If I were a proper vineyard owner i.e. doing it commercially, I suppose I would be considerably more accurate in my record-keeping. For example I would make a clear note of when the first actual grapes, small though they may be (see above), appear on the vines. Of course it’s not easy, or even possible, to be precise, when you don’t live on the site of the vineyard.
If you only visit at most once a week and most usually once a fortnight, then things happen in your absence sometimes as if by miracle. So this last weekend which was actually our first visit for three weeks, it was only a moderate surprise although huge relief, to find we had actual grapes.
As I say I can’t make a direct comparison with last year which, it will be remembered, was an exceptional year even at this relatively early stage. But it seems to me the grapes appearing seem to have happened about the same time.
We are not however having the same amount of sunshine at this point in the year so the challenge from now on will be how much the grapes swell and of course will they ripen? Providing we can pick say before November and any frosts (and we could always make Ice wine or Spatlese or something) then there’s no hurry. But we will need more sun than we’ve been having recently.
It’s a pity somebody can’t develop a vine that is ripened by wind because we have had plenty of that. Our windbreaks are going to need some serious re-design this coming winter. Simply because when it is blowing a gale up in the vineyard, you realise how ineffective the windbreaks are. They look good but are only marginally effective in breaking the wind. I have asked ‘my man who does for us’ up there to see if he can lay the willows down as happens with hedges. He’s started with this but it will be a while before we can judge whether this is effective.
And speaking of looking into the future, so often the context for vineyard activity, my thoughts keep turning to the question of wine-making with this year’s crop. Did you notice what I did there? No? Well, I allowed myself to imagine that we get a good harvest again this year, like last year. Foolish. Where nature is concerned particularly the variety within which we operate in Upper Nidderdale, there is only speculation not predictable outcomes.
That said I can’t help but occasionally day dream about the future. Blame my chum Nick the gamekeeper who I mentioned last blog has plans to establish his own vineyard on the other side of the dale from us. A bit higher and a little more North-facing but perhaps more protected than us, he’s as optimistic as you need to be to plant a vineyard in this part of the UK. As I said, blame him.
His headquarters, as he calls them, are at Moorhead Farm. He used to live there with his wife and two children until his wife decided she’d like to live somewhere a little more accessible ( I have no doubt this term – accessibility – will come up again as an issue if our plans take shape in the future). Now the house is empty as are 5 or 6 barns. Nick is keen to use these barns as a winery. Eventually this will include whatever grapes he gets from his own 1,000 vines.
That’s going to be another three or four years and in the meantime he would like me to begin setting up said winery in his barns. Given that we don’t have the space to set up our own winery this makes sense. It also makes sense from the point of view of neighbourly cooperation. It would be foolish in the extreme to have two vineyards so close together and so far from any other vineyard, not to cooperate.
In addition to this rationale it also fits with a situation in which this year’s wine-makers don’t want to make any further wine for us, for very good reasons that I won’t go into yet. Just that they don’t have a licence to make wine for other people.
Not having a ‘guest’ winemaker also prompts me to do what I have always wanted to do from the beginning, with this vineyard malarkey, make my own wine. This, rather than the growing of grapes, was what attracted me to having our own vineyard in the first place. True, I’ve had a go at making wine, in the past with some very ordinary results and that’s a flattering description of what I produced. Take a look at vineyard 20 for more information. Not entirely my fault (we picked too early because of the bloody birds) but the results were not good.
So if we get the crop, and that’s still a big if, this year then I and probably Nick, with guidance from his uncle in Switzerland, will have a go at making the wine in one of his barns specially prepared for the task.
Making the wine ourselves means we need to invest in some quite expensive equipment. I already have a de-stemmer (see below) and press but they’re very modest in size if (big if) I get another half a ton of grapes. I have plans to ask my dog-walking in the park chum to put a motor on the de-stemmer. So that will be a relatively inexpensive step in the right direction. As for pressing the grapes we are going to need another bigger press.
I found one, recommended by our late wine-maker, at 90 litres size for just under £1,000. Quite a big investment you’ll agree and, I’ve said to Nick, I won’t be spending any money until I see what kind of grapes – quantity and quality – I get this year which is probably going to be more typical than last year.
So very sensible but I have to admit as I sit staring out across our vineyard, down the dale with this year’s crop of grapes just appearing, I can’t help but dream a little of having our own wine-making set-up. And making great wine of course.
PS. we have 35 x 10 litre boxes of red wine stored in our garage. Whether Mrs Summerhouse’s efforts to blend it into something pleasant to drink remains to be seen. I shall keep you informed.