden with all the rain. One solitary rose remained in bloom. It will be time to prune the vines soon. Quite a few other flowers are blooming as it has been much warmer than normal this December. And I believe the grass is growing but there's not much we can do about it. It's bad to even walk the land. 

Happy Christmas!

 

It's Christmas Eve and we are going to have a quiet evening at home with the kitties after visiting all the neighbours with gifts from our 'farm'. Cider and honey plus a bottle of cheer. Perhaps next year it will be our wine that goes in instead. 

The weather has been pretty dismal -- wet and windy but warm. The experts are predicting that 2023 is already the warmest year on record. 

The Christmas tree is up and the presents wrapped. The cookie dough is made as is the apple cake. Christmas borscht is ready for consumption. Tonight a simple Ukrainian-style meal. Tomorrow I bake the duck. 

Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Wine production since 1995

To see this as a really cool video graphic, click here. 

According to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) as reported by Statista, Italy has been the world’s largest wine producer for 9 of the past 10 years with an annual production of roughly 50 million hectoliters or five billion liters. France holds its ground against Italy with an average annual production of around 45 million hectoliters over the past decade. Spain completes the triumvirate of European wine superpowers, with everyone else trailing far behind. 

Today, a report was issued for the 2023 harvest in GB, the best yield ever. Although it's impossible to gather exactly what the wine production was from this self-reported survey, they have 3,400 ha planted today with a yield of 30.1 hectolitres per hectare (hl-ha) this year, which would result in a total yield of 102,340 hl compared with 48M for Italy. They expect it to more than double by 2032. 

That's a drop in the very large bucket. 

Phaseout of Roundup in Napa

 

Napa Green Executive Director Anna Brittain has announced a change in their sustainability certification. Napa Green’s goal is to phase out all synthetic herbicides, beginning with glyphosate, the controversial ingredient of Roundup manufactured by Monsanto. Herbicides don't just kill the weeds, they also affect the soil structure and all the things that live in the soil -- the microbes, lichens, fungi, and protozoans. This leads to loss of biodiversity, soil compaction, and water retention. 

Besides, it's really hard to talk about terroir when you're killing everything that contributes to it. Monoculture does not support complexity. Nutrient deficiencies in soil treated with herbicides can result from the loss of organic matter. That does not happen when you mow or introduce animals like sheep to control the undergrowth.

Aside from the fact that glyphosate is a potential carcinogen and its likely contribution to the global loss of pollinator species, it stays behind in the soil and gets into the vines and wines. 

We have never and will never use herbicides in the vineyard. The field has had animals -- herbivores --grazing it for years. It never received any treatment so our terroir is as natural as it gets. And it's going to stay that way. 

Regenerative practices are a natural proactive approach to farm health. If the soil and plants are healthy enough they support each other and are able to fight off pests and disease. It’s a paradigm shift. Perhaps it looks less manicured, but it also looks natural. We need to get used to that look. We need to stop thinking about weeds and start calling them the biodiverse support team.

Sodden fields

Standing water in the field

We've had so much rain  - not quite as much as in Cairns or Charleston SC - but the fields have had standing water for some time now.  The last few days were just gray and dreary and dark. It was hard to wake up in the morning or to get the energy to get anything done. But the weather has been unseasonably warm.  

Today, we've had showers alternating with sunshine, so it has been reasonably nice. That is to change tomorrow. We're about to have a very strange pattern -- for the next three days, we are going to have nonstop rain, high winds, and little temperature fluctuation. It will be 10C or 11C day and night until Sunday when it will go up to 12C. On Monday, Christmas Day, they are forecasting 8C and partial sunshine. 

In preparation for Christmas, I did the food shopping today. It was very busy in town. We're going to have borscht for Christmas Eve, duck on Christmas Day, and venison on Stephen's Day, all accompanied by some very fine wines. 

Moody Holy Mountain. 

Waves in the water barrel stirred p by the wind. 

Crud in the cider

One of the remaining bottles of cider that we were waiting to settle out particulates developed a floating crud on top. It doesn't look like mold but rather like round balls of yeast. I siphoned it out with a pipette and we'll see if it comes back. The other bottle is fine. There was no odor associated.