It’s been over a month since my last vineyard blog. Not a lot has happened in the vineyard in the intervening period. And if it had I wouldn’t have known about it because we haven’t been there since, nor in the previous 3 months. I suppose if there was a time to be absent then this has been it.
However this last week we have spent 3 days and two nights trying to catch up and plan our next moves. I admit there have been times over the last months, year even, when I seriously questioned whether there would be any next moves. That’s how disillusioned I’ve been with this retirement project of mine.
We had a bad year in 2019. No grapes and seemingly as a result of some mildew, particularly in the Rondo. The Solaris weren’t great either but they were better than the Rondo which had been such a success in 2018. Unfortunately we were careless with the grapes we did have. The birds said, thanks very much and ate them. Result, no grapes at all.
If we thought matters couldn’t get any worse, not for the first time, we were wrong. In 2020 it seems that many of the vines contracted trunk disease and straight out died. If you’re going to get a top class disease in your vineyard, this is the one to go for. It can and maybe will, wipe out the whole of a vineyard.
I’ve ordered 100 replacement vines – 50 Solaris and 50 of a new Swiss variety, Divico, that’s getting rave reviews over here. Surely if any vine variety is going to be able to cope with the typically harsh conditions* we get up here it will be one born and bred in Switzerland where I believe they also have some challenging weather.
These are due to arrive in the middle of April, so, soon. Consequently, the first job on the list of jobs for our man in the dales is to dig 100 holes. Ideally these would be in two groups of 50, so we could keep them together. But when vines die, they don’t necessarily die in neat groups and hence do not need replacing in similarly neat groups. So there will be some in a group and others scattered around.
Our man’s second job won’t be to plant the vines. We’ll do that. But he can begin cutting the grass. That is if he gets his ride on mower. Quite set his heart on one he has and, if this is the difference between keeping him and losing him, then cheap at the price. I do worry a bit that the vineyard might be too steep for a ride-on but he thinks not and he would know, he’s very country-smart.
I’ve ordered more posts to properly support, assuming they grow, the pinot noir vines I planted last year. So job number 3 will be for him to bash in these posts. He’ll need some help with this task but I’m slightly ashamed to say this will come from his nephew, not me.
His last task although I might have a go at this assuming we make our visit next week is to spray something called Cuprokylt. As you may or may not guess from its name it’s a copper chemical designed, as I understand, it to protect the vines from disease. I’ve also added a bit of leaf fertiliser into the mix. I’m not sure I do understand it but we’re acting on the advice of the agronomist we now employ in an effort to get things right, so he should know.
Our man also recently put on what was left of our winter fertiliser. Actually it turned out we have more but we didn’t know this until we visited our friend who has been storing the fertiliser for us in his barn. We haven’t seen him for months so we didn’t know what we’ve got fertiliser-wise. Turned out we had more than we thought. Enough for another sprinkle anyway. Maybe next Thursday when we’re up there again. That’s yesterday to you.
Our man has also tightened all the wires along the rows. This should help the vines survival chances because vines that blow around are subject to ill-health as the roots get loosened. That’s the theory unless you’re our gamekeeper friend’s uncle who has his own commercial vineyard in Switzerland would you believe. He believes wind strengthens to roots. Hmm. This is a bit confusing but I am seeing a connection between our vineyard and this rather unlikely country, vine-growing wise.
I can’t give any sort of verdict on which vines have survived this far as it’s too early to spot any buds. Of course it might be that there aren’t any buds because the vines are dead rather than dormant. Hopefully by the next vineyard blog I will be able to give a definite answer to the question how many vines have you got?
Which brings me finally to The Yorkshire Vine Trail about which I wrote so glowingly in the last blog. After a period of silence, I had an email from the chap who has organised it asking if we were still interested in being a part of it. I don’t know whether it’s because I’m going through a bit of a bad patch in my projects generally but having been all keen to be a part of it, I now have my doubts that this is a sensible decision. I need to read more carefully their Service Level Agreement to see if we can meet their requirements. I should have done this before but my mind has been elsewhere until his email last week. Not very efficient way of operating but it sums up our rather casual approach to this vineyard business (except it’s not a business). And I wrote in the last blog I was going to be more professional. Well, early days I guess.
*We have snow forecast for this Monday.