Vineyard 92. Last week I wrote in my diary that re-netting the vines was probably the worst, make that definitely the worst, job in the vineyard and, given all the other tasks – pruning, de-leafing, fertilising, spraying and so on, that’s quite a bold statement. But after two days of struggling to move it from the netting we’ve got in its rolled up ‘winter’ position into its late summer ‘protect from the birds’, position, I’ll stick with that verdict.
Moving the netting that’s already there. Sounds simple enough, but it has a hundred and one different ways of getting snagged so it won’t move. And to complicate matters further I’ve ordered two more large sections, one (32’ by 32’) to fill a hole that wasn’t there last year and the other (82’ by 82’) to cover a part of the vineyard that didn’t have grapes last year, but now does. Which is good in one way but not in another.
While we’re struggling with the netting it gives us plenty of time to be pleased about the ripening grapes (veraisson) and to worry about the reddening of the leaves. Hopefully this is simply an early senescence (leaf drop) or perhaps a sign of a mineral deficiency or downy or powdery mildew or the worst of all, the dreaded trunk disease. Whatever it is it’s affecting the Rondo more than the Solaris. It was the Rondo that suffered from the trunk disease last time and most of them died. Fingers crossed this is not history repeating itself.
Oh and we’ve got rabbits again, spotted three of them gaily scampering between the vines – bastards. Definitely called into question my ‘peace to all living creatures’ about which I wrote last week. Ironic or what.
When we’ve put the two new sections of netting in place (which arrived from the company in Scotland this very morning (Wednesday) we can move on to a whole new set of worries. Like last year’s wine which is still with our wine-maker. He tells me he’s having trouble making the fizzy stuff with the extremes of temperature we’ve had this year. I’m glad I hadn’t banked on having it for our fiftieth wedding anniversary celebrations (actually there weren’t any celebrations because I was ill).
As if that were not enough we can start worrying (without tempting fate) about what we will do with this year’s substantial crop. Our current wine-maker is less than enthusiastic about a repeat performance which leaves us with a number of different options for later in the year. Get him to make still wine not fizzy. Sell him or some other wine-maker the grapes or exchange for bottles when made. Or the most ambitious of all – make it ourselves.
The ‘our’ in this case being my gamekeeper, neighbour chum, Nick. I put this to him because we’d need his place to make it. I have most of the equipment with the exception of a grape press. This is actually quite a big exception, about £2,000’s worth in fact. Nick will pick his first crop next year so it’s a bit of a leap of faith for him investing half that money right now. He’s thinking about it at the moment while I do the same. And also check with our wine maker whether he wants to make our wine next year if we decide not to.
Vineyard 92 summary
So as you can see plenty to think about and this doesn’t even include planning for the actual harvest and who we are going to get to help us pick all these grapes. That’s assuming they all ripen and aren’t eaten by the birds. But slow down, first get the netting sorted.