The month of July and things are, at this point, looking quite good. I say quite good rather than absolutely bloody stunning because, as for the last couple of years, the Rondo (slightly under half the vineyard) have a proper number of buds but the Solaris (about a third of the vineyard) have not. The rest…
Category: Vineyard
Vineyard 33 : Things are growing
The prospects for English wine are rosy. Investment in new vineyards and wineries is on the up as is the quality of both sparkling and still wines … if you have yet to try an English wine now is an excellent time to do so be it still or sparkling. Annual Review of The Wine…
Vineyard 32 : The tale of the grippler (restored blog)
When you operate your vineyard ‘at the margins’, code for in an environment of little to no hope of your grapes ripening, it pays to hang on to every positive you can possibly dredge up. Which is why I saved the article from the Sunday papers a couple of weeks ago about small vineyards headlined…
Vineyard 31: Still more to do but it’s looking well
In December 2014 I attended a viticulture course called winter pruning. I wrote about it at the time and about the actual pruning that followed. Unfortunately for my commitment to learning more about all things viticultural, the funding for the Wineskills course have been withdrawn by DEFRA, I think. And this was just at…
Vineyard 30 : Just a load of fertiliser
A typical retirement day at the vineyard? Not really. Just how manly do I look in my hard hat and hi-vis bib? Yes, I am serious, as you will see in a moment. I bet you thought there isn’t anything to do in the vineyard at this time of year? Wrong, very wrong. First of…
Vineyard 29 : So that’s that for another year
I wrote in my last vineyard blog that the jury was still out on whether we would pick our grapes this year. Let me cut to the chase on this, we did not pick any grapes this year. There I’ve said it, now everybody will know that we have failed. It’s not quite that bleak,…
Vineyard 28 : Some unexpected happenings
So many things going off in the vineyard it’s difficult to know where to start. Let me begin on a slightly sad note before moving on to the really bad stuff and finally explaining this first photo of a greenhouse. My Australian chum, the one who runs or ran, a winery as they call them…
Vineyard 27 : Here’s summer
Most of our ‘summer’ up at the vineyard has looked like these photos. It’s beautiful in one way but not great weather for growing grapes. I took these pictures as an amazing storm rolled over the hills and into the valley and over our vineyard. Absolutely lashed it down, it was nice to be inside…
Vineyard 26 : Not looking good what about you?
We’ve been doing peripheral things in the vineyard, this to compensate for a lack of actual grape growing. Putting in more benches to take advantage of the views, like the one at the top of the vineyard – see photo. August in the dales, ha. It’s windy and cold and, as a bonus, occasionally wet…
Vineyard 25 : Another disaster strikes?
Let me say, right up front, this is not the blog I had intended to publish but I need to get this off my chest so life can go on. So here we go again, writing as therapy. There’s good news and bad news from the vineyard this summer month of July – note the…