“They do it because they love me,” said Chris, the owner of the vineyard. This is in response to my question about whether he paid his grape pickers. About 20 or so of them I reckoned and not a Polish import in sight but of course they wouldn’t be doing it for free. Chris had…
Category: Vineyard
Vineyard 4 : Trapping Hill Vineyard : windbreaks
“The wild, upper valley of the River Nidd where three stupendous stone structures hold back Gouthwaite, Angram and Scar reservoirs – huge, squat, unbreakable barriers.” This from ‘True North’ a book about, where else, the north, by Martin Wainwright. I copied it down because I thought it gave rather a nice and accurate picture of…
Vineyard 3 : Yes, we’ve got the wind up now : the reality of English vineyards
Once again this is writing as therapy! I’m making notes for this blog as I sit looking out the window of our barn at our vines swaying gently in the breeze. Happily bobbing their heads in the warm, late summer / early autumn sunshine, then I wake up and look out the window, it’s blowing…
Vineyard 2 : Yes, we are planting vines. No they probably won’t grow. Yes we are mad
Again I have to start this piece by admitting I had no intention of publishing it right now. But then I read an article in The Guardian, this, only one week after the article that prompted my last blog about how wonderful all was in the world of English vine growing. And this article, one…
Vineyard 1 : Why in God’s name would you plant a vineyard there?
I was going to save this blog for a later date but given the topicality of the topic I thought I’d publish and be damned. The following extract was from the Guardian last Saturday. “The prospect, says the manager of Denbies (in Surrey) vineyard, is for record sales and record quality. ‘2013 has been a…